All About Organized
We recently contracted to perform bookkeeping services for a small nonprofit with which we are associated. It has turned into a “create a workable infrastructure” project; hence my absence from the blog. However, I am back on a schedule that allows me to breathe, and my time with the nonprofit this last month has prompted me to think about a great many things that startups do not often consider amid the mad rush to create revenue, one of them being organization.
In addition to startup consulting, we also design and manufacture household storage products (very cool ones!). Because of the products we design, people think we are very tidy/organized, meaning that if you walked into our office or homes, they would look like the cover of one of Martha Stewart’s publications. Not to burst your bubble, but our office and abodes look nothing like that.
Although not tidy, my desk is organized. After yesterday, a little less than I would like, but I consider it organized because I can find everything I need instantly. I don’t have to hunt through those stacks of stuff to find what I need. Believe it or not, I know where everything is, I can explain it to someone else, and even if I tidied up, the same basic structure of piles and files would survive relatively intact.
I was recently providing some basic computer training to a client. She opened her documents file, which was very tidy–everything in its folder. The first thing she did was point to some documents on the bottom and tell me that she had to “clean them up and organize them right away”, that she had just not gotten to it yet. I asked her whether the current system of folders, although very orderly, was working for her; i.e., supporting her fully in her efforts to complete her work, and her answer was no.
It prompted me to think of organization and how it fits into a small business structure. I consider tidy, which we more or less define as visual organization, a subset of being organized, and even we tidy up at least once a week because it somehow makes us breathe a sigh of contentment. Being organized, however, goes beyond the visual. It is about your business operating efficiently and effectively. It’s about stress reduction, providing superior customer service, and feeling confident and competent about your business, and these are what really count.
When clients ask me about the best way to organize their business, I try to help them to see that whatever works for them is best; i.e., whatever minimizes unnecessary stress and increases efficiency, allows them to optimize customer and vendor relations, and makes them feel confident and competent about their business is the best way.
I have found that it is most helpful to approach organization from a “whole systems” standpoint. This involves examining every aspect of your business and its relationship to every other aspect. This sounds daunting, but it isn’t. Normally, I start with a couple of hours, some colored pens, and a big sheet of paper, and ask a lot of questions of the client. I might start with some like this:
Communications. How do your customers feel about communicating with your business?
Customer Service. How are the current communication channels working?
Bookkeeping. Does your bookkeeping system allow you to efficiently keep a handle on your financial information?
General Office. Do your office systems frustrate you?
Technology. What would you change about your technology?
Starting with questions like this then leads us on to further questions, some hot-button issues, and development of long-term strategies. I hope it helps get you thinking about your business systems, identifying your major stressors, and working to eliminate them while boosting your confidence and making business shine. This is really what organization is all about.
