Owning a business – it can be tricky and a little frustrating at times, but when you do it with love, only some (cue the tax portion) of it really feels like “work”.
As a little caveat to my normal talk of organizing, I feel that it’s also REALLY important to talk about how to maintain a healthy, ORGANIZED business in today’s society. Here are a few tips and tricks that will go a long way if you use them consistently:
Thank You Cards
- A journalist covered a story about your business? Thank You Card
- A colleague took you to dinner? Thank You Card
- Someone you barely know going out of their way to do something helpful? You guessed it, Thank You card.
Not only is this a thoughtful gesture, but your gratitude goes a LONG way.
Organize!
- Your schedule – Sit down on Sunday night and map out each day of the week with your work tasks. Write down all of your appointments, meetings and due dates on the same calendar and it will be almost IMPOSSIBLE to forget something. Don’t believe me? Try it!
- Your workflow – this is a big one. To un-frustrate your day to day, you MUST have an organized workflow.
- Your processes – Each task broken down and created in a sequence will save you so much time in the long run. You will be thanking your lucky stars when you’ve discovered an extra hour in the day from getting your ducks in a row.
- Set one goal for the week in terms of what you want to achieve in your business. This will keep you organized and more importantly, FOCUSED!
Connect Others
- Who likes a greedy person – always ‘hands out’ with nothing to give in return? No one, that’s who. When you have an awesome contact, share it! There’s enough out there for everyone and I promise, you will get your piece of the pie.
- Only connect if the relationship will be reciprocal.
Give People Your Full Attention
- I cannot stress this one enough. Whether you’re in the doctor’s office and you feel like you only came to pay your copay and be rushed off so another copay can sit in your spot or you’re at dinner with a phone-zombie (this is the modern day ‘always on their phone’ type), we all know how uncomfortable it feels to be dismissed. Everyone’s time is valuable, not just yours.
And just for the heck of it, here is a little nugget that I like to use not only in my business, but also in every day circumstances. When in conversation, use “we” instead of “I”. No one gets to the top by their own doing. NO ONE. Remember that it took a village and never forget to include them in the victory.
If you’ve made it to the end of this blog, good for you for wanting to make a difference. Now, go be great!
