How to Use Organizational Tools to Organize, Streamline, and Grow Your Small Pet Business
One of the biggest struggles that we face as small pet business owners is the fact that we only have 24 hours in a day. Rumor has it that we’re also supposed to somehow fit sleep in there too!
All joking aside, learning how to streamline your work and reduce the time needed to keep your business not only running but continue to grow and thrive, is business magic. You can make it happen by effectively incorporating organizational tools into your daily routine.
What is an Organizational Tool?
If this is the first time you have heard about organizational tools, you may be wondering – what exactly is an organizational tool and where can you find organizational tools online? More importantly, what do these ‘magic tools’ do?
Organizational tools for business are physical tools, apps, and software that help small business owners like yourself organize your time, schedule, workspace (including your digital workspace), and the tasks that you need to complete. Doing this will help you to make the most of the time and effort you are putting into your business.
While we are focusing on business organizational tools in today’s article, many of the tools that we are mentioning can also be used to help structure and organize your personal life too!
How Can Organizational Tools Benefit Your Business?
Incorporating organizational tools into your daily routine can offer many great benefits both for you as well as for your business.
Eliminate Avoidable Mistakes
We make mistakes, after all, we’re all human. But many mistakes that occur in business are avoidable with a little planning and organization. This is especially true when you are working with a team or introducing a freelancer into the mix. Many of these organizational tools will help to improve communication between team members about the tasks as well as to clarify and itemize exactly what needs to be completed.
Boost Productivity and Save Time
As you likely already know, working more productively means that you can reduce the time needed to complete your tasks. This frees up time for your life outside of running your business, helping you to create a better work/life balance. These tools will help you to make sure that when you sit down to complete a task, you have everything that you need in one place.
Schedule Your Day
Scheduling and organizing your day is often seen as a given for small business owners, but many of us could improve upon how we do this. Just last year I was asked a question that had me questioning everything about my scheduling system. A fellow content marketer asked, “how can you schedule your day if you don’t know what exactly needs to be completed?” and now I’m asking you the same question. Using organizational tools will make it easier for you to see exactly what you need to do each day so that you can plan out your day accordingly.
Refresh Your Memory
Have you ever started working on something in your business only to realize that you completely forgot something important? If so, you’re not alone! One of the best benefits of small business organizational tools is that everything is documented. This means you won’t forget deadlines, key dates, events, or tasks that need to be completed.
7 Small Business Organizational Tools for Your Small Pet Business
Paper Planner or Calendar
Before we dig into online tools, there is one traditional approach that deserves mention. I can’t share a list of the best business organization tools without talking about the benefits of using a paper planner. Some business owners love computers, tech, and the digital lifestyle. But many small business owners prefer pen-and-paper lists and notes.
Writing down everything on post-its or random scraps of paper may help you get the information down, but it isn’t going to help much on the organizational front. Instead, all this information needs to come together in one central place. This could be a paper planner or even a basic calendar with enough room to write everything down.
Google Calendar
This is the closest digital tool to the traditional paper planner. Google Calendar makes it easy to track important dates like meetings and deadlines. This is also an easy way to sync your calendar with multiple team members to ensure that everyone is on the same page when planning events and availability for work-related tasks.
If you are going to use Google Calendar, I highly recommend syncing it with both your computer and your phone. This will allow you to have access to your schedule at any time, regardless of where you are or what you may be doing.
Google Drive
In addition to tracking dates and appointments, you should also consider the files and documents that you need to operate your business. By placing these files in a cloud-based storage solution like Google Drive, you ensure that your information is readily available on different devices and easily shared with team members and clients.
The key to using Google Drive effectively for your business is to ensure that there is some sort of organizational structure for your files. This means creating an easy-to-navigate folder structure with descriptive names and sub-folders.
Here at BlogPaws, we use Google Drive to organize our article briefs. In our “Briefs” folder, we have folders for “Pending”, “Current”, and “Complete” briefs. This makes it easy to see what stage of the planning, writing, and publishing process each brief is at. Each brief is then given a uniform name with the publish date, blog post title, and writer. This helps us to ensure that the whole team is on the same page.
Your Computer Desktop
Further building on the idea of an easy-to-navigate file structure, the same approach should be taken when it comes to organizing your computer desktop. One way that you can do this is by using a desktop wallpaper that provides blocks to organize your folders, documents, and shortcuts. These blocks may include “Important Files”, “Business Documents”, “Work in Progress”, “Personal Files”, or any other category that is important to your organizational efforts.
This is a tool that I rely on heavily. With it being October, this month’s wallpaper is Halloween-focused. Here’s the wallpaper I am using at the time of writing this:
Airtable
The BlogPaws team uses Airtable for many aspects of our business ranging from planning online livestreams to managing a detailed yet easy-to-navigate content catalog. The Airtable platform gives you the ability to track your business data in a spreadsheet-like layout with easily customizable rows and columns. You can also link between entries making it easy to track connections within your business. This is a feature that we use to track and manage internal linking.
If you are interested in seeing your tasks, posts, or other data in a calendar view, that is also a possibility. You can also add images and links within the spreadsheet to ensure that you have everything you need in one place. If you were to ask the BlogPaws team to name the best business organization tools, this one would make the list for every one of us!
Trello
This is one of the organizational tools that is loved by those who prefer a more visual approach. Trello uses a card-based approach to planning. Each task is placed on a card and the cards or tracked and organized in categories on a visual board. These cards contain all the important information you need for the tasks in question including text, photos, links, and more. You can also tag other teammates for easy collaboration.
A basic account is free with up to 10 boards and unlimited cards in the single workspace. If your business requires more than a free plan can provide, you can upgrade to Standard ($5/month), Premium ($10/month), or Enterprise ($17.50/month).
Evernote
When it comes to keeping notes and information written down, sometimes we just need a notebook. For those that prefer to keep their information digital, including those that are working as part of a team, Evernote is a great solution. Not only does this note app allow you to take notes that are easy to sort and locate, but it also syncs these notes across multiple devices.
This is great if ideas come to you while you’re on the go. If you have a brilliant idea for an Instagram reel while out shopping, document it in Evernote using your phone. When it comes time to spend a day and batch Instagram reel content, you will have all your ideas on hand. This same approach can be used for blog post ideas, Facebook posts, TikTok videos, and more.
What organizational tools do you use and enjoy in your business? We invite you to share your favorites in the comments!
About the Author: Britt Kascjak, BlogPaws Director of Content & SEO, is an award winning freelance writer whose background in digital and social media marketing spans 15+ years. She’s been a content creator in the pet industry for 9+ years with her own blogs: Shed Happens and The Kas Pack, where she shares her outdoor adventures with her 2 dogs and 2 cats. Read more…
