Running a business is hard enough, it can cause a lot of pressure because you want to do everything you can to ensure you get all the success you want, as that is the end goal for any business. One thing that will make everything a lot harder, is mess. Just like how people having a messy home can give you a messy mind – your business does the same. The last thing you want is to go into the office, and have cluttered virtual systems that you have to dig through every single day in order to reach the documents you need, or the software required. It’s both frustrating and stressful because everything is double the amount of difficult, if not more. This is why having a big clean out is necessary, not only for your business, but for your own peace of mind.

One of the hardest struggles when owning a business, is learning how to deal with all of the ups and downs, because there will be an awful lot of them. It’s something that needs to be accepted rather early on so that you don’t constantly battle with disappointment. That in itself can take a toll on your positive spirit, especially if you’re stuck in a rut for a rather long time. It can be exasperating and you may feel as though there’s no getting out. But it’s all about positive thoughts and hard work. As long as you know that you’re doing your absolute best, then there is no reason that you should feel insecure in your abilities. Tell yourself that you will, and can, get through whatever gets thrown into your path. You have the skills, as well as a supportive team behind you, and that means you can do anything. The possibilities are endless.

So with that in mind, here are all the best ways to clean up your business and improve future operations to come.

Use Your Time Well

Get all of your team to keep track of how many hours they put into each task every day. Do this for a week, and then go over it all together at the end of that week. By doing this, you will be able to cut out any time spent doing things that don’t need to be done. Once everything has been analysed, you can find out better uses for the two hours that have been spent on waiting for a system to recover data that no longer has any impact on your business.

Underachieving Employees

Unfortunately, there may come a time where you realise that one or more of your employees just aren’t pulling their weight. They aren’t meeting their targets, their attitude isn’t a good one to be around, and they don’t make any kind of addition to the overall team. This is very disappointing, but it happens – true colours come out eventually and you get a real sense of an individual. Have a serious talk with them and tell them how let down you are and that they need to start improving. If after a week or so you still haven’t seen any positive change, it may be best for everyone if you let them go.

Unsubscribe from Unnecessary Accounts

When doing business, you will find yourself subscribing to a lot of various email updates, social accounts, and blogs. While you do this for valid reasons at the time, you may no longer need them anymore. So have a look through all the accounts that you are signed up to and unsubscribe, unfollow, and delete all the things that you don’t require to engage with anymore. This will not only clean things up, but will shine a light on the areas that are still of importance.

Audit Everyone’s Activity

Take some time out to examine exactly what you and all of your employees are doing each day. You want to keep an eye open for any inefficiencies that are a waste of time and have no positive effect on the job at hand. This is a brilliant way of accessing all the things you may do out of habit, but that have no value. By seeing these things, you can then pick off activities that are ineffective, and figure out a better way of meeting the daily tasks and weekly objectives.

Assess Neglected Areas

A lot of areas tend to get neglected in a business, and yet you won’t even be aware of them unless you actually delve deep to find them. So you should take some time out to specifically look for these things to see if there is a way of incorporating them better into your business. Or you may find that it’s just easier and generally more effective to get rid of them altogether if you’re not getting any results from keeping them around. There is nothing wrong with simplifying areas in order to strengthen them.

Professionalise the Email

You will be dealing with multiple emails every single day, whether it be from business partners, or customer enquiries. That is why it is so important you know how to properly communicate that is clear, professional, and of course, answers whatever questions are being asked. Having said that, one slight area that tends to get overlooked is how you sign the email off. There is nothing worse than a messy finish that lacks all the necessary information from the business, this is why professional email signatures are a must have, and fortunately, there are systems out there that ensure you have everything you need.

Keep it Paperless

If you still find yourself managing paper documents and having to store files in cabinets all around the office, then you’re living in the past. The world is a digital one now, so there’s no reason that you shouldn’t have everything stored onto a computer instead. This not only banishes all of the clutter in and around your office, but it’s a lot easier to manage it all when it’s only a click away. It can then be sent out to whomever you wish, saved, copied, downloaded, and of course, printed if need be.

Always Question the Process

One of the best ways to work as efficiently as possible, is to always question whether the process is the best one. Encourage all of your employees to do the same before making a decision in terms of your business. If you’re about to tackle a task that needs to be done and are looking for the best way to go about it, ask yourself “Is this the best way to do it?” This improves everyone’s productivity because they won’t jump into something without properly thinking it through first.

Update the Documents

As we move into a more modern era than ever, it’s important to keep up with the transition so that your business doesn’t risk falling behind. This means things like invoice templates and documentation categories are all updated so they don’t carry that 90s vibe any longer. You can do this by merely getting a modern version of the software you currently use. Or find a brand new system completely and start again. Just make sure everyone knows how to run it properly first so no silly mistakes are made.

Evaluate Everyone’s Role

It’s important to take a good look at all the roles you have within your business and the individuals that are filling them. This isn’t to fire people that you no longer need per se – it’s to identify responsibilities because you may just find a better need for a person in a different department, as they may be wasted in the one that they’re in now. There is no point keeping someone in a job that isn’t necessary to your business, because this is just a waste of valuable resources.

Cut out Unnecessary Meetings

While meetings are important to discuss various things in your business, a lot of the time you may be having them when it isn’t actually necessary. So remove these things from your calendar and opt for a phone call instead to get your point across if you can. Save the meetings for when you have a new project to talk about and need everyone’s thoughts and views so that you can do all that you can to better your idea. Don’t fill up your calendar unless you need to, there’s no need to overcomplicate things unless absolutely essential.

Have Backup Systems

One of the most traumatising things that can happen in a business, is the risk of losing all valuable data and documents because the system failed or crashed. This loses so much hard work and time that has been put in, and can cause you to miss out on business ventures as well as sales. The only way that you can avoid this is to make sure that you have backup systems so that if ever a problem does happen, you don’t have to worry about never seeing a file again. It will be stored no matter what.