How to Organize Your Business for the New Year

If spring is for cleaning, the start of a new year is for organizing. It’s a mental fresh start, and there’s no better time to bring some order to your workspace.

Wondering how to get started?

 

Purge the Clutter – Both Electronic and Physical

That means those old voicemail messages, emails, food receipts and miscellaneous paperwork. A survey from retailer OfficeMax found that 90 percent of Americans believe office clutter had a negative impact on their work. No one is saying you need to get to inbox zero right away, but keeping extra spam emails you don’t need doesn’t do you any good.

 

Everything Has a Place

A 2010 survey found that the average employee spends 76 hours per year looking for misplaced items. Instead of letting important papers sit out on your desk with unimportant papers, organize everything into clearly labeled file folders and compartments. Some experts recommend keeping everything for a certain task in a singular labeled location.

Save Documents Digitally

In small businesses, file storage space can be hard to come by. If this is the case for your business. You can scan past years’ documents and keep them all in an online storage system like Google cloud. This way, you have a fully searchable archive where you can pull up what you need when you need it, but you can get rid of the physical clutter.

 

If you’re not ready to commit to a full cloud system for the business, you can do this on a personal level by digitizing business receipts. These days, even the IRS accepts digital copies of receipts. There are tons of receipt management systems, including apps for your smartphone, that can let you export data to your accounting system.

 

Make a List of Goals

Some things are best kept on paper. You can use a new year to make a physical list of personal and organizational goals. That can manifest in the form of personal or daily to-do lists, or a list of larger goals you and your business are working towards in the long run. It’s easy to forget what you’re working towards or make compromises on your business dreams. If they’re written down in a handy place, they’ll be on your mind each day. For some, it helps to write out these goals in a universal calendar.

 

When you organize your calendar this year and realize you’ll need to plan an event or two, don’t forget about Earle Brown. We’re one of Minnesota’s premier historic event centers, the perfect space to host a corporate meeting or a large event.