Gary Harouff Office Management Blog

By David Faulkner

One of the greatest appeals of working at home, for those who are considering leaving their nine-to-five careers to start doing it, is the idea of working from a small business home office. Having a small business home office in which you are the boss, and decide when to check in, in your pajamas if you please, and when to break for lunch–all the way down the hall or stairs to the kitchen–seems almost too wonderful to believe.

But if you do take the plunge, your small business home office will become as familiar to you as back of your hands, of which you will also be seeing plenty while pounding away at your keyboard. And as you become more acquainted with your small business home office, you will begin to notice its shortcomings.

You put a great deal of thought into the layout of your small business home office, but what looks great on paper does not always translate as intended into three dimensions. Two of the obstacles with which you will have to contend as a home business operator are a loss of focus and lack of organization. Staying organized seems to be the real challenge.

A home business will demand that you keep track of countless passwords, documents—both hard copies and computer files–and financial records. Nothing will get away from you faster than paperwork; and if you start falling behind on orders or payments you will be looking at a disaster. While you’re trying to get caught up on one project, another one will be slipping away.

Your small business home office should have everything necessary to help you stay current with all your accounts. Prepare your next day’s to-do list right before you close down each evening, and stick it on your monitor screen. Get into the habit of completing one project or filling one order before beginning the next.

If your small business home office needs more space for files, or a bigger computer desk so that you can keep everything you need handy, spring for them. And take advantage of the many amazing free online resources which provide all sorts of home business advice; both the Office Depot and HP Home and Home Office Store offer online workshops about various business topics on a weekly basis.

By Dianne Iolo

Office organization is highly important, as it increases work productivity and efficiency. If your office is a mess and you feel helpless and lost amongst the clutter, then here are some organization tips to help you.

Make sure that all of your paper is together in one area. If you have important records and documents scattered about in different rooms, gather them all together and keep them in one room.

Once you have them all together, separate them all into piles. You can separate them however you wish-alphabetically, geographically, numerical, chronologically, etc. Once you have them all separated neatly into piles, put each set inside of a folder. Keep the folders inside a storage unit near your desk.

Reduce clutter by opening all of your mail over the trash bin. Make sure you throw the useless envelopes and files away. If they have important information on them, you may also want to run them through a shredder.

Only keep your current work on your desk. Make sure that old and/or unimportant files don’t get in your way. Keep them stored nearby.

Spend at least fifteen minutes at the end of your day by making sure your desk is in order. By doing this, you will be making things easy on yourself for when you begin work the next morning.

It’s very important that you use these office organization tips every day. In doing so, you’ll be creating a neater workplace, and you will save a lot of time and energy in the long run. Investing in office folders and file cabinets is a must if you really want to clean your office up. It’s also important that you keep track of where you keep all of your files, as you never know when you might need them. Keep your most frequently used files close at hand at all times.