Your resolution probably sounds more like, I’m going to do something this year to reduce my overhead and save some money. So, here is a very effective way to do just that: reduce that clutter of paper that covers your desk. Chances are you also have piles of paper on the file cabinets (which are too full to take any more), piles on the floor, and maybe stacks on the office chairs (stacks that must be moved whenever someone comes into your office).
So take these next few days and get rid of that paper. But how? you ask. This is important stuff! Really? Then why do you treat this important stuff so casually. This is what you will do:
- Try to figure out what you’ve got in those stacks. That is, just what are all of these pieces of paper? Correspondence? Contracts? Proposals that you’ve been meaning to finish?
- Think about how these pieces of paper would be filed, if you had actually filed them. What cabinet would you put them in, what would you write on the manila folder? What would you need to know (other than what stack they are in) to find the exact piece of paper?
- Get a scanner. Not to worry. Many are inexpensive and as easy, or easier to use, than your copier. Ah, yes, the copier. That’s the evil machine that created all of these stacks and cost you so much in copy paper.
- Get some software to help you file the scanned paper. Now you’re thinking that you have something new to learn. That’s not the problem. The problem is that you have to unlearn the bad habits that got you into this mess. Just like you have to unlearn leaving your dirty coffee cup in the break room.
- Now go through those stacks of paper and other clutter and file them just like you should have long ago. This time your file cabinet is right there on your desktop staring out from your computer.
- Now close the office door and start going through those stacks. Chances are much of that paper threatening to crush your desk can be discarded. No, don’t throw it out! Recycle it! The Earth will thank you.
- Scan the paper into your new software and index it so you can find it again. I can picture it now: you work your way through those stacks saying things like, Oh, here’s that invoice from the Jones Company. I was wondering what happened to that. Or maybe something like, Here’s that information for the Bennett Proposal. Hey, this is a good piece of business. You may also find the calendar from the Chinese take-out restaurant dated 2006, and the check to the IRS from 2005. No wonder they’ve been calling you.
- When you are done, open the office door and say to the world, I’m mean, lean, and open for business. Or words to that effect.
- Just keep this up during the year and you will find that you have reduced your office operating costs (you will be shocked to find out how much you have spent on copy paper), and your customers will be so pleased with the better service you are giving them that they will give you added business. This will really happen.
- What’s that you say? You don’t know how to do these things? Give us a call, or go to www.docxplore.com and we can help. The other New Year’s resolutions, like the one about cutting back on donuts, are entirely up to you.
Do you have copy writer for so good articles? If so please give me contacts, because this really rocks!