home office – Terrace Consulting

Evolution of the Desk

November 15, 2015November 20, 2015 by Judy

This video was published on YouTube on Nov 18, 2014. It is a lightearted and thought provoking view of technology changes over time.

Business fundamentals

May 28, 2015October 28, 2015 by Judy

Being able to find information you need when you need it is fundamental to the way you manage your business.

It doesn’t matter what your business does – whether you’re making pies, children’s’ clothes, iron gates or if you provide

Free eBook – how to manage your email inbox

September 7, 2014 by Judy

The volume of email arriving in the email inbox has become a major problem for many people. Since I’ve been working with small business owners I’ve realised just how big this problem is.

From time to time I’ve shared my thoughts on managing the email ogre in my blog. Now I’ve put some of those blogs together here so you have hints and tips on managing your email in one place. This will make it easier for you to use this advice to keep your email under control.

Check out my free eBook 8 Ways to Manage Your Email Inbox so you too can start to manage your email inbox.

Business lessons from Paradise

June 6, 2014 by Judy

On 23 May 2014 an historic homestead in Central Otago was burnt to the ground, apparently due to an electrical fault following a lightning strike. The homestead was at Paradise, beyond Queenstown, beyond Glenorchy, beyond the top of Lake Wakatipu, . It’s a fantastic place and lots of people go there to get away from it all. No mobile coverage, no tech toys. Just nature at its best amongst the mountains.

Managing risk in your business

March 11, 2014 by Judy

If you business is to operate effectively, you and your staff need to be able to create, store, access and reuse information received or produced during the course of a regular working day.

Establishing core principles for keeping a good record of your business activities will reduce risks and lessen exposure to issues that may incur corruption or even loss.

Risks associated with poor document management include:

Unreliable information is used to make business decisions
Key information or documents are hard to find or lost
Time is wasted re-creating documents that cannot be found
Management practices become untimely, inappropriate and inefficient
The business is unable to comply with legislation or regulations
The business gains a negative reputation.

Core principles for managing information include:

Having a structured system for storing documents that is easily understood and available for all team members to access and use as and when required
Ensuring that all documents created as part of normal business activities are filed appropriately in the approved filing system
Establishing standard policies, processes and procedures and ensuring team members understand and maintain them when creating, storing and using organisational information
Making and storing notes on key business decisions – made by your Board or with clients.

You can read about more hints and tips to improve your business in my free eBook; and even more if you download the eWorkbook that gives you a full set of instructions on how to set up a filing system for your business.

Testimonials and recommendations

December 5, 2013 by Judy

Testimonials and recommendations – you can’t really go past them as a marketing tool. I’ve been delighted with some I’ve received recently from happy clients.

Here are some excerpts:

“We contracted Terrace Filing Services to assist us to implement an electronic filing system. Judy Owen project managed and did the majority of the work for us to a very high standard. Judy consulted with the team and designed and implemented our new system. The associated documentation and help files was first class and I would unreservedly recommend Judy to any business looking to implement or upgrade their filing systems, documentation or staff training in their filing systems.” Stuart.

“Thank you Judy for your report after visiting my office. I was surprised at the level of detail included and the additional suggestions for things that I hadn’t even considered. I have immediately implemented some of your suggestions and I am enjoying the benefits of them already. I will be implementing more in the near future and look forward to having my office organised, tidy and with everything in a logical place. I would recommend anyone with a home office space to contact Judy for a consultation.” Sandy.

“Thank you for bringing your valuable expertise and care to help our information-intensive business. With years of history and many thousands of files it is easy, even for information professionals like ourselves, to have our files ‘drift’ out of order, and fantastic to have your support as we brought them back into shape.” Sarah.

And just in case you think I only work with people whose names begin with “S”, here’s one more

“Judy came to help me with both my paper files and the electronic ones. Both were a mess! She was quick and clear. It has made such a difference that this year my tax returns were filed early and my accountant was most surprised and pleased. It also meant my refund came through earlier! I can recommend Judy and her systems.” Barbara.

Wow – it’s great to be appreciated.

Judy Owen has been working with businesses of all sizes and complexities for more than 20 years to improve and streamline the access to their business information. She and her team can show you how to reduce risk, improve productivity and increase profits with good business systems and processes in your business.

Maybe the paperless office will still come

September 13, 2013 by Judy

When PCs appeared in businesses 20-30 years ago there was a widespread expectation that we would become a paperless society.

Over that period there has been some dismay that in fact we were creating more paper as people created an electronic document and then printed it. Because the printed copy often wasn’t filed properly (if at all) it got ‘lost’ in a pile of other papers. So when it was needed again, another copy was printed. And so it goes on!

Recent research however has found that the amount of paper flowing through businesses is now decreasing. It’s taken a while but we are getting there.

What has caused this turnaround and why has it taken so long?

It’s more than 10 years since New Zealand passed the Electronic Transactions Act (2002) (ETA) which aimed to reduce uncertainty (of dates and times) and permitted legal requirements to be met electronically.

In spite of this stated purpose of the ETA, there has been a reluctance to accept an electronic version and there has been continued uncertainty around what is legally accepted electronically and what needs to be in paper format to be a legal document.

More recently however there has been some movement towards acceptance of scanned electronic signatures though there is still some unwillingness to accept some contracts with electronic signatures.

This is reminiscent of the early days of faxes. Who remembers when you could fax a document for quick response but you had to post the original as well so you could file the original because a signature on a faxed copy wasn’t legally binding? Or when the faxed copy had to be photocopied for filing because the ink on fax ‘paper’ faded.

It’s good to know that businesses of all sizes are now looking more towards keeping the electronic version as the official record of the business. There are a number of reasons for this that vary for each business.

Whatever you decide for your business, the decision needs to be formalised in a policy statement that is communicated to everyone in your business who needs to know.

A sample policy statement is part of my eWorkbook offering. It is a simple one-page policy statement that you can amend to suit your business. Because the key points are there, it won’t take you long to create your own policy. It’s worth involving your staff so you get buy-in to the policy before it is confirmed and implemented.

Spring into Spring : clean-up and organise your office filing system.

August 27, 2013 by Judy

The recent weather has been very spring like, daffodils are brightening gardens, lambs are frolicking in the rural areas and everyone seems to have got some new energy after the winter.

It’s a great time to put some of that energy to work in your office, especially if it is looking a bit cluttered with papers that have piled up or if you have a desktop screen filled with icons for documents that haven’t been filed properly in your record-keeping structure.

It’s also timely from a business point of view, especially if you’re almost half way through your financial year like I am. If you have a clean-up now you can:

sort out your invoices and receipts well before the time you need to get your financial information to your accountant for your annual accounts
find your business plan and review your progress so you can congratulate yourself on your achievements or put in place some actions to improve your position.

Did you know that once you’ve got your business information organised and at your fingertips you will be able to save up to 15 minutes a day every day. Think about how many non-productive hours that adds up to over one year.

If you think you don’t have time to do a clean-up then take a look at my 15 Minute Action Plan to tidy your desk. It really works. Jill and Sandie among others can vouch for that.

If you can’t find documents easily in your computer, then work through the 15 Minute Action Plan to organise your electronic documents.

When you have your filing system in order you will save time and reduce stress as well as increasing your productivity and profits.

For more than 20 years Judy Owen has been working with businesses of all sizes and complexities to improve and streamline the access to their business information. She and her team can show you how to reduce risk, improve productivity and increase profits with good business systems and processes in your business.

Ease your frustration with organised business information

August 1, 2013 by Judy

The most common gripe I hear is the frustration of not being able to find a document; it might be an electronic document, a piece of paper on a desk or in a folder or an email.

This is not surprising when I look at how a lot of people store their business information.

It might seem to be safe to keep all your emails and never delete them “in case they are needed one day” or keep all your paper work in piles on your desk (or on the floor when you run out of desk space) so “its handy” or leave all your electronic files in “My Documents” or on your desktop screen because you think you can find them quickly by doing a Google-type search.

The reality is however that none of these storage methods work effectively, especially when you need something in a hurry.

We all have some form of structure in our lives. Some people lead more structured lives than others with set times for each activity, others are less timebound but still have some structure in their day. Each day we eat, sleep, go to work, go home – usually with a timeframe around these activities.

There is structure at work too – hours and days of work, who does what, when and how much you get paid or how much time you can take to have a holiday.

Not everyone realises though that they need structure for their business information too. Even the most organised people can find themselves struggling to find that elusive document when they need to rush off to a meeting with a client or customer, or can’t find an email they need to action.

It’s not really difficult to establish some structure into your email or your electronic or paper documents into folders.

I generally set up a directory structure for electronic documents to help clients organise their business information. This structure is mirrored in email folders and also for a paper filing system if they have one. This makes it easy for them to find what they want regardless of its format.

Remember your in box is not a filing cabinet!

Once you have the structure in place you then need to develop good habits around using the structure – all the time!.

You’ll be amazed at how much more you can achieve in a day if you don’t have to spend unproductive time looking for information.

You can read about more hints and tips to improve productivity in your business in my free eBook; and even more if you download the eWorkbook that give you a full set of instructions on how to set up a filing system for your business.

Cloud backup services can keep your business working

July 8, 2013 by Judy

During a recent “weatherbomb” over the Wellington region, a number of properties were without power for several days due to the large number of trees that came down in the storm and other storm related issues with the electricity supply.

While this was disturbing enough for anyone in that situation given the inability to heat homes and cook meals, I was rather startled to read a news article about a woman who runs her business from home (has done for several years) and who couldn’t operate during the power outage.