Standing Out

Recently I had a frank discussion with my sister about the goings-on in my life, and I was complaining about the fact that I never seem to get anything accomplished - at least not what I set out to do. Things always come up that throw me off.

She responded with something so simple that it’s almost impossible to do, because we are highly complex beings that expect things to be more difficult than they are.

She said, ‘Bind yourself to your word.’ Essentially, when you say you’re going to do something - force yourself to go through with it. Don’t lie to yourself. Keep the promises you make to yourself.

Seems easy, right? Wrong. We keep promises to others because of our reputation with them…

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I’ve come across more than two handfuls of articles that say that small business owners are ones to haphazardly chase after new ideas, start a million things at once, try this & try that, waste money going in a million different directions, etc. We want to make money. We want to change the world with our sweet new idea. We want everyone to love and adore us for making their lives, their office, their relationships or their future that much better. But once we get our brilliant idea going a bit, our wandering eyes are distracted by that guy’s brilliant idea, and so our wheels get turning to try and figure out how we can make that successful, too.

Like it or not, these theories about the behavior or small business owners and entrepreneurs are actually very true. As entrepreneurs, it’s in our DNA to try new things, discover new ideas and work them out, and to try, try again.

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You’ve probably been there. You’re checking your email and see something from a client and you’re sooooo tempted to open it. You tell yourself that you’ll open it, but whatever the need is can wait until you’re “working” again. So you open it, but the request is so simple, right? It’ll just take a second.

So you do it. And instantly, you’re working. Even though it’s 10 PM. On Saturday.

Seriously. Does this sound like you? If so, it’s because you (and I) need to set email answering hours and actually keep them. Not just working hours. Email “answering” hours. Because more often than not, if you answer your email, you’re working. Even just thinking about a client request can technically be classified as working.

In the B2B world, setting email answering hours and informing your client of them should not set off any alarms. In fact, chances are that your client either already has established this practice or deep down, really wants to, so it won’t be a shocker.

So give yourself a break and get organized. Say, yes, I work at home (or on the road with my Blackberry or whatever), but, I answer client email from X AM to Y PM and stick to that. Say to your client, if it’s urgent, give me a call. That way, you’re still accessible in case of an emergency, but you’ve got work boundaries that you would probably have if you worked in an office away from your home, right?

I have a client that actually has an auto-responder that informs you of his email answering hours. I don’t need to adopt that method, but his principle is right on. In order to stay organized and manage your time more effectively, not to mention keeping your sanity, do yourself a favor and set some email hours and stick to them. Do this for two weeks and if it doesn’t work and you don’t feel better, come back and say I told you so!

–Tia

In the pursuit of more & more business, make sure you bite off only what you can chew…and make sure it’s work you WANT to do. I’ve made the mistake, in the past, of accepting work I didn’t really want, and paying out the nose for it in time and effort.

It’s OK to decline an offer for work; however, if you commit to something, you have to see it through. Moral? Be choosy. Even in the “strugglin’” days.

OK so maybe not better, but different in a very good way.

I was drafting a status e-mail to one of my clients tonight, and it was amazing the clarity that came as a result of it. When I sit down to write a to-do list, it always fills up with junk! When I sit down to write a status email - lo and behold…a to-do list! Really. I suddenly had my to-do list (or a portion of it) and it came so much more easily to mind than it would have if I had said to myself “Self, let’s come up with a to-do list.”

So here’s my advice. Draft status memos for each of your clients (even if they haven’t asked for one). As you’re drafting the status, categorize it by completed, and to-do (this week) and to-do (next week - or just skip next week. One week at a time!). You’ll discover, if you’re like me and you have a lot of work, that as you’re typing up your ‘completed’ section, all of your ‘to-do’ tasks become very obvious. Write those under the to-do section and sub-categorize them by day. Then, put all of your to-do tasks from all of your clients in a list.

Tada! To-do list magic. AND status memo magic. Status memos are extremely helpful even when they aren’t requested. For one thing, they help you see how much work you’re actually doing for your client! Two, they show you how you’ve spent your time (most of my time today was spent working stuff out with the baby). Three, they put your work right in your face so you have a better understanding of your workload so that you can say “yes” or “no” with confidence to future requests.

Cheers! Enjoy making your status memos!