Whilst decluttering our homes is a fairly standard thing in Spring, our businesses often get overlooked. So let’s see what we can do to clear some mess in our businesses.
Some messes are obvious but some might be more hidden. Let’s take a look at some tips to clear some of these up.
There’s the obvious side of what you should tidy up; ones that are staring you in the face. That pile of paperwork in the corner. The overflowing shelves of stock. Packaging from materials that you haven’t got round to recycling yet. Some of these are quick wins that you can sort straight away. Take the rubbish to the bin!! (I’m talking to myself here too, as I stare at a pile of envelopes that I really need to chuck!)
Other aspects might not be so obvious. Do you follow processes that are being slowed down by something? Are your emails becoming overwhelming? Are your finances in a mess? These are equally important places to clear out clutter and are often overlooked. We’ll take a more in-depth look at these further below.
It can seem like a massive task to start clearing things out. But it doesn’t have to be. Break it down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Instead of aiming to clean the whole floor, start with one corner. Or instead of trying to sort all of your stock, start with one product line. Look for ways to make this as easy as possible for yourself.
Once you’ve chosen the task you’re doing, you can start sorting things. A good question to ask yourself is, “Do I need this anymore?”. Are you still using it in your business? If not, could it be sold or donated? If you’re not using it and you can’t sell or donate it, then throw it away!
Paperwork is a great way to clear some space easily. For a self-employed business owner, HMRC state you must keep your paperwork for 5 years following the 31st January tax return deadline. So for the 24-25 tax year, if you submit by 31st January 2026, you need to keep that paperwork till 31st January 2031. So you could have receipts from 2024 that you’ll need to keep for 7 years. As a safe bet, most paperwork over 8 years old can be thrown (shredded if it’s confidential or has names and addresses on). Even better, get yourself some accounting software and then all your paperwork can be kept digitally. No more paper forts in your office!
For items that you need to keep around the office, prioritise having the items you use every day to hand. Other items, group them in a logical way to make them easier to find. You could put all your stationery together. Or put your most recent receipts in the front of a folder. You could also get some more storage, like baskets or a cupboard. Just make sure you label them clearly and don’t fill them with rubbish!
I find that if my office looks nice, then I’m more inclined to keep it that way. So once everywhere has been decluttered, you might want to consider a refresh. Always start with a good dusting and a hoover! And then you could go big and repaint the walls, replace old furniture and do a whole top to bottom revamp.
Or you could go smaller and just change the colour scheme of a few items. I like things to match, so I might get some baskets that are all the same colour. Or ones that are all pastel colours. And if you can’t afford to get some different items, there are simple things you can do to make things look nicer. Such as putting things into order. Like arranging books by size, or lining up things so they’re neater.
I find it works wonders in your business when the environment you’re working in is somewhere you look forward to going.
Too many business owners have their financials all over the place. Receipts stored in pockets, personal bank accounts used, invoices a mess. It’s a recurring nightmare for me! Let’s stop the madness right now!
Part of your spring cleaning should be a time to step back and look at your finances. Use this time to look at the products and services you are paying for. Do you still need them? Are there subscriptions you no longer use? It’s very easy to forget you’re paying for something, especially as your business grows. Can you find things cheaper elsewhere? Now’s the time to look and see if you can find anything better out there.
Don’t forget to also look at your sales. Are there any late payments you can chase in? This is key to your cash flow. Consider setting up automatic chasers to give you one less thing to do. Could you look at new opportunities to sell your items? Consider both online and offline here. Are there new selling platforms you could try out? Conversely, are there any selling platforms that are no longer working for you? These are all little steps to help you maximise your sales and minimise your expenditure.
If you’re not already using bookkeeping software, start. It is designed to help you organise your finances. It also means you can ditch the paperwork, as you can upload everything digitally. I bet you wouldn’t be surrounded by clutter if you did that…. Well, maybe slightly less anyway!
Whether you’re using software or not, here are some practical tips to help:
The best time to do a spring clean is when your business is going through a quiet period. Typically, this is in the spring for a lot of businesses. For the sole traders out there, spring is the start of a new financial year. So if you can get your business and finances sorted now, you’ll start the year ahead in a great position.
And that’s without me even mentioning your self-assessment tax return! Just imagine getting your business and finances all sorted now and then submitting your return straight away. No more waiting till the last minute. Panic is gone. You know exactly how much tax to pay and you have 9 months to save up for it. All because you scrubbed your business and finances and got sorted at the beginning of the year.
But whenever you are reading this, now is better than never!
In case it wasn’t obvious, I love a bit of organisation! And particularly if it involves the admin side of things. I find that much easier to sort than physical items. But if you don’t enjoy that, take a look below for some help.
As I mentioned earlier, HMRC states that you need to keep paperwork for 7 years. So anything older than 8 years can be chucked immediately (shred it if it’s confidential). For everything you need to keep, take a look at how you’re storing it. Is it still working for you? If it’s physical paperwork, is it all just thrown in a heap? Or have you arranged it by year or supplier? Or even better, by both? It needs to be in a logical order for you to find things easily, or there’s no point in keeping it. So figure out what way works best for you and get cracking.
If it’s digital paperwork, you can still put it in a logical order. If it’s documents that you’ve downloaded, the easiest way is to create a folder on your laptop for the year. Then, inside that folder, have more folders for the different suppliers or customers. If it’s emailed documents, you can do the same thing. Just create subfolders within folders and move your emails into the correct ones. And if you want to make things really easy for your accountant or bookkeeper, then use dedicated receipt software. There are standalone products such as Dext or Apron. There are also products linked to your bookkeeping software, such as Hubdoc with Xero.
Often overlooked, there are many different ways to manage all the emails we get every day. Like with your filing system, you can create folders and move your emails over there. But please only keep things that you actually need! Otherwise, you’re going to end up with overflowing folders too! A good tip for your main inbox is to set a target number of emails to keep under. For me, it’s 50 as that’s the amount that fits on one page. When it goes over that amount, I schedule some time to go through them. I get rid of any I don’t need anymore and file the rest away.
Another tip to handle the emails is to only open it if you can deal with it there and then. If you’ve only got a minute spare, leave it for another time. You can even get apps that will resend the email to you at another time. This clears it out of your view and brainspace until you’re able to deal with it. Boomerang is one that I know of but haven’t tried myself yet.
One thing that we all need to do is hit the unsubscribe button more! Every email newsletter you receive should have an unsubscribe button at the bottom. If you’re constantly deleting messages and never actually reading them, unsubscribe!
FYI, all these tasks are perfect for a virtual assistant to help with. If you’re looking to get one, I can highly recommend Virtual Bird. She’s amazing!
It’s all very well tidying everything, but you need to keep on top of it. If you don’t, you’ll end up right back where you started. The first thing to do is put a recurring event in your calendar to have a clean and sort session. Make it a high priority so whatever happens, it still gets done. Little and often can keep things from becoming overwhelming.
The next thing is to try to get into the habit of opening something and dealing with it straight away. Whether it’s an email, a letter, a new shipment of stock, etc. If you’ve opened it, sort it. Go through the contents, throw away the packaging, file the paperwork, put things where they’re supposed to be, etc. If you’ve already sorted everything previously, then everything should have a place to go to. If it’s something new, then make a place for it.
And my most important tip is to accept that things will get messy again. You’re not perfect, none of us are! Things get on top of us and tasks get pushed to the side. So just do what you can and celebrate the small wins. Even if it’s just unsubscribing from one email. Or filing one piece of paperwork. It’s all a step in the right direction!
Ell Evan Bookkeeping are not Tax Advisors and so our advice and suggestions on the application of tax rules cannot be construed as tax advice.
