Organizing your online business is a must. Running your own home business means that you have to do it all. You don’t have employees and the office space as traditional companies do. So as an online business owner, you need to manage your time and space effectively so you can concentrate on selling. Finding more time comes only through efficiency and organization.

We recently updated my home office. We moved it from the sitting room into a separate room so I can close the door and organize the room how I choose based on my current needs. Here are some things that I learned about running an online business from home for over 10 years.

Organizing Your Online Business Tips

1. Get to know your computer. You are working with it everyday. If you don’t understand how to properly use your computer, you will struggle. Take some computer classes or watch some YouTube videos on how to do things.

2. Take advantage of the tools your applications, such as Excel and Outlook. For example, you can set up Outlook to redirect emails with certain keywords in the subject line into specified folders, saving you hours of sorting everyday. You can also color emails from certain people allowing you to quickly see emails you need to address right away and other sorting options.

3. Use a bookkeeping solution, like QuickBooks to track your money. It may cost you time upfront to set it all up, but once you organize your finances, you’ll gain it back on the backend.

4. Organize your paperwork. With an online business, you could almost elminate the need to have paperwork. But inevitabley there will be some paperwork involved. Make sure to keep your papers organized in files and organize them in a file organizer to quickly locate if needed.

5. Simplify your shipping processes. If you are shipping your own products, structure your workspace so your packing materials are at your fingertips. The more movements you make for each package, the more time you spend—that can really add up on high-volume sellers.

6.  Shut the door. Make sure to keep your home office away from the main areas of the house. You need a place to shut yourself in, to keep away distractions.

By making good use of your time and space, you gain freedom to focus on growing your business instead of constantly playing catch-up.