Organization Tips for Your Paper Crafting Business
Marilyn Wagner
December 10, 2020
- When you are organized and prepared you save time and money. Just 1 hour a day searching for shoes, keys, paper, etc. equals 6 weeks a year of wasted time – wow, that sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?
- When you are organized and prepared you look forward to working and feel better about yourself. It’s a great feeling to cross an item off your “to do list”.
- Don’t fill your life with things you want to do
- (eg. yarn for that knitting project you never started) –
- Do fill your life with things you like to do
- (eg. walk in the sunshine, visit with a friend).
Before setting up your office in your home
- Have a clear understanding with family members:
- Set guidelines – hours to be spent in your office
- Support – when you will need someone’s help
- Interruptions – who is going to deal with them? (eg., making meals or taking care of household items while you work on your business)
- Cost – have a clear understanding of the costs. (eg., equipment, time, money)
- Benefits – income tax, time, profits, satisfaction
- Revisit and evaluate each of these items every few months and adjust as needed
Create an office
- Lighting
- If your room is dark, you’ll need extra lighting
- If your room is bright, you’ll need curtains/blinds so you can see the computer screen
- Workspace
- Desk – L-shaped works well to have different areas for different items
- Use vertical space as well as horizontal space – baskets, shelves, bins, containers/drawers for pencils, papers, scissors
- A filing cabinet beside your desk – lockable if confidential information will be stored inside
- Divide files into actionable items vs research items
- Don’t keep items that will go out of date quickly or that you can locate on the internet
- Sample book or display board of your cards
- Information book
- What goes together in a hostess package, customer package, recruit kit
- Where your order forms are kept
- Important contacts
- Proper electrical facilities
- Remove all extension cords & items causing hazards
- Ergonomics
- Have a proper chair for the desk/table you use
- Plan to deal with your office space daily
- Build clean up & get organized into your schedule
- For example – commit to spending 3 hours a day on your business would mean spending 2-3/4 hours making calls, searching for designs, etc. and 15 minutes cleaning up & getting organized for the next day.
- Evaluate continually – at least once every 3 months
Plan & Organize Your Day
- To achieve the goals you’ve set, you need:
- Structure – a tool used for putting order into your life
- Routines – habit/schedules
- Needs to be personalized – what works for you!
- Agenda – lets you prioritize your activities
- If it doesn’t fit with your agenda, it shouldn’t be a priority
- Keeps you focused and helps you say “no”
- Lists
- Have 2 lists – Master and Daily
- Master List – has ALL your tasks for home & business
- Use ONE calendar for all lists – digital or paper – whatever works for YOU
- Use Reminders/Tasks to store “future” info/files
- Daily List
- Absolutely MUST do today
- Make it doable – it feels good to check it off!
- Group errands/tasks together (eg: phone calls, paperwork, design work)
- Plan for something to come up – don’t book appointments “back-to-back” so you can deal with interruptions/delays
- Involvement with activities should be aligned with your agenda
- Attitude
- Surround yourself with things that make you smile
- Approach ALL your tasks with passion
- Managing Paper
- Problems start when the paper doesn’t have a home
- Use a basket on your desk to keep everything in one place – each family member should have their own
- Handle paper daily
- Give bills a home
- Schedule time to read items from the “read” pile
- Clip, file, recycle – handle only ONCE
- Don’t print everything – store on your computer organized in a system that works for you so you can find them when needed
- Have a binder where all your papers get filed – usually per year so they’re easy to locate for income tax purposes
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