Dani Lousie Smith, The Queen of business Organisation, planning out her diary.

I’m going to talk you through 10 ways to get organised with your business.

I planned these carefully, in no particular order, for you to take what you need and implement. Do make time in your diary to go and act on these as they will help your business management.

Before I begin, let me share with you how I came to be so organised within business. It stemmed from running businesses for 11 years and the first year I wasn’t organised at all. I wasn't earning money consistently and whilst I was learning and implementing things, my business blew up in my sixth year. It was great that I was finally earning money, but then it became quite a challenge to manage. Making products, planning, marketing, dealing with customers etc, was overwhelming on my own. In my business now I have a team so I have to manage them too and all of it only became manageable by implementing systems in place to create smooth operation.

I truly believe that organisation paves the way for a successful business and in this business I started off a lot more organised and it has scaled a lot quicker, even though I made a risky pivot in 2023 to shift my niche, ideal client focus and overall brand message.

So let’s help you get more organised...

Not a wing it wendy plan, a full on mapped out schedule. Look at your client hours, marketing time and everything in your life mapped out into your schedule. Looking at your life as a whole and planning this into a ‘dream schedule’ is a method I use and although we don't find perfection straight away, it is something you can begin to work towards. I currently have a dream schedule where I work 4 days per week and fit everything in. It is possible if you set an intention to do it. It just takes mapping it out, adjusting along the way based on new commitments and goals.

It is very common that a lot of start up business owners don't stay consistently updated with bookkeeping. I did it too but what is NOT ok is to be into your business after three years, six years or more and still be filing and submitting tax returns last minute. Save yourself time and stress and get organised. This is a really simple tip. I use Google Drive, but you can use any cloud storage. Create a folder for each tax year, then in each folder another file for each month, then every time you pay an invoice or an expense goes out add the electronic or paper document into the relevant file. I also recommend doing your book keeping every month too. I love to review my books each month to see how my business is performing financially. Whether you have an accountant or not, it saves you time to keep everything in one place.

One place to brain dump and save every piece of content you create. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to content, so if something has performed well, save it. I prefer to use Trello, as you can add lists with cards that include images, text, links etc. I create my overall content pillars, which are my common topics. Then, when inspiration strikes I type out a post and bank it into the relevant section. I build up as much as I possibly can here so that I never run out of content again. There are no excuses for not being consistent with content when you have a handy resource like this available in a matter of clicks.

Have you bought a tonne of masterclasses? Maybe you enrolled in a course but haven't got around to completing it yet? Where do all those purchased resources go? I used to be a content collector, buying masterclasses, tools, courses etc. and at one point I couldn't find anything I had purchased when I was ready to learn. The solution to this was to create my own personal resource library. I began saving everything in one place. I also use Trello for this. I had access to the relevant course, masterclass or purchase and planted the links, logged in details of any platforms or important information i needed to access all this content i had bought. This made it nice and easy to find anything I needed because it's organised. Give it a try!

This is actually the reason I became a business mentor. This is a tip I shared inside a previous networking group I ran and it flooded my inbox, with suggestions that I had a lot of knowledge to share and should become a business mentor. Here I am!

So what is a daily method of operation? This is a set of tasks,  like a to do list, but it is never complete. It is a list of income producing activities that you can do on a daily basis. I recommend doing these tasks first on your list, to ensure you generate income, then do anything else you need to within your business.

I actually have a resource to help you create your own daily method of operation, called my income boost bundle and it also includes how to use trello and a trello daily method of operation template, complete with tasks to implement that can help you make more money online. Check it out here.

Again, I use Trello for this. Having a project management system is about managing different projects within your business. With multiple things on the go as the CEO of your business, it can be a challenge to manage. Input all projects you have into one system, in different lists with all the details. I use this for launches, writing my book or overhauling my systems. Whatever the big task is, it goes onto my project management system so I can track where I am at. It's amazing how much brain space this can provide. Under each project I have checklists, graphics, links etc. It really is amazing when I am launching something new and can create a whole campaign within my trello board and check in, ticking things off my big list week by week. Trello also allows you to assign dates to tasks, which I love! You cannot beat the dopamine hit of ticking something off your list.

This is one for the Canva Pro users. I wouldn’t be without the paid version of Canva for my business. Canva is a photo editing and content creation tool, which can do some amazing things. The Pro version allows you to create a brand kit with colours, fonts and logos in a file. I have my main Queen of Business Organisation brand kit and then create a new kit for new projects and use that when I create content for a project. I also recommend using folders within Canva to store content together. This is very similar to project management. I recommend organising your folders on Canva based on your services or content and projects. I have a folder for my mastermind graphics, my Foundations program and all my other services.

There is so much you can automate within your business and teamed with batch creation this can save you so much time! The obvious one is scheduling your social media content but there are other ways you can automate things too. Users can automate email sequences, which is nothing new but also schedule out your email campaigns too and link up your systems so that when a website user clicks on something it sets off a particular action. This comes in massively handy for my client onboarding journey and offboarding too. I am redoing all of my funnels this year and I am automating a lot of things because there's so much potential to earn more money, improve deliverability and grow your business through automation. I highly recommend automation where you can, it saves time!

Are you documenting your commitment to clients? This is very new for me and I have created a simple spreadsheet so I can then track bonuses I offer to my clients. It helps for you and for them to know where you are at in terms of their service and what you need to take action and track when they enrolled to work with you and when the journey ends. This is a simple process but so effective!

I have been using this a lot recently. Google forms are free, but I have a handy survey tool inside my All-In-One system, Kartra. Here are some handy things you can use forms for:

• Customer research / surveys
• Client based feedback
• Collating information together

For example, my Business Growth Club Podcast guests all complete a form before I hit record so that I have all of their important information saved in one place. This is not only great for being organised but saves me time and my guests time as we have no back and forth.

Those are my ten tip to help you get more organised within your business. If you implement any, please do share and tag me on social media.

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