Small business: Why records management?

Many of the articles about records management focus on big businesses and organizations. They focus on universities with tens of thousands of student records, businesses with employees working around the globe or museums with thousands of years worth of history to manage—but what about the small businesses?

6 reasons small businesses need good records management

If your records management consists of a drawer full of invoices and receipts, please pay attention to these reasons adapted from Ten Business Reasons for Records Management in Information and Records Management: Document-based Information Systems.

1. Efficiency and productivity

Searching for lost files takes times and time costs money. A good records management system will save you and your employees time when creating, storing and searching for files.

2. Happy customers

We live in the digital age, which means customers expect fast customer service even from small businesses. Customers expect that you can easily look up their records or even give them digital access. If you can’t, you will have disappointed customers.

3. Business continuity

Your records are vital to the success of your company; if they are not safe, and disaster strikes (disaster meaning something as minor as coffee spilled on the computer that houses your records), you could be in trouble. Records management is a part of business continuity planning.

4. Decision-making

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. A records management program can help ensure that employees have the information they need when they need to make informed decisions for the company.

5. Minimized risk

A consistently applied records management program can reduce the liabilities associated with document disposal by providing for their systematic, routine disposal in the normal course of business.

6. Vanity

A clean, organized office not only improves the morale of your team, but the confidence of your customers. Imagine walking into a messy office where employees are endlessly searching for documents; chances are that you would be wary of trusting that company with your business.

A records management system is an investment that is going to keep your business competitive, valuable and organized.