For instance, if company is categorized as a networking infrastructure firm, and business plan projects 80% operating margins, investors will raise a red flag. This is because investors can readily access operating margins of publicly-traded networking infrastructure firms and find that none have operating margins this high.

The first thing you must do is set aside time to deal with clutter. Many small business owners feel they are too busy to do this, but in reality, time you'll save once everything is organized will more than make up for it. You might choose to block off a day or two just to concentrate on this project, if your schedule allows it. If not, set aside an hour a day or a couple of hours a week and keep at it until there's no clutter left in your office. Treat this appointment with yourself same way you would treat an appointment with one of your clients - don't cancel it unless you have a dire emergency, and don't deviate from task at hand by taking phone calls or getting distracted by other work.

The best place to begin decluttering your office is with your desk. There is no reason to keep anything in your work area than things that you are currently working on. Your current projects should be kept where you can access them easily, but rather than keeping them in piles on your desk, they should be organized into clearly labeled file folders. It's very likely that those piles of paper on your desk include information which is out of date and can be discarded, as well as documents that you need to keep, but are not currently using, which can be filed in your filing cabinet.