Sunday 20 August 2017

Ugh! Post holiday email - my low tech tips for getting it done

Holidays are great. Time to unwind, relax, spend time with loved ones and forget about work for a while. Getting back to work is often a challenge with the build up of email being one of the issues to cope with.

I've developed a bit of a system for dealing with the email build up which kind of works for me and I thought it might be useful to share. It's fairly low tech and I'm sure that there are more sophisticated ways of doing a similar thing.

For what it's worth here are my 5 D's for clearing the backlog:

Diary time

Allow some time on your first day back to start to clear the backlog. If you can book this in your diary before you go away, that's ideal. You can then spend some uninterrupted time working through your emails. The sooner it's done, the sooner you will feel 'caught up' and be able to get back into your stride

Delete

Getting rid of any SPAM, things that don't require action etc is a positive first step. It's a good idea to unsubscribe from mailing lists you are not interested in and mark unwelcome email to go straight to junk in future.

Delegate

If you are lucky enough to have people working for you, maybe there are things which can be delegated. You can either forward the email with a note for action or print/save in a folder for next time you have an opportunity to discuss it with the person you are delegating to. Even if you don't have people working for you there may be emails you need to pass on for someone else to deal with or perhaps refer upwards to your boss

Deal with now

If you can respond to an email easily, straight away, it's best to get it done. Maybe set a reminder to follow up if a response is required from the recipient. It's off your list for now

Deal with later

For chunkier jobs you can't respond to straight away add these to your work list or direct to your calendar to deal with later. You might print or save the email as a reference for when you start the work. You might also send a holding email to say you have noted the contents and will respond in due course. You can then tackle this at a later date with a clear head.

That's it! I did say it was low tech

With focussed effort I find I can usually clear the mountain a lot faster than seemed possible at first glance. I've then got the larger tasks scheduled and can work through these over the next few days.

It's still not easy leaving the holiday mood behind but this simple system works for me and after a week or two I'm usually back in the normal routine and hopefully not feeling swamped.

Almost time to start thinking about the next holiday...

www.base52.co.uk

Saturday 12 August 2017

How many businesses do you need?

Running a business can be pretty intense. But very now and then, there is a lull. Maybe it's a summertime thing? The volume of emails goes down, the phone is not ringing quite so much, there are no major issues worrying you. What next?

My tendency over the years has been to dabble with something new. Kick off that new business idea I've been thinking about but have not had the time or energy to do anything about. Being an optimist, I inevitably focus on the upside and getting started and think less about what is required to keep things going. So let's go for it. This is going to be big! 

But with me at least, it never quite turns out like that.

Inevitably the lull in your core business ends. Your intensity returns, the phone starts ringing again, issues crop up, you get stuck in and the new idea has to take second fiddle. It kind of bubbles along in the background, sometimes for several years but never reaches its potential. Eventually you kill it. It's become a drain and it's time to concentrate exclusively on the main business.

There are entrepreneurs who make a success out of starting several business and running them simultaneously. Nigel Botterill famously built up  5 (probably more now) £1m businesses within a few years. Felix Denis, the late publishing billionaire, used to start new 'baskets' for his new ideas and run these alongside his core business. Some of our clients too have had modest success with running multiple businesses side by side. 

So it might be just a failing in me that I've not been able to make this work. These days, when I get that new idea and rush of enthusiasm, I stop and think a bit more before diving in. Have I really got time for this? If I put the same effort into my main business would that deliver more benefit? 

Let me tell you about my new idea for a great on-line shop though...

www.base52.co.uk



Sunday 6 August 2017

A tale of two sales

Last year my wife and I had the holiday of a lifetime in India. It was a wonderful experience with fantastic monuments, history and culture, great food and the warm and friendly people.

We came back with lots of stuff we hadn't really intended to buy due in no small measure to the local merchants' talent for selling.

The format usually went something like this. We would have a morning's sightseeing with a local guide. On the way home he would invite us to drop in at a local merchant - jeweller, potter, fabric trader etc. Let's use the jewellers as an example but the experience was similar, whatever the trade, 'Would you like to visit a local jewellers? The owners are very nice and they have a workshop on the premises which they will be happy to show you'. 'Why not?, we thought. There was no 'hard sell', we were free to say no but we usually opted to have a look around. We were greeted by the owner and several others at the entrance and warmly welcomed. Masala tea was offered and we were invited to look around the workshop. We had a personal tour and were shown the journey from raw gem stones, through cutting to designing and manufacture of the jewellery. Nothing was too much trouble. Lo and behold at the end of the tour we ended up in the jewellery shop. More tea was brought in and we were asked about our holiday so far. 'Would we like to see some jewellery?' No one asked us to buy anything but somehow we just did. Not things we needed or had planned to buy but presents and mementos from an enjoyable trip.

Let's contrast this with a trip to a carpet shop at home this weekend. We are in the process of redecorating our house. My wife has thought very carefully about the decor, we just needed the carpets and wanted advice on what to buy. We were ready to be sold to. We had a budget (well sort of) and a deadline. A couple of sales people were sitting down as we entered. We were welcomed and shown a few samples and basically left to potter around and well...leave. We had lots more questions, we wanted some ideas, some input, to let us know what was possible. A cup of tea and a chat would have been nice.

Ok so it's a different situation but I think illustrates a point. In India we had not intended to buy but were shown the possibilities and buying was made easy. So we bought. In the carpet shop we were ready to spend. We had the money ready and wanted help. The kind of help we wanted wasn't forthcoming so we didn't buy.

Off to a new carpet shop today so will see how that one goes...

www.base52.co.uk