Organize Your Business – The Key to Increased Productivity
Working from home has many advantages and also a sort of familiarity
that can become a downright pitfall in some instances. It is easy
and sometimes quickly discovered that away from an office your
productivity is not as high as you thought it would be. Working from
a home office can easily become a productivity killer when a business
owner doesn’t stay on top of things. However, don’t fret!
This can be changed with a few simple steps to get your business
organized, making productivity easier.
First of all, realize what you do is run a business.
Your business needs a permanent place to live.
It could be your dining room, a corner of your den or the entire den.
Some people set up shop in their garage or kitchen. Wherever you decide that your home office will reside, recognize that it is your work space and nothing else can share that spot.
Yes, that includes the laundry you forgot to fold last night, too.
Moving on, now that you have an office space, set some guidelines
for how you will run your business. These guidelines don’t run to
the particulars of your chosen industry but more to organization
for better operation of the enterprise. In plain terms, if everything
is in its place, you won’t waste time looking for it.
A filing system will be your best friend.
This includes a filing cabinet for important papers.
Every correspondence doesn’t have to exist in paper form.
Contractual agreements with clients and copies of past invoices
can be filed, but emails don’t need to be. Save yourself some time,
money and fresh air by not printing every client email that comes
to your inbox.
An electronic filing system keeps emails, project specs and proposals
organized by client without adding to the paperwork you already have
to handle. Electronic files are easy to organize and can be zipped
to clients in an instant if need be.
You won’t even have to use snail mail.
Also, keep an in and out box on your desk (we almost forgot about the desk).
Incoming mail is organized as soon as it hits the desk.
Junk mail is shredded, orders are filed in a box to be
filled and other mail is sorted according to purpose.
Dealing with mail first thing prevents anything from getting overlooked.
Along the same lines, create a priority box.
This is the box that will be checked first thing in the morning
and last thing before you leave your home office. In the morning,
the box contains all of the items that need attention that day.
In the evening, organize the contents to be ready for the next morning.
This makes it much easier to have your daily work tasks set
when you get to the “office” each morning. No more wasted time
planning your day while an hour or two of it is vanishing.
Low productivity in a home office arises mainly from disorganization.
We often aren’t sure what we want to work on or what is most important, so it takes a little while to get that together. If you are organized from the beginning and keep your priorities current, you won’t spend your time deciding what to do next – you’ll already know.
Good bye time wasters, hello productivity!
Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance
Jan Tallent is the owner of Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance for 11 years, a marketing and small business online newsletter for going on 10 years, an internet marketer for my own digital products PLUS tangible products and an avid social networker . I also have an eBay store so stay pretty busy 10 to 12 hours per day, mostly on my computer and the net. 
I am concentrating my VA biz on proofreading , editing and transcriptions as these are my favorite assignments to take on and where my strengths lie. If you are in need of these or any of my other Virtual Assistance services, send me a message and we can Talk about and schedule your project or projects .
Tags: bookkeeper, file, home office, management, organize, records, tools, Virtual Assistance
October 20th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Thanks, Jan. Good advice. I needed this. My home office tends to collect clutter. It can be distracting. My biggest challenge is that I have so many projects to work on, plus lots of new ideas for my Internet business.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
thank you, Shayne. I hear you, it is much easier advice to give than to take!
I keep organizing and re-organizing but with my home office being also the
entry room with the front door to my house, everyone tends to want to
toss everything on one of my desks or throw it in one of my file cabinets,
even though both kids at home ( 21 and 17 ! ) have their OWN file drawer
in my family file cabinet and my partner has use of a whole lateral file!
How are the grandkids? I now have three, my Princess Madison will be four
in January, my first Prince, Brayden, turned one in May and my newest
Prince, Aiden, Madison’s baby brother, is six months old already!
November 19th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
This is some great advice to remember, thanks for sharing Jan. I would have to agree that organizing your business is one of the best ways to increase productivity. Having a filing system that is reliable and efficient is an aspect that is often overlooked, because people feel that if they save their invoices or emails on their computer that they will be easy to find. This is not always true, computers crash, data isn’t always backed up, etc. Maintaining an organized and well cataloged work space is essential to any well run business.
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