Aiming to increase your client base this year? Want to skyrocket turnover, double cash flow and have your most profitable year ever?
There's a surefire way to achieve this - Get Organised! Sound too simple?

Then consider these statistics:
According to research:

• 59% of middle managers cannot locate important information within their organisation
• 5% of all paper handled in businesses is lost
• 30 % of all employees' time is spent trying to find lost documents.
  On a wage of $40,000 this is costing the business $12,000 pa in lost wages.
• Managers waste six weeks per year searching for lost documents.
  This equals 5 hours per week. On a wage of $60,000 pa, this is costing the business close to $8,000 pa per manager.

Being organised will save you money, not to mention time, energy and space. This applies to all business types from sole trader to large corporations. For maximum profit, assess workflow in detail and don't overlook the small things. Subject your business to regular ‘organisation audits' to ensure maximum efficiency and profit is being achieved. To start with, how does your business fare with the following:

Physical work space
Effective work flow is crucial for efficiency. Can all staff easily and safely access the documents/tools they use regularly? Documents/tools entering a business have a life cycle: entry, action, file (or not) and exit. Is there an appropriate place for every item at each point in its' life cycle?

Meetings
Allocate an effective Chair to facilitate meetings. Always create an agenda for meetings with timeframes for each item. Distribute the agenda 12-24 hours prior to the meeting and stick to it!

Filing
Appropriate systems for both hard copy and electronic files are imperative to any business. If you or your staff cannot locate any document within 90 seconds - you need to revise your system.

Communication
Schedule blocks of time for phone calls, faxes and emails. Without designated times these basic communication tasks will chew up your whole day. Make sure YOU are running your business - Not the other way around.

Published in The Cairns Post Business Section, 30 January, 2008