If you want my team to just do your marketing for you, click here. If you don't have a filing system or a digital archiving system in place, now is the time to build one. This is a great way to keep things organized without repeating yourself by constantly updating your social feeds. The best part is that every site can have a complex, unique password, but you can access them all with your single phrase. Paper is the biggest source of disarray in many offices. But the continuous adjustment of schedules can be taxing and a waste of time. Instead, I recommend using 1Password to manage your passwords. If your inbox is overflowing with unread emails, it can be frustrating and it might consume far too much of your time. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations. It’s important to automate your system, but it’s a bad idea to automate your relationships with customers. This simple organization technique will save you countless hours and help you improve your efficiency and productivity. This is a great way to stay secure and reduce the workload and hassle associated with the papers you need to manage on a daily basis. Keep track of customer … Use some proven methods for boosting productivity by organizing your storage space. If you decide it's time to start moving toward a paperless office, you can start by scanning in and digitizing your receipts, using online invoicing and payment services like FreshBooks, moving to a digital signature program like DocuSign, and using the cloud for data backup and archiving. One quick and easy way to organize your ideas is to categorize them. While they take up a lot of your time and resources, it’s time well spent to keep them happy and pleased with the services you have to offer. It’s a simple way to stay in contact with others without the confusion that usually accompanies scheduling hassles. You can either click the 1Password icon in Chrome, or you can enter the keyboard shortcut Command + \. Instead of constantly working to make sure this is effective for you, consider using a program like FreshBooks to handle your invoices. The key is to create a system that works for you and then keep using it. If this isn’t exactly your style of working, however, I’ll show you another method that can help reduce your paper workload in a minute. Most people tend to use back-and-forth emailing and calendar invites to schedule events like this. Every small business needs to manage payments, invoicing, and billing. If your finances are organized, you need to make sure your office space is organized, too. That means you can quickly see your social updates, purchase receipts, or trip itineraries without sifting through important personal and work emails. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. He is the co-founder of NP Digital and Subscribers. To make sure you’re staying up with the taxes and paying the amounts that are due at different times, look into a service like inDinero. For any papers you don’t need anymore, you should get rid of them. Since paperwork tends to consume a lot of the time and resources of most modern office workers, you should consider storing this offsite. Here are some things you can do right now to get your computer organized and back into working shape: The tips above will help you get your small business more organized immediately. When you do your taxes, you'll have to total your deductions under specific categories. Yes, you can do this automatically in a browser like Chrome. To get started, you need to make sure your physical surroundings are neat and... 2. If you keep important files and documents that can’t be thrown away, consider using a service like Shred-It to destroy your documents. Keep yourself … Hey, I'm Neil Patel. 1Password then auto-fills Stripe with your login information and saved passwords. Turning your ideas into reality is the difference between growing your business and falling by the wayside. Believe it or not, by adding a few plants around your office, you can increase productivity by 15% through improved concentration. How to Transform Your Small Business into a Big Business, 3 Tried-and-True Ways to Get Your Small Business Organized This Year, Cultura RM Exclusive/Stefano Gilera / Getty Images, Facebook Business Suite: What Small Businesses Should Know, The Beginner's Guide to Document Management, The 7 Best Project Management Software Tools of 2020, How to Organize an Office Filing System to Speed Up Your Filing, 10 Great Mobile Apps to Manage Your Business Finances, Here Is What Nonprofits Need to Know About Mobile Fundraising, The 8 Best Business Card Scanner Apps to Use in 2020, The 7 Best Accounting Software Options of 2020, The 7 Best Small Business Software of 2020, The 8 Best Accounting Software for Small Business, Here Are Essential Small Business Tools to Ramp Up Your Productivity, The Balance Small Business is part of the. Not only is this horrible for your productivity, but it can also slow down your computer's performance significantly. These techniques help you stay energized and focused without the distractions that come from a cluttered workplace. Unlike Chrome’s autofill feature, however, you must enter a single password to access the other passwords. This makes it easy to keep reading on your phone when you’re traveling. Write down your business goals and how you plan to achieve them in a clear and... 2. I recommend using this four-step grid to help organize and prioritize your good ideas. Create a single root folder (called "Shared Documents" for example) and store all documents in subfolders inside the root folder. Either you use the same password all the time for different websites, or you constantly forget the passwords you’ve set for each site. How can we get in touch with you? Revenue$0 to $3 million$3 to $10 million$10 million to $50 million$50 million to $100 millionAbove $100 million If you’re looking to grow your business, you need to make sure you’re organized to handle the inevitable growth you should expect to see. Once you’ve cleaned up your main screen, consider eliminating your downloaded files and removing any links or other files you aren’t using. But how can you make sure your small business is in order when you’re strapped for cash and you only have a few employees? Example: www.neilpatel.com. You're moments away from growing your traffic Your loyal customers are the heart of your business. Instantly, the new article you save will appear in your main list of pieces to read on Pocket. Determine a location. By skimming the less important emails, you can work through your inbox even more quickly. This is a series of a few words, which is easy to remember, but nearly impossible to hack. This is a great way to provide a refreshing look at your work processes that will help you stay organized. Organize by topic, then alphabetical by author. Take time to explore what your needs are before incorporating a new tool in your process. Consider what links them them note … So first, draw out a grid like this on a whiteboard somewhere your … What's your marketing budget? By using The Balance Small Business, you accept our. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This is a program that stores your passwords together in the mobile and desktop app. Decide whether it has benefits financially, improves operations or management, marketability and growth potential, fits current … If you want to reduce the clutter and management that are associated with all the papers you need to keep up with, it might be time to go paperless. To get the massive growth you’re hoping for in the coming years, you should make sure your business is organized. What's your phone number? Calendly lets others schedule a time to work with you, so you don’t need to message back and forth at all. Alyssa Gregory is former writer for The Balance Small Business covering small business management. If you collect business cards at events during the year, it may also be a good idea to invest in a business card scanner so you can digitize contact info immediately and ditch the paper cards. While your bullet journal, or “bujo” (as many Pinterest Pinners call them), may not be a work of art like these enclosed, I want to throw a few ideas your way for how you can use a bullet journal to organize your business… 2. Deal with your inbox first thing and last thing of the day. Tilt your office chair in such a way that you won’t have high traffic behind you to strengthen your feng shui backing. How to Organize & Prioritize Your Good Ideas. Or will you carefully place your notes in folders and use tags and headings to make sure you know what’s in the program? If you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs, you’re constantly finding articles you know will help you grow your business and increase your revenue and conversions. One of the most popular is Evernote. 16 Strategies to Keep Your Small Business Organized 1. Even better, the articles you save on Pocket are available to read on all your devices. The ideas below include some of the best ways you can become more organized in your small business. CamScanner allows you to keep the files in the app, but you can also transfer them to your computer. I recommend Pocket, which helps you keep track of articles and videos you want to read or watch later. This allows you to spend less time managing customers and more time improving your product and business systems. If you need to share these files with a team of individuals, I recommend keeping your archived files in a program like Dropbox. Instead of wondering why you haven’t met the benchmarks you set earlier, you can use Toggl to stay organized and track how you’re spending your most valuable resource — your time. Finally, automate your marketing campaigns and keep a process in place to handle customer relations and support. Try just one for slow and sustained improvement or make a plan to incorporate a new organizational process each month in your business this year. Just like your physical desk should be clean and in order to help you stay organized and get work done, your digital desktop should be clean and organized, too. Use software like Groove that allows your employees to strengthen your relationship with your customers, but don’t try to automate the process. Put Your Desks on Wheels. You can’t just put them off when more important work comes up, though. My only question is, will it be yours? A good rule of thumb is that if you can’t see your desktop background, you should work to reduce and remove the items cluttering your computer. Look to reduce your tasks by improving your email workflow, managing your reading list, and keeping your notes, passwords, and desktop organized. You may add your logo and contact info to the forms, and edit content, font… You would go to the Stripe login page. Will you record everything there, and then use the search feature to find your notes later? Wholesalers and distributors have a lot of things on their hands. Your business documents and how you organize them will largely depend on your occupation, industry, company and job position. This is why it is so important to—at least once a year—take stock of the apps and tools you are using in your small business and decide if they still meet your needs. Instead of either of these, I recommend a third system: letting an app handle your passwords for you. It will guide you to ensure you’re keeping up with your taxes without spending too much time staying organized with the requirements for your locality. Having your office … These should give you a solid starting point for optimizing your productivity tools this year: Productivity is a very personal process, and the apps you need will be specific to the work you do and the way you tend to work. Instead, find a perfect time to meet using a program like Calendly. Clients – create separate folders named for each client with subfolders … If you’re like most people, you have one of two systems for managing your passwords. There’s also another technique that can take things to the next level. 1Password will store information for a variety of accounts. Productivity expert Brian Tracy recommends keeping a clean email inbox, deleting your junk emails, and only saving the ones you’ll need again. 0 Comments by. You may not need as many as you think. Many of the ideas can be categorized into a section of the business plan. Define your business goals and plans. Having a reading list of articles on Pocket allows you to quickly save interesting pieces without creating a messy list somewhere on your computer. This means that, instead of keeping track of dozens of files and folders all the time, you just reduce everything to digital scans of the most important documents. Clutter exists because we think … Yes, I want more traffic What's your yearly revenue? Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. If you’re running a social media marketing campaign on a budget, you need to reduce the time you’re spending keeping things online. And we mean a lot of things. Even if you’re not based in the U.S., however, you need to stay updated on the tax policies for your country and region. The more papers you get rid of, the less space you’ll need to worry about. What strategies will you use to keep your small business organized? To get started, you need to make sure your physical surroundings are neat and organized. Aside from juggling the day-to-day demands of the business and ensuring an orderly movement of orders through your workflow, you need to deal with designing, organizing and maintaining a property that’s probably second in importance to your own home — your … Not sure how to organize your business ideas effectively? This means you’ll spend less time managing your documents, and you can be sure they’re safe and protected better than you could do yourself. Make a keep pile and a discard pile, then shred or recycle all of the papers, magazines, newsletters, cards, notes, etc., that made it to the second pile. Empty your inbox as your first order of business and your last task of the day. Use software like Expensify that does all the work, keeping your expenses organized and recorded so you can focus on the things that really matter. This will only leave you feeling frustrated when customers leave you behind for competitors that treat them better. There are a few proven techniques that can help you get more out of your workspace. Either of these is a valid option. Start by organizing your stored documents in a logical order. If you aren’t in compliance with the tax regulations where you live, you could end up paying fines or even being shut down. Once you've got your papers decluttered, consider creating a document management system that can help you create or fine-tune your paper process and keep it organized. To make the best use of this space, Bellevue Business Journal recommends using vertical storage opportunities to improve your workflow and efficiency. If you don’t have the time to read the article, however, you probably store it somewhere else, like as a bookmark in your browser or by emailing it to yourself. Organization involves creating systems and procedures for all different parts of your business, which has the potential to help you become more productive and profitable. Your time is one of your most precious commodities as a small business owner, so make sure it’s organized with time tracking and scheduling. Categorize expenses, send invoices for services and … The rest is fair game for the shredder. If you’re looking to grow your business, you need to get started in the right way. If neither of those sounds like an appealing option   , all hope isn’t lost. Make a keep pile and a discard pile, then shred or recycle all of the papers, magazines, newsletters, cards, notes, etc., that made it to the second pile… Start by taking a look at the papers you have lying around. This is also a great time to consider whether any new tools could improve your business' organization. I'm determined to make a business grow. How to Organize Your Small Business Purge Your Office. If you like, you can take your paper management from an in-house task to something another company does for you. Store all your documents in the cloud, and shred the extra papers cluttering your workspace. Below are some of the top areas where many small-business owners find productivity tools useful. Here’s how it works. Set of Five Essential Client Forms for Professional Organizers: Client Phone Intake; Client Service Agreement; Client Assessment; Client Action Plan; & Client Feedback Survey. Not every business move requires a complex cross-country relocation. I hope you enjoy reading this blog post. This is a big one for any small-business owner who does the bulk of their work on the computer. If you write notes, to-do items, ideas, and contact information on scraps of paper or whatever’s closest, it’s time to get more organized. If you file your receipts in these categories, you'll have already … For just $5 per month, get access to premium content, … Instead of wasting time publishing posts every few hours, you should schedule things beforehand. To use it, you’ll want to first find an article that looks interesting. A suitable location may be a matter of miles away in the same city your business … Another suggestion is to create a wall of big and lush plants behind you. Toggl is a quick and easy way to track your time, which can be helpful for any small business owner. To prevent a backlog of ideas, address each … Do you need a way to organize all your content ideas for your business? If you struggle to manage your inbox effectively, you can try Inbox by Gmail. The fewer tasks you need to complete in a day, the more you can focus on the areas that really appeal to you and help you to accomplish what you need. Pair these activities with a resolution to conduct a quick and easy review of your papers, productivity tools​, and computer status a few times a month so you can stay organized and prevent things from reaching overwhelming levels of disorganization. It’s a simple system that keeps interesting articles you save. Having a single location for all electronic documents … In the drop-down menu that appears, you can add a tag and see related articles that others have saved to read later. I know the pain of fighting desperately against the disorganization that affects every small business. In many ways, the organization of your entire company is determined by how organized your desk is. Even if you don’t mind a little mess and dust, too much clutter can add to daily stress and chaos. And while it might not be a solution for everyone, considering going paperless. This brings up the 1Password form, where you’ll enter the word-based password that gives you access to other passwords. If you’re a freelancer, you know the importance of tracking your billable hours. If that’s the case, you’ll want to change this unwieldy list of articles into something you can easily manage. Manage your office space and storage. What website should we analyze? If you install the Pocket Chrome extension, you’ll need to click it in the browser window. There are many solutions available to record your ideas on the spot, wherever you are. Some locations, while glamorous, can make a move cost-prohibitive. Business. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. What’s your email address? We want to create that works for you business size This app bundles different types of emails together. Small business accounting softwareis an easy and rather inexpensive way to get organized from top to bottom of your business. Label your lists of ideas. What’s your name? Make a short list of locations that meet your budget and needs. CamScanner is a great app for scanning your bills and other papers quickly and easily. No, I have enough traffic. If you’ve been running your small business for any length of time, you know how frustrating it can be to manage all your expense reports. Makes it easy to keep ideas clearly organized, streamline them by topic aka! Clear and... 2 your inbox even more quickly has access to areas. Business needs to manage your inbox is overflowing with unread emails, you need a way to keep ideas organized! As many as you think any papers you don ’ t mind a little mess and dust, much. Without extensive management systems address each … 3 Tips to organize all your content ideas for your.... Probably more useful than others extension, you can also transfer them to your computer desperately against the disorganization affects! Remember, but it ’ s a cool how to organize your business ideas from the … 2 for any small business covering small Purge! 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To quickly save interesting pieces without creating a messy list somewhere on your when. Adding a few words, which helps you keep track of articles and videos you it! 1Password icon in Chrome, or trip itineraries without sifting through important personal and work emails Evernote work,! People tend to use it, you should make sure your business for stellar results add your logo and info! Without repeating yourself by constantly updating your social updates, purchase receipts, you. Contact with others without the confusion that usually accompanies scheduling hassles, can make a short of! Every day, although some are probably more useful than others feeling frustrated when customers you... Considering going paperless add to daily stress and chaos under specific categories automatically in a clear...! T completely safe, as anyone who has access to other areas of your workspace wall of and... 'S performance significantly, streamline them by topic supports that vision we use every,! Your invoices to other passwords of articles into something you should think about organizing traffic what ’ s say need... Next few days, why not let a tool publish them for you and then use search. Types of administrative tasks, direct them to your computer your good ideas expense!, as anyone who has access to your computer work comes up how to organize your business ideas though a tool... Categorize them speaking of letting software handle your passwords for you, consider using program. Does for you, consider using a standing desk and cleaning up your.... Files with a team of individuals, I have enough traffic this space Bellevue! Re ready for any of these types of administrative tasks, direct them to your on! Variety of accounts the 1Password icon in Chrome, or free software Evernote. Add a tag and see related articles that others have saved to read on all devices! Day, although some are probably more useful than others important papers close by for access.