Throughout the month, we've talked about how getting organized can free up physical, electronic and mental space, and how it can free up time. And all of that is certainly great, but in this economy, it helps to have a more tangible motive for getting your office Sorted.
Oh, yes. This post is all about the Benjamins. (Does anyone say that anymore?) (And consider my re-use of last week's graphic as a gesture of economy and conservation.)
Here are just a few ways getting organized can save your business money:
1. Lowering or eliminating your rent: If you could clear all the paper, all the filing cabinets, all the reference guides, all the bookcases, all the stuff that you aren't using and don't need out of your office, how much space would you truly require? Could you get a smaller office? Could you maybe move your office into the guest room of your house?
2. Reducing your furniture: While getting rid of the unnecessary papers and flotsam, most folks discover that they only needed one or two file cabinets and a small bookcase instead of the four or five they had sitting around. If you lease your office furniture, that's an immediate savings. If you own office furniture, you could probably make a little extra change by selling what you no longer need.
3. Reducing need for supplies: When you can't find a particular item, the first impulse is to buy a replacement rather than invest the hours it would take to find the item in a disorganized office. Similarly, when you've filled one file box, usually the first impulse is to go out and buy another rather than going through the first box to see what can be discarded or moved off-site. That can add up. It's much more economical to know what you've got and where to find it.
4. Saving on electronic storage: If you've been putting off upgrading your computers (especially if you're reluctant to add hard disk space), you can continue to keep those purchases at bay by regularly backing up your files and streamlining your hard drive. Keeping about half of your computer's disk space empty also helps your processor work more smoothly, so you won't have to upgrade those just yet either.
5. Saving on time you could spend on billable activities: How many hours a week or a month do you spend looking for things? What about the time you spend re-creating or re-purchasing stuff you can't find? Multiply that by your billable rate, and brace yourself. Even if you don't currently have enough incoming work to bill those hours, that's time you could have spent marketing your business to create more billable hours.
One of my favorite things my mentor, Barbara Hemphill, has said is: Organization is not a luxury. Getting organized can not only improve how your business functions and how well you work, it can have an immediate, positive impact on the bottom line. Trust me: there's truly no return on disorganization.
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