How To get Your Business organised

•  Invoices and  Tax returns It’s one of the less creative sides of craft selling, but paperwork is a crucial area of your business. Katie Plant at Shropshire Petals confirms this: “A strong, organised invoice system is vital to any company. If accounts aren’t organised, it can waste vital time,” she says. Yvonne Ruhle at Kit & Kaboodle has developed a simple yet effective system.   “For me, the easiest system is to use what I call ‘dump boxes’. When I open my mail, I put invoices into the box so nothing is mislaid. Then every Friday, I check and action the box’s contents and file everything accordingly.”

•  Record orders Perhaps every craft seller’s worst nightmare is losing a customer’s details. The best way to prevent this is to create a system that tracks outgoing and incoming orders in an order book or spreadsheet. Laura Pyke at sayithandmade.co.uk says: “Add each order to your order book as soon as it comes in along with its shipping date, then cross them off once they’ve been posted. It’s also a great time saver to keep your suppliers’ details in one place so that you can order materials quickly the next time you need them.” 

• Be arty with storage Emma Read at Hapitat Hats is creative about how she organises materials, so that even her storage looks good: “I have all my fabric, feathers and lace stored in individual vintage leather suitcases – they look lovely on shelves stacked up, but they also look gorgeous taking them out to show customers the fabric choices. They look great on my craft stall,” she says. Vicky Craxton at vickysvintagegifts.co.uk has an inventive money-saving idea for your workspace: “Use empty biscuit tins, clearly labelling them so you can find what you’re looking for quickly

•  Keep tools handy Yvonne Ruhle, at Kit & Kaboodle found that she wasn’t being efficient before she got her tools and work table sorted: “I found I was buying things that I already had, but simply couldn’t put my hand on. So now, materials and tools I need regularly are housed in simple boxes close to my work bench.” Laura Pyke at sayithandmade.co.uk agrees: “If I can’t put my scissors away without standing up, I know they will end up staying on my work table and get lost among the clutter. Desk organisers, sets of table-top shelves and wall hooks are great ways to store things while keeping them accessible.”

•  Space savers Michelle Kreussel at The Fox in the Attic creates her own fabulous vintage space savers: “My studio is in the basement of our house. I have an antique chest of drawers that is perfect for storing all my templates and fabric. I label each drawer with what goes inside. I also bought a Victorian tea trolley to keep my fabrics nice and flat.”     Jojo at Lovelyjojos.com goes one step further with her storage solution and rents a storage unit: “This works out cheaper than buying small amounts of things,” she says. 

• Packing centre Make packing and posting a quick and savvy operation. Camilla Westergaard at butterscotchandbeesting.com has this down to a tee: “I have a huge pegboard in my studio where I hang all my packaging paraphernalia. I keep all my scissors, string and Washi tape there and it even has room for my bubble wrap. It makes packaging up parcels super-easy (and a bit more fun, too).”

• Get technical Create a system on your computer to stop paper piling up in your workspace. Jojo at Lovelyjojos.com says, “I keep track of expenses as I go, logging them on a spreadsheet and filing them by month on my laptop. I then do my income at the end of every week. That way, when tax return time comes, I don’t have loads of catching up to do.” 

Display ideas and to-do tasks on pin boards for workspace inspiration 

• Keep tools handy Use pin boards to display all your precious new ideas. Katie Plant at Shropshire Petals says that her team couldn’t function without them: “Notice boards are perfect for keeping track of all those pesky (but vitally important) sticky notes! It’s important to make your working space creative so you’ll be more likely to generate lots of ideas while  you work.”  

•  Fair organisation          Get a slick system together for an organised fair day, like Sean Carter from aberfanturning.co.uk: “I have the same  layout at my weekly fair, so it’s easy to remember. I also set things up and pack things away in the same routine every time so that I’m quick.” weatherproof boxes too!”  

•  The budget Without keeping records of what you spend and the money you make, how can you see if you’re making a profit? Camilla Westergaard at butter scotch and beesting. com relies on a pricing spreadsheet: “I list all the costs of each product, the time taken to make it, the wholesale and retail price and the profit. So if any costs change, the spreadsheet will say if the retail price needs to be altered.”