Mako Designs Top Tips for Small Businesses to Stay Organized

Starting a small business is never an easy feat, and a lot of small business owners can all agree that it takes a lot of resilience to survive in competitive and ever-changing markets. At Mako Design, we work with some of the most innovative, determined and genius inventors who look towards starting and excelling in their small businesses, therefore we’ve both helped and learned a lot from our experiences with those in small business roles. One of the biggest lessons and skills to master that any small business owner should know is how to stay organized. No matter the situation, an organization is what will keep your business running smoothly, help you accomplish your goals and survive any small business crisis that could occur. With so many different aspects to handle within a small business it can be hard to stay organized, thus, here are Mako Designs top tips to help your small business stay organized in order to make inventions.

Keep multiple lists or Have an Agenda

As stated before, Mako knows well how hard it is to make invention whilst keeping on top of things, especially with so much going on both in the economy, product design realm, and business world. Therefore, it’s important to have a good grasp on what is most important to you and your business. A good way to exercise this practice and do this is to have master lists of different topics, resources, contacts, and documents of all that is important that pertains to your small business. Keeping an agenda is also a great way to outline your daily tasks, make goals for the week, month, and year and prioritize what is most needed for your small business during certain time frames. Not only do lists help you organize all your businesses goals, tasks, and assets, but will remind you of the pathway you are one to reach your ultimate and long-term business goals.

Keep a Clear and Clean Workspace

Whether you work at home or at an office, it’s important to have a clear and designated area where you can sit down, focus, and get your work done to make inventions. With how fast things move and with so much to do in one day, it’s common that most workplaces and especially desk areas can get filled up or cluttered with papers and other important pieces of work. The problem with having a messy or cluttered work area or desk is that it can deter and easily distract you from your work, not only that, but it ultimately creates a more stressful work environment for yourself and your colleagues. Keeping a clean and tidy workspace not only helps you stay less stressed, but increases productivity, and helps you focus on the task at hand. Additionally, having all of your important documents and papers in a neat place that you can reach out to and refer to ay any moment is more helpful than having to look through piles of different items and ultimately waste time.

Practice Time Management to Help Focus

When faced with so much to do in one day, it can be hard to prioritize what needs to be done to make inventions at certain times in the world. More time-sensitive projects should always be at the forefront of what you need to do for the day, however, understand what it more time-sensitive is a skill on its own. Start by categorizing your projects and tasks by their size and when you ultimately would like them to be done in order to help accomplish your goals. Once you’ve created a schedule or calendar to work by and understand when certain items need to be done or worked on to be achieved, you can dedicate a certain time of the day or week to properly focus on the task at hand. Prioritizing and scheduling your time in such matters helps you ultimately get certain things done as they should without falling into procrastination or trying to multi-task (which is proven to results in low quality work or prone to mistakes being made).

Communication is Key

Finally, across teams, business owners, partners, clients, and most importantly your audience, the best way to stay organized with your small business in order to stay on track to make inventions is to keep an open line of communication. It is vital for your small businesses’ success to always take the effort in communicating your situation, your progress, your goals, and where you stand as a business. Not only will this help speed up the process when dealing with partners, teamwork or other business owners, but it will also help you understand the estimate times needed in order to help achieve your goals and get things done. Having a clear form of communication to your audiences also helps inform them of how your business is doing, any new accomplishments or company news, and overall helps your business grow as brand. One of the best ways to keep a clear line of communication between your audiences and clients is to utilize social media and keep in constant clear contact through different forms of stimulation content.

Want to learn more about Mako Designs’ top tips for small businesses? Check out what our CEO, Kevin Mako recommends here!

If you have a great new invention and you’d like to learn more about this process, get in touch with MAKO here and visit our website to find out more. Feel free to give us a call at 1-888-MAKO and we can set you up on a call with our product analyst!

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!