Congratulations! You own your own small business! Maybe it is tiny, but it is yours!

There are lots of us in the world, hustling and working every day of the week to make our little businesses succeed. It’s a lot of work and there are many ways to organize a small business and reduce some of our work.

This post will help if any of these are true:

1. you have only 1-2 employees at the moment and want to grow
2. your business process is disorganized
3. you are the only person who knows how to run your business
4. you are doing every task with little to no help
5. you could use technology to be more efficient

My first recommendation for growing your business to more than one person is to read The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, by Michael E. Gerber. It’s a classic book. You could also watch youtube video summaries or ingest the book however you prefer. Just make yourself familiar with the concepts he shares: running an entire business on your own is not sustainable, and how to break out of your solopreneur patterns.

• #protip: Use paper as needed to write check lists about what you are organizing (so if you get distracted you know where to pick up again).
• #protip: Set aside 30-60 minutes at a time to work on organizing this stuff. Set a timer and take mental breaks to minimize mistakes.

First write down on a piece of paper which aspects of your business you want to clean up and organize: calendar? documents? training materials? payment system? finances? marketing?

Next prioritize the list and start with the most important for you.

Long Term Goal – Create an Operations Manual

• Administrative – emails, data entry, appointment reminders, entering payroll, sending budget info to the bookkeeper.
• Social Media – posting regularly, answering comments, finding new connections on socials, commenting, following trends and relevant hashtags.
• Scheduling
• Marketing – writing blog posts, submitting articles, creating ads, attending neighborhood events.
• Bookkeeping 
• Training – actual training and organizing any training materials.
• Customer Service 
• Client Intake 
• Owner – everything else! including company events, performance reviews, public appearances, and emergencies of any kind.

How to start

Think of all of the basic admin tasks you do. Write those down in a document called “Admin tasks.” If you already have them written down, move them into the appropriate folder now. Look at you — organizing your business like a boss!

PS- I’m talking about electronic folders. Not manila folders. Paper is lovely, but paper is not efficient for multiple users, which you will soon have.

When a new client walks up, what do you say? What do they need to fill out? How to they pay? When do they pay? etc. etc. Write this process down in a checklist called “New Client Intake.”

What processes do you follow when someone pays? How do you keep track of who owes you money and who is paid up? Write these steps down in a checklist called “Accepting Payments” or “Bookkeeping.”

You get the idea. Keep going on this brain dump and put everything in the correct folder as you go. You’ll organize the documents inside the folders later.

Organize your small business technology

Use the search feature to find all related documents in all different places. This way you aren’t re-creating documents you already have.

The search bar is your best friend when it comes to organizing and finding your own documents.

Set up an electronic calendar if you haven’t already. This is essential! You can keep your paper agenda as well. But you have to be able to see your schedule any time and anywhere if you are a small business owner.

Use a phone app to scan your receipts as they come in. Store them in an electronic folder that syncs with your phone and computer labeled with the calendar year. (eg. 2024 GOA receipts) Now throw the paper receipts away! This adobe scanner app is free, and I use it every day.

Streamline repetitive tasks