Get a jump on organizing your business in 3 simple steps.

Step 1 – Create Your Operations Buckets

When I got serious about getting my business organized, I leaned into what I learned on the job with a multi-national company.

The concept isn’t that serious, but it did make it easier for me to make efficient use of my time and energy, especially when it comes to batching tasks.

The concept? Company departments.

Except, since it was just me, I called them buckets. I guess I could have used baskets as well – as in, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. But hey… your biz, your preference.

The buckets I started with (and still use) were:

Admin – all the things that make the business tick

Money – going out, coming in; who it’s going to, who it’s coming from

Production – the things customers/clients pay me for, and the vendors I need to make it happen

I’ve since added:

Self – all things related to how I take care of myself that supports my business, especially my boundaries

Something else buckets help with is deciding on where to begin documenting.

For example, if you’re a designer in need of a design assistant, you’d want to start documenting your production processes so you can train and hand them over.

You’ll also know what characteristics and skills your design assistant will need.

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This post is an excerpt from the Biz Org Basics workshop I ran in October of 2021. The addition of the Self bucket is new (June 2024) because too many of us leave us out of the equation or as an afterthought when running our businesses.