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If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur (such as myself) this blog post may be for you. I am not at all an organized person and my business, (I am a social media manager among a couple other things on a freelance basis), was suffering for it. Things got mixed up and confused and I often felt so overwhelmed because of how disorganized my business actually was.
If this sounds anything at all like you or you just want some extra tips on how to organize your small, maybe even from home, business then keep on reading!
How to get organized in your small business
Get a set office space. If you intend to work from home, this is still important. I know one of the things we all imagine when working from home is sitting in our pajamas in our bedrooms on our laptops. Sometimes, I will admit that is the case for me, but I realized that a work space has a huge impact on just how productive you are and how your things are organized. You need to have a place where all of your work things are that you can go to and handle business. This helps you stay organized and also gives you a spot where you can separate work from play. If you don’t intend on working from home then renting an office space is probably a given.
Plan out social media content ahead of time. I would say plan out your social media marketing content at LEAST a week out, but if you are smart you’ll do it an entire month in advance. I know that sounds like a lot of work and that’s because it is, but it keeps your organized and STRESS-FREE when it comes to your marketing strategy. Plan you campaigns in advance. I am just getting to the point where I am planning things a month in advance for my blog, YouTube Channel, and email marketing campaigns so that I can focus on my work for my clients and not have to worry about anything else. It keeps you focused on the meat of things throughout each week.
Get you emails TOGETHER. A lot of initial correspondence and important contact happens over email. This means that your email needs to be organized. You should have things sectioned off for different categories in your business such as invoice receipts, client questions, progress reports, potential client emails, etc. Whatever different type of conversation that happens in your emails needs to be organized appropriately so that when it comes time to answer emails you aren’t stressing out trying to find what to respond to first and where it is.
Get a planner. I am a whole hearted believer in having a planner. I know that this can look different for everyone, however. For example, if you’re like me and need a planner you can write on. I’d say you cannot go wrong with the perfectly productive planner.
If not, get google calendar on your phone. You need SOME kind of planner to keep you accountable for all of your appointments and to-do’s. You may THINK you can keep it in your mind and remember, but unless you’re a braniac, once your business is booming like you want it to be, you will overwhelm yourself trying to remember everything all the time. So get yourself a planner!
Keep track of your finances. Get yourself a journal and keep up with where money is coming from and where money is going. I learned that I needed to do this the hard way. I basically messed up my entire life monetarily for a couple months because I wasn’t keeping track of anything and ended up behind on bills and BROKE. So, take it from me, know where your money is going and where it is coming from.
Prioritize your tasks. This is a biggie. Make sure you are doing things that will best serve your business in the correct order. There are certain tasks in every business that are urgent. There are certain tasks that can wait. You have to prioritize properly so that you aren’t setting yourself back by not keeping track of what’s important and what’s not and end up screwing over your entire business.
GET HELP. I say this all the time. You cannot wear all of the hats in your business. Either your business will fail because you are doing things you aren’t get at and/or don’t enjoy instead of focusing on why you started the business and the things you do enjoy. Or you’ll get overwhelmed and burnout… and THEN your business will fail. You may have to do a lot in the beginning yourself, but one of the first things you should be investing in is HELP. A lot of my clients could very well handle their own social media, but they don’t enjoy it and it would take time away from the things they are good at and enjoy doing themselves. I hate making graphics and so one of the FIRST things I did was outsource a graphic designer so I could focus on my writing. I also hired someone to do simple tasks that I hate doing like sending out client invoices and things like that/ Don’t do it all yourself. Having someone else who is a rock star at certain things will make you more money in the long run.
So, how organized are you in your business? Was there anything on this list that will help you get even more organized? Comment down below and let me know!