How To Stay Organized In The Chaos of Your Business Pt. 2

As entrepreneurs we often feel disorganized and as our business progresses, it becomes harder to keep track of what you’ve done, what you’re doing now, and what you should be doing. You know that it would great to be tracking and reporting on all of the activities of the company, but with all we are working on, we can’t take the time to track every task and every project. So we think – when we get bigger, we will put in place all the tools to be more efficient.

“Once you are aware of these tools and their advantages, take some time to find the ones that seem best suited to your needs.” 

Once you are aware of these tools and their advantages, take some time to find the ones that seem best suited to your needs. Many of these tools are available online and are free (or very low cost) and allow multiple people in your company to access them at an appropriate level of authorization. You may not need all of them, but they will help you create order.

Project and Task Management Tools. New ventures lack administrative support positions. Tracking to-dos, plans, and larger initiatives is time consuming. Online project management tools help organize your company and its tasks. They create a single, central source for all company activity. In addition, team members can dialogue and store all conversations in one place. To this end, set up a folder for each department (e.g., Marketing) and for other major projects and initiatives (e.g., New York City Launch Event). You will likely have multiple projects under each functional area. Get disciplined in your use of these tools. When a new initiative or project is commenced, set it up in the application. Populate these tools while you are in meetings. Use the tools to post meeting agendas, weekly reports and updates.

Simple Task Tools. For simple to-do list items, there are free applications that keep track of tasks you must accomplish. Look at Google Keep, Wunderlist, Todoist and Habit RPG. You can also use the task management tools in your email program such as Microsoft Outlook. These tools allow you to track tasks and to assign tasks to other team members. Pick one and get disciplined about keeping all your to-dos in one place. The use of these tools may seem overly tactical, but they create efficiency and put time back in your day.

Accounting Package. You may be spending time creating invoices, tracking expenses and trying to keep track of money with individual spreadsheets. Online small business accounting packages are efficient at managing the basic financial elements of the business including creating invoices, purchase orders, and keeping track of customers, employees and vendors. Also, if you track all financial activity in the package, you can produce the standard financial statements (i.e., income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) with the press of a button.

Sales Pipeline/CRM Package. Online customer relationship management (CRM) tools allow you to keep track all sales opportunities and their size, stage, and likelihood to close. While primarily designed for sales, this can also be used to track potential investor opportunities.

Document Management. You generate documents as your business evolves. Use an online document management tool that allows you to house all documents. Set up a section for each department and other major area of the company. This tool can also be used for your “data room” to manage your investment process. If you set up this central repository early on, you will not have to take extra effort to prepare your data room for investment materials.