Are you missing major events because you are ‘busy”? Real events in your community that you really
want to attend, or ‘should’ attend because of the significance to your life or
business. Too many times I hear people
say they wanted to go to something but were too busy, or by the time they got
around to it, it was too late to make arrangements.
Do you find yourself working on customer emergencies at a
cost to your own business or plans? Do
you have a soft heart for others’ problems - or a need to please – people pleasing,
so are known as a nice guy and you are getting lots of enquiries, but there are
no real customers and your business is not moving forward?
Are you a coward?
You think you can’t or won’t state your needs to your customers and negotiate
something realistic for both schedules because you don’t want to anger them, or
for them to think badly of you.
Here are some comments that might help you get control of
your business so you can participate in the events that are necessary for the development
of your skills and business.
Policies
Too many small businesses don’t have policies, not even
small ones to decide how to make some decisions. These could be about when and how to pay for
your services, or a 5 day turn around (keeps you on top of work, and customers
know they don’t have to pressure for completion because their work will be done
in turn, and there are others before them).
Your emergencies are not necessarily our priority! Another policy could be that you take time to
‘sharpen your saw’ per Stephen Covey and attend seminars and trade shows relevant
to your business.
Priorities
You are entitled to set your own priorities based on your
needs, whether they are business needs, health and safety (not driving in a
blizzard), family, rest, or a badly needed vacation. Others have a vacation, you should too!
Whilst all customers are important, some are more so than
others. I once had to let a customer
find his own solution. I was responsible
for a multi-million dollar account, and another prospect had called in out of
the blue and needed someone out there right away. So I wiggled a bit of time and went on site. It was a small job and would be time consuming
and expensive to do. He proceeded to tell
me how to do it, and I had to sharpen my pencil because he had other prices. I discussed my current priorities and said I couldn’t
drop what I was doing, I needed some time to clear my desk so I could concentrate
on getting him a proper proposal and a good price, so give me a few days and I
could make some calls to suppliers and get a proper quote for him. He had already called before I got back to the
office wanting the price, and called 3 times 15 minutes apart that afternoon. Each time I explained we had discussed the
timing, and I would get him a price as soon as I had this one job off my desk
and he had to stop interrupting me. In the end, he said he could do it faster
himself, so I said to go ahead. The
priority was the big account which was our bread and butter, and not someone
with a high PITA factor who was trying to bully me and would cause a problem
with my main account.
Policies and Priorities make it easy to deal with Squirrels
and Shiny things (unexpected distractions and opportunities). You can decide if you should use them now,
put them in your parking lot, or toss them.
Planning
Build in the time to attend events, and deal with unexpected
problems. Evaluate the past few weeks –
in 40 hours (more or less), were a few hours – like 12 or 20 dealing with emergency
walk-ins? Do you run an emergency clinic
or a business? Is this the way it
is? Then plan what you can plan, and leave
room in the schedule for walk-ins. This
worked quite well for one of my clients.
She found she had 2 days worth of emergencies a week, so she put her
‘shoulds’ into the calendar, then planned about 3 days, so had room and time
for the other 2. She also stated her time
constraints and negotiated for a more realistic customer deadline, taking her needs
into account.
Knowing what she had on her plate and the time available
gave her a more solid footing and was key to her success.
Mind you, a snow storm can wreak all sorts of havoc on
plans, but most people understand if you communicate about it.
The opposite example would be a knee jerk reaction
without thought of priority or planning.
This is what happens when your decisions cause you to cancel something: a
customer calls you with a problem that has to be fixed ‘right away’! You had an appointment with a colleague or
another customer. You cancel it, and have
to reschedule. Your schedule is messed
up and you screw up the schedule for that colleague or customer and perhaps others
around them and put them behind by however long it takes to get it back into
your schedule.
Planning is key in any business. If you take some time on a regular basis and evaluate
priorities and opportunities, you won’t miss important events. You won’t scramble because you know ‘what you
have to do next’ and can make decisions based on your Policies and Priorities.
So do look at your year, put those trade shows and seminars
back on the schedule. Connecting and
‘sharpening your saw’ per Stephen Covey are a very important priority. Figure out your lead time for longer projects
and schedule it. Plan around it. If something comes up, maybe you can do it if
you get up a bit earlier and still make that event you wanted to attend.
