6 Tips to Help You Organize Your Business in 2017

Start off the new year on a positive note! Starting fresh with a new year ahead of you is always a great feeling. Many people make new years resolutions to help them plan for success in the year ahead. Why not make ORGANIZATION your resolution for this new year. Between working in our jobs, spending time with our families, and enjoying entertainment, we tend to try and fill our lives as full as we can with a wide variety of activities and commitments. Owning/operating a child care center demands a lot of time and effort, however the results are often very fulfilling. Child care centers are run by people who love children and take special satisfaction in being an important part of children’s lives in their most formative years. Taking the time to get organized requires commitment but it can save you a lot of headaches and extra work down the road. Here are six tips to help you organize your small business.

Become Cloud Based

Storing files on your computer hard-drive may seem like the best option, and it’s probably the most familiar to most users since that’s how it’s been done for years. However, great software options like Google Drive and Dropbox make it is easy to move your files to the cloud. Saving files to the cloud means that you’re storing them online instead of on your computer. Access to these files is secured by username and password, and since they’re online, you can access them from anywhere on any of your devices. You can also share the files securely with other colleagues or business associates.

If you store files on your computer hard-drive, you will need to manually back them up or else risk losing them if your computer crashes. However, storing information on the cloud means that your files are secure and you don’t have to worry about losing the information or needing to back it up yourself.

Manage Your Social Media

Social media has taken the world by storm. Recent studies show that there is are 2.3 billion active social media users as of 2016. This is over 30% of the population and it the number of users continues to grow every year. This means that it is important to have a social presence for your small business. It can be overwhelming to manage multiple social platforms and you will want to ensure that your audience receives all the great content you have for them. In order to manage your social media effectively, you will want to choose a social medial management software. There are many different options available, with Buffer and Hoot-suite being the most popular. Take a look at why we use Buffer to help manage our social media accounts.

Clean & Organize Files On Your Computer

This is no easy task but it is definitely worth it! Work your way through each section of your computer. Start by deleting any duplicated, outdated or unwanted files. Next, organize your files and folders by using existing folders and adding new folders if necessary. Find a system that’s intuitive and makes sense to you so that you can easily navigate through the files later to find what you need. This structure will also make it much easier to determine where and how to save new files in the future.

Tidy Up Your Inbox

If you’re guilty of having too many unread emails, it’s time to clean up your inbox. Spending time to go through your unread email will help you find any outstanding mail that still needs to be dealt with, and eliminate the rest that’s no longer useful to you. Email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo provide great new ways to help organize your inbox. Set up labels to help you organize incoming mail, and tag email that you may want to reference in the future. Finally, unsubscribe from companies who send email that’s not useful to you, which will make managing your mail much easier moving forward. You’ll be surprised at how much time you will save by cleaning up your inbox for the new year!

Organize your books

Accurate, detailed book-keeping is an integral part of running any business and operating a child care business is no different. It’s important to manage your cashflow by knowing where money is coming in and where it’s going. Sandbox Software will help you to keep an accurate record of all your invoices and payments, and create the reports that you need to manage this important aspect of your business. Accounting software such as Quickbooks or Freshbooks can help you track your expenses, and combined with your income detail from Sandbox, they will provide you with the reports and information that you need to manage the financials for your business.

Management Software

Child care management software like Sandbox Software can help you simplify the task of managing the administrative tasks at your child care center. There are many rules and regulations that child care centers must be compliant with. Typically there is a lot of paperwork and time required for manually tracking and putting together the information that you need to ensure compliance. Sandbox Software helps make it easy to track your family and staff information, track attendance, automate billing and communicate with parents. Using child care management software can help you be more organized in the new year, and save you time and money. Try Sandbox free for 30-days to see how we can benefit your center!

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