How Disorganization Is Hurting Your Small Business (And How To Fix It)

Working with small business owners has led me to the same conclusion over and over: it can be challenging to stay on top of organizing when you’re responsible for every aspect of a business. Constantly prioritizing tasks that pile up non-stop makes it near impossible to step back and say, “how can we do ‘x’ or ‘y’ better?”

That said, routine organization is crucial for small businesses because it allows for a more streamlined and efficient workflow. If you streamline your workflow, processes become faster, and you can reallocate newly freed-up resources to help scale your business. 

Why you should keep your business organized

An extreme example of a disorganized workspace. How does it make you feel?

Business organization applies to both physical and digital spaces. Whether it’s boxes of files that have been collecting dust in the corner of the office or an excel sheet of leads waiting to be added to your CRM for months, lingering tasks negatively affect your business operations. That old box of files in the corner? There’s been numerous studies on how visual clutter can negatively affect your productivity. And, it goes without saying how useless that leads sheet is if you and your team can’t act on it. 

So, now that you know how important it is, here’s how to organize your business.

How to organize your business to improve growth

Step 1: Reduce clutter

The first step in organizing is to declutter your workspaces. Begin with physical spaces first. Go through offices and other areas of your business and purge unnecessary paperwork, boxes, and anything else that’s adding to visual noise. 

Once you’re done with the physical spaces, move on to all the digital tools you and your team use. This includes computers, tablets, and work phones. Get rid of any files and apps that are unessential to the running of your business. Don’t worry about setting up new organizational systems yet. Just focus on decluttering first.

Step 2. Come up with a plan and do it all in one fell swoop

Now that you can see what’s necessary for the running of your business, you can come up with a plan to get everything organized. Again, start with the physical spaces first. Create better filing systems and have designated spaces for different types of paperwork. If possible, assign one person responsible for maintaining each specific area. Set aside a chunk of a few hours or a day (if possible) to get this done in one big push. If you break up the tasks, you risk losing momentum. 

Don’t give up! Try your best to push through. It’ll be worth it in the end, I promise.

Then, you can move on to all your digital spaces. Make sure files are centralized and easily accessible. Use one consistent naming system for all of your folders and files. If you have multiple apps for one task, such as two CRMs (yes, I’ve seen this before), you should consolidate tools as much as possible. 

Step 3. Search for areas of improvement and fix them

Now that you’ve gotten all the clutter out of the way, you can focus on examining your current systems and processes. What’s holding your business back? Where are the breakdowns? Is there a lack of communication between your team and clients? Is there one specific step of workflow that’s bottleneck the entire thing? Is your client onboarding system too clunky?

Do your best to remove your love blinders. You’ve built your business from the ground up, and it can be challenging to admit some of the ways you do things is wrong. That said, it’s impossible to grow if you have too many weak areas of your operation. Once you’ve figured out what areas need to improve, get to it. Set aside 30-minutes to an hour every day to resolve these issues until you’re satisfied. 

Step 4. Invest in automating your business

Automation can be a scary term to non-programmers, but there are plenty of no-code required tools that can automate tasks. I always ask myself, “is there a program or tool that can do this task?” whenever I’m helping a client. You’d be surprised what’s out there. You can always Google it or use a no-code tool directory like this one to find the perfect tool for the task. 

You can automate tasks such as emails, scheduling, marketing content management, and more. The more tasks you automate, the more time you and your team can put into other things, like connecting with clients and growing your business.

Need help getting your business organized?

If you’re (understandably) too busy to organize your business yourself, you can always hire a professional to get jumpstarted. Professional business organizers understand beyond just decluttering and organizing. They know what tools and apps to incoporate to get your business running as seamlessly as possible. For more information, contact me today for a free 30-minute consultation.