Quote of the Day
Friday, August 10th, 2007Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
-Abraham Lincoln
Archive for August, 2007
The Art of Delegation: How to Delegate - Part I
Friday, August 10th, 2007Delegation is a very important part of any business. Without it you will soon find yourself overloaded with unnecessary work. Being able to find the right people to take care of your “Small Tasks” is a chore in its own, but a worthy chore at that.
By delegating, not only will you free up some time, you will also find yourself completing more important work.
I always thought to myself that I was the only one that could complete a job and complete it well. I felt that I always had to be there and that there was no one else that could fill my shoes. As you can tell, this was not that case and I soon found out that if I was not in everyone’s face they actually completed quality work without me.
Since I have come to this new discovery, I thought it would be helpful to share the information with our readers. Below I have some steps we have learned since starting Appealing Lawn Care LLC. Read on to see how you too can delegate some of your work.
1.) Training
As of right now we have two employees. Both of them have been working for us since the beginning of the summer and have been doing exceptionally well. During the summer I always advise the guys to pay attention to where we are going so that if I ever sent them off by themselves they would know how to get there. Also, during the beginning of the year I showed them what each customer wanted and how to approach certain situations, such as, disgruntled customers and broken equipment. To my surprise they took each situation head on and did extremely well. Little-by-little I showed them the ropes and taught them what to expect on a day-to-day situation. After I felt they were trained enough I sent then off on their own. I baptized them in the fire if you will.
This applies to any business you might have. No matter what it is you do, other people can do it the same way, if not better than you do. This is what I found out and by training and teaching my employees they finally were ready to become self sufficient.
2.) Trust
The next step that needed to be implemented was trust. Without it you will find yourself in big trouble. This is a very important trait that my partner Adam and I started early into our business relationship. Either way, you need to make sure your employees are trustworthy. I implemented little tests to see if they were worthy of further teaching. I would leave a little money out to see if it ever went missing. I would send them on errands, and I would ask them to deliver information to customers to test their shyness. Once again, to my surprise both of them did very well. They delivered some times bad information like price increases to customers and they were able to handle all of the errands I gave them. Keep in mind that a few SMALL mistakes were made but this is to be expected. I make mistakes EVERY day, my employees know this and I am aware that these small mistakes will happen from time to time.
3.) Commitment
Finally I had to see how committed they were to our business success. I tested this by seeing how well they listened to corrections and suggestions. If they did something wrong with a customer’s lawn I wanted to make sure they knew it, in a nice way, and that they worked hard to correct it. Then I paid attention to how much they complained and to their desire to come to work every day. Surprisingly enough they only complained when we had a drought and work was scarce. To be totally honest this shocked me. They wanted to work and they wanted to make money. They also came to work EVERY day without question. Keep in mind that sometimes it was ninety plus degrees outside and I made them wear a uniform type outfit to keep a professional image.
All-in-all they have grown to be great employees. They pay attention to detail and they follow instruction. Honesty and discipline are just a few other traits that come to mind when describing them.
So if you want to know when it will be right to delegate some of the work, practice the above steps. This took several months but was well worth it. Soon you will find yourself more engrossed with finding new customers and dealing with cost cutting strategies. After a while you will say to yourself, “How did I ever go so long without delegating?” Good luck with this process and feel free to leave a comment about what you think.
21 Days to Discipline - Part II
Thursday, August 9th, 2007Day 16
I know I said that I would comment on my progress every week or so but I found it more helpful to go through the motions before commenting. Here is what has happened so far:
I have missed a few goals.
During the last couple of weeks I have found that I CANNOT do everything. In my previous posts I said that I would do ten personal goals a day and three business goals a day. I would say on average I have done 98% of what I wrote in my planner. This is superb as far as I am concerned. Writing down ten things a day and getting eight of them done is a great job. Here are a few things that have made it a little easier for me to complete my daily goal list:
1.) Do not feel bad if you miss one or two goals during the day. You have to put this into perspective though. If you only have three goals a day you cannot blow two of them off, but you can do so if you have ten. This is something I have applied because I realize life happens. Sometimes there are things that get in the way and this is the reason I have made this rule for myself.
2.) If you miss a goal from the list you have today, apply it to tomorrow’s list. Just be aware that if you push a goal from today to tomorrow’s list, you have to complete it. You can no longer move it forward. It has been put off for a day already, do not procrastinate on it any longer. Off to step three.
3.) Make a letter system for your most important goals. For example, for your most important goal put an “A” in front of it, for the second a “B” and so on. Only do this A-C though. The reason for this is because once you add an A,B, or C to a goal you HAVE to complete it. This does not count for the one or two goals you can give up a day. Just remember that if it has a letter next to it, COMPLETE it. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it.
These three steps became more realistic to me once I practiced my own 21 days to discipline. I assure you that if you add these three rules to your 21 days of discipline, you will become a more productive disciplined person. Good Luck!
Book of the Month -August
Thursday, August 9th, 2007Here at MindsofWealth we are always trying to bring you the most relevant information about all kinds of Wealth.
For August, I will be bringing information to you about a book that we feel is very practical and functions as an excellent of reference on Wealth.
The book is called The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield et. al. (Clicking the link takes you to Amazon.com where you can support the MindsofWealth.)
We don’t believe any type of “book report” type of review would do justice for this book. So I’ll cover what I found most useful:
* Humans are creatures of habit. Up to 90% of our normal behavior is based on habits
* We all have good habits that help us on the road to Wealth, and we all have bad habits that hold us back from our true potential.
*You must make every conscious effort to slowly eliminate bad habits and add good habits. Make a list of both of these and set a goal for eliminating the bad by turning it into a good habit.
*Prioritize. Prioritize. Prioritize. Use the 4-D Solution:
- Dump It - Just say no to it.
- Delegate It - It needs done, but someone else would be best suited
- Defer It -It needs done, but not right away.
- Do it. Now. -Enough said. Do not procrastinate these.
The 4-D options are so simple, yet very effective in helping to prioritize and manage your life.
*Don’t let your business/work run and ruin your life. There are bigger and better things to value than office burn-out.
*Take a vacation: You deserve it. Make sure you get away from time to time. Re-charge your batteries and refocus your energy.
*There are several tools and acronyms that will help you focus on achieving your goals. Focus introduces a proprietary program called The Achievers Focusing System(AFS) and the B-Alert system for optimum balance.
The AFS contains seven categories that you should set goals in:
- Financial
- Business/Career
- Fun time!
- Health and Fitness
- Relationships
- Personal
- Contribution
BAlert - blueprint Action learning exercise relaxation thinking
The reason Action is capitalized is because it is MOST important to always take action.
*Building Relationships- Find mentors, join mastermind groups. This has been our toughest part. We are now, after months of in-action finally putting it in motion. I suggest that you do not procrastinate!
There are many more details and explanations in the book which is why we recommend that you buy it. We’ve been so kind as you provide a link above, and below.
The Power of Focus will help you on the path to Wealth.
A.D.
Quote of the Day
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007Do it now! Today will be yesterday’s tomorrow.
-unknown