Keeping Your Home Business Organized

By Dustin Cannon

One of the biggest priorities when setting up own home-based business is to be organized. Here are five tips for keeping your home business organized and yourself sane.

Before you do anything, have a plan.

Don't head off to an office warehouse store before you make a list of everything you're going to need. Approach this initial shopping trip as you did when you were developing your business plan. Be methodical, thorough, and economical. The more money you spend putting your office together, the less profit you're going to get, so it is vital you not overspend or buy items you really don't need---or forget those you do. If you plan, you won't be tempted to buy that desk that you later find out won't fit in the space you want for it. Have a designated office space.

This is not possible for everyone, but if you can possibly turn your guest room or an unused corner of your apartment or house into an office, do so. It's your office. It's not where you fold laundry, put together you son's T-ball roster, or where you watch television. If you have a designated officer space where no other activities are conducted, it will be easier to avoid outside clutter. It's difficult enough to keep an office organized without pushing aside your kid's homework or latest school project.

Label Everything.
Invest in one of those label makers and stick labels on everything. Making a label for every shelf, every folder, every item in your office forces you to become organized. You can pick up a label maker for as little as $20 (the DYMO LetraTag Personal Label Maker) or go for a deluxe version for $80 (the Brother QL-570 Professional Label Printer). Labels won't force you to put things where they belong, but if you take the time to make a label, you're more likely to put something where it belongs.

Buy more shelves than you think you'll ever need.

Shelves are the best way to organize an office. Don't forget to label them, either (see above). Shelving is, perhaps the biggest organizational tool in your office. Shelves are where you will stick things you're working on, things you're not quite done with, things you think you might need (but probably won't). Shelves are where you should put things before they end up in your filing cabinet. Basic shelving is fairly inexpensive and is one of those things most people can install themselves. It will run you about $10 for RubberMaid mesh shelving, with prices going up from there.

Know how you think.

This is important, because if you have a significant other helping you out, they may sabotage your efforts to become more organized. Someone else's idea of being organized is not your idea. As long as follow your wacky filing system, it doesn't really matter if it's unconventional. If you try to turn your Type B personality in to Type A organized office, it likely will only prove to make you frustrated, and...unorganized.

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