When working from home, you may find yourself getting overwhelmed by all of the paperwork and all of the responsibility that comes along with being a business owner. You try to keep your work separated from your family, but sometimes you’ll find that you get your personal paperwork mixed up with your work stuff. The following are some simple ways you can organize your home-based business.
Designated Work Space – The first step in organizing your home-based business is to have a space designated for your work space. Ideally, this area should be for your work alone, like a small study or desk/nook as a workstation.
On a budget? Even if you cannot spare a bedroom, you can stake a claim to the kitchen table from, say 7-9 PM, it will help you maintain focus and stay in work mode by encouraging others to stay out of your “office” during that time. Strive to keep your business items and paperwork separate from anything to do with your household paperwork or tasks.
Filing Cabinet – When you have a business in your home, a filing cabinet is an absolute necessity. You will want to make sure you have space to set up files on your customers, your team, and any other businesses you deal with. It is very important, however, to only keep items from your business in this filing cabinet. If you need a space to file personal or household paperwork, use another filing cabinet and keep it separate from your work area. Pay particular attention to have a specific space for all your your business-related receipts.
On a budget? My first Avon filing cabinet was an empty Avon box with two file folders: one for invoices from Avon and one for copies of my customer’s invoices; a mini stapler; highliters, pens; and, a small index box to keep receipts in. I stored all of this in my large Avon box filing cabinet which I lovingly referred to as my “business in a box.”
Take Advantage of Your Weboffice – Avon has developed their own system just for their independent representatives. The key is to make sure you know your way around the entire weboffice at youravon.com and that you actually utilize all of the wonderful business tools that Avon has set up to make your life easier. Once you are familiar with all that Avon has to offer, you will find you won’t be struggling to find the information or tools you need.
On a budget? That’s okay! Avon’s online weboffice and business tools are absolutely FREE.
Micki Allen 