Benefits of Business Organization
Why should a business be organized?—by Jan Hayner
According to the Wall Street Journal, the average executive loses about six weeks per year or one hour per day of their time by having to retrieve information from messy desks and files. This is a lot of wasted money that could be affecting your profits. Do you know that disorganized employees that waste one hour per day costs a company about 12% of their salaries in a year's time?
That is some startling news for many business owners! Now, add to that disorganization as far as time management and workflow skills and you can see that businesses can lose a lot of money and not even realize it. When was the last time that you had a Professional Organizer evaluate your business?
Many business owners think that, since it is 'their' business, that they are the suitable person, to evaluate what their business is doing, right or wrong. This however, is not true. Someone that knows the techniques of organizing will come in and give a new perspective on your business. They look at all of the little corners of your business, the employees and how valuable they are to the company, the workflow, from the bottom line to the top and give you an honest evaluation.
Some statistics for the business owner to look at are;
Disorganization can cost,
For the $200,000, a year executive-disorganization can cost the equivalent of hiring an administrative assistant at the cost of $24,000 per year.
For a $75,000 a year executive-the cost of disorganization is more than $9000 per year
In addition, for a $25,000 member of the workforce, disorganization costs more than $3,000 for a year.
(Per-an organized approach-Business Organizing Solutions-2007)
Now if you take those same numbers ($25,000-$200,000 per year) and consider a business with 25 employees in that range, you have just cost your company an annual cost of $1.8 million every year.
A smaller company can lose money too. If there are 5 employees with a pay scale between $15,000 to $100, 00 a year the annual cost is approximately $159,000 a year.
That is including the time that you are wasting looking for something that is miss filed, lost, out of stock or is being used by someone else. This does not include repurchasing the supplies that are lost, the time it takes to do it, late fees on some items, postage, or the indirect costs, such as; tasks being delayed, work load changes, decision-making, etc.
An efficient business is run by executives and personal that makes every second of every day count and achieve their goals. Things run smoothly, the product is taken care of and the company makes money and the personal make bonuses. It is a win-win situation.
Let me give you an idea of most executives', problems;
They have a desk that is over run with papers and file cabinets that only their secretaries can find anything in. They misplace files, lose pens and pencils, have to be reminded of appointments and meetings and have clutter in almost every area of their office. They have tried setting up systems, had other people try to set up a workable system and all of these have failed. This is what happens, when your office is de-cluttered' and not 'organized', according to your work habits. You are cleaning up the clutter, but not changing the way that it got there.
If it were this simple, it would be great; however, this is only one-step in the process of organizing. It could be that you need to change a habit or routine that is causing difficulty and you just do not recognize it. It could mean that your office needs to be re-arranged for better workflow…It could be any number of things that you need to address to make everything run smooth and to save you more money that will be adding to your bottom line. Every business can become organized and cost effective by improving time management skills, eliminating clutter, organizing files, workflow organization using space wisely and eliminating stress in the workplace.
Can your business use more money for your bottom line? Can you find areas that you can save money? What improvements have you made in your business workflow lately?
Jan Hayner is a Professional Organizer that helps to find all of the hidden areas of waste while increasing easy workflow. Go to her site Organizing Your Life THE EASY WAY and look for more business organizing tips and hints.
