One of our biggest secrets here at AOS is organization. Whether it is your own small business or personal endeavors establish a system that works for you. The more you have your priorities in order as well as your paperwork, the easier tracking will be. Good luck trying to find that receipt to remember why you spent 45 extra bucks at Staples when you can't even find your keys.
Keep your paperwork, receipts and other important "things" organized. You know that junk drawer we all have? Yeah, even that, take out the scraps and see where they belong. If the best you can do is have controlled chaos, cheers to you my friend. Have a desk full and don't know where to start? To tackle that pile of paper, start sorting! Stacks with a common denominator are a lot easier to go through than a mess of who knows what. Start small, sort, then organize, making sure you keep the important and setting aside the others for a rainy day.
Along the lines of sorting --word to the wise, keep your accounts separated. Whether you have a bookkeeper, CPA, family friend, or decided to brave your company's expenses on your own, KEEP YOUR ACCOUNTS SEPARATE! Obviously if you're part of a large company this isn't even an option. You would be surprised how many small businesses, fresh entrepreneurs and even untrained employees can mix up accounts when numbers go flying across a screen. The easiest mistakes to make typically result in the hardest, most time-consuming mistakes to fix. The last thing you need is to pay your company's invoice with your checking account or personal credit card. When it comes time to reconcile those accounts is when you discover those incorrect credits and are forced to backtrack invoices, receipts and account numbers. Hours of unneeded work, sound fun? Didn't think so. So for the sake of emphasis, oil equals personal and water equals business....I think you understand
Like I said, the basics. Simple, but true. If you think about what's logical and what really works,you just need to figure out your own way of how to get there. Just like time management to each his own. What works for you most definitely won't work for everyone else. Try making lists, attempt categorized piles, write your thoughts on a notepad, schedule your time out. Most of all, do what gives you success, that's our real secret.
