Business Transitions to Mobile Service: Part 2

Step one of organizing your home office involves starting at the foundation level and organizing from the ground up. Usually, this means you have to start with the disorganized paperwork and filing systems creating a mess. Once you’ve gotten a filing system in place, you can work to make your space functional and beautiful. In part two of Vicki’s recent organizing segment on More Good Day Oregon, she shares office organization tips from her project to help all of us create systems that work.

You need a system! All business owners need systems. Incoming stuff, outgoing stuff, projects – all of these are elements every business owner has to deal with, and putting systems in place allows you to manage them as they happen. There are general system guidelines that are good to follow, but ultimately you need to create a unique system that works well for your business and needs.Takeaway: Get busy creating a functional system for your business!

Filing + archiving = happy paperwork. Not only do you need a good filing system in place, but you need a good archiving system for papers you have to store long-term. Most commonly, this will be your tax paperwork. Vicki recommends creating a box for each year with folders for statements, expenses, income, and any other tax-related paperwork. It’s important to keep this box handy so you can easily add to it!Takeaway: Make sure to have a system for archiving important paperwork you need to keep for longer periods of time.

Create an adequate and realistic workspace. As you put these office organization tips into action, it’s important you realistically assess what your needs are so you can make sure your home office meets those needs. In Vicki’s recent project, the business owners needed more desk space to spread out their projects. Their office at first didn’t have enough room, so they added another table to accommodate.Takeaway: Assess what your home office space needs to do for you, and brainstorm ways to add those functions to your room.

Shop your house before going to the store. In the example above, the home office already had one folding table in it. On looking around the house, Vicki discovered an identical table in the kitchen serving as the dining room table. This table was relocated to the office. Most of us have plenty of extra “stuff” laying around our house we can repurpose and use in our organizing projects.Takeaway: Before you spend money buying new shelves or bookcases, one of Vicki’s favorite office organization tips is to look around your house, garage, and attic and see what you might already have!

Represent your business identity. Through the process of organizing the home office, Vicki discovered her clients were not only a Physical Therapy company, but also a wellness company offering a line of detoxification products. Vicki found a hutch to house these products, highlighting that aspect of their business and making it easier to grab products on the way out the door.Takeaway: Does your office represent all aspects of your business? Find ways to represent and make room for everything your company does in your office.

Get creative with your space. One of Vicki’s favorite parts of organizing is being imaginative with a space. This most recent project allowed her and her clients to really customize the home office in a unique way by creating a reading nook in a cubby above the closet. It is not only a tucked away corner to enjoy a good book, but serves a double purpose in contributing to the overall purpose of the clients’ business to bring rest, wellness, and peace to their patients.Takeaway: Think outside the box and make room for fun, creative spaces that will add to how you enjoy and use your home office.

Following these home office organization tips, you can turn your office from ordinary to amazing. Watch the rest of the More Good Day Oregon segment about this amazing home office makeover here!

Business Transitions to Mobile Service: Part 2 – Being Creative with Your Space