An Organised Organisation – Bringing Your Business Under Control

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An organised business is an effective one. As a business owner, it’s important that you set an example from the top-down to help your entire business become more productive and efficient. 

Getting your business under control takes work, but it’s an effort worth making to help you run your business more effectively. There are tried and tested tips used by businesses of all sizes, as well as some useful tools that can help you stay on top of things.

Want to help your business be the best it can be? Here are some of the ways you can make your business more organised.

Start with a clear out

A good clear out is a great starting point for improving organisation within your business. Cutting through the clutter will help you to file away the important things, and get rid of the items that are no longer needed. Many businesses use too much paper as it is, and seeing how much needs to be thrown away could help you make some positive changes to your business practices and perhaps even go paperless.

Clearing out your office can help everyone start with a clear desk, with the aim of keeping it up. Remember to keep an eye out for any items that can be recycled or resold. A decluttering session can be great for your office, but it’s important not to create waste when there are so many other options available to you. 

Make sure your office is fit for purpose

With your office free from clutter, you can work on creating an office space that is fit for purpose. An organised office should have plenty of storage space, large desks, and areas for people to break out for lunch, meetings etc. Giving your office a clean, spacious and modern look can help encourage some neater habits amongst your employees, as well as make a great impression on visitors.

It’s surprising the difference a new office space or a redecoration can have on your employees’ motivation, helping to push them to adopt more organised practices and a fresh start. Consult your employees about the process to make sure their input is counted – they could have some valuable insights that could significantly improve the way your business does things.

Understand processes and workloads

By taking the time to understand your business’ processes, you can begin to find ways to make them simpler, saving time and money. The same goes for the workloads of your teams. If people have to juggle too many projects at once, things will soon start to slip through the cracks. There are time-tracking apps which are great for calculating how long has been spent on certain projects, answering emails, etc.

To get a clearer understanding of your employees’ workloads, you need to ask them what they’re up against. Spend time learning what a typical day looks like, as well as the volume of work your team has to deal with. You could soon find that there are some clear vacancies within your teams that need filling to help get things done. 

Many businesses identify ‘too much time spent in meetings’ as one of the things harming employee productivity. Could your business operate just as successfully with fewer meetings? Perhaps it’s time to give it a try!

Create a social media schedule

Creating a social media schedule can be a simple and effective way of boosting your digital activities. Scheduling posts in advance requires a couple of hours’ work to get done for the rest of the week, but will save you a lot of time in the long run. Not only does scheduling help you plan for your priorities, but it gives you the chance to get ahead with your regular content to make room for ad-hoc content or ideas that come to you during the week.

Introduce planning tools to your business

If you want to help everyone in the office become more organised, you’re going to need some tools to help you get there. Using cloud storage, for example, can be an easy win for businesses who want their staff to work more collaboratively and work seamlessly on documents. Some of the top online productivity tools you can use within your business include Asana, Trello, Evernote and Buffer, which all have their advantages for you and your employees.

Many productivity apps come with free trials to help you test different platforms to find the most appropriate one for your business.

Use applications to make processes simpler

Could you benefit from some time-saving apps? Not only will they free up more of your time, but they’ll help you stay organised too. Some degree of automation can be good for your business to help you juggle regular processes. Creating a staff rota can be a tiresome job, and mistakes are easily made when you don’t have a process that works. This link can show you how to create an employee schedule that could make your rotas a breeze. Identifying the tools that can make your life easier is a great way to bring more control to your business and improve accuracy.

Learn how to delegate effectively

Are you a good delegator? Many people struggle to delegate tasks to others, and it’s understandable – it helps you stay in control of the situation. But being an effective leader means understanding how to delegate and trust others to do a good job. Delegation is a skill, so learning some tips on basic delegation can help you become more confident in this area.

Successful delegation comes with many benefits. You’ll be able to free yourself from time-consuming tasks that take up your valuable time, allowing you to use your time to focus on bigger-picture work and make the most effective use of your time. 

Make your office a more productive space

Is your office built for productivity? It could be time to reassess the way your office is laid out to help your staff become more productive. Having a clear desk policy is one way that businesses help to increase productivity, as well moving to open-plan offices. There are many benefits that come with an open-plan office that can help your teams work better together, bringing better results to projects and wider business objectives.

Remember to check out the pros and cons of an open-plan office before you make the move, it’s not a way of working that’s suitable to all businesses!

Stay on top of your business’ finances

Being organised with your business’ finances is something that’s vitally important. Mismanagement of cash flow can spell disaster, while not tracking your expenses can also cause misery by the time the tax deadline hits. Small businesses, in particular, can find it difficult to manage their finances – and are also the most at risk if something goes wrong. If you can’t afford your own finance team to stay on top of your finances, why not hire a freelance accountant or use online accounting software to help you keep things on track?

Staying the course

There will be times when everything seems to go wrong, and you can doubt your abilities as a leader, an entrepreneur, and even as a human being. But stay the course and remember that it was all about your belief in the idea that has got you this far. There have been so many stories of entrepreneurs that have had to push against the norm, from Javad Marandi attempting to put watercolour paintings online, which rattled the art purists, to Richard Branson, who faced obstructions in a more personal sense. It’s difficult, but when a business goes off course, your sheer belief will the foundation through everything.     

All businesses should aim to become more organised, as there’s always room for improvement. An analysis of your current methods and processes could help you identify weak areas for improvement and help you make the changes that can take your business further. If you want to stay ahead in business, then you need to be on top of your game. Make your business a more organised, streamline place once and for all to put you in the best position for success.