4 ways to turn your chaotic startup into a well-oiled machine

Regardless of industry, product, or service, running a startup is a complex endeavor. Though startup failure rates vary by industry, the general consensus is that about nine out of every 10 will fail – and poor management the primary reason. To succeed, organization is a must and requires that everyone is on the same page.

A survey from 2014 showed that fifty-four percent of American employees felt frustrated about work and “40 percent say they don’t understand the company’s vision or have never seen it.

“A structured foundation supports any fast changes your startup is subject to as you rapidly expand. Organization allows for greater flexibility, something that many fast-growing startups need to embrace if they want to be a top competitor,” said Phil Tadros, the Founder and CEO of Doejo, an innovation studio for brands.

With the use of centralized solutions, startups can create an organizational system that keeps all the data they need within easy access and helps the entire company avoid a sense of collective confusion.

Make operations easy with improved workflow and collaboration

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Creating a centralized, controlled workflow for employees – whether in-house staffers or freelancers and contractors – it is essential to keeping everyone organized. When the organization structure of the company changes, it’s easy to lose sight of tasks at hand.

With tools such as Trello, Slack and many others, project management is made simple. More importantly, if a company wants to project a sense of organization to customers, investors and others, it better practice what it preaches.

Trello uses a board and card based system, where multiple people can be given access to multiple boards, based on what they need to be able to work on. Create a board for each person, project or stage in the workflow. Create a card for each milestone or deliverable. Setup options are nearly limitless so you can create a workflow that works best for your business.

Plus, Trello is in the cloud, so no software is required, and there are mobile apps available for easy on-the-go access. Attach and share files, leave comments, tag others to notify them and more.

Slack is a group chat platform designed for businesses. Create channels for projects, topics or teams. Everyone in the channel can see what’s going on.

There’s also the option to create private channels for certain team members or projects, and the direct messaging feature allows for private and secure communications between two colleagues. File sharing is available, and like Trello, this is service is cloud based and has a mobile app for easy access wherever you are, whenever you need it.

In addition to household names like Trello and Slack there are platforms like Due and BillQuick that help your company keep tabs on a number of simultaneously running aspects of your business, whether time tracking, project management, billing and accounting – all under one roof.

Bird’s eye view of the whole business

Data sources are everywhere, and keeping track of these can be quite chaotic. Using a tool like Cyfe, however, can funnel all that data into a central dashboard. The tool can be used to monitor company data, both internal and external.

Cyfe integrates with a number of data sources including Google analytics, Basecamp, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Salesforce, Google Calendar and countless others. Essentially, you can track everything from marketing and finances, to project management, website traffic, and more, from a central location.

Read next: Tips for better team workflow