Organization, the Key to
Success
By Michelle Dunn
One of the biggest
things you can do to make any business successful is to
be organized. Organization helps you work faster, more
efficiently, helps you to portray a professional
attitude and can make you feel less frantic and more
optimistic about your business.
Whether you work out
of a home office or a remote office you want to organize
your desk, office and if you are traveling for your
business, your bags. Let’s start with your bag, do you
have a bag big enough to hold all your promotional
items, daily items you might need, cell phone, pens,
books, keys and/or mail? Is the bag a mess and so heavy
it hurts your shoulder? When you approach a potential
client, you want your bag to look great and you want to
be able to whip out a business card or brochure
instantly to hand to them. Digging through a bag that is
overloaded and overflowing is not a professional image.
I like to use a
roomy bag that has outside pockets for slipping items in
and for easy access. You can also purchase small clear
zip top bags, I got mine from Totes. They are
inexpensive and come in different sizes. Because they
are clear, you can see everything instantly. You should
only carry ONE bag. If you have a tote bag, a planner
and a purse, you are not organized. Put items from your
purse in one of the clear zipper top bags and put that
in your tote, add your planner, your promotional
materials, a book, pen and paper and you are ready to
go. Everything in one bag, with smaller bags inside to
organize. You can see everything at a glance and
everything is easily available.
A friend of mine,
Susie at The Busy Woman (www.thebusywoman.com)
has GREAT organizational bags to fit every lifestyle and
business. If you're a busy woman (and what woman
isn't?), you MUST stay organized and on top of every
little detail in your day, in every aspect of your busy
life . . . family, home, office, school, community and
even home schooling. Everyone uses some sort of
calendar, day planner system, or to do list. It's
finding the right one that
used to be difficult, until NOW! Visit her site for tons
of useful articles, tips and to see what types of
organizational tools she has. Be sure to tell her I sent
you.
Once your bag is
organized, you can project a calm, professional,
successful image to anyone you meet while you are out
and about. Your next step is your desk.
Your desk probably
has a computer, phone, basic office supplies, papers and
books on it. First get some stand up file holders and
baskets, plastic bins or in boxes. You can use
anything, old shoe boxes with nice wrapping paper on the
outside, or with pictures on them that your kids have
drawn. Anything to contain the papers on your desk.
Look at your desk and make a pile of the things you use
every or every other day. Those are the things you want
to keep on your desk or somewhere that you have easy
access. Make a pile of everything else and move it to
the floor or away from your desk.
Make sure you have
an “in” box. You can throw your mail there, and
anything that needs instant attention the next time you
sit down to work. Use a stand up file and some file
folders to make a tickler file. Write the days of the
week on the tabs of the file folders and put them in the
upright file on your desk. When you do something on
Monday and need to follow up on Thursday, put a note in
Thursday’s folder. Each morning, take out that day’s
folder and do the work you have in that folder. This is
an easy way to be sure to follow up on everything and
keep your desk neat and organized. If you use envelopes
or stamps every day, keep them in a smaller upright file
holder or basket on your desk. Things you reach for
everyday can be neatly stored in any type of container
on your desk instead of spread all over it.
Hang up an
inexpensive cork board to hang up papers or items you
refer to all the time, this way they are hanging up and
you can just glance up at them to get the information
you need. You can also purchase different color folders
for different jobs. Red for new jobs, green for things
that need to be researched, blue for things that need to
be typed etc. Whatever your business is, customize the
colors to suit your needs.
You should also
organize your computer, remove any old files, emails or
pictures you don’t use every day or week, put them on a
CD, label it and store it in a drawer on in a CD holder.
This can be in your desk, on your desk if you use it
often or on a shelf. Put any magazines, articles, books
and papers you need to read in a basket, so you will
have a basket of things to read, a basket of things to
do each day (in-box) such as mail, reply to a letter or
jobs. You might have envelopes and stamps in a small
container near your phone and/or a rolodex if that is
something you use each day. Remember, the things on the
top of your desk should be things you use every day or
every other day. Everything else can be stored neatly.
For example, here is what I have on my desk:
Computer, phone,
stapler, tape, lamp, calculator, envelopes, stamps,
return labels, Advil, hand lotion, multivitamins
(otherwise I forget to take them!) tissue, promotional
book marks and postcards, 2 CD’s I use daily, my tickler
file, in box and a box for bills. I have an upright
file holder with priority mail envelopes, Notebooks and
folders with my mailing lists that I use every day, and
invoices that have not been paid for book orders. I
send promotional materials out every day so I keep these
items on my desk and handy. I have a file cabinet and
bought some inexpensive lined baskets and have one for
outgoing mail, so when I fill an envelope and stamp it I
throw it in this basket, the next day when I go do
errands, I put whatever is in that basket in my bag. I
have a basket of books, papers, reports and magazines I
need to read, this is usually overflowing. I have this
next to the mail basket and when I take that days mail I
also take a book or magazine to put in my bag as well.
When I am waiting in a doctor’s office or for my kids to
come out of school, I read. I also have a basket of
information to include in the 2nd edition I
am working on for one of my books. When I find
something I want to add to that book, I throw it in the
basket, when I am ready to make the revision’s I will
have all the information in one place, MUCH EASIER! I
also have a small plastic container with drawers, that I
keep my promotional materials in, business cards, book
marks, order forms and postcards. When I need something
like this, they are all in one place and I can easily
take what I need without searching or re-order quickly.
When I get back from
my errands, I can easily empty my bag of mail, into my
in box, magazines or reports into the basket of things
to read and the book or magazine I read can go in the
give away or save pile. I try to only keep pages out of
magazines instead of entire magazines. You can get
cheap 3 ring binders and sheet protectors and include
your important pages from magazines or newspapers in
that book. I then give the magazines to local business
or doctors offices for their clients.
Now look around your
office, is it just your office, or maybe your dining
room table or a corner of the living room? If it is an
office that is a room in your house, how much room do
you have? What type of furniture is in there? You can
certainly make do with whatever you have. Think about
putting up some sort of petition if you are in the
living room, or face the wall or a window away from the
TV and family area. You may need at least one file
cabinet for paperwork, but try not to print everything
out to file, anything electronic, save to CD’s and store
that way. You can use different colored hanging file
folders for your paperwork that must be filed. For
example, use a different color for personal bills,
business bills, receipts, insurance, website
information, and anything else you might have. It makes
it easy to know what is in each folder at a glance and
is good at tax time when you need to have all of your
receipts and invoices for your accountant. If you have
an empty drawer, use it to store copy paper, printer ink
or any office supplies you have, or use a plastic
container. I have a printer stand next to my desk that
has my printer on it, and I purchased a 4-drawer plastic
stand at Staples for the printer paper, and envelopes,
this way it is right under the printer. On the shelves
I have baskets. One has shipping products, tape,
labels, markers, return address labels and stickers in
it. The next shelf has a basket with specialty paper
that I don’t use often.
To successfully
organize is easy. Things you need:
Containers :
baskets, boxes, plastic containers
Folders : color
coded or with color coded stickers on them to identify
them easily and quickly.
File folder upright
holders: Available at any office supply store or
department store. You can even get some that hang on
the wall for more available desk space.
Once you have these
items, you will want to put all your “stuff” in piles of
“like” items. All your mailing items together,
envelopes, stamps, address labels etc and put them in
one container. Put all your bills in another, once you
do this, you will have a bunch of containers in front of
you with all of your work items in them. Then you can
put them anywhere in your office, when your like items
are grouped together and contained, you will not have to
search each time you mail something or need to grab
something to read.
I was a bill
collector for 17 years and one of the reasons I have
been successful is because of my organizational skills.
I believe you can be more successful when you are
organized, and it will get away from you but if you have
a base plan, and stick to it, it will work.
About the Author:
Michelle Dunn has
over 17 years experience in Credit and Debt collection.
She is the founder and president of Never Dunn
Publishing, LLC, is a writer, publisher, consultant
and the Editorial Advisor for
Eli Financial Debt Collection Compliance Alert
Newsletter.
Michelle started
M.A.D. Collection Agency in January 1998 and ran it
successfully until she sold it in December 2004. She
owns and runs Credit & Collections.com an online
community for credit and business professionals. She
has been featured in Ladies Home Journal, PC World, Home
Business Magazine, Home Business Journal, Entrepreneur,
The Internet Web Source, Professional Collector, and in
Home Based Business for Dummies, Shameless Marketing for
Brazen Hussies, From the Home-Front The Simple guide to
starting and Running a Home based business, she was a
featured guest on (NPR) National Public Radio and has
been in many newspapers nationwide. She has many
published articles and 3 published books to add to her
list of accomplishments. She is now publishing two more
titles in her Collecting Money Series as well as a boxed
set. Visit
www.michelledunn.com for more information on any of
Michelle’s books and services or email her at
michelle@michelledunn.com
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