Thursday, September 30, 2010

I Make More Mistakes Than Anybody I Know

Not a day goes by but I make a hatful of mistakes, some trivial some major.

I learned this afternoon that you are supposed to add an egg to the ground meat when you make burger patties. I’d guessed at the dried herbs and spices, and had shanghaied in some chopped onions. But an egg? Who knew?

Now I know.

My first effort at chicken burgers resulted in lovely crumbly fork-size pieces of fried meat and onions. Great as a late-night snack.

Next time I’ll add an egg.

I was experimenting, do you see, and didn’t end up with perfect patties, but did end up with a few servings of a tasty cold-snap snack.

Next time will be better.

Same with computers. I tried a new procedure for the results of a mail-merge and it went awry.

Thing is, I took a shot at it, so I am ahead of anyone who thinks a mail-merge is daunting.

It’s the same with my approach to prospecting: No one I know calls the President of a major firm direct and unsolicited. I get some knock backs, but I get a lot more meetings with presidents of major firms than anyone else I know.

I also get to make more mistakes because I get more done each day, and that’s because I get up early and clear the “housework” office stuff out of the way before 9 a.m.

I need as much time as I can get to make mistakes with other people!

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

NOT dead at 65

Are you growing older?

Does the age of 65 seem to loom closer every year?

Are you worried that you’ll reach 65 without making your pile (of retirement cash)?

Fear not. 65 was the age chosen – in principle if not in precise value -one hundred and thirty years ago by Otto von Bismarck around and after 1880. The essence was to arrest the revolutionary movement by proving cradle-to-grave support for the masses. That meant that older workers needed to be removed to make job-spaces for younger workers. Hence retirement on a pension.

Look around you at the number of males, especially, who work until they are 65, take retirement, and die within 2 years.

As entrepreneurs we don’t have to retire; we do not fit the factory-worker mold.

As entrepreneurs we do what we do because we are passionate about doing it.

Why stop doing what you enjoy?

Don’t stop!

But do embark on those 3-year, 5-year, 10-year plans, even the 20-year plan. Who are you to say you won’t live until 90.

And if you do die before achieving your 20-year plan, won’t the first part of the trip have been worth it?

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Budgeting on $100 for Beginners

Budgeting is not difficult.

Planning a budget is no less difficult.

If you are starting a business you will want to know your anticipated expenses for 12-month periods.

A quick-and-easy way to estimate your bare-essential expenses for the next 12 months is to map out every expense of one hundred dollars or more.

Why a hundred dollars?

Because anything less than $100 is probably discretionary spending and we can deal with that either by (a) tightening our belts or (b) providing a lump sum per month for small incidentals.

Grab a spreadsheet, key in 12 months across the top.

Key in your monthly rental or mortgage under each month. Stagger the payments like stairs, and in the 13th column (at the right) key in “Rent”.

Don’t worry that only 1/3 of your rent payment is an business expense; your accountant will work that out at tax time. For now you need to know that you have to find $1,200 every month, or you’ll be homeless.

Can you remember when you purchased cartridges for your laser printer? No. Can you remember how many you have bought this year? Yes? Good. Jot down $140 at equal intervals across the chart.

Your cheque book stubs, bank statements, and that shoebox of receipts will offer some clues.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! Budgeting_001.JPG

When you are done, your spreadsheet will look a little more cluttered than this, but it will be a better starting-point than a wild guess.

This (partial) example tells me that I need at least $12,000 to survive. Of course I haven’t yet gone back through my receipts, and tonight I’ll think “Oh yes! My web-hosting costs me $120” or stuff like that.

Now what about those small discretionary items?

Perhaps you meet entrepreneurial buddies for breakfast once a month; perhaps you have supper at the local diner once a week with a close friend. Estimate those on a monthly basis, say $10 for breakfast and $15 four times a month for supper and call it $70. Write in “$100 for meals”, to give yourself a coffee when you meet someone downtown.

That it isn’t, and won’t be $100 doesn’t matter. That it is closer to $100 that “I dunno” is important.

And from now on each time you spend $100 or more on any item, record it in your budget sheet. You will soon build up a clear idea of your requirements.

Talk to Me !

Monday, September 27, 2010

Doing the Job Without the Quote

Something strange happened on Friday.

An existing client phoned me and asked for a small job, to be done in a hurry: “We need the amount of capital raised for resource companies (with $5MM market cap or less) in Canada over the last 2 years (since June 2008) so it can be compared to our company. The data should be amenable to be put into a bar chart, e.g. GLD raised 16 million; The average resource co with less than $ 5 million market cap raised XXX$, the top 10% decile raised YYY$.”

I’ve done a similar job for this gentleman before. I set up a few constraints, set the computer running and walk away, returning in an hour or so to massage the results and deliver a short list of 100 or so companies from a pool of about 4,500 candidates.

Good work for me, good value for the client.

Except this time I forgot to write the 1-page proposal and get a cheque up front.

This is the first time I’ve had it happen this way.

How much should I charge the client?

Every job is a little different, takes a different chunk of my time, has a different impact on, or value to, the client.

And therein lies my clue.

(1) I’m comfortable with the client, and they with me. We do business and we neither of us are in the rip-em-off mode, ever.

(2) I really never know the value of my work to the client, but I know it is significant.

(3) There is an urgency about this job (I read the press releases daily!) so I know that this is an above-average job.

My theory is that once delivery is made, client will ask “How much do I owe you?”, and my response will be “Let me know what this is worth to you and I’ll send you an invoice”.

We know the response won’t be “Five dollars”, for that would see me issue an invoice for %5, plus tax, as my last communication with the client.

We also know the client won’t feel obliged to think of a number and double it, because they don’t want to set a precedent for future business expectations.

The figure has to be reasonable, and since I asked the question, they have to supply the answer. Otherwise no invoice gets issued, no payment gets made and the relationship terminates.

And neither of us want that to happen.

The result ought to reflect our mutual appreciation of the business relationship.

We want to do business together. That is the primary goal.

The dollar value is a secondary issue.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Be Accountable for Every Goal

If you are having trouble reaching your goals, and if you are choosing attainable goals (size and time-span) then perhaps the problem lies in your accountability.

Here’s a direct advantage of the written-down goal (I print out a goal sheet each morning, and complete it). (“ My Goal Today Is ”)

IT STARES YOU IN THE FACE!

The printed sheet, filled in by hand as you wait for your computer to re-boot/your coffee to brew, stares at you in silent accusatory mode, and continues to stare at you until you have achieved your goal.

The printed sheet is a cheap but effective substitute for an in-office business partner.

If you share an office room with someone else, use them and tell them at the start of the day “My Goal Today is ...”, and at the end of the day have them ask you "Did you reach your goal?”.

Make yourself accountable for each goal on an individual basis, and you’ll get into the habit of focusing on delivering each goal.

Talk to Me !

Friday, September 24, 2010

When Networks Pay Off

I’ve written previously about maintaining a group of about half-a-dozen like-minded entrepreneurs as a support group. Your buddies are probably NOT in the same business as you, but they probably ARE in the same mess as you – got-the-business-running-but-want-it-to-grow, or whatever best describes you.

This proved valuable this week.

I am promoting a new course. I plan to mail out two hundred flyers.

I compose and edit the draft, and wait for a promised testimonial, that has taken 3 months to arrive from one of my little group. When it did arrive it was well worth the wait.

I left a printed copy of the draft with a potential client, asking for “typos and, you know ...” to be corrected. She, bless her heart, put all of her sales and marketing skills behind it. Rewrote it, in fact, making my efforts look like vermicomposting fodder.

On Thursday morning at 6 a.m. with just under 3 weeks to the course date, I emailed another member of my support group to “Print 200 copies, double-sided, glossy. Delivery by Friday 5 p.m. if at all possible”.

The call came at 5 p.m. Thursday that the job was done and ready for pick-up.

Wow!

In less than 36 hours I went from shoddy-draft to professionally laid out and printed. And I am a day ahead of my slippery schedule.

There’s no doubt in my mind that a close-knit group of like-minded entrepreneurs looking after each other is worth its weight, as they say, in gold.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Get A Regulary Salary As An Entrepreneur

One of the biggest problems facing the entrepreneur or self-employed consultant is fluctuating cash-flow. One month a windfall, enough for three months running costs, then nothing for the next four months.

One minute you are wondering if the British Racing Green Jaguar is a possibility, the next you are comparing pasta prices in each supermarket bin.

Consider opening a Credit Union account.

(I am indebted to Cathy Nesbitt of Cathy’s Crawly Composters for this suggestion)

There is a credit union near you, but if there isn’t it doesn’t matter. Typical requirements are some photo-identification, your social insurance number and $50.00 refundable deposit.

A credit-check is run.

And there you are with the minimum account – a personal savings account.

The frills can come later.

Your credit union branch manager will advise you that you can mail in cheques for deposit, and fax requests for bank transfers (if they don’t have Interac access).

You will receive gallons of information about ATMs, mortgages and so on, but you don’t need any of that.

Here’s How You Work It:

You receive a cheque in the mail from a client; scan and print it so you have a hard-copy copy for your 3-ring binder.

Endorse the back of the cheque and mail it off to the branch manager.

Once a month fax a request to transfer $2,500 (or whatever your running costs are) to your regular checking account at the major-bank-which-pays-you-no-interest.

Now you can match your $2,500 budget to your $2,500 monthly “salary”, and you can trim costs, excuse yourself from big-budget restaurants etc.

Here’s the Bonus

Your accountant will love you, because EVERY deposit in your credit union is a direct reflection of revenue earned; you will match each deposit with an invoice, and for tax purposes your 12 credit union monthly statements are a direct record of your business revenue.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Put the Relationships on the Shelf

As the weeks turn into months I become more and more conscious that while my revenue comes from solving problems, the business comes from relationships.

Mine is a very personal business – I get work from people who know me.

So when I’m not doing billable work I should be phoning or meeting people.

If this is so then a serious proportion of my shelf space should be set aside for the papers, files and folders related to my business relationships.

I though this today while I tidied the office. I have a narrow shelf set aside for my working papers – a sheet of notes for each prospect, a folder of prospects, my diary of appointments etc.

I ought to have set aside a complete bookcase for these materials – they are the life-blood of my business.

So part of my thrust at tidying my office today was freeing up a six-shelf bookcase which will hold nothing but materials related to converting prospects into contacts into clients.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Joy of Shredding

If like me you are a bit of a pack-rat, take heart.

Buy a powerful cross-cut shredder that can take seven sheets of paper at a time and doesn’t flinch at staples.

Then shred stale documents.

Think about it

How often, really, do you re-read the penciled notes you made four years ago?

That’s right. NEVER.

Start small. Find a folder with notes of a client who was reluctant to pay the invoices after the work was done.

You wouldn’t miss them, would you?

I thought not.

SHRED THE FILES.

I promise you this: Once the last sheet is gone and the hanging folder returned to the pool, you’ll feel so good that you’ll walk across the street and treat yourself to a sit-down cappuccino and a chocolate-chip cookie.

Well-deserved.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Filing and Un-Filing

We all know how to file – get a stack of related papers, staple them together, grab an empty hanging folder, label it, drop it into a cabinet drawer.

Easy!

My system includes UN-filing stuff too.

I have several cabinet drawers variously labeled “Clients”, “Projects” and so on.

“Clients” has a hanging folder for each individual or organization for whom I have done paid work. If they haven’t paid me, then I’m not going to keep track of them for free.

“Projects” has a hanging folder for each project NOT related to a client. Typical examples are the numerous end-user and developer applications I produce, and the courses scheduled for September 28th and October 13th.

I obtain a fresh hanging folder by taking the stalest hanging folder (from the rear of the drawer) and shredding its contents.

The nature of my business is that I keep notes on a client project, but after three or four years have passed, the notes are useless (because the project has outlived its life) and can be discarded.

The nature of business nowadays is that there’s a strong chance that my contact has left the organization, too,

In any case, if the hanging folder hasn’t been “touched” for 4 years, any contact will be treated as a “new client”. A folder is “touched” when more paid work flows, in which case the folder is moved to the front of the drawer and gets a new lease of life.

There are, perhaps, 3 dozen hanging folders in each cabinet drawer. I can’t deal with more than 36 clients and/or 36 projects.

So UNfiling is a necessary act, and stops the office from being swamped with paper.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Working Backwards Towards Progress

We each have a long-term plan, right?

Mine is a 3-year plan, to be taking in a modest revenue of $10,000 per month three years from now.

Your 3-year plan is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I work backwards:

After two years I might expect $7,000 per month and after one year $4,000 per month. Attainable (and I hope exceedable!)

About that first year: After 12 months I expect to be raking in $4,000 per month. Nothing in the first three months, perhaps $1,000 in the fourth month, $2,000 in the fifth month, and so on. If I were to plot a chart there’s be a curve, sloping upwards.

In terms of paying clients, that might be re-written as “No paying clients in the first 3 months, 1 paying client after 4 months, 2 paying clients after 5 months” and so on.

Now we all know our conversion rate and we have all been measuring our activities, right?

I know that I have.

I record (BillT) the time spent each day on the phones and preparing data for the phones.

I know the new clients, because I cut invoices for them; I know when they arrive because I record the time I spend on their projects (there’s BillT again!).

I know how many people I engage in a face-to-face telephone conversation (not voice-mail), and I know how many times I dial a number an leave a voice mail, and how many times I dial and decide NOT to leave a voice-mail.

A lot of work? Not really. I use a simple data base table for my contact management, and clickable buttons record the date/time and event “Got vm”, “Left vm”, so it’s easy to produce a statistical report of how many voice-mails took place in any month for any contact.

Use a child’s abacus to count your dial-out efforts; use beans in a bowl to record live conversations.

Your paper diary (Grand & Toy or Staples) records on-site and downtown meetings with prospects.

It’s all there, you see, and when you keep track of it you can see a pattern emerging from the theory.

The THEORY is that for every 10 prospects harvested, one will result in a meeting, and for every ten meetings, one will result in revenue this year.

Measuring my efforts tells me how close my theory is to the truth, and whether I need to spend less time on the phones, or change my voice-mail strategy, or spend more time on the phones, or be even more pushy about a meeting.

Talk to Me !

Friday, September 17, 2010

Milk it for all it is Worth!

Sometimes I get lucky and no one picks up the phone.

Then I hear the bit about “Press STAR and key in the first 3 letters ...”.

I’ve Learned to Wait

Today that bit was followed by “ ... or stay on the line to hear a list of staff members”, so I figured “Why not?”.

I’ve spent a few minutes pulling up the contact record, re-reading my notes, sketching out a rough plan-of-attack, and do NOT want to be rewarded with zero.

I don’t get to speak with someone, and I don’t know anyone well enough to leave an unsolicited voice-mail, so I figure I may as well jot down the names of (it turns out to be 16) staff members given that I’ve got this far.

One of the names rings a bell.

The fellow whose dad I worked for a quarter of a century ago.

Both the CEO and my long-lost friend delivered voice-mails messages, but at least, next time I call, I’ll have two bites at the cherry; if that’s the correct expression.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Tip and the HST

A recent article in the Toronto Star discussed the mobile card devices and the impact of adding 15% tip to the bill, when the presented total already includes the 13% HST.

“Tipping a restaurant for good service is one thing. But why tip the federal and provincial governments for applying a 13-per-cent harmonized sales tax to your bill?”

My response?

This is excellent advice for personal use, and I've done it for years.

I especially liked the idea of CASH in hand being scooped up by the wait staff and dropped into their apron pouch; it is an immediate feedback on good service.

I find it useful for business lunches too.

I don't run a car anymore, so colleagues pick me up.

Because they are paying for the car (lease, registration, gas etc.) I insist on paying for the meal.

They protest a bit, so I say "You leave the tip", and when they drop cash on the table THEY come away feeling that they have contributed, so that is a win-win-win situation.

As well as refraining from tipping the govt. for the HST!

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

4 Reasons for Goals of Seasons

I sometimes have troubles with reaching my goals. I have no trouble setting the goals, but some of them seem just too long-term.

I think the solution might be to start with an annual goal.

For example:

  • By this time next year I want to have eight new paying clients from large financial institutions.

Now I just can’t achieve that goal as it is stated.

It is too large and too far away.

I could have a decent chance at “two new paying clients“ per quarter. I think that is attainable.

Indeed, if I aimed at “one per month” and achieved that in the first two months of the quarter, I could then goof off for a month (or get a head-start on the next quarter).

You can see where this is going.

Suppose out of every ten Presidents/CEOs/CFOs I meet I ultimately get some work.

Then I need to meet (lunch, supper, coffee) with ten of them each month.

That’s one every two business days.

That sounds like a lot.

I already know ( The 1-6-10 Rule – How Did it Work? ) how many phone calls I need to make to reach an executive, and I know the conversion rate of dialing-to-live-conversation, and I know the conversion rate of live-conversation-to-meeting.

That gives me a figure of just how many times per day I need to dial a telephone number.

I know how many hours per day are spent on the phone ( Dropping Clients ).

So now I know how many hours per day I need to spend on the phone. If that figure comes to more than five, then I’m not going to reach my goal, assuming my assumptions are correct.

Nonetheless, it gives me a goal as short as a day against which I can measure progress.

And remember: Management Measures

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

My Goal In The Kitchen

Do NOT let this business of Goals and Objectives rattle you.

I grew up in Southern Cross , population 1,500 partway between Perth and Kalgoorlie. Hardly a day went by without some traveler dropping in, unannounced, for lunch, to break the nine-hour car trip. My mother’s record was twenty-one unannounced visitors in one day, and my thighs grew strong bicycling up-and down to buy another sandwich loaf, more sausages, another Swiss roll.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalInTheKitchen_HPIM2866.JPG

My other job, once total strangers had wolfed down MY lunch and departed, burping along the straight-and-narrow highway out of town, was to wash the dishes. The scene was not unlike the one shown above: too many dishes in too small a space, and yes, we had no dishwasher. This was 1956, remember.

My loving mother would suggest that perhaps I should wash and dry (and put-away) just the glasses and cups, and if space permitted, a few of the side-plates. The “clean” stuff.

This sounded a lot easier than doing everything down to the frying-pan with its congealed beef-dripping used to fry eggs.

So that’s what I did.

But being a proud eleven-year-old, I made an effort to show what a man I was by doing ALL the side plates and ALL the dinner plates. I also did the cutlery because that could be stood on end in a tub alongside the dish-drainer.

Of course by the time that was done, I was on a roll, and determined to do a second-load, right down to the frying-pan with its congealed beef-dripping used to fry eggs.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalInTheKitchen_HPIM2867.JPG

My mother was not only good-looking, she was smart! (And yes, she loved me)

You can see above the result of breaking a goal (“wash the dishes”) into two objectives (“steps” if you like).

Objective 1: Wash and rinse then put-away the easy stuff.

Objective 2: Wash and rinse then put-away the hard stuff.

I have almost completed Objective 1, and can now embark on the very small task known as Objective 2 and be done well before lunch time.

AND I still can slot in planting a few maple keys, checking on my neighbor’s cat, and so on.

Life is easy when we break goals down into objectives, and better yet, The Job Gets Done!

Talk to Me !

Monday, September 13, 2010

Relationships Bring Business

Every serious cheque I’ve received has been from a person I have met, face-to-face.

I guess that’s been the nature of my business.

I meet people, create a good impression, and months, sometimes years later they call me “I have a problem and I wondered if ...”.

This strengthens my belief that my most important work is building relationships, not solving problems.

And that means that during business hours I should be either sitting face-to-face with a President, CEO or CFO (or on my way to/from such a meeting), or I should be sitting at my desk making telephone calls.

Which is why I’m writing this blog article in the early morning, well before 8 a.m, right?

Talk to Me !

Saturday, September 11, 2010

My Goal Today Is (Tidy)

The goal sheet works for me on the weekend.

Today’s goal is “Tidy Office”; I know it is time to tidy when I can’t lay my hands on the evaluation forms from the May 28th course I delivered. I need the forms, but can’t find them.

Both my ten-foot desks have turned into storage vehicles.

There’s not much floor space left to vacuum.

My objectives read:

1: Clear desk 1

2: Clear desk 2

3: Clear gray shelves

4: Clear 2 bookcases on wall

5: Tidy 3 window bookcases

And no, I didn’t get it all done; I took a lunch break then went shopping for 2 hours (stamps, library, switches etc).

Nonetheless I completed Objectives 1, 2 and 3 and did a great deal of 4.

The basic thing that made it work was “turning off my computer”. When I’m in the office I’m tempted to look up the lyrics for the song that’s playing, check email, the news etc., all those little things that distract me.

So this morning I did all the must-do tasks (publish the blog, reconcile cash receipts from my wallet), then shut down the machine, and didn’t turn it on until after eight o’clock at night.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalTodayIsTidy_HPIM2840.JPG

Here is one end of my working desk. The red tray holds papers I must deal with. The filing box holds scrap paper, used on one side. I’ll use it for penciled notes or for draft printouts.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalTodayIsTidy_HPIM2841.JPG

Here is the far end of my working desk. It really is empty. I decided to re-cover my huge Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and you can see I am using a weight to help seal the glue between the new cover and the hard-cover of the book.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalTodayIsTidy_HPIM2842.JPG

Here is my second work desk. All the electrical stuff is at one end. Also my little vermicomposting separator experiment .

The table cloth is an unwanted plastic sheet for a booth at a trade show. I ought to slide it towards the rear so that I can access the top drawer of the filing cabinet.

Tomorrow! Because that is NOT part of any one of my objectives.

The written objectives helped me to focus on “clearing the desk” rather than “dealing with stuff on the desk”. It was sufficient for me to collect paper and drop it into labeled folders which now hang in the appropriate drawers.

And yes! I found those evaluations during the second hour!

Talk to Me !

Friday, September 10, 2010

When Your Exchange Rate Hits 97c

So I’m sitting in the Tim Horton’s at West Mall and Q.E.W., the first (of over 300 outlets in Toronto) that you reach when traveling from the USA up the Q.E.W.

The little sign says “U.S. 97c” and we all know what that means.

They accept U.S. Dollars.

Of course.

I hope the rate is at the discretion of the franchisee, that is, the local manager of the store.

I have a horrible vision of the staff ringing up $2.68 for a large coffee and a raisin bran muffin, and then having to re-calculate it as $2.60 in $US, a patience-sapping delay for the sake of eight cents.

All of this serves to remind me that when I Focus on My BEST Relationships , I’m not to worry about the ten minutes spent answering the occasional email. That I should focus on customer satisfaction.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Focus on Your BEST Relationships

So you have your contact list with hundreds of names, and you sort it in ascending sequence of “Date last Modified”, and one by one you work through each name, phoning to say “Hi!”.

Don’t!

As each name comes up, ask yourself if it is one of your best relationships.

Now of course we need to define best.

What does “best” mean to you?

It will always involve a quantifier ( Management Measures ), so it might be “Produces more than 5% of my annual revenue” or “Brings in more than $10,000 a year” or “Brings me at least 3 good referrals every year”, and so on.

Focus on Those

What do we mean by “Focus”.

Sounds to me like it’s a phone call (not a voice mail) setting up a lunch date, “My Treat”, for this relationship deserves an hour away from the office. Doesn’t have to be The King Edward hotel; a good diner or burger joint is OK, if that’s your (plural) style.

And the Others?

  • Stay in touch.
  • Drop a voice-mail
  • Write a post card (while in the train or on the plane)
  • Mail a magazine article or newspaper clipping
  • Email a link to a good story
  • etc.

But keep it brief.

Your other consultants pals know that you are out there, and you aren’t getting much new business from those who serve well by stiffening your spine.

Acknowledge them and move on.

This was all brought home to me when I had reason to “blitz” all my contacts in Mississauga, and found that eight out of eighteen were consultants or other non-revenue contacts.

Check your contacts, city by city, and mark those that wrote you a cheque in the past two years.

That’s a good starting point for “Best”

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My Goal Today is Progress

It’s early days yet, but it IS working well.

On Sunday I decided that my goal was to issue all the personal (domestic) Christmas cards for 2009 (traditionally I am a bit late in my mailings ...).

The objectives ran:

1: Compose message to card

2: Print cards

3: Print envelopes

4: Stuff and Stamp cards

5: Mail cards

By half-past-noon I had 65 cards printed, stuffed and stamped, except for a few overseas cards that need extra postage. I’ll get them done this lunchtime at the Postal outlet across the street.

That’s been bugging me for a while, so I’m glad it is done.

It shows me that the technique I’m using works for both my business and personal life.

During the print exercise something went awry with the laser printer on the network, so my morning included a quick install on the laptop. That gave me the incentive to Get The Job Done by hurdling obstacles as they threatened to divert me from my goal.

After lunch I fixed the lamp socket in the living-room. That too had been bugging me!

This morning my goal was to reduce the 158 contacts awaiting a follow-up call to 108. I reckoned on doing 50 today in a six-hour telephoning window.

My objectives:

1: 9am-11am

Get 20 new contacts done (these are contact fresh from press releases)

2: Noon to 2pm

Get 10 done (these will be current contacts which I feel should be “touched”

3: 2pm-4pm

Get 20 new contacts done (these are contact fresh from press releases)

Here we are at 11;30. I have reduced 158 to 148, far short of my objective 1.

But it tells me before I break for lunch that I need to spend less time dithering and get to the phone a lot faster than I have been doing.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Keeping it Up

For more than a year now I’ve pumped out, and been pumped up, by all sorts of ideas.

Today, a confession:

Although I’m still following my own advice on some issues, other issues have dropped by the wayside.

That is, some of my ideas seemed like ideal solutions to my problems at the time, but after a few days, or weeks, I’ve stopped doing what I wrote about.

For whatever reason – too much work, not enough results, the problem wandered away, and so on.

So is it bad advice? And if so, how would you know which items have proven successful?

You’ll Never Know!

I have logged each idea as it has come to me, and tried to follow it. Each idea is a result of MY thinking about one of MY problems.

And if the idea didn’t work for ME, then I dropped it.

You may not have the same problem, in which case you may not be bothered to try my idea.

You may have the same (or similar) problem, you may try the idea, and it may work for you.

Or it may not.

My point here is that unless you try something (that is well thought-out), you’ll never know if it works for you.

And of all the ideas I’ve come up with for over a year, some of them still work – for ME!

And that’s why it was worth trying each one of them, just to find which ones serve ME well.

So try them all. If any ONE of them works for you, then you are ahead of the game. And you can always discuss the idea with ME

Talk to Me !

Monday, September 6, 2010

My Goal Today Is (Diary)

Just for Today

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalTodayIs_HPIM2775.JPG

It will not have escaped your notice (but just in case it has, I’ll note it here!) that this hard-copy method is going to provide me with a hard-copy diary or journal of my business-day efforts at phoning people, or whatever major aspect of my business life I choose.

For example, at the end of the week I should have five pieces of paper that I can file in a binder, but a review of those five pieces before they are filed is going to let me see how my week went.

“Could do better” appeared on my mathematics report card one term.

It will probably appear here from time to time.

But that gives me an opportunity to BE better!

Talk to Me !

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Giving Gatekeepers a Good Rap

Gatekeepers get a bad rap; they are all too often seen as The Enemy.

I’ve just got off the phone with Maureen, executive assistant to David and to Lucas.

I had spoken with her last week in my first bid to get a meeting with Lucas.

I called back this morning, explained that I’d called last week (I don’t know whether she remembered or not), and asked if David was available.

He is “in the building”, but ...

“Perhaps you can help me? I’m calling to set up a meeting with David. Is his schedule free late this week or early next week?”

Turns out he is just back and is catching up.

“Oh I understand; he will be wading through a backlog of voice-mail and email” – see? We are on the same team, Maureen and I.

She asks me to send her an email, which I will do, asking for a meeting sometime Monday through Thursday next week.

This might just work.

Talk to Me !

Friday, September 3, 2010

My Goal Today Is (Follow-up)

Just for Today

At the end of the day, when I start the daily backup procedures, I’ll take down the sheet of paper and examine myself. What went wrong? Let’s not do that again. What went right? Let’s keep on doing that!

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image!  MyGoalTodayIs_HPIM2775.JPG

Here you can see what I see at the end of the day.

I reduced 25 outstanding entries to 16, a reduction of 9, not 20 as planned.

What went wrong?

Well my billing system tells me I spent only 3.45 hours on this between 8:00 and 16:00.

I spent 9:30-11:30 with David Sappleton, a pre-arranged meeting.

I spent half-an-hour on the phone congratulating Cathy Nesbitt.

I spent valuable phone time assembling notes for each call – I KNOW that I should be doing that out-of-hours.

On the other hand one of my calls bore fruit: I have an appointment next Tuesday for lunch with an “Executive Vice President Corporate Development”, which is good.

And How is Your Prospecting Coming Along?

Even though one appointment for 3.45 hours work doesn’t sound like much, I still think that if I make one new face-to-face contact per week, that’s 50 contacts per year, and that’s probably more than I can cope with.

It is one more appointment than I’ve made in the previous week, that’s for sure, and I did this with just one day’s effort. Not even!

Meanwhile Back At the Ranch ...

The next day my stated goal was to whittle 16 down to 5; that seemed a reasonable goal in the light of my experience.

I decided to work in two-hour bursts 6a-8a, 9a-11a, and 1p-3p.

To my surprise I was all done by 11:15 a.m.

I have moved a three-week backlog of work in under two days!

Of the original set of contacts, one turned out to be a slugfest between a company in Texas and its former CEO. Apart from the fact that I’m not a referee, My goals do not include active participation in Texas firms, so that was an easy document to jettison.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Getting Past the Gatekeeper

It is always worthwhile doing a bit of research into extension numbers.

A web search for the company or the president’s name will often enough turn up obscure news items or papers with the president’s extension number.

Asking for “extension 5301 please” is more likely to get you through than “Could I speak to Mister Greaves, please?”.

In the first case you come across as knowing who you want and that you deserve direct access.

In the second case you are asking the receptionist if they would deign to do you a favor, and why should they? They don’t know you!

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

My Goal Today Is


Like many entrepreneurs I have trouble sleeping nights because I’ve allowed myself to be diverted.

You know you feel good when you go to bed at night and you’ve gotten that cheque of to the tax people, or finally paid down the phone bill, or any one of a number of administrative tasks that make you feel guilty.

You probably feel good too when you’ve spent time well establishing new contacts or maintaining old ones.

My main drive comes from The Prospector and all the data (leads) it generates for me. If I’m not careful the two to four leads a day build up into an avalanche of outstanding calls – 25 as I type.

The solution is really easy: Have a sheet of paper that you fill out at the very start of the day – before the coffee is poured. On the sheet you write the guilt that greeted you when you woke up.

Today for example my goal is “Reduce the backlog to five”; realistically there might be 5 contacts I just can’t reach in any shape or form. 25 is not acceptable, 5 is, and I don’t want to set a goal that might be impossible.

Below that I write Objectives, and these are not in a serial-project style, just a few just-for-today thoughts that will help me to reach today’s goal: “No personal emails”, “No game playing”, “No quick-fixes to your software” and so on. Yes, I play games, but for today ONLY I have promised myself no to, and to ignore personal chatter until after 5 p.m.

Just for Today

At the end of the day, when I start the daily backup procedures, I’ll take down the sheet of paper and examine myself. What went wrong? Let’s not do that again. What went right? Let’s keep on doing that!









Here you can see a blank sheet clipped to the laptop. I use a standalone monitor, so the laptop sits off to one side, but I’ll see the sheet whenever I

1) Reach for the phone

2) Turn to look out of the window to my left

3) Turn to look at my diary (out of view bottom left)

If you’d like a copy of the Microsoft Word document – comes with automatic date – you can download it here .

I have placed a shortcut link to this document as part of my first-boot-of-the-day sequence so that I’m prompted to print off and complete a copy first thing each morning.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Here is a link to an article that promotes the idea of written feedback.

Talk to Me !