You know your business data could do with a tidy-up.
There are spreadsheets you haven’t opened for months. Customer details in more than one place. Lists that are almost — but not quite — the same. Information missing from some records and out of date in others.
You know you should sort it out. But then you look at everything that’s there and think: where on earth do I start? And so it gets pushed down the list for another day.
The good news is that decluttering your business data doesn’t have to mean setting aside an entire day, rebuilding all your systems or tackling everything at once. In fact, trying to do that is probably the quickest way to become overwhelmed.
Instead, start small and make some decisions.
Don’t begin with the aim of “sorting out all my business data”. That’s far too big. Choose one area that’s currently causing you frustration.
It could be:
If you’re not sure which one to choose, ask yourself:
What information do I regularly waste time looking for, checking or questioning?
That’s probably a good place to start.
Before you start deleting, correcting or moving anything, think about what the information is there to do. What do you actually need to know? For example, if you’re looking at a customer list, perhaps you need their name, business, email address, telephone number, customer status and whether they’ve agreed to receive marketing.
There may be lots of other information you could collect. But do you need it?
Sometimes data becomes cluttered simply because we keep adding information without ever stopping to ask whether it’s still useful. The aim isn’t to have more data. It’s to have the right data.
Once you’ve decided what you need, you can start looking at what you’ve actually got.
There are three particularly useful things to look for first:
Duplicates – Is the same person, company or piece of information recorded more than once?
Gaps – Are important pieces of information missing?
Out-of-date information – Are you holding details that you already know are no longer correct?
Don’t worry about fixing everything immediately. Simply identifying the problems gives you a much clearer idea of what needs attention.
This is a big one. You might have customer information in your CRM, another list in Excel, contacts in your email marketing system and a few extra details tucked away in your inbox.
That doesn’t necessarily mean every system is wrong. Different systems have different jobs. The problem comes when you don’t know which version you should trust.
For important information, decide where the main or master record should live. Then, when something changes, you know where it needs to be updated first. That one decision can save a surprising amount of checking and second-guessing later.
Decluttering doesn’t have to mean deleting. There may be information you no longer need day to day but still need to retain for business, legal or financial reasons. And there may be files you’re not quite ready to get rid of. In those cases, archiving can be a better option.
Move older information out of your everyday working area and clearly label it as archived. You’ve reduced the clutter without losing something you may need later.
And, of course, if you’re dealing with personal data, make sure you’re considering your data protection responsibilities and your own retention policy before deciding what should be kept or deleted.
You don’t need to make every record perfect. Concentrate on the information that actually affects how you run your business. If a missing phone number doesn’t matter because you only ever contact that person by email, perhaps it isn’t your priority. If a missing email address means you can’t send an important customer update, that’s different.
Ask yourself: What would make this information more useful to me? That helps you focus your time where it will make the biggest difference.
One of the dangers of a data declutter is discovering one thing, which leads to another thing, which reminds you about another spreadsheet… And suddenly you’ve disappeared down a rabbit hole. So give yourself a time limit. Even 15 or 20 minutes spent dealing with one small area is progress. You can always come back to it.
Small, regular improvements are often far more manageable than waiting for the quiet day when you’re finally going to sort everything out.
Before you finish, ask yourself: What could I change so this doesn’t become messy again?
It doesn’t need to be complicated. It could be:
A little consistency now can prevent another big declutter later.
Decluttering your business data isn’t about creating beautifully organised spreadsheets for the sake of it. It’s about making your business easier to run. It’s being able to find the information you need. Knowing which version is right. Feeling confident that the information you’re using is accurate enough to make a decision. And spending less time searching, checking and second-guessing.
You don’t have to sort everything at once.
Choose one area. Make a few decisions. Fix what’s important. Then move on to the next thing.
If you’ve read this and thought, yes, I really do need to sort some of this out, you have missed my FREE 3-Day Data Declutter which was designed to help you do exactly that. But get in touch, and I can share the resources with you and guide you through some manageable activities to help you look at the data you already have, identify what’s getting in the way and start making practical improvements.
No huge system overhaul. No need to make everything perfect. Just a little focused time to help you move from data chaos to data clarity.
Oyster Flame – giving you valuable time back.