Tightrope: Clutter can clobber your business

— -- Of all of the promises I make to myself, the one that is toughest to maintain is keeping my office clear of clutter.

Under normal circumstances this should be easy. But for a writer, speaker and entrepreneur it seems like every scrap of paper has an important idea that will work some day, sometime in some place.

The accumulation of junk and clutter can cause all sorts of problems. For example, today I needed to find a particular receipt for my accountant, and it took half a morning of valuable time to find it.

Also, I know I work better and tend to be more organized in general when my desk is neat.

While I stopped everything to bring order to the chaos of my office and my desk, I was reminded of another example of the problem that the accumulation of clutter causes in both your life and your business.

Phil and Dennis opened a photography studio after having worked as freelancers for years. Lifelong friends and professional acquaintances, the two partners could not have been more different in how they approached their business.

While Dennis was meticulous in his record keeping and in completion of his assignments, Phil was the opposite. Dennis was constantly trying to bring some order to the studio and especially the darkroom, which they shared. Phil had a habit of leaving negatives and proofs wherever they happened to end up, along with empty soda cans and pizza boxes. Often there were piles of photographs littering every inch of the space, and it took a major cleaning effort on Dennis's part just to be able to do his work.

Although the business had been open only two years, it was obvious to Dennis that it was stagnating. They were both excellent photographers, skilled in both the technical and the artistic aspects of the business, but they had few repeat customers or referrals from previous clients.

It was after Dennis received a complaint from an irate customer that wedding pictures promised by a certain date had not been delivered that he took a long, hard look at the way the business was operating.