Organizing Your Office for Business Success

Business

Learning how to organize your business office can help you achieve long-term business success. The more organized an business is, the more productive it is, as organized businesses are efficient businesses.

When an office or business is disorganized, important documents can be lost, deadlines can be missed, and the whole business can slowly start to get behind, leading to loss of profits, dissatisfied customers, and potentially a business failure.

For those who are not naturally organized, or are feeling overwhelmed with the state of their office, here are a few simple organizational tips to help get things back in order:

Go Digital

Many small businesses do not use the technology available to their advantage. Whether the investment seems too hefty a price for a small business to make, or they simply do not realize the tools they need to help their business become more efficient, not going digital can be a huge mistake.

When it comes to keeping track of records, other important documents, and project files, store them digitally through a cloud storage system, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or other similar systems. The benefit is that not only are all the documents in one accessible location, they will also never be lost. Moreover, they can be viewed from any location and from multiple accounts, making it easy to keep employees informed and do business on-the-go.

Lastly, depending upon your business, consider investing in the right software programs, such as salon software if you are a spa or salon business. These types of software programs help keep your business running efficiently, such as providing your business with the tools and help it needs to be successful and productive.

Paper Files

For the paper documents you do have, take some time to go through them and get rid of anything that is no longer relevant or out of date. Not only will these alleviate some of the clutter, it can also help you recall where certain files are when you need to find them.

A great way to free up space is to scan them, turning them into digital files that you can store in your cloud system. Paper invoices, bills, receipts, and other statements can be scanned as a record, allowing you the ability to throw away the paper files and free up space in your office.

Email

While email is digital, a cluttered inbox can be as chaotic as a cluttered file box. Many businesses and business owners receive hundreds of emails a day, and if they are not organized properly, it can be easy for an inbox to start overflowing, which can lead to emails getting buried in your inbox.

Letting your email get out of control can lead to important emails being lost in the hundreds of messages. This break down of communication can lead to a loss of profits, or a loss of customers, should a customer have a question or complaint that never gets answered. Moreover, be sure to regularly check your spam folder, as many legitimate emails get filtered as spam for one reason or another.

Finances

Being disorganized with your finances can leave your business in financial ruin. It is imperative that you are up-to-date with your books, bills, and other financial obligations. Many businesses, especially small businesses, do not keep track of their finances as well as they should, and find themselves in the red at the end of the year, or with money missing from their business.

Staying on top of your finances will allow you to see if a business never invoiced you, if a payment is missing, or if you missed a crucial payments and are accruing late fees. Additionally, keeping your finances in order allows you to be ready and organized for tax season. As a small business, it is critical you have all receipts, expenditures, income, and other business financial papers accessible for your taxes.

Before tax season arrives, check in with your tax advisor or accountant in order to make sure you have all pertinent information you need for your taxes.

Organization will help you be more productive in the office, allowing your business to run as efficiently as possible.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/calculator-paperclip-pen-office-178127/

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Trade Up for a Better Home Business

Business

If you sell products or services out of your home, what are you doing to make sure your customers get top-notch customer service each and every day?

For some home business owners, that task can be challenging given all they have to do as a one-person show. Others, however, are able to pull it off, knowing that their customers will always rank as the most important item on their to-do lists.

With that in mind, what are you doing as a home business owner to improve your brand?

More specifically, what are you not doing, and how can you correct that moving forward?

Give Consumers What They Want

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Start out by reviewing your customer service procedures, including what information your website provides them before they might even have to talk to you by phone.

Look at your website to see if it covers the following:

  • Basic information – Your website should have basic company product and/or service information on it. Such things as what your brand offers, how long you have been in business, how to reach you etc. are all necessities your site needs. The information should be in areas on the site that are easy to find, meaning customers (current and potential) do not have to feel like they are surfing through a maze to find it;
  • Product or service instructions – If you sell a certain product, do you have information about it on your site? Products typically come with how-to manuals, giving customers the basic of how to put it together, how to operate it etc. Take an example from Trade Bit, who offers repair manual downloads on countless products. While you likely only sell one or a number of products, it is a good idea to download such manuals on your site, allowing customers access to them if they do not have the paper version handy. Doing so just makes for smart marketing tactics for your brand;
  • Error-free copy and links – There are many ways to make your home business website look professional, one of which is making sure it is free of errors and broken links.  One of the more irritating things for customers (current and those you are hoping to convert) is coming onto sites where links do not work, copy is loaded with errors, and a simple search for this or that seems to take forever. As a home business owner, funds may be a little tight at times or seemingly all the time. That said it does not mean you shouldn’t be spending money where funds should be directed. Spending some extra money for a professionally-done website is certainly worth the investment;
  • Eye-catching imagery – Your home business website also needs to be appealing when it comes to imagery. If you have a dull site that is full of copy and very few images, it will more times than not bore viewers. This doesn’t mean go nuts on photos etc. but do have them strategically placed on the site for maximum exposure;
  • Social component – It shouldn’t come as a surprise that your website needs as much attention as you can possibly give it. One of the great ways to go about this is via social media. In the event you haven’t up to now, promote your site on social networking sites and allow consumers to do the same for you. For any web copy you have, leave icons at the top of the page so that visitors can tweet, share, pin etc. This will put your site and its offerings out in front of the eyes of countless others. Also be willing to share other’s copy, including those who you may invite to guest post on your blog. Once again, this sharing component presents you with more opportunities to market your brand.

Part of being a sound home business owner is being able to market your products or services to the general public without too much hassle and effort.

If your website has been on the backburner for some time now, take the time to get it up to speed.

Remember, your website is a key component of your overall marketing strategy, so make sure it is a fine representative of your brand.

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