Tag: Business

Project Management and Waiting Tables

Waiting tables should be a requirement for life. Learning to serve others, quickly, with lots of details, and with a good attitude is not an easy job. It takes long hours on your feet, lots of focus, and lots of patients.

Great waters would make great project managers. Regardless of the business, a project manager is very similar to a waiter. They service a variety of customers at once, have a certain rotation, and often work from the time a custom sits down until the time they pay the bill.

Project management requires focus and discipline with task management. If a table has sat around too long and not given you their order (or feedback on a project), it can be easy to let them slip out of rotation and hard to keep track of. If you take sloppy notes, it can be easy to get the order wrong.

Project managers should study good waters and learn something.

Apple Support is How Customer Support Should Be

Apple’s customer support is incredible.

I have been having an issue with the home button on my iPhone not working correctly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Needless to say, it’s extremely annoying.

I went over to Apple’s Service & Repair website today and had a great experience with the repair process. Visited the site, entered my serial number and then clicked for Apple to “call me now”. Entered my phone number and appleid and password. A few moments later, my phone rang with a friendly customer support rep located just north of me in Savannah, GA (not India or anywhere else).

I explained the situation and in less than 10 minutes, she had setup an express repair order. According to the representative, I’ll have a new iPhone overnighted to me and in my hands tomorrow. (no cost to me… other than the AppleCare warranty I purchased over a year ago)

So in less than 30 minutes from the time I decided to contact them, I had spoken to a rep and have a new phone on the way. Thats how support should work everywhere.

The Reality of Hiring

There is a lot of talk abot jobs right now. Esspecially from politicians, many of whom have never created a job in their entire lives.

I am a small business owner. I hire people and companies to help our clients with websites, graphic design, and many other services. I hire people down the street and half way around the world.

Here is a dirty little secret in business… It is significantly easier to hire someone OUTSIDE the United States than it is half way around the world. It’s also significantly more expensive. I’m not talking about a persons actual wage or salary but all of the government and legalities involved.

There are MANY reasons that jobs are struggling right now, but one of the major reasons is government involvement and regulation. The best thing that government can do for business (and as a result labor and jobs) is to get out of the business of business. All you have to do is look at the recent Dodd/Frank act and what it’s new regulations mean to the “evil” big businesses like Bank of America. They recently announced that they will likely be letting go 30,0000 employees due new regulations (Great article in the Wall Street Journal about it today).

When I hire a staff locally, I need an I-9, W-4, direct deposit paperwork, background check, new hire forms, unemployment insrance forms, and other legal paperwork. I also need to be concerned about the additonal cost of payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, and the fact that if I need to let them go, I need all sorts of paperwork and information to prevent being penalized by future unemployment claims. At the end of the year I need to deal with W2s and all kinds of other legal paperwork to make sure I am in compliance with the law. All of this taxes away from what I could actually pay someone and takes away from me actually working the business (and creating more jobs).

When I hire staff abroad, all I need is a PayPal account email address.

The problem with government is that so many of them would look at this situation and argue that it needs to be more difficult to hire abroad to make it fair. The reality of it is that we need to make it easier to hire here and promote the benefits of working locally.

Our business works with clients all over the world and it makes sense for us to have staff all over in many cases, but I WANT to hire local as much as possible (especially in “this economy”). The instability and regulation of government make that a more daunting process than it should be.

Now, please excuss me, I have an interview with a potential new employee. You see, while everyone in the public sector is busy talking about jobs, some of us in the private sector are working as hard as we can to actually create jobs.

Stop Talking, Start Doing

One of my favorite motivational speakers of all time is Zig Ziglar. He has so much charm, passion, and zeal for what he does. He loves to motivate people.

Recently I was listening to an old audio recording of his called Leadership & Success Series. It is loaded with great information but one specific story really stuck with me.

He tells a story about when he was young, they had biscuits one morning that were flat and not as large and fluffy as they usually would be. He mentions that he asked the cook what happened to the biscuits and she said “they got caught in the squat.” They never rose to their true potential. This is what happens with people too.

So many people TALK about what they are going to do when the situation is right, or the right opportunity comes along, or the right time of year, but the never actually DO anything.

Out politicians are especially bad at this. They talk about what they are going to do to cut the debt, talk about what they are going to do to improve jobs, talk about what they are going to do to reduce government (or increase on the left), but it rarely ever happens. There is too much talking and not enough doing.

Talking does not produce incoming (well, unless you are Zig Ziglar), it does not grow jobs, it will not grow business.

In the Bible, it says “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” (Proverbs 10:4) It later says “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23) These are wise words.

If we, as a nation, as small business owners, as leaders in the community, as mothers and fathers, as husbands and wives, would do a little less talking and a lot more doing, we would all be much better off.

Now excuse me while I stop talking and go get some work done…

BNI Regional Conference – Jacksonville, Florida

BNI Regional Conference – Jacksonville, Florida

I will be speaking during the lunch portion of this event next Friday. It will be a great day of education, networking, and business building. If you are not already coming and are in Northeast, Florida, register today. It is open to both BNI members and non-members.

The Truth about Competition

It is often said that it’s not about winning or losing but the way you play the game. That is true. What is true about it is that the way you play the game often determines if you win or lose.

Our culture is becoming more and more focused on a lack of competition. Parents are told that their children are too young to compete and it will scare them psychologically or something. Schools are discouraged from highlighting overachievers in academics because they don’t want to make anyone else feel bad. Competitive events feel the need to give all participants a medal or trophy so that “everyone is a winner.” When this happens, it does not make everyone a winner. it does make everyone appear the same, but those that put in extra effort are not rewarded for it. As a result, we discourage that high level of work. There must be something to reach for, or we will often stop reaching —it is our nature.

Reality is that life is often a competition. We compete for the a place on a sports team, for a place in college, for a spouse, for a job, and the list goes on.

I am not saying that you must win all the time to be happy. What I am saying is that we should PREPARE to the highest level of our ability — all the time. This preparation that is often lacking. Practice may not make you perfect, but if you practice well, you probably won’t suck.

Today was my four year olds first soccer game. His team lost by about 30 points. Why? The other team was better prepared. They had been trained, coached, and were ready with a plan. Hayden’s team does little at practice and they did little at the game. I heard from someone at the game, “well, they are just 4 and 5 year olds, what can you expect.” The other team was just 4 and 5 year olds and they clearly had the capacity to be trained in the basics of the sport.

For some reason, we are so quick to make excuses for our children and ourselves. Children DO HAVE the capacity to be trained, at anything. It can still be fun – and it should be, but there must be a plan to improve week by week, year by year.

Needless to say, Hayden and I are going to be spending a lot more time with the soccer ball in the yard. I am not the teams coach, but I can work with him individually so he can improve. I want to teach him that with hard work pays off.

Hard work is fun because it often yields great fruit. We will reap what we sow, in the little things and the big.