I’ve always been super type A, organized. I sort my M&M’s by color, I hate clutter and I plan everything. I was the one in my friend group planning all the spring break trips, creating spreadsheets of costs and payments and making a schedule of what we would do when. I cannot function without a plan (I’m not saying this ALWAYS is a good thing ;) but it has its benefits).
I truly believe that being organized in your business is critical for success. If you are NOT the type of person to do this, I would highly suggest you hire someone who is (cough, here’s your sign, cough). You can likely get away with not making your bed, letting the laundry pile up and the dishes sit in the sink with papers scattered all around your house for weeks at a time, but I can promise you if your business looks at all like your house does, you’re leaving money on the table. Organization is the key to maximizing your success.
In order to help you create efficiencies and scale, I am sharing with you, 4 foolproof tactics to help you organize your business:
Use a Project Management Tool
This has been a game changer for me. I used to have sticky notes all over my desk and computer screen, but a project management tool is significantly more powerful. Personally I use Asana to organize my business, but I know other people love Trello, Monday.com, Basecamp, Todoist, etc. Asana helps me to organize all of my clients and projects, assign to myself and/or other team members, as well as set a deadline. You can also create recurring tasks and sync it with numerous other platforms/integrations. This should help you reduce your number of sticky notes, align on what needs to get done TODAY vs later this week and keep track of what your team is handling. It will help keep you focused vs. thinking about all the other things you “can’t forget” to do.
Set up Automations
For whatever reason, people are fearful of setting up automations. When in reality, this will save you time to focus on other aspects of your business. You can automate just about anything these days, so what should you really focus on first? Think about the tasks you do repeatedly. Creating/sending contracts, monthly invoices, social media content planning/posting, email marketing, are just some ideas.
Using platforms like Dubsado or Honeybook for contracts and invoices saves you so much time. You can create workflows and set up easy automations so all you have to do is input the client/project and it’ll do the rest. There’s SO many social planning platforms to choose from. I love Later.com, Planoly, Hootsuite and Buffer to schedule social posts. I plan out all social content in advance and schedule it for the week to save me time and the “what do I post today?” anxiety. If you don’t have an email list, start one, like yesterday. It doesn’t have to be large for you to provide value and directly access your ideal customers inbox. There’s ways to set up welcome sequences and other sequences for each list or specific customer journey. There’s so much I could share on automations (maybe that calls for another blog post ;)), but they’re so helpful in your business.
Use Google Drive or Dropbox
Organize all your business files in Google Drive or Dropbox. Create folders for specific projects, your branding photos, stock photos, content, etc. Don’t just dump everything in Google Drive or Dropbox, but make sure that you organize it in a way that will be easy for you, or someone else, to sort through and find what you’re looking for. Google Drive and Dropbox are great because you can access your files from ANYWHERE at ANY TIME. I also love them both because you can collaborate with others using both of these platforms. Personally, I love Google Drive. It allows for more storage than the basic Dropbox plan and multiple people can be working from the same document at the same time.
Outsource the things you’re not good at or don’t enjoy
If you don’t know how to do something, ask someone else. The same goes if you don’t enjoy it. There are people who literally specialize in EVERYTHING. There’s no reason not to spend money on something that will save you time (which is money) and frustration in the long run. How many times in your life have you tried to do something yourself before you gave in and hired someone else? You’ve then wasted both time and money when you could’ve just outsourced it to begin with. Make a list of these things and start outsourcing.
Are you feeling like you have a greater sense of organization? Or at least empowered to start making some changes in your business to keep you better organized?
I hope this was helpful for you! If you want even more great content delivered right to your inbox, sign up for my email list here.
Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.
After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.
Katelyn is also a soon-to-be wife, stepmom, dog mama of two furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.
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