Why your business needs to get organized

Have you recognized that you are stressed, overwhelmed and paralyzed due to your disorganization? Are you losing time, money and clients? Are you the type that “clears” a space once a month, thinking you are productive? Are you wasting precious time searching for documents or important files? Do you have a process to handle every piece of information that arrives in your office?
It’s never too late to get organized. Get out of your comfort zone and be open to change. There are so many great opportunities out there that you may be missing out on, but because you are disorganized, they have slipped by you. Make that change, get organized and reap the benefits.
Here are six reasons your business needs to get organized:
• Save money. Have you been so disorganized that you are paying your bills late or paying them late because you can’t find them? You are wasting money in late fees. Your credit score drops when you pay bills late and your interest rates will increase. Keep paying your bills late and you will eventually have to deal with collection agencies which will also cost you money.
Do you store your supplies in one area? If not, you will be wasting money purchasing duplicate items you already own. Keep all office supplies itemized and categorized in one area in your office.
If you have piles of papers on your desk and thrown into drawers, I will guarantee that there are cash, checks and gift cards mixed in those drawers and piles.
Set up working, organized systems to handle the paper and money that arrives into your office and never lose money again.
I assure you, if you are disorganized, you are throwing money out the window.
• Reduce Stress. We all have stressful situations that arise in our workday. When you are organized and have systems in place, it is much easier to handle a stressful situation. If you are disorganized, you are more prone to stress on a daily basis. Have a working filing system and have a system for everything you do in your office. Organized people recover quicker than disorganized people when a stressful situation occurs. The disorganized person will waste time, and energy searching for files, phone numbers, or that important email and it will take them longer to recover from the situation. The organized person handles the stress because they know where everything is in their office and they handle the stress and go about their day.
• Enjoy more free time. Time management and organization go hand in hand. Utilize a calendar and keep a running to-do list every day. On Friday, take a look at the week coming up to get an idea of what you have scheduled and where you have to be, make a to-do list from that. Every night before you leave work be sure you have a to-do list for the next day. To-do lists will keep you on track.
• Streamline your workflow. There is always a more efficient and productive way to complete a task. Re-evaluate how you are functioning and streamline your procedures.
If you spend countless hours in the week searching for files, documents or emails, you are losing precious time that could be spent doing more productive work. If you plan ahead and prepare, you will have more free time to enjoy with your family, exercising or spending it on the things you enjoy most.
• More energy. When you are organized, you will have more energy! When you consume yourself with clutter and disorganization, your mind will be cluttered too, which will weigh on you mentally.
We have enough going on in our personal lives. When we try to remember work happenings and things to do, if we don’t write them down or keep track of them we tend to forget. When you try to keep everything in your mind without writing them down it causes mental clutter and weighs on you heavily even if you don’t realize it. Organize your thoughts and release the mental clutter. • Your clients will have more confidence in you. How your clients perceive you is very important. Picture this scenario: You have a potential client visiting your office for the first time. You have paperwork, business cards, files, etc. all over your desk. Your bulletin board is full of clutter. You are working off piles on the floor and even worse, you struggle to search for something when your potential client is in your office. Your clients are going to ask themselves the following questions, especially if they are organized:
• Will they misplace my personal information, due to their disorganization?
• Will my information get mixed in with another client’s information?
• Will they take care of my business as efficiently as I would like them to? Visual clutter causes mental clutter, which in turn causes you to lose focus. What happens when we lose focus? We get distracted and we don’t function as efficiently as we could.
• Do they seem distracted by their disorganization? If your clients see that you are working in disarray and are distracted, they are going to question how efficient and productive you really are.
Getting organized is a process. It’s about creating working organized systems that will not only get you organized, but will keep you organized. Having systems in place at work will make you more efficient and more productive, in turn increasing your revenue. What is holding you back from getting organized? •


Kristin MacRae is a professional organizer and owner of Organizing In RI LLC.

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