“D” is for Delegate!

Delegate, Don’t Procrastinate!

Have you heard that a lot? Have you thought that a lot? Have people around you been telling you that you need to delegate some stuff so you have a life?

If you’re an owner of a company, or an executive, you’ve probably got a lot on your plate, and sometimes you’re not sure how you’re going to get everything done. You’ve gotten so used to just doing it all, you’ve forgotten that there are other people out there that can do things for you, and they specialize in doing these things. When they do these things (more on these “thing” in a bit), it’ll leave you to take care of that business you’ve been building.

So what “things” take up a lot of time for you?

• Email: How much time you spend weeding through your emails before you can actually get to the business of working on your business, rather than in it.
• Confirming Appointments: Do you really need to do that? most of the time, no. Yet if you don’t have a dedicated assistant, you’re probably finding that you’re doing the confirming. Or – if you’re not confirming your appointments, how many times do you find yourself having them cancel at the last minute or the person you’re to meet with just doesn’t show up.
• Preparing Correspondence: Even in this advent of the technical age, preparing an email response is the norm rather than the exception in business correspondence. Many times deals are made through email and electronic signatures are acceptable. But do you really need to be the one that does the preparation of the documents, creating the attachments that need to go with it and ensuring that it gets delivered to the party that needs it.
• Research: Yes, sometimes when you’re researching something you get ideas for other ways you can take the research, but many times that’s just an avoidance tactic. When you can assign research for a particular issue to someone else, you’ll get a more targeted approach to the end result.

Is there more that you could delegate? Absolutely! But these seem to be the top 4 that are the biggest drains of time for busy small business owners. When they assign these tasks to an assistant – whether virtual or in office – they find that their time is better managed and they’re less stressed.

Let’s examine my client “L”: She owns a boutique law firm with three attorneys – including herself – and two in-office assistants. Now, its common for two attorneys to share an assistant, but because of the quality of service she and the firm gave to their clients, they were finding themselves working much harder and being more and more stressed about having the time to do it all – and do it at the level they’d been doing it.

“L” was referred to me by another one of my clients because she said that she was beginning to feel overwhelmed and she was afraid that the rest of the staff was feeling it, too. After we talked, she agreed to let me take over confirming her calendar for her for a couple of weeks. Since then, I’ve also taken over preparing the hearing files for all attorneys on staff, handling the calender for all attorneys and when someone is out, I pitch in and help in whatever way I can by preparing documents, speaking with clients, etc.

When you realize that delegation is not about letting go of control, but rather gaining control over portions of your life that’s gotten out of control – you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

If you’d like to take a short survey to find out what you can delegate – email me and I’ll send it to you and together we can talk about how you can get some more control of your day!

Milestones

Today marks a couple of very special days.

On October 14th 12 years ago I was in the hospital, arguing with them that I really was pregnant – in fact SOOO pregnant I was 10 days overdue. You see, my first pregnancy was marked with lots of trips to the hospital because no one ever had morning sickness as bad as I had morning sickness. I lost 42 lbs during the course of the pregnancy. If you know me – you know I have it to spare! Anyway – I never looked pregnant. When I showed up to be induced, the labor & delivery floor didn’t believe I was (a) pregnant and (b) even anywhere close to delivery. After an ultrasound and an amnio – they concluded that I was 10 days overdue (hmm….where have I heard that before) and the baby was full term. Almost 8 hours later (at 8:55 p.m.) Danielle Renee Fortier finally made her appearance at 7 lbs, 10 oz and 23 1/2″ long (yes – almost 2′ in length).

Danielle has been a very loving little girl from the start – and it hasn’t changed in these last 12 years. She’s got the ability to see through facades and be a good friend. We should all be so lucky to have the ability to accept everyone for who they are underneath – not what they project outward.

Five years ago, when I was pregnant with my son, I made the decision that I wanted to start my own business. He was due in February, so I knew I had a little bit of time for planning. I remember clearly as I was sitting at my desk at my job trying to figure out how I could leave & get home in time to get dinner ready for the Birthday Girl when I had 3 people in my department call in ‘sick’ on me that day, and as the supervisor – it fell to me to take up the slack. I thought, “What am I doing myself?”

When I went home and had the requisite family dinner and celebration, I had a heart-to-heart talk with my husband about my job and how unhappy I was and he fully supported my decision to mark my own path.

So October 14th marks some great milestones in my life. I became a Mom on October 14, 1997 – which is one of the greatest joys of my life. And on October 14, 2004 I made the decision to be a self-employed “something”. I didn’t know what that something was at the time, but I’m so glad I found my path.

There are several people who have had a part in defining my path in life – and you all know who you are, so I won’t waste time and space here. What I do want to know is this:

• What is YOUR defining path, and how did you find it?
• What was that “aha” moment?
• Who is responsible for helping you define your path?
• Why do you feel you’re destined to be on this path?

Feel free to share your stories about any or all of these questions!

“C” is for Customer Service

When I started writing this particular blog post, it was in a completely different direction from what it is now. However, based on events this morning, I am compelled to change direction completely.

This post started out about confidence, and who knows – I might talk about confidence later on. I’ll just have to see where my thoughts take me in the next few minutes. For now, I’m compelled to talk about customer service.

For three days we’ve had no phone service here. I work out of my home, so phone service is rather crucial to keep in contact with my clients. For the most part. All I can say is thank God for Skype and Virgin Mobile right now, because AT&T – you’ve failed in customer service.

On Thursday afternoon a huge storm started rolling through here, which made our phone lines kind of staticky. I could live with that. The next morning, there was static,  and it sounded like an open line – I was hearing an off the hook sound (you know that annoying beep-beep-BEEP!). So I called AT&T from my cell. After waiting on hold for 18 minutes, I got a customer service person who said that he sees nothing wrong, so I held the phone to my land line so he could hear what I hear. He said he’d get someone out immediately. I said, “Wait – I have to leave at 3:30 to take my mother-in-law to the airport. Do you think they’ll be out before?” He said he’d get someone out immediately. Right.

After being on hold for 42 more minutes, I was told it was too late, and I’d have to call back on Monday. Oh no. I recounted the story (including the fact that this is the 5th time I’ve called for this particular issue) and I feel someone should put a high priority on this. I was told to call back the next day (Saturday) and speak with a supervisor.

This is where it gets fun. I called back the number I was given, and got who I can only call the poster child for BAD customer service. She was snotty, she didn’t talk into the receiver so I could hear her, so when I’d ask her to repeat what she said, she’d do it with a tone so scathing, and so full of contempt, I got sick of it and called her on it. I told her that her continued bad attitude was making this harder than it should be, and I’d appreciate a kinder tone when talking with a customer. I was told, “You can take it and shove it up your @$$” and she disconnected.

On Monday, AT&T is losing my business and hear this AT&T – you can bet I’m going to tell everyone I know how I was treated by your company.

So what does customer service and confidence have to do with this blog post? Confidence in yourself and your product or service is tantamount to being able to provide good customer service. Confidence that you are the best suited for what it is you provide will bring customers and clients to you that have confidence in what you provide. These two personality traits – for lack of a better word – are two of the greatest things you can provide to your customers or clients.

Now for kudos: First, Skype never fails me. I know I can use Skype to get in touch with just about everyone I’m connected to for my business. Thank you Skype for taking measures to create a platform that’s reliable. Second, Virgin Mobile has been my cell phone service provider for over 4 years. They continue to be helpful in many ways. Much better than any of the other so-called service providers (which I’ve had before and have come BACK to Virgin Mobile time and again). When I called about all the time I’ve had to spend on hold with AT&T, they credited my account with all of that time so I wouldn’t have to pay overage charges.