I feel so alone

At some point, pretty much every single one of my coaching client says “I feel so alone”. This aloneness, this isolation, takes a few different forms but comes down to two different causes:

You’re trying to run your business all by yourself;

You alone.

You have no one to bounce ideas off and synergise with.

Brainstorming isn’t effective when it’s just you.

You’re trying to do every single task yourself, from your core business that only you can do to your bookkeeping to your filing. Every single task.

It’s easy to get stuck in a business problem and be unable to get your head around a solution

Or

You’re not looking after yourself

You’re always working, not taking time off for your kids or partner. You know you should, but there’s so much work to be done!

You’re a single parent, which means you’re mum, dad, breadwinner, business owner, everything. The last person you have time to look after is yourself.

You’re trying to look after young children and run a business at the same time. This is why you started a home based business, right? So you could be home and look after the kids and still contribute to the family budget.

Feeling guilty about taking time off when you ‘should’ be working. There’s work to be done, and you’re the one who has to do it. How can you take a break when you can see what you need to be doing?

When you’re trying to run your business all by yourself

If you’re in the first group then the solution is relatively easy. Do any or all of the following:

Get a Business Coach.

Join a Coaching Group.

Find an online Business forum, such as Business Mums Network.

Look for someone in your industry who is willing to mentor you.

Hire a real life assistant or a VA.

Take a break to clear your head.

Become part of an online group of work at home mums, such as Mom Entrepreneurs on google groups.

When you’re not looking after yourself

Getting out from the thought patterns of the second group can be a little harder, because the best answer is to get out of the house and around other people. That takes time and effort, also it’s time away from your business.  And it’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

Where do you find the time? Something has to give, and it’s better if it’s some part of your business rather than your sanity or family. So, decide what HAS to be done by you and do it.

Streamline everything you can.

Outsource where possible.

Look for faster ways to do things.

Become more organised and streamlined in your working.

‘Batch’ your work – do emails twice a day, paperwork once a day/week, group like tasks together.

But doesn’t that take time to set up?

Yes, all of this takes time initially. You have to invest that time in order to free up time. Any task we do will expand to fill the time we have. If you have only one hour to do something that normally takes two, then you’re likely to work your butt off and get it done – in one hour.

Give yourself time off and hold that time sacred. Take time out for yourself. It doesn’t have to be a day at the spa, it doesn’t have to cost anything in money. Go for a walk or a bike ride. Leave the kids with your partner or a babysitter for a couple of hours. Bake cookies and catch up with girlfriends at someone’s house.

Make a connection

As human beings we’re designed for connectedness. We were never intended to live and work in isolation, our psyches aren’t designed to work best alone. No matter what some people will say, we ALL work better when we’re connected to others, be that on a business or personal level.

As women especially, we’re designed to congregate and socialise. Whether that’s talking with other mums about your business or your child’s latest toilet training accident, we all need and crave that connection. Denying that need starves you of emotional oxygen and slows you down.

Go out. Make a connection. Grow. Work well and profitably.

We’ve recently looked at Why we systemise our business, and How to write systems. Today we’re going to look at systemising your emails.

Firstly lets be clear on one point. You’ll never be able to pass off all emails to your VA and never deal with emails yourself again. No matter how much of a Tim Ferriss fan you are, it’s just not going to happen. Think about it, if you email me with a question about your business and Coaching, do you want it answered by a VA or would you like a personal answer?

What you can do is systemise and create templates for the most common questions that you’re emailed about, and delegate those. A PA/VA can be a great help in sorting emails, dealing with the run of the mill one’s, and freeing you up to deal with only those that require your personal attention.

What can you delegate? Questions that get asked regularly, invoices, payments and other accounting emails, quotes for work if you have ‘package’ options, stock ordering and supply, appointments, requests for non-personal information, the list goes on.

What should you deal with? Anything that is a one-off email, any complaints, requests for interviews, anything that requires a personal touch.

Why create templates for email? How often do you have to answer questions via email? If you’re having to rewrite the same answer to the same question each time then you need templates. Think about the questions that you’re asked. How many of them are similar enough that you can use a template or script to answer them? How much time will you save when you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and rewrite the emails every time?

So, the How. Where do you start? If you’re like 99.9% of Business Owners you already have the makings of email templates and scripts in your email client. Look through you sent emails, emails to clients, suppliers, contacts from your website etc.

Group all the questions you’ve been asked into like topics and use the emails you’ve written previously to create a standard template answer. Write the templates in word docs, and save them using the question as the file name.

Group the docs into folders based on what they refer to, such as ‘Quotes’, ‘Ordering’, Wholesalers’, etc. This makes it easy to find the doc again when you need.

Next time you receive an email asking for information, you simply go to the appropriate folder, copy and paste the template into an email. Check that it answers the question properly and send it off.

If you have a PA, VA or Admin Asst, they can more than pay for themselves by filtering your business email. They can deal with the standard emails that the templates work with, and anything that doesn’t have a template is sent off to you for answering.

What do you think? How could this work in your business? What questions are asked repeatedly?

Last week we looked at Why we Need Systems in our business, even in our micro business where there’s only one person doing everything. Today we’re going to look at How and Where to start building those systems.

It starts with you. You’re the boss. Your job is to plan for expansion, and this is the first step (after your business plan). McDonalds systems enable 16 year old kids to run a busy restaurant. Your systems will enable you to work more efficiently, to identify hiccups and roadblocks in your business and to get people to help you when you need it.

So where do you start?

The easiest way to start is to write down every hat you wear within your business – Receptionist, Bookkeeper, Manufacturer, Copywriter, Supplies, Order Fulfilment, etc.

Under each heading then write a list of the tasks that position is responsible for – yes, even when it’s just you doing it all. Note that here you’re writing each task, not each step of the task.

Eg: Receptionist – answers the telephone, makes bookings, filing, taking orders.

Once you have each task, draw a flowchart for that task detailing each step from start to finish. This is where some shortcuts come in – skip the basic tasks. When it’s just you, then you don’t need a manual to answer the phone.

You do need a written down system for anything that you can envision yourself delegating at any time in the future. Usually, this will include tasks such as packing and posting orders, bookkeeping and emails (we’ll cover emails in a future post).

Write down your systems in a way that is so simple and basic that you could pull a teenager in off the street and ask them to follow it. That’s a really good test of a system by the way, if you can hand it to a person who’s never done the task before and they can follow it then it works. If they get hung up on any part of it and begin asking questions then you need to add in more detail.

When you’re satisfied that it’s written in detail and is easily understandable save an electronic copy in a special folder labelled “Systems” on your computer and then print out a copy. File the hard copy somewhere easily accessible – you’ll be using it regularly.

Keep working through each task until you’ve done them all, or at least the one’s with more than five steps.

The hardest part here is the actual doing. Finding the time to work through a task and write down every step, everything you do in the process. One good way to do it is to have someone observing and writing down what you do. Swap with a friend, you observe her and she can observe you.

What are Systems and why do you need them?

A system is a written down process for a particular task within your business. When collected together, the systems form the Operations Manual for your business.

Now, I can hear you saying, “Why would I need one? I work for myself/at home/sole trader.” Why? Because having up to date and easy to follow Systems keep work flowing smoothly, prevents overwhelm because you know what you’re doing and where you’re up to. They allow you bring in staff members and train them, they add value to the business when/if you ever decide to sell it and they allow you to hand over tasks to other people – such as family members – so they can help you. Systems save you time and money.

You already have systems for most tasks within your business; you just haven’t vocalised or written them down. Often the systems don’t actually work that well, because they’ve evolved over time, rather than been designed for maximum efficiency and ease of use.

- When you answer the phone, do you have a particular way of answering and a set of words that you use to answer?  That’s a system.

- Do you have a procedure for registering new clients and recording their information? That’s a system.

- Do you have a routine for packing orders, checking them and posting them out? That’s a system.

- Do you have a process for receiving, distributing and answering emails? That’s a system.

Heck, we have systems for our housework, for our kids, for gardening. We just don’t recognise them and label them as such.

How often have you looked at some work for a client and had to figure out where you were up to with it? What had already been done and what still needed to be done? What if you had a written down checklist that began with the new client and followed their work through to completion and was then filed? How much time would you save, how much more work could you take on? How much more profit could you make?

How often has someone offered to come in and help you with some aspect of your business when you were overbooked and stressed beyond belief, and you said no because it was easier to do it yourself than to teach them how to do it? What if you could hand them a folder, walk them through it once, show them where everything is that they need and then leave them to it?

Are you one of those business people who talks of getting a VA one day “but just has to catch up with my emails/bookkeeping/orders first”. Imagine how much easier it would be if you could email your VA a document that tells them exactly how you want the work handled, complete with examples and text templates.

When are you planning to bring order and structure to your business systems?

Coming up in Part 2 – How and Where to start building your business systems.