Stay clutter free to keep a small business organized
Is Your Small Business Organized?
We live in a changing world where small businesses must stay nimble of foot and focused on their goals. Sometimes those imperatives seem to contradict each other. How can we stay flexible, nimble and organized as a small business while staying focused on goals and strategies for business growth.
Its probably easier than you think. There is, however, no room for clutter in a successful small business; no room for extra stuff, tasks or costs. Here are 5 strategies to help keep that business clutter to a minimum and your small business organized for success.
- Make “clutter free” a priority for the business. By letting employees know this is important, you set the performance expectations for your staff.
- Be clear how you define clutter. Unnecessary paper is one thing but unnecessary emails is equally distracting clutter. The same goes for unnecessary meetings.
- Be a role model and set the standard for your employees. If your office is a pile of disorganized papers, your employees will believe that’s an ok standard for your business organization.
- Give staff the tools they need to be organized. Include shelves for vertical storage and immediate access to a blue box for recycling. If you aren’t sure what is missing or why an employee is so disorganized, consider having a professional organizer conduct an assessment of the work environment. There may be more complex organizational issues that the employee is struggling with.
- Schedule a semi-annual clear out day. The rules for the time are simple. Everyone participates in a clear out of their work space on this day. Order lunch.
I totally agree! Small businesses must be organized. I work with many small businesses on a daily basis and before we can do anything, I have to get them organized and set procedures to do just that. And, each year we reevaluate and determine if there is anything else that needs to be reassessed and revised. Thanks for sharing these great tips.
Having JUST read a blog post about parents teaching their children organizing skills, I find the similarities to bosses and employees to be striking. Being clear about expectations…being a role model…providing appropriate tools and time….
These are all great tips, but the one about unnecessary emails really jumped out for me. I’ve seen so many people with inboxes packed with emails about past events and other stuff there’s absolutely no reason to keep. The trouble with email and other digital information is that it doesn’t appear to take up space, but it does make it harder to find what you need when it’s mixed in with other stuff.
That is so true. We don’t feel the size of extra digital clutter unless we are required to increase our storage. Even that isn’t usually very expensive. Digital clutter can really get in the way of productivity though when it makes things hard to find.