Any improvements you make to your business processes will relate directly to your clientele numbers. Which of course relate directly to your balance sheet. It’s simple: being more organised equals more profit.

Conversely, a lack of organisation costs your business money. For example, ever been to a coffee shop where it took forever to place an order, an eternity to get your coffee, a lifetime for the wrong slice of cake and then, incredibly, you had to wait to pay them? I bet you didn’t go back!

That shop has lost your patronage and most probably that of your family, friends and colleagues. How many dollars per month does that add up to???

If the café had a better level of organisation at each step of the process, dollars could get attracted, not repelled. For example, the business will benefit hugely from an efficient ordering system and a physical space set up to suit its purpose.

Read on to find areas in your business which may benefit from being better organised.

Meetings

Whether it’s a Skype call or networking at the coffee shop, you’ll benefit most from an organised approach. Have a check list for each meeting.

• Do you really need to attend, or is it simply a ‘feel good’ meeting?
• What do you want to achieve? Have clarity about your purpose and your desired outcomes of the meeting.
• Know how long you are prepared to spend in the meeting.
• Ensure you have a reliable system for taking notes, and highlighting actions.?

Want more articles like this? Check out the processes section.

Customer follow up

You’ve heard it before: retaining a customer is far cheaper than attracting a new one. Here are some ways to help with client retention:

• Create a schedule of how many times per year you contact each type of customer. 
• Detail how you contact them and what you aim to gain from the contact. 
• Set up a reliable reminder system, so you don’t miss anyone.
• Don’t be put off by a perceived need for fancy systems, when simple tools like an Excel spreadsheet or Outlook calendar can be very effective.?

Email

Here are some basic strategies for being organised and taming the email beast. You may have heard them all before – that’s because they work!

• Do not let email control your day. Instead, handle email in blocks by scheduling set times throughout the day to read and respond to them…and stick to these times.
• Set up folders for emails on the same subject/project. In a perfect world this system will mirror the system you have for hardcopy documents.
• Dedicate 15 minutes at the end of each week to delete or archive actioned emails.
• Your Inbox should be for current projects or tasks waiting to be done and should ALWAYS have room for incoming mail.
• Separate business and personal emails, preferably with two different addresses.
• Repeat after me: “I do three jobs each morning before I open my email”. It’s a great way to start a productive day.

How many of the above tips are you currently implementing? Do you have any other tips for being organised that have worked for you? Share your experience below.