As you work hard to expand your company, you must utilize the right organizational tools to support growth and scalability. Without organization, any company will be a chaotic workplace and deliver inconsistent products and services.
That is why we focus on organization here at Business Success Consulting Group. Our goal is to help business owners create a stable framework on which a business can grow.
Ten Organizational Tools to Implement Right Away
Organizational systems, procedures, and processes are there to help your company deliver consistency to clients, even as it grows exponentially. Additionally, these tools make life easier for your employees – and you!
Here are ten organizational tools you can implement immediately to improve company growth:
1. Business Processes
Processes provide an overview of what needs to be done. In a recent webinar, Business Success Consulting Group founder and CEO Adi Klevit described a process as a map. The process shows you how to get you from point a to point b.
Not only can a process work on a day-to-day level within your company, but you can also use a process to delineate how you will achieve a goal for which you have been reaching.
2. Business Procedures
Procedures take the overview provided by a process and break it down into steps. To continue the map analogy, these are your turn-by-turn directions.
Business procedures are essential training tools, but they are also crucial in a sole proprietorship or a small business. When something is laid out step-by-step, it can be replicated over and over again. This ensures that each customer gets the same, consistent quality and experience.
3. Company Policies
Many business owners think of establishing company policies only to avoid legal issues. So, they build out HR-related policies and some policies about product quality and leave it at that. However, policies can do more than protect a company against legal liability. They can also provide a foundation for company culture and be used as a launching off point for processes and procedures.
For example, a company policy at a southern-style restaurant may be that every customer must be greeted with a “how are y’all doing today?” This helps set the restaurant’s atmosphere and immediately creates a warm environment that can carry through to employees and staff.
4. Product Flow Charts
When you want to be sure a product or customer will move through your business with ease while still contacting all of the employees needed to ensure a final result, a flow chart is essential. Once you have established the ideal flow, it is essential to test it out and make adjustments within your organization to ensure the reality matches the chart.
5. Project Management System
Whether your team is working remotely or in the office, project management software can streamline tasks and make both the tasks and the deadlines visible to anyone who may need the information.
There are two ways you can look at a project management system.
The first is by software type. This would include programs like Asana, Monday.com, NetSuite, Hubspot, FreshBooks, and more.
The other is by project management methodology. Tech companies traditionally use these methodologies, but many can be used in a standard workplace. They include Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, Waterfall, and more.
Whichever way you choose to look at a project management system, it is vital that it works across your entire business and that you have implemented a way for all to use it.
6. A Way for Teams to Communicate
At this point, email has become an inefficient and unnecessary way to communicate within your company. Most businesses now use software like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Webex. Software applications that allow you to communicate quickly and collaborate on-the-fly are beneficial for any company that needs to cooperate rapidly about important projects.
7. Calendaring
Setting up a good, old-fashioned calendar and keeping it up-to-date is an incredibly effective organizational tool. Not only is calendaring a way to remember meetings, but you can also utilize calendaring to block off time for important tasks.
8. File-Sharing Standards
Many businesses have documentation, information, past sales, and more which is essentially lost among a morass of files.
Create standards so that every file can be saved and stored in the same way. That way, your team can find the files they need – and you can ensure all of the vital information about your business is backed-up and safe.
9. A Way to Track Key Metrics
Company owners and their employees need to have a feel for how the business is doing. The best way to understand any company’s growth trajectory is to establish key metrics and then keep track of them. This information is incredibly helpful during quarterly and yearly reviews and can even be used day-to-day to make improvements or resolve potential financial hardship before they happen.
10. To-Dos
The to-do list is a classic organizational tool. But that means it often falls by the way-side or gets used to overload an employee. Use to-dos to organize tasks that can be checked off a list – but don’t keep adding to the end of the list so that your day runs about 39 hours long. If there are additional to-dos, or your day has changed so that you won’t get to some of the items on your list, start a checklist for the next day or assign them to another person in your team. A to-do list should be dynamic, not static.
Are you ready to get your business organized but aren’t sure where to get started? Give Business Success Consulting Group a call! We will provide a free initial consultation to get you on the right path.
