Flexibility
Perhaps the word of the century for business owners. If something changes for your client, go with it and negotiate new terms of agreement. Riding out fluctuations work out for the best in the long run.
Streamlining Operations
If you work with teams virtually from all over the globe, sometimes you need to take a hard look at who is doing what. Is your team in Botswana (hypothetically speaking) duplicatingsome of the work done by your team in Ottawa (ditto) or vica versa? If so, this means you and/or your client are paying twice for the same service. Sit down with your client by phone, Skype , IM or face2face andsystematically discuss your areas of concern. With so many different softwares and service providers interfacing, the hard work of one must sometimes be undone to be delivered by another.Maybe you need to amalgamate more and diversify less. Or the opposite may be true, where you find you need to outsource bits of projects to too many service providers, when what you really need is a team under your command that can handle it all.
Whatever works to deliver the best product and service to your client, don’t be afraid to suggest and make changes. Continue to streamline to build the best and most competitive team and options.There is no such thing as a ‘one off’ in this business, you want to be able to offer the highest quality services for your company’s expertise at competitive rates.
Profiled in Business Leader Post and E-mail styles-What’s yours?
Living Communications was profiled in the Business Leader Post this week along with LC client Ania Kastaschuk of Fresh Start Health Retreat Centers. Editor Dennis Warren of Boston does an excellent job with attention to detail. Read it!
http://www.businessleaderpost.com/2010/08/ania-kastashchuk-interview/
On another note, I was discussing e-mail styles with Joe Lloyd of www.Curbsyde.com last night. He prefers short emails with single comments or tasks. Vasili Kastashchuk president of Fresh Start prefers one long e-mail with enumerated comments or tasks.
I am prone to fire off e-mails on an as needed basis vs. lists but do that when requested to. Some people find single task emails difficult to track, while others find it easier to track and follow-up on. As a recipient, I prefer short single comment/task e-mails in general. What is your e-mail style? If you feel that your e-mail manages you rather than vica versa, identify your style and ask others to honour it. Good business is in the details and more importantly, the follow-up of details.
The world at my fingertips, but the peas still need to get picked
It’s Monday afternoon and I am wrapping up the day’s work from my home office our organic farm in rural Saskatchewan (another hat!). I started my work day answering emails and a phone call from a team lead in Mumbai, on his way home from the office-at the end of his day, to discuss social media for a client, followed quickly by a phone call from Bolivia to discuss a new e-newsletter with the new template getting tweaked as we e-speak. I then sent my weekly report to a client on Vancouver Island and fielded emails for and from the filmmakers crossing Canada about media in Saskatchewan and spotlights in BC, responded to urgent emails from an editor in Edmonton who is checking copy ready to go to press and subbed out some work to a team in Toronto. Pausing for lunch – zebra tomatoes fresh off the vine and more garden delights-back at it with zeal with a phone meeting with an editor-publisher in Toronto about an awesome contest we are collaborating on and touched up a contract for a writer from San Francisco. Finally, I finished the copy for the new e-newsletter and input tweaks on the template (which looks great, still work to be done tonight) and temptations from California imploring me to come for a media visit (would love to, but harvest awaits) in time for hubby coming off the fields. A neighbour dropped by and said, ‘I hope I am not disturbing anything,’ whereupon I smiled and said, ‘Not at all, not at all. I’m done for the day, let’s go pick some peas.’
Roll with the punches
Are you ready for it? Roll with the punches never meant so much. If you never trained in boxing, it means: Take the sucker punches, fake a good roll and get up to fight again.
Keep moving forward. It is all part of the ambience that is global communications. Treat your preferred clients and all clients with the utmost respect.
Dealing with Media
Duty should always be pleasurable-working from home
It’s Monday morning and rather than dreading the
long polluted commute, I roll out of bed, catch a java,
and take it out to the sun for a bit with the cats. Sun first thing
raises the serotonin levels-the feel good hormone.
Quiet time, readying myself for the day, going over
my itinerary in my head.
I’m on deadline and rather than countless interruptions
from braineater co-workers, time wasting meetings and
the endless barrage of office politics, I can concentrate
and drive this baby home. Studies show that people that
work from a home office achieve more finished results
in time driven activities than people who do not.
It’s lunch hour, and out I go to sit in the garden, maybe even
pull a weed or two while mulling over the latest article
or challenge.
My ability to multi-task when appropriate is through the
roof, due to the ability to concentrate on each task as required and
move onto the next, completely focus then, etc.
Today I finish three articles, send out media releases for a client,
set-up interviews, parlay with a new editor about a new assignment,
cross the t’s and dot the I’s on a contract for my marketing portfolio,
field phone calls from partners in my media tours and discuss
an upcoming video with another. The usual amount of email
parlay, or perhaps more than most, as much of my work is done by email.
It’s five o’clock and rather than dreading the commute
I might do a workout –no long drive to the gym–
or decompress with a walk on the trails right out our back door.
Birds fly and sun warms my face. A good way
to shake off the work day.
It’s dinner time, and hubby and I sit down and share our
day, like partners who work in separate locations,
we rarely interact during the day. Sharing the highlights
or whinging a little over a glass of wine.
It’s eight o-clock the family is sorted and I might
return to my desk to do the kind of work that
does not require regular office hours, like
copy editing that book I need to get done by next week.
I leave at least an hour before bedtime so that my brain
can truly rest once it hits the pillow. Another great day at the office-
can you say that? Another great day—at the office?
Next time: More from the home office
Working from a home office
People ask me how I manage to achieve everything I do working primarily from a home office.
I have worked from home –wherever that may be from Scotland to Saskatchewan–since the late nineties. I am not new to the business of home-based entrepreneurialism. If you are just starting out here are a few tips:
1. Create a proper office space. The kitchen table is not an office. If you do not have a room that you can devote to an office, then you must create one, by subdividing a room or utilising your space creatively. If your work is important to you and your clients, it warrants space. I know people who have used basements, converted garages and outbuildings. It doesn’t have to be large. Schedule face to face meetings offsite unless your office is detached.
2. Fit it out properly. Computer, files, desk–these are basic necessities-fax, phone, calculators, printer/s and other equipment as needed. Your office should not be a revolving door for everyone in the house to use. It should be yours. Sharing with another responsible adult (assuming there is one) is okay. You may have to schedule private conference calls, telephone etc.
3. Never work in your pajamas. Working from home does not mean flopping around the house working from bed in your pajamas. I get up to work each morning, dressed for work. I don’t wear power suits, but I do wear proper clothes. Imagine your clients at the end of the phone or email seeing you as you work-and some will by webcam and Skype.
4. Organise your work time like a regular work day with breaks, lunch time and a schedule. I prefer to do monthly administration at the end of the month, and minor administrative tasks like quick emails and invoices first thing in the morning, to get them out of the way. If you work with an accountant or bookkeeper-end of month is standard.
You will figure out when your best brain time is, your best outreach time, and your best time to completely focus on a project complete. That is when you turn off the email and do not answer the phone. Your work may be scheduled around children, chores, appointments and the necessities of life that all people need to cope with.
Next time: The advantages of the home office.
Spring into action
Honour in business
If you think a contract is something you can sign and quietly file away under F for ‘forgetaboutit’ think again. Your honour and reputation in business and the public realm are everything. You get a bad rep, no one will want to do business with you. There are limits to small business networking courtesies, the next step could be the courts. If you didn’t want to do the business, you shouldn’t have signed on the dotted line. On the other hand, if you honour the contract to the letter, pay on time, and generally behave with good business skills that everyone should have, your word of mouth referral will be priceless.