When you run a small business, or you are in a period of growth, you have to make sure that your business is in the best possible state. How your business runs is a representation of how others will see you. Operations run more smoothly when everything is taken care of in the best way. So here are some ways in which you can keep your business organized.
Office & Space
This one applies to any size of an organization. If you run a business and office, or a corner of your home. You need to make sure that your physical surroundings are neat and well organized. Imagine for a moment that you are on a call, and you can’t find a pen to take some notes. Organizational issue. Now your freelancers are asking for some information, and your filing system is a mess. Get into the habit of having everything in the right place at all times, and make sure your staff employs the same ethos.
Communication
While you might start as a single-person business, it will grow over time. As that happens, more people will join you, and you need to quickly decide how you’re going to foster good communication. Depending on your industry, this will need to change, too. For slow industries, communication can be at an even pace, with a top-down direction (known as cascade). However, the communication cascade is inefficient for frontline organizations that need speed. There are advantages and disadvantages to all types of communication, so it’s important to consider which method will suit you best.
Social Media
With a big or small budget, you will be running social media campaigns. The worst thing you can do is try to handle these in real time. There is, of course, time for real-time conversation and engagement, but your campaigns need planning. Rather than spend hours each day trying to post on each platform, then reply, and so on. Spend 2 or 3 days creating your social media campaigns, artwork, and videos, and writing all the copy (or hiring someone to do it), and use a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to have everything automated. Then, you only need to dedicate a smaller amount of time per day to checking in and responding.
Data
Every website sign-up, every email, and every business transaction will create more data. There are a few things to take into consideration here. Firstly you must be compliant with all rules regarding the specific data type that you are in possession of, and secondly how you will manage and store it. Your business will need fast access to accurate information, and the more data you collect, the muddier this process will become. In order to tackle that, companies will look to something like Microsoft master data services.
Photo by Sabri Tuzcu on Unsplash
Team Management
You might be a soloprenuer, you might run a huge corporation. You will need to have a system in place that will allow you to handle groups of people. Soloprenuers are ofter hiring virtual assistants, and other freelancers to allow them to take on larger projects. And of course, large companies will have large teams. There should be a method of instant communication, like Slack in place. This can be broken down into teams and individual conversations. And for the project management side Trello, Asana, Evernote, and ProofHub are all great options. The ability for everyone to be held to account and see what is in process and what comes next is vital.
Time
You personally should be held to a high standard when it comes to your own time management. If you are finding that you let tasks go on too long, or that you aren’t creating serious focus time. There are two methods that you might consider. Deep Work, or short bursts of focus using the Pomodoro method. You’ll need to work out your chronotype and your circadian rhythm, and with that information, you will be able to find your available true focus time.
If you really want to see growth in the next year or two in your business, then you will need to ensure you are creating the best business environment to do so. The organizational aspect is the tip of the iceberg. But if you and your business are running at maximum productivity – growth is inevitable.
