Organising what’s in your office, on your computer and working out what to do with all that email isn’t the most exciting part of your business. You’d much rather be working with your clients, earning money, networking with the aim of getting new clients and – well actually anything but filing papers or electronic files in a way you can find them again.
And as for those 2500 emails, well forget it; I’ll find the one I want if I ever need to.
There’s nothing new about filing. It’s been a necessary evil for centuries. Did you know that secretaries existed in Rome before the Roman Empire? But men, not women.
Women didn’t get into office work until the industrial revolution on the 19th century.
Filing cabinets were developed in the US in the mid 19th century and this form of storage for office paperwork revolutionised businesses.
By the 1930s women began to dominate the role of secretary. The role of Filing Clerk evolved through to the 90s when these roles were removed from organisations in the name of efficiency. Support staff such as filing clerks were seen as an overhead that contributed little to generating revenue. The outcome of that was the filing devolved to front line people who didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to learn.
Now that has changed again since computers became widely used across all types of businesses. Administrative support staff have a range of duties. Fling papers, electronic files and email has become an important part of good business practices.
For small businesses however it’s often not possible to employ someone to do the office administration, especially when you’re in start-up mode.
It’s even more important then to have a good system set up as part of your start-up activities. Then you get into good habits from the beginning and as your business grows. We can help you for less than $500. Even your bank manager won’t blink at that as s/he will be well aware of the long-term benefits to your business of making that small investment of time and money up-front.