Retail moves fast, and to keep up with the pace, you should always know your KPIs:
- Stock on hand, in transit, on order
- Sales
- Financials- recurring costs, upcoming bills, outstanding invoices
- Profit
- Marketing analytics
- Key trading dates
A lot of critical information needs to be easily accessible to you, and as most of your key documents and files will be digital, organisation is essential. You cannot afford to have multiple versions of a working document, forget to file away an invoice or miss a tax bill; those mistakes cost money and take time to rectify.
Once a month, I do what I call a quick-fire digital declutter. I spend an hour filing away papers, tidying my desk, transferring ideas I’ve scribbled on Post Its to my Notes app and organising my digital space. It instantly makes me feel more organised and confident that my ways of working are supporting my business success.
Here is my 3 step digital declutter method:
STEP 1- DELETE
Clearing your digital space will free up storage and make it easier for you to access the information you need.
- Delete old files, templates and drafts that you no longer need on your laptop, PC, cloud storage and on other platforms you use (Canva, WordPress, Teams etc). This will prevent you and your team using an old version by mistake. If you think you might need a file later, create an “Archive” folder and store it there, just in case.
- How many times do you download an app and then decide it isn’t for you? Take this time to delete any apps you don’t use, and put timers on ones that distract you.
STEP 2- ASSESS
Now that you have cleared the clutter, it’s time to critically assess what’s left over.
- Are the documents you have working for you? Do they serve a purpose? If they need changing, do it now.
- It’s good practice to have naming conventions for files and folders so that they are automatically sorted. For example, within your product images folder, you could start each photo with the product code followed by a standard short description.
- Are you using Excel to record your stock and sales? You should update the data regularly and check that links and formulas are working so that your numbers are accurate enough to support decision making.
- Are you using software, ie Inventory Planner, Shopify or similar, for your stock and sales data? Can you see your KPIs clearly? The aim is to see what you need at a glance, whenever you need it, so play around with the settings and customisable views until you’re happy. This will save you time (and frustration) every day.
STEP 3- REORGANISE
Ask yourself what you can do better.
- How can you organise your digital space better? Is there a new filing system you can create to make it easier for you and your team to find the right documents?
- Is there a template you could use for social media posts?
- How can you better organise your cloud storage?
- Should you have a rule that all new documents should be saved in a folder, and not on your desktop?
- Would regular time- planning sessions help you save time? I spend the last 5 minutes of each day assessing how it went, and the first 10 minutes at my desk each morning planning for the day ahead. These 15 minutes are intentional and well spent, freeing up brain space throughout the day, stopping me losing my focus.
*BONUS TIPS*
* Create a clear system in your business that’s easy to stick to and doesn’t take time out of your day to maintain.
* Create a filing system that everyone understands and draft templates that standardise content.
* Most importantly, organise your business so that it works in tandem with your way of working.