Get Organized Online to Grow Your Business

Are you always on a slippery slope when it comes to staying organized in your business? You aren’t alone. Cleaning up chaos and restoring order to your business is all about finding the right tools and methods that work with you, your clients, your contractors—and your unique type of business. Help is on the way, and I’m sharing seven of my best tips with you here.

Apply as many of these 7 ideas as you can to help you stop yourself from sliding down the slippery slope towards overwhelm. If you are willing to commit to making an effort to get organized online, your bottom line will thank you.

1. Create a Company Manual.In fact, create two—a master manual for yourself, and one with personal information missing for your VA or project manager.Your company manual should act as a complete package, should anything happen to you, so that whoever is cleaning up your business affairs can find everything they need, including your RoboForm or LastPass master password, site URLS, contractors to be paid, instructions, business documents—and the password to your computer!
2. Manage Your Taxes Now!Did you have to pay taxes last year? Is your business already bringing in more income? Then estimate and project your next year’s taxes—and start putting a portion of each month’s income into your business bank account or a business savings account for taxes; or set up a tax payment option directly in your online banking and pay a portion every month.At tax time, you won’t have to pay—and if you do, it will be minimal. (And maybe you’ll get a refund!)
3. Use Mobile Apps to Help You Get Organized Online.Is half your life lived on your smart phone? If your answer is ‘YES!’, consider using mobile apps to help you stay organized.You can download:
   • To-do lists
   • Schedulers
   • Expense tracking apps
   • Dictation and recording apps
   • Social media scheduling and tracking apps

   Plus all those personal apps that free up more time for your business are excellent as well.

4. Organize and Straighten Up Your Office.Once you have de-cluttered your physical workspace, fit maintaining it into your daily routine. File everything the moment you use it and take note of where clutter tends to build up again.Clutter is a sign that something is not working for you. So analyze what you are missing and do something about it. It might be a bigger in-tray, or a different place to put your pencil holder or a bulletin board instead of a wall calendar—but whatever gives you problems, don’t wait till clutter builds up again. Fix it straight away, make sure it works—and get back to keeping your office clean; an inspirational, organized, pleasant place to work.
5. Outsource Jobs Around the House.Don’t just outsource your online business tasks: Do the same for your physical space and offline responsibilities too.Pay the children to walk the dog. Invest in a cleaning service—and have them dust, polish and vacuum your office too. Ask your husband to split the cooking with you.
6. What’s Your Learning Style?Often when a method doesn’t work, it’s because it was recommended by someone with a different learning style than you. If you’re a tactile, visual learner, making online, text-based to-do lists is likely to have you abandoning this tactic in less than a week: Use visual apps that take advantage of shapes, graphics and color. Make paper lists and highlight the priorities in bright color.Similarly, if you are an auditory learner, record your to-do list daily. If you are always on your mobile, use an app.It’s all about fitting your method to your preferences—and lifestyle.
7. Find Better Ways to Store Your Stuff.This tip may seem obvious, but it’s amazing how often we manage to put up with things like awkwardly placed under-desk storage cabinets or shelves that are too short for our magazine holders.Take a look at your office storage. Is it working for you? Do you need more? Less? Just something different?As soon as you can, schedule a trip to places like Home Depot, Ikea, Walmart, and even Target where you can check out different storage options and reinvent your office.