Are You Organized?

When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be a "fireman". Little did I know that when I became a business owner and entrepreneur that I would spend the majority of my time fighting fires. If you operate your own business, more than likely, you can relate to this. Let's face it, running a business is NOT easy and it requires skills that many of us do not possess naturally.

At the heart of feeling unorganized is usually a lack of systems within your business. No matter how sophisticated a business owner you may be, invariably you are ‘winging it' in some area(s) of your business. You may have a well-oiled machine in your back office but when it comes to marketing and sales, you are just going through the motions or vice versa.

Larry Burkett once said, "In business, organization is an absolute necessity, not an alternative."

Every area of your business needs a system – marketing, sales, human resources, customer service, inventory, operations, leadership, financial, etc.

As a business coach, I spend much of my time helping my clients develop systems, which typically results in them being more organized and taking a more deliberate approach to running their business and less ‘shooting from the hip'.

How many of you can answer the following questions in the affirmative?

* I feel in control of my time.
* If I was absent from the business for six months, the business would continue to grow.
* I have an Operations Manual.
* I never forget to follow up with a prospect or customer.
* I have identified all tasks in the business that could be handled routinely by systems.

Discussion:

"I just want to get organized!" is a consistent mantra that I hear from my coaching clients and prospects. This means different things to each individual but the cry for help is clear, "HELP me get my act together!".

This can be as simple as developing some time management skills or as complicated as analyzing and drawing conclusions from their financial statements. Building systems within your business is key to getting organized and is not necessarily complicated. I am referring to the development of processes that you apply consistently to the same situation over and over again. It could be something as simple as how the phone is answered, the use of a contact management system or as complicated as implementing a new computer system.

Possible solutions:

Make the commitment to get organized, build systems and stop winging it!
Identify those areas of your business where you feel most vulnerable to mistakes. What activities do you dread? What part of the business gives you a sinking feeling in your stomach? What activities do you procrastinate the most?
Below are some tangible steps you can take:

* Delegate to someone on your team.
* Hire help – administrative, bookkeeper, sales and marketing, virtual assistant.
* Hire a business coach.
* Create an Operations Manual.
* Document your systems and processes.
* Develop functional organization charts.