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.

The clutter was taking a toll on their ability to fulfill their obligations. Technically challenging photo shoots were being postponed because Phil had misplaced the work order, and those that were completed were being misplaced in the clutter.

Dennis realized that for the business to succeed, they would have to get things under control.

Convincing Phil was difficult. Dennis tried everything, from talking to Phil about the problem to unsuccessfully trying to clean up the clutter himself.

Finally, Dennis told Phil that he couldn't take it any more and he thought the best thing to do was to end the partnership. This finally struck a chord with Phil; he could now see that his clutter was about to end a long friendship and their business.

Phil agreed to get rid of the clutter, for good. Together they attacked the problem, and their business became more organized and efficient. Deadlines are now met, and problems are no longer hidden under clutter. Their company began to grow, compliments replaced complaints, and they even began receiving awards for their photography.

Phil told me the toughest thing he had ever done in life was keeping his workplace neat, but the thought of losing his best friend and business partner was an incentive to do his best to maintain order.

Have you taken a look at your workspace lately? Are you running the kind of desk on which only you can find needed paperwork and, at best, it takes you a couple of hours to do so?

Not many of us are as bad as Phil, but his story can serve as a reminder of the trouble we are creating when our workspace is a mess. Today I'm starting a new ritual. At the end of my workday I will file all paperwork and clean up my desk. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Gladys Edmunds' Entrepreneurial Tightrope column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of her columns. As a single, teen-age mom, Gladys made money doing laundry, cooking dinners for taxi drivers and selling fire extinguishers and Bibles door-to-door. Today, Edmunds is founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh and author of There's No Business Like Your Own Business, a six-step guide to success published by Viking. Her website is www.gladysedmunds.com. You can e-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com.