How can you be productive by being turned off?

English: email envelope (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was chatting with my friend, business coach Alicia Arenas, and she didn’t understand the advice I was trying to give about email.

I simply told her: “You can get more done if you turn off your email indicator.”

“That’s all you’ve got for me? “Turn off your email indicator?’” she asked, puzzled.

I realized that I had not explained myself clearly, which evolved into this explanation she had me post on her blog. The link was spread around on Twitter, so I thought I ought to share it on my blog, too. See you over there!

How a little computer play time could help others

education (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

I’ve done something crazy (no surprise, right?!) and need your help in making things get even crazier. I have entered two different grant contests. My goal is to get funding to help me get my T.E.A.C.H. Approach™ Workshop program up and running. I spent the first half of my adult life as a teacher, and my husband is still a teacher, so supporting educators is a very important project to me. (I’ve listed below some grant excerpts to give you an idea of what my goals are.)

Both of these contests require you to have a Facebook account. If you don’t have one, please use the social media icons below to “share” this message with your family, friends and colleagues. If you do have an account, please keep reading for how you can help. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for money from you – just a few clicks on your mouse. This is that rare occasion when I’ll let you off the hook for procrastinating and playing on the computer!!

Contest #1 – $250,000 grant – sponsored by Chase

1. Go to www.Missionsmallbusiness.com.
2. Click “Log In & Support” on the right side of that page.
3. Sign in via Facebook.
4. Scroll down to the search area and type in LivingOrder San Antonio in the business rectangle. (LivingOrder is one word.)

You can fill in State: Texas       City: San Antonio  but it’s not necessary.

5. When LivingOrder San Antonio appears, please click on VOTE.

We need at least 250 votes just to qualify to have the proposal considered. Twelve winners will be chosen.

Contest #2 – $15,000 prize pack – sponsored by PostNet

Go to LivingOrder San Antonio‘s listing on PostNet’s Boost Your Biz page and click on VOTE. We need to be in the top 5 vote getters to be judged. One winner will be chosen. (Note: If you’re being naughty and doing this at work, be sure to turn down the volume when you get to this page.)

Thank you to Kristian Haber of PostNet for telling me about this. Visit her store at the Alon HEB on NW Military Hwy in San Antonio for terrific printing services.

If you wish to procrastinate a little longer, feel free to “Like” our LivingOrderSA Facebook page.

Thank you so much for your support! Please use the social media icons below to “share” this message with your family, friends and colleagues.  

Grant Excerpts:

1. Tell us about your business and why it’s unique.

We gave a jazzed up summarized version of our FAQ and Media pages.

2. How is your business involved in the community?

LivingOrder^® San Antonio aims to help as many people as possible while still bringing in enough revenue to cover expenses and pay employees. Our community involvement includes volunteering with:

a. Goodwill – I have worked with Goodwill San Antonio over the last few years on educating the public about how their excess clutter and blessings can help those who are not as fortunate. We have worked on donation campaigns and collection days together, as well as supporting each other through social media and appearances in the community. I have media mentions and a YouTube video that keep the support “perpetual.”

b. Dress for Success – Since 2009 I have volunteered to present time management and paper management workshops to the clients enrolled in their Professional Women’s Group. These women, as are the folks in Goodwill’s programs, are trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, put their lives back together, and need all the support they can get.

c. Fairweather Family Lodge – The Program Director at Dress for Success eventually moved to San Antonio Family Endeavors (SAFE) and introduced me to the Fairweather Family Lodge, which is a residential program for homeless women diagnosed with mental issues and who have custody of their children. I initially met with the director to discuss recommendations for organizational and productivity improvements to the facility, and wound up presenting annual organizing workshops to the residents there.

d. Speaking Engagements – I am asked by many groups each year to give a short talk about organizing or productivity. I request that an honorarium be donated to a local charity. This year I am collecting for Alpha Home, which is a treatment facility for chemically dependent women. Their mission is to empower their clients by educating them.

e. “End Teacher Drop-Outs” Campaign – I spent the first half of my adult life as a teacher, and my husband is still in the classroom, so teacher support is an important part of my belief system. Fifty percent of teachers leave the classroom within their first five years of teaching, and that attrition costs the U.S. upwards of $2.2 billion per year.  This past spring I was able to go on a brief campaign with television appearances, blogs and social media postings that call attention to the need to support the educators who significantly affect the future of our children.

In addition to those specific efforts, I’m also the national co-trainer for Quantum Leap, a program that is a part of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). I assist in training professional organizers from across the country on how to team up with and help non-profits on a volunteer basis.

If I could afford to do all of this full-time, I would. But, alas, there are bills to pay.

3. What would the Grant mean to your business plan and how would you utilize the funds to ensure long-term growth and stability?

The grant would mean that I would be able to make a huge impact not just on my local community, but across the nation. My goal is to provide support to teachers nationwide through my T.E.A.C.H. Approach™ Workshops. Currently many schools cannot afford sufficient training provided by out-of-district specialists because of budget cuts. The skills that I teach during my workshops are exactly what teachers need to learn and implement in order to survive these particularly trying times.

With the money, I would immediately be able to:

*hire an individual to contact the nearly 2,000 schools listed on the Johns Hopkins University’s Dropout Factory List and articulate the objectives and benefits of my workshop. Those 2,000 campuses are in most need of my program.

*underwrite many of the initial expenses related to putting on a workshop so that schools would have only a small amount of out-of-pocket expenses until I could…

*hire an individual who would find corporate sponsorships for the workshops in order to partner businesses with the schools in their communities.

*hire and train an additional staff member to work with the client base that I would leave behind in San Antonio while conducting workshops across the country.

Eventually, the groundwork that is laid will lead to additional bookings from entities that can afford to pay full expenses, as well as the necessity to hire staff to manage the increased workload.

The national exposure would also allow me to develop a licensing program in order to give other individuals with a similar passion as mine the training and infrastructure they need to help me spread “the good word.”

With a “clone system” built in both locally and nationally, the works of LivingOrder® San Antonio would be able to continue for many years to come – even long past my retirement.

4. Describe your team.

We submitted a summary of our About Us page, plus shared a little secret: Magdalena and Tracey turned down higher paying jobs because they believe in our mission.

5. Additional relevant information you’d like to share:

Teachers need more than appreciation gifts of trinkets to stick it out in a tough job.

Some educators – and most especially the general public – may not be aware of these sobering statistics:

• Teacher job satisfaction is at a twenty-two year low. – 29^th Annual Met Life Survey of the American Teacher

• One important trait of teachers labeled as high quality is that they’ve spent more than five years in the classroom. – National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF)

• One-third of teachers leave the profession within the first three years, and half leave within the first five.  – National Center for Education Statistics

• Teacher attrition costs U.S. districts $2.2 billion per year.  – Alliance for Excellent Education

If high quality teachers need five years to become just that, and half leave before then, the teacher drop-out rate suddenly becomes just as important as the student drop-out rate. After all, teachers spend more waking hours with our children than parents do and can determine how much – or how little – information will be shared with students.

Not surprisingly, those exiting teachers who were surveyed did mention low pay as a determining factor for leaving, as well as poor student behavior. But, the number one reason teachers gave for leaving the classroom was the lack of a supportive school environment. Disorganization and the absence of time management support are major causes of “overwhelm” for many teachers.

Contrary to popular belief, teaching ain’t a 9 to 3 job. For a peek into what a typical school day is like for many teachers, download a free Sample Excerpt here.

If teachers cannot keep up with email, lesson plans, grading, required documentation, standardized testing requirements, classroom supplies, paperwork and all the other directions in which teachers are pulled, then they will not be able to concentrate on the most important part of their job: teaching children. If they can’t concentrate, they will not perform to the best of their ability. If they’re not performing at their best, the students will not be getting the education that they need and deserve.

If teachers aren’t happy, it shows in their body language. Students sense that. If there’s no joy from the teacher, then there’s no joy in the students. That is a miserable environment. If teachers are less stressed, they’ll be able to enjoy their jobs and their time with students in the classroom. Students feed off positive energy, and that carries over into learning and academic success. That joy for learning is a necessary skill that students need to have in order to succeed in work and life.

To read more about my passion for helping teachers, please visit: http://livingordersa.wordpress.com/category/teachers/.

Thank you so much for your support! Please use the social media icons below to “share” this message with your family, friends and colleagues.

How do you set up the perfect office?

Photo credit: bayareabaw via Flickr

I get asked nearly every day what the perfect office set up is.

In a society that wants instant fixes, my answer is one that everyone hates: “It depends.” Unfortunately, there is no one perfect office set up, no one diagram, no one set of directions for furniture positioning, no one shopping list of the supplies that are needed. The perfect office is the one that meets all of your needs. So, how do you set it up so it does exactly that?

I’ve answered that question for Alicia Arenas on her Sanera Camp blog. Take a look!

What are the keys to running a productive meeting?

We’ve all been to them…meetings that drag on forever, yet nothing is accomplished. Or – my personal favorite – having a meeting to decide when the next one will be. There’s nothing I detest more than worthless meetings, so here are a few tips that will ensure you are never the facilitator for a waste of time.

1. Create a list of goals.

What do you want to accomplish at this meeting? If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, don’t bother scheduling one.

2. Determine which questions or discussions will lead to the accomplishment of those goals.

You can’t just walk into a meeting, slap a goal on a Power Point slide or white board, and hope that everyone has an instant idea. The point of having a meeting is to have everyone in the room use their brain power to bounce ideas off each other. Create at least a few questions to get the brains churning.

3. Create an agenda.

Depending on the nature of the meeting, you might divide up your agenda into topics that need to be discussed, or list each person who will give a report. No matter how you decide to organize your meeting, be sure to create a timeline for how long each topic or person will be given. This will keep everyone on their toes during the meeting and make sure that all necessary topics are covered by the time you want to end your meeting.

4. Email the agenda at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.

If you can do this one week beforehand, that would be ideal. But the minimum is two business days. Emailing the agenda early lets everybody know that you’re organized, have it together and mean business. It also gives attendees time to start thinking about what they’d like to say and perhaps even gather research or examples of ideas that they want to express.

5. Clarify expectations ahead of time.

This should be included in the agenda. Everyone should know what the expected results of the meeting are. If you want attendees to bring specific materials, instruct that in the agenda. If attendees must bring monetary contributions or will leave with funds and be expected to account for them, specify that in the agenda so that there are no surprises.

6. Collect RSVPs.

It’s important to know who will be present and who won’t. Those who won’t be present should be expected to send their information submissions ahead of time to other attendees. It should also be made clear to them that they’re expected to study the minutes to learn which tasks and roles for which they will be responsible.

7. Ensure all language needs will be addressed.

As businesses become global, meeting languages sometimes expand beyond native English speakers. Be sure you know the primary language of each attendee and ensure that you or they provide interpreters for the meeting itself as well as the meeting minutes to prevent any misunderstandings and miscommunication.

If you implement all of these steps, you will become known for running efficient and productive meetings. People will show up prepared and will get to the point because they know you won’t let meetings drag on endlessly and pointlessly. And everybody loves that guy or gal.

By the way, if you know anyone in the Secret Service, feel free to forward this post to them. The same rules apply in one-on-one situations as well.

Apps and programs for operating in THE CLOUD

THE CLOUD. That term just cracks me up. Who came up with that term to explain where the Internet is? What will it be called in a couple of years? Alas, I digress. I attended a workshop presented by Caroline Green and Ivan Drucker at NAPO Conference in Baltimore. For those of you figuring out your way through the clouds, here are the apps they discussed:

Documents

1. Google Docs: Free, share documents with others, can work on document “live”

2. Dropbox: Free for up to 2GB, allows sharing

3. Document signing: EchoSign, free to demo then $15/month, and DocuSign, free to demo then $15/month

Filing

1. Dropbox – see above

2. Evernote: free; like a file cabinet/bulletin board combo

3. Neat: they have software with OCR that helps their scanner “talk” to your printer; they’re coming out with cloud storage soon for a fee

Finances

1. QuickBooks Online: monthly fee

2. Mint: Free, with some reports

To Dos

1. Remember the Milk: free; works with iPhone, Droid

2. Todo: $5; works with iPhone, Droid

Project Management

1. Basecamp, starts at $50/month – calendar, to do lists, files

2. Zoho, starts at $20/month – calendar, to do’s, assign tasks, files, chat (but website not as nice as Basecamp according to the presenters)

CRM (Client Relationship Management)

1. Highrise, starts at $24/month

2. Salesforce, #1 CRM provider according to the presenters; starts at $15/month

Media

1. Bookmarks: Xmarks, works with Firefox, Chrome, IE, Safari; free for basic plan, $12/year for sync with iPhone, iPad, Droid, BlackBerry. iCloud, for Safari and Internet Explorer bookmarks, syncs with iPhone and iPad, free. Firefox, built-in bookmark sync, with Firefox on other computers only, free.

2. Music: iTunes Match in iCloud, syncs with iPhone and iPad, $25/year. Google Play, syncs with Droid. Amazon CloudDrive, free for 5GB, paid plans start at $20/year for 20GB.

3: Photos: Flickr, Shutterfly, iCloud Photo Stream

Password Management

1. 1Password which can sync using Dropbox

2. Passpack for multiple people sharing passwords

Backup for Computers

1. Crashplan, enterprise, secure; starts at $5/month

2. Carbonite, from $59/year

3. Mozy $6/month per computer.

For other reports from Conference, see my posts about office supplies and online calendars.

Is San Antonio unproductive?

Fiesta San Antonio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

San Antonio has been partying like it’s 1999 since 1891, when a group of citizens decided to celebrate the heroes of the Battle of San Jacinto and the Alamo.

Fiesta has been occurring every April in San Antonio for over one hundred years. There are multiple events each day, as well as several parades over a ten-day period. Most of these events are fundraisers for various non-profits and scholarship programs around town. If you think about it, massive amounts of food and beverages are consumed all in the name of charity. San Antonio didn’t hold the title of America’s Fattest City for several years running for nothin’, and we do it for good causes! Virtually the entire city shuts down for 10 days to attend events around town.

You read that correctly. We pretty much shut down around here. The last Friday of Fiesta is a school and city holiday called Battle of Flowers. Many people use vacation days to set up for the events for which they’re volunteering. Many more people either call in sick to work or show up with hangovers and/or indigestion. Those who do arrive to work in satisfactory condition take longer breaks to discuss the events of the previous evening and plan for future adventures. It’s hard work partaking in these celebrations!

It’s a most unproductive time in this city.

Or, is it?

How many other cities can have an absentee workforce for 10 days and still bounce back to normal? AND raise tens of thousands of dollars for charity at the same time? San Antonio was even named  the Nation’s Best Performing City by the Milken Institute in 2011. You might say that if we can slow or shut down nearly all operations while the rest of the world waits on us, we are pretty darn productive after all.

San Antonio can do this because we have systems in place, and we set expectations for this time period with all of our customers and clients. This is how we roll.

And so, too, can you roll with your own business. If a city can shut down for 10 days to party, you can take some much needed time off and go on vacation – even if it’s for only a quick weekend getaway.

Systems. Expectations. You can do it.

Viva Fiesta!

Small Biz Owners: attorney gives top 3 planning tips to manage your business

I was reading a Biz Journals article the other day about the percentage of microbusinesses (10 employees or fewer) that have closed up in the last couple of years. Part of it is because of the economy, but there are other reasons that small businesses don’t succeed – lack of organization, lack of business knowledge, and lack of planning. I’ve asked my friend, attorney Lincoln Strawhun, to give some advice on long-range planning for small businesses:

Do You Own A Small Business?  What Happens To It If Something Happens To You?

by Lincoln Strawhun, J.D.

If you are like most small business owners, you run every key aspect of the business.  The business cannot run without you.  At least, it cannot run as well without you.   That’s why you cannot go on vacation.  Or if you do, it is for a long weekend (not for two weeks).   And you have trouble relaxing while on vacation because you are so worried about how things are going back at the shop.   That’s a concern.  But there are bigger concerns.

What if something happens to you that is more serious than not being able to go on vacation?  What if you get sick?  What if you get in an accident?  What if…?  Below are three planning considerations for small business owners.

1. Begin with the end in mind.   What is your exit strategy?   Whether it’s day one or you’ve had your business for 10 years, you should know the answer to this question.  I know one small business owner who says, “As soon as I have enough money in my IRA I’m done!”  Another says, “My business will be perpetual.   It will keep paying me long after I retire.”  Yet another says, “I’m going to build up enough company assets so that I can sell it .”  All of these exit strategies are fine.  Knowing which strategy is the one for you will help you make proper decisions along the way.

2. Train a Number Two. Grooming a person who can run the key functions of the business makes for a more efficient, stable and successful operation.  Even if you are a solopreneur, you can write a policy manual (15 minutes per week) that could help train a new employee when you grow or guide a seasoned professional who is stepping into your role under emergency circumstances.

3. Create a Living Trust or Will.   A Last Will and Testament can outline what you want to happen to your business if you are no longer with us.   The limitation is that a Will only becomes a effective when you die.  And at that point, you probably don’t care what happens to your business.  A better option is a Living Trust.   A Trust becomes effective the day you sign it and is fluid throughout your life.   If you become incapacitated—through illness, injury or otherwise—a successor trustee can carry out the terms of the Trust (including the operation of your business) until you recuperate.

These considerations will help protect what you work so hard for: a thriving business.  And it will help create a business that thrives even when you are sick, recuperating from an accident (or when you’re on vacation).

Lincoln is an attorney with the Law Offices of Carol Bertsch and is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

How can a solopreneur go on an extended vacation? Part II: The Business Side

Image via Wikipedia

As mentioned in my previous post on the subject, getting ready for your vacation on the personal side is fairly easy. But getting things ready on the business side takes a fair amount of thinking and planning. Your vacation set-up for your business will depend on your industry, business model and how long you’ll be gone. While each solopreneur’s set-up will be individual, in a nutshell, these are the areas you’ll need to address:

Blocking off prep time

You’ll need to schedule some time on your calendar for getting your business ready to run on autopilot while you’re gone. What needs to be worked on during these sessions? Keep reading….

Taking care of current clients and business deals

You’ll want to notify your clients and colleagues of your vacation dates. The lead time on notification will depend on how much time your projects take. Will you need to finish their projects before you leave? Can they be put on hold? Can they be started upon your return? This should be discussed with those individuals who are involved. If they’re informed about your vacation schedule, this will help prevent “emergency” contact during your vacation and save you on catch-up time upon your return.

Taking care of prospective clients

Who will handle your incoming calls and emails from your prospective clients? Will a vacation greeting on your voicemail or an auto-responder email be enough until you get back? Or do you need to ask someone to cover for you?

Handling communication while you’re gone

Do you want to check voicemails and emails while you’re on vacation? Do you need someone to screen your voicemails and emails and forward only the emergencies? Or will your vacation auto-responder suffice?

Paying the bills

You don’t want to rack up late fees while you’re gone, so be sure to make payment arrangements before you leave.

Blocking off catch-up time

This is so important! Even if you decide to have someone screen your calls and emails, you’ll still need to address everything that you did not address while you were gone. You can knock out a huge amount of tasks if you block off a full day – process mail, email and phone calls. On your “out of office” messages, be sure you include this day as a part of your absence so that people don’t email and call you on your first day back. Let them be surprised when you respond a day early.

The more organized your plan is on the front end, the less stress you’ll come back to when you return to work. Wanna get away?

A Lesson in Customer Service: Don’t Do What CBS Did to Dallas Cowboys Fans

Image via Wikipedia

I recently completed a business course called Sanera Camp (presented by Alicia Arenas), so I’ve got customer service on the brain. If you go to any workshop or class on how to get and keep customers, they discuss at length that you need to deliver what you promise and, if at all possible, go above and beyond what’s expected.

There are a handful of times, however, when you might not be able to deliver on your promise to your customer.

Your vehicle breaks down and you can’t make your appointment – You call your customer as soon as possible to apologize, and then do what you can to make it up to them.

You’re asked to film a television spot and need to reschedule – You call your customer as soon as you find out, apologize, explain what an amazing opportunity this is, and then offer some kind of freebie on top of the promised service to make it up to them.

A blizzard is expected to make travel impossible over the next few days – You call your customer to go over options and get them their promised service as soon as humanly possible.

Things out of your control happen, so you do your best to make your customers happy.

You don’t stop mid-way during a job and say, “I don’t want to finish. Goodbye.”

So here’s what happened today. CBS advertised that they were going to show the Dallas Cowboys vs Buffalo Bills football game. A football game has four quarters. In the third quarter, announcer James Brown came on air and said, “We’re going to move you to a more competitive game,” and CBS promptly yanked coverage from Dallas over to the Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cincinnati Bengals game.

What?!?

Was there some kind of technical mishap at the stadium that prevented airing the Dallas game? No.

Was there some kind of weather event that caused the game to be stopped? No.

The Cowboys were finally winning big and pulling it together as a team, and CBS decided to pull coverage? In the middle of a game? CBS basically said, “I don’t want to finish. Goodbye.”

For anyone in sales or service, CBS gave an excellent lesson today.