Starting your own business can be extremely daunting, particularly when you are trying to do #allTheThings and stay on top of a million different tasks for your company. Don't let the long list of things to do overwhelm you. Instead, step back, and try these four tips (one at a time!) to better organize your business.
Whether you're adding a virtual assistant or hiring a live remote virtual receptionist to join your team, virtual support will make your work so much easier! They can do everything that an in-house assistant could do - answering your phone calls, scheduling appointments, and generally helping to organize your business, so that you do not have to. Because they're remote, you don't have the overhead costs of office space, and because they are contract (and typically part time), you don't have the payroll costs for holidays, sick days, etc. You know I'm a big fan of delegation when it makes sense in your business, and hiring some extra hands to make light work of organizing your business always makes sense! However, make sure you stick to the correct hiring process and also perform a background check from companies such as Sterling Check of the person you intend to hire.
Team meetings are essential to a successful business. Regular meetings with all of your team members helps keep everyone on the same page and up to date. This will also allow you to share team values and create a good flow of communication between all team members.
"Regular" doesn't mean every day, or even every week in most cases. Depending on how well your team communicates between meetings, you may be able to do monthly or quarterly project meetings just to keep everyone up to speed. That said, it may take time to find the right balance of meetings in your company. Do what makes sense and don't feel compelled to call a meeting just because it's Monday. Instead, find the flow that works for your organization and check in with your team often enough to know what's going on without them feeling micro-managed.
In our current situation, holding in-person meetings can be difficult, so apps such as Zoom (which was relatively unknown before the pandmemic that shall not be named!) and Microsoft Teams are a lifesaver for businesses at the moment. These apps allow your team to continue meeting up and holding effective and worthwhile conversations during this difficult time.
Credit: Pixabay
As the old saying goes, a place for everything and everything in its place! It might take a bit of effort to get things stabilized, but a clean, organized environment can actually be beneficial to both you and your staff members. It makes your office space easier to work in and makes finding any relevant paperwork much more manageable. Even in the online world, you have the ability to create a standardized way to organize your files. We have a set of file folders we set up for each of our clients in Google drive so that everyone on staff can access files with ease and little to no searching. For software and application integration visit Jitterbit.
It can be very easy to forget important dates and appointments when you are running a business. I use Google's built-in calendar to keep me on track. It syncs with my scheduler and it lives on my android phone, so it's all integrated. Those can easily be forgotten about, but if you get into the habit of writing everything down in your diary, anything you need to do is less likely to be forgotten about.
For Chaotic creatives, you don't have to document every second of your day; that wouldn't be feasible and would actually create MORE stress for you. Ideally, though, you should have all the big rocks and plenty of spaciousness built into your daily calendar.
Need help? The Creative Freedom Incubator is designed to help you with nearly every aspect of your growing business. Our next cohort begins in June!