Back on track
I’m pleased to say that we’ve got our worklog back on track. Digging out the previous week’s backup did unearth a couple more missing tasks but I’m now feeling much more confident that it’s up-to-date. The lesson I will take away from this is to not mess with Excel filtering on a vitally important spreadsheet – from now on I’ll always work on a copy if I want to manipulate the data. Not the most efficient way of working, but much more efficient than having to recreate a broken spreadsheet!
Technology or human error?
I’ve just discovered something rather worrying. We track our current task list on a spreadsheet which we call our ‘worklog’. It’s a central place for us to record everything that needs doing, whether it’s client work or business tasks, which we can both access. The idea is that we have a reliable place to track the jobs we need to do rather than keeping it all in our heads or on random bits of paper. We’ve been using it for a few years now and it’s worked really well for us. Until this morning…
What I discovered this morning is that a load of what was in there has been duplicated and a load of other stuff has gone missing (and not because they’re tasks we’ve completed). Eek! I’m trying to figure out if it’s something I’ve done but there’s so much wrong that I can’t see how I could have accidentally done it without noticing. Or is it because I was using some filtering to inspect different parts of the list? But filtering a spreadsheet shouldn’t mess with the data should it?
What’s going on??
I’ve spent the last hour removing duplicate entries and brainstorming anything that should be on there … but the whole point of it is that I shouldn’t have to remember everything so I’m sure there will be things I’ve missed. Might have to dig out last week’s backup, but of course that will only give me what was included a week ago, a lot of which we would have done anyway. Am also going through emails from clients to make sure I’m not missing anything there.
What a nuisance!
The importance of business planning
My last post was a review of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People last September – now that doesn’t make me feel like a highly effective person! But I’m still here, still reading lots of business books and working hard at my business.
The last year has been an interesting one. We moved into our office last June and our finances instantly took a turn for the worse. But we didn’t let that stop us. We tightened our belts and did some serious financial planning to make sure that we started bringing in enough money to cover costs and our living expenses. As a result I feel much more in control of our finances and have got a detailed budget for the different areas of running the business. And I’m pleased to say that business has picked up again and our finances are looking healthier than they have done for quite a while.
The last few months we’ve had a lot of work on, so we’ve mostly been keeping our heads down and working at keeping on top of our workload, but this week has sparked off a new phase of business planning. Wednesday turned into an “Emily you MUST do some business planning” day. First thing was my weekly business breakfast at Tregenna Castle, St Ives where we were given inspirational talk on branding by Joy of Approach (thanks Joy!). We (that is myself and my partner) then went off for a meeting with a business mentor – this was a guy we’d met a couple of times before but hadn’t seen for a loooong time. It was great to catch up with him and as always he was overflowing with ideas on how we can develop our business.
The result of this is that we’ve agreed to set aside a half day each week to concentrate on business planning and implementing the ideas – with the focus on taking action. It’s not that we haven’t been thinking about business planning for the last six months, but we do tend to get caught up in working for the business rather than developing the business. So, now we’re looking at things with renewed vigour. Let’s see what we can achieve!
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
A book like this should be a pleasure to read – you should be able to whizz through it and feel inspired to put it into practice. Unfortunately it’s having the opposite effect on me – I’m finding it too dense and have had to foce myself to pick it up each time. So, less than half way through I’m giving up.
I’m sure it must be me and not the book. I really do want to be a highly effective person but I suspect that there are ways of getting the message across that will suit me better. Might have to head back over to Michael Heppel, who I know applies some of Stephen Covey’s techniques – but in a more Emily-friendly way.
Rating: 
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Been on holiday … to Cornwall
Are you ready for a bit of a sob story? We had a holiday to Spain planned this week. It was going to be our first trip abroad for about five years. My parents flew out a few days before and we were to join them on Tuesday for some serious relaxation.
But … the French decided to strike on exactly the day we were to fly out so our flight was cancelled! As there are only two flights a week from Newquay there wasn’t an awful lot we could do about it. So there went our Spanish holiday.
However, we decided to make the most of it. We live in Cornwall after all which is the perfect place to have a holiday anyway. And we’ve had some glorious weather. So we’ve been real tourists for the last few days – went for a wander round Newlyn and had an icecream from Jelberts; went for a walk along the coast to Botallack and had dinner at the Queens Arms (yum); and had a day out shopping in Truro, with lunch at good old Fodders.
Not quite what we had planned but a really chilled out few days. Back to work with a vengeance on Monday!
Nearly managed it
I’ve got a confession to make. I didn’t fully complete the last week of my 28-day marketing program. I kept putting it to one side and then all of a sudden it was the end of the week. At the weekend I went through my list and was pleased to be able to tick some of the actions off, things which I had just naturally done, but I’d completed nowhere near as much as I had planned.
It’s a bit disappointing because I’d been sticking to it so well and I missed out on that feeling of satisfaction of having kept to it to the end. However, I’m still feeling very positive about the whole thing. I exceeded the goal I had set myself (certain number of new prospects) and could really tell that my activities were having a positive effect. Definitely worth doing.
So, I’m planning another 28 days to start in a couple of weeks time. I’m going to keep the activities that were obviously working and try out a few new things. Now that I’ve used the book a few times I’ve got to the point where I’m adapting it to suit how I work. I’m going to use my own tracking sheet as I wasn’t finding the book’s way of doing it to really worked for me – wasn’t giving me an idea of how much of the week’s program I’d completed. I’m also going to skip the daily pep talk. I can see what the author intends with that but I think that after having read it a few times it’s losing its impact.
Looking forward to making a start on the next 28 days!
Those extra special touches
I found myself doing something last week that I never do. I placed an order with a cold caller. Really, I never ever do that – hate cold calls and never buy anything over the phone (or on the doorstep for that matter). But last week I did.
Actually, from the point of view of the caller it was probably a cold call but at my end it was much warmer. Why? Because I’d already heard of the company and at one point had considered buying from them but for some reason never got round to it. He also phoned at exactly the right moment as I was needing to order some stationery (he was phoning from an office supplies company). In fact at that exact moment I had a slip of paper on my desk in front of me saying ‘buy printer cartridges’. So, he was onto a winner wasn’t he? I knew the company, I had wanted to use them and I had a need for their products.
So I ordered a couple of things on the spot. Not a massive order but we generally don’t need much stuff. The order promptly arrived the next day along with a packet of chocolate biscuits – now they know the way to a girl’s heart don’t they? And that’s really the point of this blog post. It’s the special touches like that that really make a difference. I’d already had a good experience through placing the order but I’m really going to remember them now aren’t I? And I found myself talking about it at my business breakfast on Tuesday – not because I consciously thought ‘let’s plug my new stationery supplier’ but because I wanted to tell everybody about the biscuits.
In case you happen to be in Cornwall, the company I’m talking about is Office Smart. I’ve only placed the one order so far but it was an excellent first impression. Now, I wonder if they can help us with our filing cabinet problem…
That light bulb moment
Inspiration is a funny thing isn’t it? Sometimes you can’t get hold of it however hard you try and sometimes it just comes to you. Maybe that’s it, maybe inspiration is something that you can’t force, maybe you just have to let it happen.
Last night I was trying to think of a subject for a blog post for our web design blog. As part of my 28-day marketing plan I’m writing at least one blog post each week – the last couple of weeks I’ve done a two-parter on how to make the most of your website. So, yesterday being the start of a new week I wanted to start planning this week’s post. But could I think of anything? Nope, not a sausage.
And then while I was waking up this morning an idea came to me. So much so that it stuck in my head and I had to get up and write it down. So, since 6.30 this morning I’ve been sat with my laptop drafting this week’s blog post. A productive start to the day but I would have liked another 30 minutes of snoozing. Now all I need to do is proofread and add it to the site – might even manage that later on today.
Week three of marketing program
I’m starting week three of my marketing program today. Last week I didn’t keep on top of my daily actions as much as I would have liked. The week certainly wasn’t a complete write-off, but there was one day when it really didn’t happen. So, I need to start this week with renewed energy. Anyone got any spare energy they can lend me?
Overall I’m definitely feeling the benefit of following the program, it’s providing me with structure for my marketing activities and a means of tracking results. Results so far are very encouraging. I’m beginning to get a feel for which of my daily actions are most effective, and which I could probably replace with something else. For example, going to a couple of networking events each week I’m sure is doing me some good, but the online networking I do every day isn’t very successful. It’s not that I’m expecting instant results from it, it’s just that I’m not really feeling like I’m engaging with anyone at all. Actually, writing this makes me realise that it’s not necessarily the activity that is a problem, but that I need to improve how I go about it. I’d better give some thought to that and see if I can turn it around over the next couple of weeks.
Why do pyramid schemes make me uncomfortable?
At breakfast yesterday morning one of our regulars gave me some information on a pyramid scheme that she’s getting involved with. Now, she’s someone that I’ve been breakfasting with for several months now so there’s a certain level of trust there. So, why does the idea of signing up to it make me so uncomfortable?
It’s one of those schemes where you get a certain amount of money for what you do and also a cut from anyone that you introduce, and presumably from anyone that they introduce etc. That’s why it’s a pyramid. I don’t know exactly where it came from but I’ve got this ingrained suspicion of this type of scheme. Is it just gut feeling?
I think part of my problem is that I believe that making money can’t be that easy – money is something that you should earn, with hard work. I’m a strong believer in hard work – working hard on my business gives me a sense of achievement.
Am I looking a gift horse in the mouth? Or am I actually being very sensible following my intuition?
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