Key Areas of Your Business

While in Toronto in early November at the Professional Organizers in Canada annual conference I attended a workshop delivered by Deanne Kelleher from Kaos Group called “Essential and Powerful Business Tools”.  The session made me realize how many systems all of us small business owners should have in place and perhaps don’t, myself included.  If only I could find the time!

Here are the key areas of our business that Deanne suggests we have systems for:

1. Customer Relations Management – simply using the Notes field in your existing customer contact database to record conversations, TY notes sent and referrals is a good place to start.  Also keep track of who subscribes to your newsletter.
2. Marketing and Networking – set goals for your newsletter distribution and track how many subscribers you have, how many you want and how much business comes from your newsletter.  Track how many business cards you give out in a year.  Look at your website analytics regularly.  If you write articles which ones create the most website traffic?
3. Email – create an FAQ section on your website to handle potential customer inquiries and create a standard email in your ‘Drafts’ folder for respond to routine inquiries.  Create a thank you email to send to each new person you meet asking them to subscribe to your newsletter.  Consider including a link to your newsletter in your email signature.
4. Process and Procedure – create an Operations Manual (ugh!) which includes administrative procedures, communication processes, goals, year end procedures, and much more.
5. Social Media – think about what you are saying and to whom.  How often are you saying it and where.  Does it work?  Is your goal to educate or acquire?  Are you connected to your ideal clients?
6. Tracking – what will you track and when?  How will you track it?  Why are you tracking it?

I don’t know about you, but I think I need to hire Deanne to help me figure out how to get all of this done!

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Can You Live a Good Enough Life?

I am fascinated by how the concept of ‘good enough’ relates to being organized and our many attempts to be what we perceive as ‘well organized’.  What does being organized mean to you?  Most likely not the same as it does to your spouse, your best friend or your children.

What if, instead of constantly striving to be more organized, better organized or even, heaven forbid, perfectly organized we strove for ‘good enough’.  According to Sarah Hampson the author of an article entitled, The Secret to happiness? Live a ‘good enough’ life,  “. . . when you don’t expect much, when you manage the ideas of what you think your life should be, you can be pleasantly surprised – and grateful – for the good fortune that comes your way.”

Somehow this sounds like lowering expectations, reducing the standards of what is acceptable and seems to me like settling for mediocrity.  Not acceptable to someone like me who is a recovering perfectionist and still battling with doing my ‘best’ instead of striving for ‘perfect’.  So, the concept of good enough doesn’t sit well with me but I know for many of you it might be just what you need.

If your kitchen drawers are organized so that you can find what you need but you don’t have those fancy dividers that you saw in a friends kitchen that might just be good enough?  If your clothes are all hanging up but not on matching hangers is that good enough?  If your papers are all off the floor and in tidy piles on your desk where you can put your fingers on what you need that might just be good enough.  If your email inbox is down to 50 messages, instead of 500, maybe that is good enough?

I like the idea of good enough as opposed to perfectly organized as it does allow us to lower our expectations of what organized means and move towards a level of organization that is achievable.  I think this concept is especially important for those who don’t like to spend their time organizing or find it difficult to know when to stop organizing. 

What we see in magazines and on television is often not realistic and perhaps that is where some of our expectations of perfectly organized come from?  Have you ever noticed the desk in the corner of the living room on a makeover show with a computer on it but not a single cord in sight nor a stitch of paper – no matter how organized we are our space will never look like that so perhaps lowering our expectations is exactly what the doctor ordered!

Everything in life seems to come back to deciding what matters most.  As long as your home and office are organized ‘enough’ so that you can function effectively and enjoy your space, forget about what others may think and go with what works for you.  I think the summer is the perfect time to try some ‘good enough’ thinking – at least for you my dear readers even if not for me!

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Is Email Overload Turning You Into a Hamster?

Yup, here I am yet again ranting about email productivity, or lack thererof!

I’m reading this great book about email entitled The Hamster Revolution. Though I’ve studied this subject a lot, I like the creative approach to explaining what email overload can do to us – it can turn us all into tiny hamsters running on a hamster wheel 7 days a week trying to keep up.

The book really brings home two keys to managing email before it manages you.

1. Reduce Email Volume
2. Improve Email Quality

The authors explain three key questions to ask yourself as you work on reducing email volume.  The idea being that if  you send less email you will receive less email. 

• Is Your Email Needed? Does my busy recipient truly need this email to do his or her job? “Send we-mail instead of me-mail“, the authors suggest.  Don’t you love it!
• Is Email the Appropriate Communication Tool? Email is company property and is stored forever and can be reviewed or forwarded at anytime anywhere.
• Is Your Message Targeted? Is your message being sent to the right people in the right way? Decrease your use of Reply All, CC and Distribution Lists.

Improving email quality has two components.  Write really good subject lines and sculpt the body of the message.

• Good subject lines are absolutely crucial to clear, easy and quick communication via email.  The book suggests putting 1 of 5 action words in every subject line: Action, Info, Request, Confirmed, and Delivery. And then writing a good descriptive title describing the project or using specific dates, times & places when referring to the topic at hand.
• The authors suggest sculpting the body of your email using a method called A-B-C.  A if for Action Summary, then B for Background and finally C for Close.  The Action Summary is a sentence that describes a specific action, purpose or key point.  The Background is the body of your message.  Try using bullet points, numbering and keep it short and to the point.  The Close is the place to include a nice comment, describe next steps, and include your automatic signature.

These are all concepts that I teach in each and every Take Control of Email workshop I do and in my Email Organizing Basics on-line web session.  However, clarifying them in this way seems to make the concepts easier to remember. Thanks Hamster Guys!

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Preparing Your Business for 2011

At this time of year I always start to get into what I like to call ‘Clean Up and Get Organized for the New Year’ mode in my business.  Somehow, I always look forward to this process. For me it involves several steps which many of you may find it helpful to consider.

1. Purging Paper & Electronic Information - like many of you I accumulate a lot of paper and electronic information throughout the year, some of which I never use. There’s no better feeling than going through all the paper files and shredding a bunch, going through my ‘My Documents’ folder and either archiving or deleting a bunch of files and finally going through all my email folders from this year and either archiving or deleting a bunch of that information.  Somehow this process always seems to shift the energy around a bit and make room for new and exciting projects each new year.
2. Getting Ready for Canada Revenue - I have to say that all of us small business owners certainly do have to be well organized on the financial records side of our business in case our friends at CRA come calling.  I firmly believe that if I’m well organized and keep good records there is less likelihood that will happen but if it does I’ll be well prepared. I can pull any piece of   information they may require on a moment’s notice including invoices, expense receipts, HST returns, my calendar with all appointments,  monthly financial statements and the all important Automobile Mileage Log (to purchase yours go to http://www.janetheorganizer.com/productsforsale_automileagelog.html)  for the past 7 years.  The two things that they love to audit us home-based businesses for are ‘office-use-of-home’ expenses and ‘vehicle expenses’, so be sure to have those records in tip top shape and easily accessible.  In addition, HST audits are quite common so being able to produce your records in a timely fashion can make this process almost painless.
3. Creating A New Budget - I always like to challenge myself to ‘stretch goals’ on the revenue side and then see how little I can get away with spending on the expense side while still growing the business.  This year I’m thinking about a few new budget items such as a Smartphone (yeah, yeah, I know I’m so behind on that one), a part-time Personal Assistant (too exciting), and maybe even my dream of a Training Video.  Having a monthly budget and reviewing it twice per month is one of the key success factors to any business, large or small.
4. Annual Planning - in addition to creating a new budget, I schedule a yearly annual planning session for 1 or 2 days with my mastermind group(s) to brainstorm ideas for the next year or so.  This will involve both my personal and professional life and is a chance for some free thinking with no limitations.  A chance to review outstanding projects and think of new ones.  A chance to dream big and share those dreams with others.  And finally the time to put it all in writing, decide my priorities for the next year, and make a committment to others in my mastermind group to work on those priorities or, if I don’t, to have a good reason for changing them.

Whew, aren’t you exhausted just thinking about all this? Now we all have to go and book time in our calendar over the holiday season to get working on #1 to #3.  In my business #4 will be happening in two phases, one in January and the other in March.  However, you may decide to do something completely different like attend a workshop or hire someone to help you through the process.  Remember the adage, “Poor Prior Planning leads to P… Poor Performance”.

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Post Conference Overwhelm – Whew!

Here I sit in my office rather late on Sunday evening after a full day of financial paperwork for my business and my husband’s.  Catch up as a result of all the time I have spent at various Conference sessions in the last week or so.

I attended the Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) Conference in Montreal from November 5th to 7th and the Centre for Women in Business (CWB) Conference here in Halifax on November 12th.  I am definitely ‘all conferenced out’, but I have to say it was so worth it.

It’s my once a year chance to rejuvenate myself, learn from others, reconnect with organizing friends from across the country and establish stronger connections with women right here in my own backyard.  Several messages came across loud and clear, funnily enough, at both Conferences, go figure!

Use technology to your best advantage to make your business as efficient as possible but don’t get carried away with the latest online tool just because it’s new and looks cool. 

• Doodle – for scheduling with multiple people and your assistant
• Postling – to manage all your social media
• ReQall –  for voice to text while you’re on the road
• Dropbox – for online file syncing and sharing on multiple computers
• Google’s PasswordSafe – for keeping your passwords

The second message that came through loud and clear is the need for business owners, especially us organizers, to relinquish control of our business by hiring some help, outsourcing or bringing in partners and associates who complement our own skills.  My first step will be to hire a part-time personal assistant early in 2011 and then to start thinking about another staff member to work with me on client projects.  It is simply not possible to build a profitable long-term business without getting some help, not matter how hard it will be!

The final message is around the profitability subject and that is to get your finances under total control.  Build a business and personal budget and stick to it, work with a banker who understands small business, get a good tax accountant and incorporate your business as soon as it makes financial sense (for me that was three years ago). 

Yup, you guessed it, my first step before anything else is to book an appointment with a lawyer and get moving on the incorporation!  Ugh, the thought of the work involved in transitioning makes me cringe but I must soldier on.  Wish me luck!

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Those Darn ‘To Do’s’

I’m thinking about ‘To Do’s’ because there are just too darn many of them!  

If I look at my ‘To Do’s’ from this past week there are 51 items that I put on the various days this week and all but 4 of them are complete – this blogpost is the next one I can check off – yippee!  No wonder I’m exhausted – 51 ‘To Do’s’ crammed into an already fully booked week . . . . it’s so time for a nap.

I was chatting with a client yesterday who has finally got a reliable system for tracking her ‘To Do’s’ so they are now in one place.  Before she started using the Task list in Outlook she had ‘To Do’s’ in many places – on specially designed sheets just for that purpose, buried in her email inbox, in meeting notes, in her planning calendar and worst of all in her head!  The drawback to now having them all in one place is that she realizes how many there actually are which can be a bit scary. However, even though she is struggling with getting them done on the day she plans to do them, she does feel far more in control knowing they are all in one place and she can re-assign them throughout the week.

All this to say that making lists doesn’t actually accomplish anything other than gathering everything in one place and getting it out of your head.  Setting the intention to actually accomplish the specific items on the lists only happens when you make a concious decision on each and every item and decide when you will do it. You are usually going to have 3 categories of ‘To Do’s’ – do now, do soon, do someday.  The ‘do now’ and ‘do soon’ items should all be assigned a specific day whereas the ‘do someday’ will eventually either become ‘do soon’ or ‘do now’ or they will be deleted once you get really tired of looking at them on your list – ha!

You can effectively manage your ‘To Do’s’ with either a paper-based or electronic system.  I learned on paper 15 years ago from my friends at Priority Management and have been loosely following their system ever since.  I am in the process of considering switching to using Outlook but am delayed because I can’t decide which Smartphone to buy, darn it!  Without a Smartphone that gives me access to my Calendar and Tasks in Outlook there is no point switching from my paper system since I’m always out of my office and need my planning and organizing system by my side at all times.

I guess I’d better keep putting ‘Get a smartphone’ on my ‘To Do’ list until I finally get tired of looking at it and just take the plunge and buy one.

Well, kids, could go on and on, but gotta run and check some ‘To Do’s’ off my list!

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Your Brain at Work – Collaboration

Alright, where were we?  I’ve been on vacation and I think my brain went to sleep over the course of the last week.  As you can tell I’m back to digging through my notes from the webinar series ’Your Brain at Work’ with Dr. David Rock.

Our third session was all about how we know, understand and get along (or don’t) with each other and even more interesting, about how we influence each other.  Dr. Rock introduced us to the SCARF model.  S = Status, C = Certainty, A = Autonomy, R = Relatedness, and F = Fairness. 

Let’s start with status. Wow, does this subject speak to our ego or what?  Status is all about our perception of our position relative to another person or our pecking order.  We attempt to make ourselves feel better by trying to raise our status. We do this be being taller (I’m all over that one!), more attractive, the way we dress, etc.  The expectation of a status increase is rewarding hence the reason we crave it.  Sometimes we can raise our status by being better than we were before.  Most arguments ensue over right and wrong which is really all about status.

Now to certainty or perhaps uncertainty.  Uncertainty makes us anxious.  In general we raise certainty by understanding which is why we are often looking for more information.

Autonomy is one term I am familiar with – it’s all about being in control and making my own choices.

Relatedness is our connection with others whom we trust.  We classify people as friend or foe, people we trust or distrust and we connect with some people and not others.  When we are working in a group we feel the emotions of others and often the person with the strongest emotion (either positive or negative) will take over the group.

Last but certainly not least there is fairness.  I don’t know about you, but I was always taught to share my toys or chocolate bars.  Splitting anything fairly makes us feel good.

In what order would you rate the 5 elements?  Which is most important to you?  Which is least important?  Here is how they stacked up for me:

1. Autonomy
2. Certainty
3. Fairness
4. Status
5. Relatedness

The decisions I make when I am working with others are based on my preferences.  We all need to ask ourselves how we can be mindful of the 5 elements and make changes  to help minimize threat and maximize reward for others.  How can I raise the status of the people I work with to maximize the reward they feel? Not how do I raise my own status thereby making others feel threatened. 

Oh my, all so very fascinating.   Stay tuned next week for the final entry on this subject where I’ll attempt to tie this all together in my brain.

If you want to learn more, check out the Results Coaches website.

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Your Brain at Work – Emotional Regulation

During our second webinar on The Brain at Work, David Rock focused on our emotions and how our brain regulates emotion and how we might be able to have some control over that.

The first piece of the discussion that I found interesting was the concept of how our limbic system works.  The limbic system helps us decide if something is good or bad for us.  Our brain wants to minimize danger and maximize reward.  Therefore, we run away from danger faster than we run towards reward.  

In addition, a threat causes more adrenalin and alertness.  Uncertainty is a threat – so does that mean that in a sense we crave uncertainty?  I think about the work I am doing now with overcoming procrastination and discussions I have had with clients about the rush they get from doing things at the last minute.  Perhaps it is related to the way our limbic system functions – fascinating, no?

Here is the part where this discussion related to our ability to be organized and manage our time.  When we experience a threat response here is what takes place:

• Reduced working memory – we hold less information
• Increased motor funcitons – fidgeting, etc.
• Reduced field of view – you see less information
• Generalizing of threats – you make accidental connections with negative things
• Erring on the side of pessimism

Are those not all productivity killers – holy cow batman!

Therefore, if we want to learn to perform at our best we have to learn to regulate our emotions.  When you are threatened and feel an emotion, you can do 1 of 3 things:

1. express your emotion – we are taught not to express emotion, but to suppress it
2. suppress your emotion – when you suppress emotion it either stays the same or gets worse.
3. cognitive change – this involves invoking the brains’ braking system

Cognitive change happens most successfully through reappraisal.  This involves changing the interpretation of the situation that causes the emotion.  Since I am certainly no expert on this topic, I suggest you visit David’s website or pick up his book ‘Your Brain at Work’ to study these techniques further.

What I did find interesting for me personally on the subject of reappraisal is that apparently realistic, logical people (that’s me) have trouble with reappraisal and tend to suppress their emotions instead.  I’m doomed, people!

One technique that many of us apply is setting expectations, which is  like regulating our emotions in advance.  If we meet our expectations then the dopamine in our brain goes up and this gives us a small reward.  If we exceed our expectations we get even more of a reward.  However, if we do not meet our expectations our dopamine drops and that poses a threat.

OK, so we run away from threat faster than we run toward reward so, therefore, do we set lower expectations for ourselves so that we always feel good?  Now I’m confused again.  This stuff is not easy, is it?

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The Need for Control

Three weeks ago we began a small renovation project in our house on our downstairs laundry and bathroom.  What does that have to do with control you might ask?

Well, I have had a very interesting revelation in the last week or so.  Let me start at the beginning.  As you can imagine, my house is pretty darn neat and tidy pretty much all the time.  It has always been that way and I feel that because I am a Professional Organizer now I am obligated to practice what I preach so it’s just something I work on every day.

As you can imagine, with a renovation going on, chaos has ensued.  The only rooms that are untouched by clutter and things being where they don’t belong are the master bedroom and bath, the kitchen. and my office.  That means that the sitting room, living room, and the entire downstairs are a disaster.  Dirt gets tracked through the entire house every day and we attempt to clean it up.  The downstairs bathroom is completely torn apart down to the stud walls and concrete floor and there is a huge pile of garbage building up outside the house.

So, here’s my discovery.  I am a bit of a control freak – no surprise to many of you I’m sure!  However, because I have no control over my house and won’t for another 2 or 3 weeks I am having trouble concentrating on work and relaxing when I’m not working.  Now I know how many of my clients must feel every single day. Somehow having an organized home and office allows many of us to feel that we have some control over our lives.  And the reverse is also true. When we feel our lives are out of control it tends to manifest itself in the external chaos in our homes and offices.

Therefore, my conclusion is that I feel in control of my entire life because I am able to keep my home and office tidy, have a place for everything, feel more focused and relax when I need to.  If your life is out of control on all fronts, perhaps getting even one room in your home organized or tackling your office, will help you regain control of your life and have a positive impact in many other ways.

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