I recently cleaned and organized a corner of my garage. The level of pride and satisfaction that this generates is ridiculously unjustified. But I’m embracing it.

I feel so good because my garage was so awful.

Four years ago, just before COVID, we bought our new home. Our previous garage had barely held one vehicle. It had almost no room for storage.

Our new garage was a vast new expanse. It seemed impossibly large and empty.

But…within a few months, the void was filled.

COVID inspired me to build a large piece of furniture. I proudly designed it myself. I had lots of vision. Which was enough to get me going. But vision, alone, didn’t provide enough direction to make me successful. (Still working on it, didn’t quit…almost done!)

However, what I lacked in skill, I made up for in purchasing ability. I filled my garage with tools and lumber. I was so busy trying to get this thing built, I didn’t take the time to organize my workspace. Between not knowing where I wanted things to go and not having a place for them, my organizational system was mostly “piles” and “stacks”.

Soon, the garage was a barely navigable mess. It was demoralizing. I couldn’t find my tools. Parts of the garage were unreachable.

Frankly, I was embarrassed by it.

So, I steeled myself. And began to tame my garage. Just a corner. Baby steps.

It was work. Which I expected. But it wasn’t awful work. Which surprised me.

And now I feel great.

I’m looking at another feral corner of my garage. I’m excited to tame that one next.

You Won’t Avoid Making Some Mess. But You Can Avoid Making Mess Your Lifestyle.

Many leaders start a business or pursue new growth with a blank canvas. Similar to my garage, there is nothing but possibility.

So, they get after making it happen. But, like me and my garage, they often:

• Don’t know what will be needed.
• Don’t know how to organize or structure things as they grow.
• Don’t have the tools to organize or structure, even if the “how” is known.
• Don’t have time to organize.

Then they have some success. Now the business is moving too fast or seems too complicated to organize. Instead of hitting a happy plateau where the business runs itself, the tempo just picks up and the curves become sharper.

As a result, they neglect the internals and develop a lot of clutter:

• A stack of unsent invoices on a table. “We get to them when we can.”
• A box with receipts in it. “Our accountant figures this out when we do our taxes.”
• Inventory scattered between rooms, projects, and vehicles. “Uhhhhh…projects pay for this. It’s fine.”
• Employees that are haphazardly deployed. “We have too many people, but we aren’t getting the work done.”
• Client information scattered between sticky notes, e-mails, and IM’s. “We have a personal relationship with all of our clients. Sorry…were we meeting today?”

I’d like to say I’m mostly describing Mom & Pops here. But I’m not. That being said, it’s rare to work with a business doing better than, say, $50M that routinely struggles with these issues. That’s because it is nearly impossible to grow and sustain that level of revenue without having the basics of organization down.

Lesson: If you desire growth, or even less chaos, you need to organize.

Clutter Can Hide Gross Stuff.

As I was organizing, I found the remains of a very dead mouse. It was so dead that there wasn’t much left to throw away.

Gross.

Not only are you losing money and frustrating your staff with clutter (and probably yourself too) – but the clutter is hiding dead (and living!) mice as well. It might be inviting them.

When cleaning things up, many businesses discover “mice”. Or maybe rats is a better term. Some businesses work hard year after year but are never able to turn a corner. Then they discover:

• Their trusted bookkeeper has been siphoning off their profits.
• Equipment or inventory keep walking away.
• Invoices and accounts receivable aren’t current.
• Easily avoidable mistakes cost enormous amounts of energy, time, and resources to fix. But they don’t stop happening.
• Staff spend hours fussing and moaning – all because leaders never made it clear who was responsible for what.

These mice, or rats, eat and ruin what you are building.

Assert Order. Make it Happen. 

It’s impossible to build without making some mess. But as you build, anticipate that you will need to introduce order and consistency. It won’t introduce itself.

Not only will it not introduce itself, but you’ll probably never get to the “other side”. That happy place where there is no sense of urgency and you have the energy, time, and interest to “work on the business.”

That place doesn’t exist. Or if it does…don’t count on finding it.

You have to build it.

And you can. If you are like me, just start with one corner or pile. Make that better. Let the enthusiasm and encouragement that generates carry you to the next corner or pile.

Sometimes, you just need to get help. I wanted to do the garage myself. But I hired people to do other projects around the house. I did this specifically so that my time would be freed up so I could use it as I wanted to. Which, in part, was in taming my garage.

Soon, not only will you feel better about what you have built. But it’ll work better as well. And you’ll be happier.

Take good care,

Christian

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