Flowers are more exciting than accounting!

This week, we are going to tackle the big UGLY A word: Accounting.  Now, before you turn off your browser and hide in the corner in fetal position, let’s set some boundaries.  These are my HUGE RULES for teaching people accounting:

• You are not an accountant and that is OK.
• I don’t expect you to become an accountant.  (I went to school for 4 years, took a gazillion exams, wrote a trillion case studies, and worked in the field for 3 years to have a small expertise in accounting.)  You do not need another career.
• Accounting math is not difficult.  Accounting involves 4^th grade math: addition, subtraction, very little multiplication and maybe some division.  The math is not hard.  Open your mind.
• Accounting terminology can be challenging.  It is a new set of words, ideas, and language.  But who said you can’t learn a new language?  My goal is for you to have a “tourist fluency” in this language.
• If you can swing it, hire someone to do your accounting.  However, educate yourself enough to understand “the big picture” of your business finances.
• You MUST learn the NUMBERS to your business in order to truly understand what your business is doing.  Without knowing the numbers, you cannot truly gauge its success.  (Are you making money, honey?)

People often shut off from understanding “the numbers” of their business because of a traumatic school experience with math.  The truth is that math is a small part of accounting for your business.  It’s also not as exciting as the “pretty” things in the wedding industry: flowers, paper, love, music. But, keep this in mind: you have a business above all the “pretty” things.  So, I’m going to set you straight.  We are going to start off this lesson in accounting from the VERY beginning.  Today we are going to get you organized!

Knowing your Numbers Step #1: Get Organized

I haven’t done any hard research on this, but I’m going to guess that most small business owners who do not know their numbers don’t have this first step down.  You must get yourself organized.  Without this first step, none of the other steps will work.  Find a system that works for you.

Here are my tips for getting organized:

• Set up file folders to hold your receipts for the entire year: one month per folder.  (I organize mine by month, but you might have different needs.)  Keep it simple.  Label 12 folders: January 2010 through December 2010.
• Use a labeler to label your folders. (I love my Dymo labeler.)  This is SOOOO silly.  I read it in David Allen’s Getting Things Done book.  It’s something psychological about seeing them neatly labeled.  I don’t get it.  But it works!  Don’t use the computerized/printed labels because you won’t want to set it up every time you need another file folder labeled.  (Trust me – I’ve done it the other way – handwritten or computerized – and failed at this system.)
• Label a 13^th folder: Accounting Inbox.
• As soon as you get a receipt or an invoice, place it in the accounting inbox file.  (No need to file immediately.)  Just get it out of your way; get it out of your distraction.  You can do this for client invoice copies and bank deposit slips too.
• Use fun folders.  If this floats your boat, do it.  I tend to get tired of patterns quickly, so I stick with boring manila.  I also hate when a pattern is discontinued and then I have discombobulated/mismatched files.
• Keep these file folders out of view but accessible.  You must be able to file things away quickly and refer to them when needed.
• Pick a day in the last week of every month.  It can be the last Monday of the month if you like admin work on Mondays.  I like the last Friday of every month because I like the finality of it.  I like to “wrap things up” before starting a new month.  Now – write down “Accounting Day” on your calendar for the next 9-12 months out.  You will be using this day each month to process your “accounting inbox” file.  (More on that later this week.)
• Maintain. Your system is only as good as you use it.  Find a system that works for you and that you can maintain.

That’s it!  You are now organized!  You are one step closer to KNOWING the NUMBERS of your BUSINESS!  I love it.

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I talk a lot about working on HUGE projects in chunks of 30 minutes per day.  My rationale is that you can do ANYTHING if you piece it into small bites.  I like to set a timer so that a 30 minute project doesn’t swallow my entire day by becoming a 5 hour project.  Lately I’ve been thinking of all the things – small and large – that you can get done in 30 minutes.  There are also little tasks that can make a big difference when you only have a small amount of time.  (I suffer from not wanting to start a project if I have a phonecall in 30 minutes.)  So, here is my list of small and large projects you can get done in 30 minutes – broken down into small challenges and large ones.  Pick only one of these to do each day and commit yourself to 30 minutes.

Small (quickie) 30 minute challenges:

These are the quick little projects that’ll make you feel just a little bit better about yourself and your biz.  These are usually one-timers that can be done when you have a small chunk of time where you are waiting for a call or an appointment.

1. Clean out a file drawer.
2. Make a coffee date with someone you want to know better in the wedding industry.
3. Wipe down your desk and computer screen.
4. Call your mom.
5. Pay 5 bills.
6. Clean your thing-a-majigger draw (you know, the one with the paper-clip explosion).
7. Write a blog post (idea: the thing that excites you most about your business).
8. Take a 30 minute walk to clear your head.
9. Write down 5 things that make your business different.
10. Read a business article in a magazine, blog, or book.
11. Send a thank you note to someone who has helped your business.
12. Take a nap.
13. Read your goals for 2010.
14. Give.  Find a charity or non-profit and donate $5 to their cause.
15. Sign up for a networking event.

Large (long-term) 30 minute challenges:

These are the HUGE projects that when broken up into 30 minute chunks, you can accomplish over time.  These are the items that you’ll repeat every day, 30 minutes at a time, until you are done.

1. Clean out your email inbox.
2. Work on one piece of your business plan.
3. Write a book: one page at a time.
4. Organize a large pile (or box) of denial.
5. If you have months of receipts, input them into your accounting software.
6. De-clutter: Grab a bag and find 10 things to throw away in your office.
7. Redesign your website: one page at a time.  (Work on the concept and the flow if you are not the designer.)
8. Organize inventory
9. Write down systems and procedures for your business: one process at a time.
10. Design a new collection, a new product, or a new division of your business.
11. Create a database of every person you’ve ever done business with.
12. Clean out your computer files.
13. Organize an open house for your business.
14. Plan for the next wedding show (that you attend as an exhibitor).
15. Train an employee on a new responsibility.

Do you notice how none of these items included “check facebook” “talk on twitter”?  (Yes, I do a lot of that too.)  The point is that if you really commit yourself to spending time on something – even in little increments – you can accomplish a lot.  Are you short on time?  Or, are you short on commitment?

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Email consumes so much of our daily attention and business energy.  We spend so much time reading, responding, sorting message.  And, we waste time re-reading them also.  Think of your daily routine.  Do you find yourself combing through emails trying to find that one email pertaining to a client?  Do you find yourself reviewing an email for the 34th time unsure of what to do with it?

Here are 5 Easy Tips for Email Maintenance:

1. Wait one hour before checking email in the morning.
   Unless you have something time critical (pending orders) in your email inbox, wait until mid-morning to check your email.  Why?  Because it allows you to get WORK done.  It allows you to get something critical done before the barage of correspondence that consumes us every day.  I’ve had days where I sit down to answer email and don’t get up for several hours because they keeeeeeep coming.  Give yourself time to do WORK.  Here’s another related post on waiting to check email in the morning.
2. Set up folders to help you file and archive email
   If you don’t have folders set up yet, do so.  And, make them easy for you to work with.  I keep them broad enough so that I don’t have too search to hard through hundreds of folders.  I have about 20-40 folders (depending on the inbox.)  It can be as simple as “Colleagues” “Clients” “Personal” & “Travel”.
3. Auto-filter email
   Set filters on your email so that email on specific subjects or from certain senders automatically go to one of the archive folders.  For example, any email from one of the officers at Get Hitched Give Hope automatically goes to a “GHGH” folder.  These are typically not urgent and I can respond to them when I have a little more time.  Also, if you have newsletters that fill up your inbox, but you do enjoy receiving them, set up a filter that sends your messages to a “READ THIS” folder.  Then you can read your newsletters in one sitting.
4. Start a HABIT of reading each message only once
   A few months ago I realized that I was probably reading most messages 2-10 times.  This is because they would sit in my email inbox and I would revisit them until I was ready to respond.  I thought, “How much more efficient would I be if I took action on every email as soon as I saw it?”  And, so this became my mission: read a message, act on it, and archive or delete it.  This is a huge challenge to do.  How did I do it?

   - I set times in my day to only work on email.  Therefore, when I’m reading email I have the time to respond.
   - Ask yourself: What do I need to do NOW to act on this email and clear it out of my inbox?
   - If the email requires that I take some action at a later time, I add it to my to-do list.  Then, I file the message.
   - I archive or delete everything that is done with.
   - Any email that needs additional follow-up (these are usually messages that I can resolve within a day or two) stays in my inbox as “unread”.  Having it “unread” is a trigger to me that I need to act on it soon.
   - Keep my inbox to a maximum of 20-30 messages (MAX) with an ideal amount of 0-5 messages.  (HAHA!  This was hard to do… see my next point.)

5. Clear out your inbox for 30 minutes a day
   About a year ago I had ~879 messages in my main email inbox.  These were mostly messages of old “important” things that I felt I needed to have access to.  The funny thing is that in a sea of 879 messages I never accessed them.  They were mostly personal emails from friends/family that I wanted to read or keep.  Or, they were newsletters that I wanted to dig into.  Some of them were suppliers that I didn’t carry but “might” be interested in carrying down the road.  It was a little nutty.  So, I decided I was going to take on this behemoth and clear it out.  I committed myself to 30 minutes per day of only inbox cleaning.  During the 30 minutes I focused solely on old email only (nothing that just came in).  I wanted to archive or delete those  messages from 2004.  And, little by little, I did it.  About a month ago I was able to get to INBOX ZERO!  This is the first time in 5 years I have a clean inbox.  And, it has made the BIGGEST difference in the maintenance of my inbox… and my productivity in general.  The clutter was bogging me down.  It’s amazing what you can accomplish in 30 minutes a day over a long period of time.

So, there you have it… my quick-n-easy email tips for you!  How about you?  What are your email secrets?

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Lately, I’ve been a little shocked by people’s email and telephone protocol.  What seems to me as something so simple and straightforward does not seem to be the case for everyone.  I’m going to preface this post by laying down a few assumptions:

• I believe in setting boundaries.  No one should be answering email and phonecalls late into the night.  I also believe in keeping weekends.  It is OK to not respond to email on Saturday-Sunday.  (Or Sunday-Monday if you work on Saturdays.)
• There are days that our job requires us to be out of the office: meeting with clients, at site visits, at networking functions.
• We all get busy and there are days where we are bogged down and can simply not respond to everyone’s inquiry.

Let’s address a few HUMONGOUS CORRESPONDENCE OFFENSES:

Not responding to email in a timely fashion

Email MUST be responded to within 24 hours.  Here are my rules for ensuring his happens:

• I quickly scan my email for personal and business.  Personal email usually requires a little more time and thought.  My friends, fortunately, do not require a quick response.  Business correspondence does.
• At the end of my workday, I check my inbox to make sure every single business email has received a reply of some sort.
• If I do not have an answer or need more time for an email, I simply let the sender know, “I’ll get back to you before the end of the week.”
• I archive and file all email once responded to.  My inbox has only “open items”.

If you have trouble, organizing your email and keeping everything straight, you may need to set up folders and filters.  See this post on setting up your email inbox.

Like I said, there are days that we have maxed out on our responsibilities as business owners and we must prioritize.  Some times email must play a second fiddle in order to fry the bigger fish.  This is completely understandable.  The problem is when poor correspondence becomes the norm.  Not only are you sacrificing potential business, but also you are sacrificing relationships with colleagues.  You are sacrificing your image and your brand.

Responding to a phonecall with an email

I’m not a big phone person.  I prefer email because I’m very visual.  I need to see something in writing for it to truly set in.  It also creates an easy reference for me to take action in the future.  I know many wedding professionals agree.  Planning a wedding is an intricate web of many little pieces that are nice to “see”.

There are times, though, that a phonecall is necessary.  And, usually a phonecall is made when something is urgent and/or very important.  If I’m calling you, do not email me back. There’s a reason I phoned you.  Just like with email, ensure that you have returned every voicemail at the end of the day.

Now… there is only ONE reason a phonecall should receive an email reply and that would be if you want to set up a better time to talk by phone. There are days that I simply cannot take a phonecall.  I understand this.  Typically, I schedule ALL phonecalls if I can.  If you receive a phonecall that you cannot take and it is NOT urgent, then a quick email asking to schedule a time is appropriate.  Again, make sure the call is not urgent or this defeats the purpose.

Phone = Urgent
Email = Not Urgent

Please respond to phonecalls with phonecalls.

Not setting an “out of office” responder

I am a HUGE fan of the “out of office” auto-responder.  You should be setting this on your email any time that you cannot or will not be responding to email within 24 hours. If you have the slightest doubt that you will be able to respond to email, just set the auto-responder.  This is a great habit to establish.  Here are some examples of when to use this:

• Out of the office for site visits
• Away from your desk for client meetings
• At home with your kids for the day
• Have family visiting from out of town
• On vacation or business travel
• On the weekend (especially if you take an “unconventional” weekend such as Sunday – Monday)
• You are simply too swamped to respond to email

The last point is VERY important.  If you are slammed with work, you need to let people know.  Otherwise, you look irresponsible.  If you cannot take any more business and don’t plan on responding to inquiries for some time, please let people know: “We are booked through the end of April.  We will be meeting with clients beginning May 1.  If you are interested in setting a time to meet, reply with your May availability.”  If your heavy workload is confined to a short window of time, let people know, “I’m in the throws of invite assembly!  Woohooo!  Please know that I’ll be in touch with you within 72 hours and not a minute more.”

The auto-responder is awesome for giving you breathing space.  It allows you to work on email when you can best respond.  Not only does it curb the expectations of the sender, but also allows you to be present with your other commitments.

How about you?  What are your correspondence pet peeves and what are your solutions?

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You know that feeling of exhilaration that you feel as you are on an airplane on your way to a relaxing vacation?   It’s that feeling of excitement, exhaustion, euphoria, relaxation… all bound together. Why is that?  Yes, you are going on a very much-needed vacation.  It’s a feeling that is based not only on the fact that you are taking time off, but also a feeling of completion.

Chances are that you have spent the last several days getting everything in order.  You have crossed your t’s, dotted your i’s, signed the last check, sent out proposals and contracts, sent the last email, cleaned your desk, put up your out-of-office email response, and shut down your voicemail.  All of the loose ends have been contained.  And, gosh darnit… doesn’t it feel AMAZING?!

This is a concept that David Allen talks about in his book, “Getting Things Done”.  The idea is that in order to truly live at peace, you should be containing all your loose ends (he calls them “open loops”) every day.  I recommend you read the book to get the skinny on how to do this.  His easy tools and tips require about a day to set up.  It’s easy as pie.  And, it can revolutionize your work flow.

Yesterday, we talked about doing a monthly review of your business.  This made me think of David Allen’s concept.  Wouldn’t it be great to have that “on vacation” feeling every weekend?  (I’d love to have it every day, but I’ll settle for the weekends.)  Now… I know that MANY/MOST of you work on weekends… (darn those people for marrying on a Saturday!)… I’m going to be realistic and say this isn’t possible EVERY weekend.  BUT, you need to define your boundaries and make sure that you are creating pockets of time off in your schedule or you will burn out – and fast.  If you work on Saturday, take Monday off.  If you have 3 weddings in 3 weekends in a row, make sure the 4^th one is off.

So, here is my challenge for today… pick a weekend (or a day) to have that “on vacation” feeling… it could be this weekend, or the following.  On the day before your “weekend”, spend two hours doing the following:

• Quickly, spend 15-20 minutes cleaning your desk.  Remove all papers and files.  Put everything “out of place” into a pile onto the floor.  Wipe and clean your desk.
• Repeat for any other countertops or shelves that collect your “random stuff”. Put everything “out of place” into a pile onto the floor.
• Make 3 file folders (or boxes) labeled:
  • Now
  • Projects
  • Filing
    Note: These are temporary so don’t over-think this process.
• Start a to-do list with 2 categories:
  • Now
  • Projects
    Leave this list blank until we get to the next step.
• Let’s go through the “out of place” pile on the floor.  Grab the pile and do the following:
  • One by one, grab each item, spend 2 seconds and decide:
    • Is this something I need to take care of now before the weekend?  (Limit yourself to very few of these – max 5.)
    • Do I need this to complete a project?  (These are projects to be worked on next week.)
    • Do I need to file this for future reference?  (This is an item that is not actionable, but you might need for reference in the future.)
  • As you are working through each item, file them in their folder.  Add the “now” items to your to-do list (remember, you should only have a maximum of 5).  Add the “projects” to the list.
  • Take your 3 file folders and find a place for them.  With the exception of the “now” file, you will be revisiting the “projects” and “filing” folders after your weekend.
• Open your email account.  Similar to the “out of place” file, go through your email inbox like this.  (If you have 988 emails spanning back to 2004, then do this with the most recent emails that can still be actionable.   The rest of your 900 emails deserve another blog article.)  Decide:
  • Now items: address immediately  (don’t dilly-dally, just do)
  • Project items: add to your to-do list
  • Filing: File away in archive folders in your email account
• If you have any phonecalls you need to make, make them.
• Review the “Now” list and “Now” folder.  What are those 5 things you HAVE to do before you can enjoy your weekend?  Do them.
• Do your “things” start to feel a little more under control?  Does your desk look nice?  Is your email a little more managed?  Time for the BRAIN DRAIN! Grab your to-do list and sit at your clean desk.  Go through the following categories of your life and grab any “loose items” from your head:
  • Personal: your, your family, your friend’s needs
  • Clients: any open items to be resolved next week
  • Business: any goals and plans you need to work on next week
  • Other: anything racing through your mind that you need to do

You should feel much more euphoric now… and ready for that “on vacation feeling”… enjoy the weekend!

Want this is in a handy-dandy download?  Print it out and put it on your calendar for Friday!  Download here: Sage Wedding Pros On Vacation Feeling. Find other downloads by clicking here.

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Until recently, I kinda poo-poo’d the notion of the inbox.  You see, I worked in big stuffy offices in my previous life and I remember having an inbox for interoffice mail, memos, TPS reports, and the such.  These inboxes sat in the corners of our desks, closest to foot traffic.  They were like mailboxes, but on our desks.  And, if you know anything about the mail, memos, and reports that go around such offices, you’ll also know that inboxes = trash receptacles.

Fast forward to 2004… my own business!  Wooohooo!  I set up my office my way, for me.  And, the only memos being sent are jokes between my husband and I.  I didn’t find any need for an inbox.  Anything that came into my office, came directly into my hands, onto my desk, or into a file.

And, then I read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”. I realized that all of that stuff going directly into my hands or my desk was really distracting and the opposite of efficient.  Much of that stuff was ending on pile on my desk.  And that pile grew.  It grew pretty big.  And, it subconsciously ate up my attention span.

The inbox is where EVERYTHING goes first.  It doesn’t go into your hands, or your desk, or your files.  There is no need to make a decision on anything that comes through your door until it’s the right time to deal with it.  The problem with not using an inbox is that we get distracted with what’s coming in and feel the need to deal with it immediately.  The inbox is a holding place for the clutter, the distraction… it’s a receptacle for what is preventing you from getting things done.

Now, the important thing is to go through that inbox at least weekly.  I sometimes go through it at the end of each day.  You do want to make sure you aren’t missing anything important in there.  It CANNOT become a “pile of denial”.  You MUST deal with the inbox.

You can temporarily allow the inbox to be that holding place for everything that has the possibility of taking away attention from the task at hand: the bills that arrive by mail, the contract you have to sign, the receipt from last night’s event.  The goal is to get the clutter off your desk (and out of your mind) and into a safe zone.

I like these plain and simple ikea “FIRA” drawers because they block my view from seeing what’s in there.  (Yes, I can be easily distracted by paper.)

OH – and are you seeing any parallels here?  I’m not just talking the physical office and inbox.  I’m also talking the electronic kind: the email inbox!  Yes, it’s amazing that it captures everything in one place.  But you don’t need to be distracted by it every 5 minutes.  It’s a receptacle for things that do not need immediate attention.  (The phone is what people use when they need your attention immediately, mind you.)  Review your inbox at key intervals and empty it completely if you can.  But, don’t check your inbox every 5 minutes.  That’s akin to staring at the pile on your desk every 5 minutes.

Do you use an inbox?  What have you found to be its benefits?  Do tell!

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One of the greatest challenges of small business owners, myself included, is setting boundaries.  This is in large part due to advances in technology.  We can work from ANYWHERE!  Oh look, I can go to the beach on Wednesday as long as I have my blackberry.  But, in reality, we don’t go to the beach on Wednesday.  We work… and continue to work into the night.  Work is only a small 3×4 keypad away.

Our definition of work has also changed in the last 30 years.  In some ways work has become more fun with all this gadgetry so we don’t mind “working”.  Work has also become undefined and never-ending.  In David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done” he talks about how work no longer has clear boundaries:

“A major factor in the mounting stress level is that the actual nature of our jobs has changed much more dramatically and rapidly than have our training for and our ability to deal with work. In just the last half of the twentieth century, what constituted “work” in the industrialized world was transformed from assembly-line, make-it and move-it kinds of activity to what Peter Drucker has so aptly termed “knowledge work.”

In the old days, work was self-evident. Fields were to be plowed, machines tooled, boxes packed, cows milked, widgets cranked. You knew what work had to be done—you could see it. It was clear when the work was finished, or not finished. Now, for many of us, there are no edges to most of our projects. Most people I know have at least half a dozen things they’re trying to achieve right now, and even if they had the rest of their lives to try, they wouldn’t be able to finish these to perfection.”

Today, I’m going to give you 5 tips for defining boundaries:

1. Get Organized
   The “Getting Things Done” methodology of organization and project management is wildly popular.  I highly recommend reading David Allen’s book if you are seeking a better organization method and better way to streamline your work.  In it he discusses how all of “the stuff” in our lives affects how we work. Stacks of papers on your desk may seem innocent.  (I’m the first one to say that I have “organized mess”.)  The reality is that these stacks pull our attention away from focusing on what needs to be done.  Just the fact that the stack is there represents something “a bit off”.  Yesterday, Kelly Simants talked about feng shui for the office.  A box of “unfinished business” or a “pile of denial” needs to be dealt with first.  It’ll bring you peace of mind and focus for your work.
2. 30 Minutes a Day
   I talk a lot abut spending 30 minutes a day on a challenging project.  Use 30 minutes a day to organize your office.  I recently moved cross-country.  I was able to purge a lot before leaving Seattle.  But, if you’ve moved anywhere in the last 5 years, you’ll know that there are still some “skeletons” that make their way into your new home: files you didn’t get to filter through, clothing you thought you needed and wanted, things that just don’t make sense or fit in your new house or office.  My to-do list every day includes “30 minutes clean computer or paper files”.  I’d love to take off a whole week to get my office organized, but that’s unrealistic for me.  It’s amazing what you can do in 30 minutes without interruptions.  I set the timer and go.
3. Break up your work into projects
   David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methodology includes clearly defining your work into projects.  This is very important in defining boundaries.  We do so many things as small business owners.  And, these things seem to have no edges.  By creating projects, we define the edges.  Within each of these projects there are steps to accomplish them.  There are also endings to projects.  This also goes beyond our client management, which generally, we already break into “projects by wedding”.  It also relates to our other internal projects.
4. Spend 15-30 minutes at the end of the day clearing your head and your desk
   Ideally we’d set a time to finish our work day at 5:30pm and be done with it.  This is a great boundary to set, if you can.  But often times 5:30 turns to 6 turns to 7.  While I still think you should strive to have a hard ending to your day, it’s equally as important to spend the last half hour of the day getting things off of your mind and off of your desk.  It does no good to finish your work day at 5:30 if you are going to spend the rest of the night thinking of everything you didn’t get done.  It’s better to finish “clear-minded”.  When you are closing your day, turn off your email and your alerts, and your phone.  Spend 15-30 minutes writing EVERYTHING down… everything on your mind, everything you *still* have to do (there’s always tomorrow), everything that is outstanding.  And, clear off your desk.  How can you focus on your family and friends when you are still thinking about work?
5. Take a break
   I feel like the greatest obstacle to creating boundaries can be the fact that sometimes I’m just overworked.  When you are tired and burned out, you have no perspective.  If you need a refresher on taking a break, read my 10 tips on finding balance.

What are your tips for defining boundaries?

For the most part, when I’m working, I’m typically in my home office…but recently I noticed I was spending more time on my laptop in other rooms of the house (that felt more inviting) than when I was in my office.  So, I took a close look at how my office furniture was arranged, the colors I’ve incorporated, and overall flow of how things were set up, and realized it made me feel BLAH.  So, I’m excited to say I’m in the midst of a home office makeover and am learning a few tricks along the way that I wanted to share with you. In this Simplify with Sage post, we’re going to take a look at how to simplify your office while incorporating a principle called “Feng Shui” (pronounced fung schway). If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard this term thrown around a ton, but don’t know a whole lot about it.

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Here are some simple but time-tested Feng Shui practices which can be used for enhancing your workplace:

• Remove clutter
  Your office must be organized and arranged efficiently. Clutter according to Feng Shui stimulates negative Chi (energy) and should be kept to a minimum. Remove whatever extraneous materials are lying in your office. By clearing away the physical clutter that you have been confronting on a daily basis, you free up your mental, emotional burden and feel light, cheerful and optimistic in your reinvigorated working space.
• Position of the desk
  Keep your desk in the commanding position. The commanding position means a position of power, where you have a direct view of the door, a pleasant view out the window and a wall behind you for stability. This position of the desk according to the Feng Shui office offers you the maximum control.
• Shape of your desk
  Shape of your desk can affect your mood and level of productivity in the workplace. Rounded curves are flowing, encouraging the flow of creativity. A kidney-shaped desk follows the natural curves of the human body and is said to give you a subconscious feeling of inner alignment.
• Placement of your plants
  Place plants in your work and help you stay connected to the natural world. Since the green color spurs creativity and new ideas it helps you to have creative element in the office. In Feng Shui practice keeping plants helps to have positive Chi flow in corners which otherwise are neglected spaces devoid of any energy. Green plants also act as a filtering system, reducing toxins and circulating stagnant air.
• Choosing the correct light
  The best light is natural daylight, so move your desk close to a window but never have your desk directly in front of window or fluorescent lights that cast a glare, causing eyestrain and exhaustion. You may improve your mood and energy dramatically by replacing fluorescent lights with warm lights that don’t cast a glare.
• Use of Feng Shui Colors
  Making use of Feng Shui Colors can help you achieve balance in your office. Different colors have different properties some colors can help people feel grounded and secure. Blues, purples or reds are supposed to enhance the wealth and prosperity area of your office.

The above content is from The Spiritual Feng Shui – there is a ton of Feng Shui related info on this site if you’re interested in learning more!

As part of my home office makeover, I decided the element I was missing most out of the above Feng Shui practices was color.  My walls were a light cappuccino color which is a nice neutral, but oh so boring and drab.  After a few trips to Home Depot, I’m LOVING my new “asparagus green” paint (this is an example of the color)!  It’s amazing how it truly changed the entire vibe in my office and I WANT to be in here because it’s so calming and inviting.  According to Feng Shui, green is the color of renewal, fresh energy and new beginnings…which is truly how I feel right now.  Fun!

Now I just need to reposition my furniture, buy some fresh décor and a few plants, and I’ll be close to having a more Feng-Shui-like office!  Once I’m done with my office makeover I’ll be sure to share pics!

What are your ideas about how to make an office have better Feng Shui?

In our last Simplify with Sage post we looked at ways to de-clutter your desk. This week we’re going to be looking at ways to de-clutter your email inbox!

Did you just read that and get a pit in your stomach thinking about your inbox that says you have 1042 emails?  And let me guess, out of the 1042 sitting in your inbox most of them have been marked as read, and you’ve even replied to most of them, so maybe you only have 35 unread…but you still feel overwhelmed with all of those emails sitting in front of you?  I compare that to having a cluttered desk –it’s like having 1042 pieces of paper piled up + no filing system in place = you feel overwhelmed.  I know, because I used to be like that – I didn’t know how to best manage my inbox and it drove me nuts!  Although I am by no means perfect now when it comes to managing my email, I have learned a lot of great tips from others that have helped me be more productive and organized so I’m excited to share these with you as well….so here we go!

As I’m writing this post, I only have 10 emails sitting in my inbox and 51 folders where all of my messages are stored and nicely filed away so I can easily reference them.  However, at one point over the weekend I had 148 unread emails.  If I hadn’t taken the time to manage those 148 messages they would just start to accumulate in my inbox, and by the end of this week I might easily have 1000 emails to clean up.  So, you may be wondering how did I bring that number down to only 10 in my inbox?

Here are 5 easy tips for how to clean-up your inbox AND keep it clean (which is the hardest part, right?)

1.  Schedule your email time:  Just like you would schedule a meeting with a client, schedule time in your day to read and respond to your email.  I have found it works best if you schedule a chunk of time in the morning and a chunk of time in the late afternoon or evening.  How much time you allocate depends on your personal work situation – but for instance, I spend a lot of time on email so for me, I allocate 2 hours in the morning and at least 1 hour in the early afternoon.  By scheduling your time, you’re able to focus on email only and the rest of your day you can clearly focus on projects, keeping up with your accounting, meeting with clients, colleagues, etc.  By the way, be sure to try and turn off Twitter and Facebook while you’re working through your email – those are two of the biggest distractions I’ve seen people get bogged down by…social media is wonderful, it’s just that you need to allocate a separate chunk of time for tweeting and facebooking.  If you receive email on your phone throughout the day, I would still recommend setting aside blocks of time for email – most likely you’ll have time to read emails on your phone, but it’s tricky to always respond to emails that way.

Simplify with Sage Tip: Set aside time in your calendar now and allocate email-only time!

 2.  Prioritize and Respond:  I first recommend setting a standard email response time that you want to hold yourself accountable for.  I have decided that I strive to respond to all email within 24 hours.  Now, I will be the first to admit that of course there are days this isn’t possible because I’ve been in meetings all day and only have an hour at night to sit and respond to email…and I just can’t physically reply to all unread email. However, if you have a mindset of making sure you do everything in your control to respond within a certain timeframe, you will be much more likely to be prompt with responding.  At a recent local wedding association meeting, there was a panel of former brides.  They indicated that response time from vendors was one of THE most important things to them when it came down to selecting their vendors.  They said if they didn’t hear back from someone within 24 hours, they would write them off because they didn’t want to work with someone who wasn’t responsive to their needs.  This might sound tough, but brides want to know that they can connect with you when needed and that you are responsible to get back to them.  With that said, here is how I would recommend prioritizing your email and deciding who to respond to first:

a.  Client email or Potential Client Inquiries – absolutely, without a doubt, respond to your client and potential client emails at LEAST within 24 hours.  If you need more time to provide them with a more thoughtful response, or maybe more research is needed on your end – just let them know that!  All they will want to know is that you received their email and you’re working on responding to them. Be sure to give them a timeframe of when you anticipate you’ll be able to fully respond with the information they need, and more than often they will be completely content with that response.

b.  Wedding Professionals – my relationships with my colleagues are ultra important to me.  These are the people who send me referrals, who I can rely on if I have a question or want to bounce ideas off of…so I never want to compromise that relationship by being delayed with my email response time to them.  Again, if I need more time to respond to them I try to at least send a quick note to acknowledge I received their email and will be back in touch with them shortly with more info.

c.  Other Wedding Related Inquiries – this could be anyone from someone inquiring about an internship to someone asking you if you’d like to advertise with their publication. I know a lot of people who ignore these emails and choose not to respond because they don’t have time, aren’t interested in the person’s request, etc.  I really recommend that you at least give people the courtesy of at least responding back to let them know you don’t have any internships available, but recommend checking into “XYZ” networking association…or that you’re not interested in advertising with them, etc.  I always try to think how I feel when I don’t receive an email back from someone – and that I want to always be approachable, so I try to exhibit this in how I respond to ALL of my emails and at least acknowledge and thank everyone who contacts me.

d.  Personal email – unless you receive a personal email that is urgent, I recommend responding to these last.  Personal emails are often the first ones that I WANT to respond to because they are fun, usually don’t require a lot of thinking on my part, etc.  However, they can easily take up a chunk of time that I should instead be using to respond to client inquiries, vendor emails, etc.  I try to do my personal email when I need a 30 minute break during the day, or at night after I feel good about my progress with my business related email. I’m not trying to suggest that you should put your friends or family last (quite the opposite as you should be putting them first!) – just simply trying to raise the point that I know personal email can be a huge distraction and the reality is, most of the personal emails I receive aren’t urgent.

Simplify with Sage Tip:  Determine what your email response time should be and make it a personal goal to keep yourself accountable to it!

3.  File Your Messages – the reason you might have 1042 emails in your inbox is likely because you either don’t have appropriate folders set up, or you don’t have folders set up at all.  So what do you do when you check your email in the morning and you have 57 new messages?  First, try to prioritize them using the above system, respond to them as you read them, and then FILE them accordingly.  If there are still emails that require a response or you owe more information to the sender, file them in a folder titled “To Do” or “Follow Up”.  If you just read and replied to an email from a Photographer, then file that email immediately in the appropriate folder.  For example, I have a filing system for all Texas Wedding Professionals that I work with so if I receive an email from a Photographer, I find my “Texas Vendors” folder and then have a sub-folder titled “Photographers” where I keep all Photographer related email.  See example below for how to set up folders and sub-folders.  Depending on the email system you use, your folder options will vary – I use Outlook but I know a lot of you are on Gmail and there are great labeling and folder options to utilize.

Simplify with Sage Tip:  Take one morning this week to create folders, and spend 15 minutes each day filing email from your inbox into the appropriate folders.

4.  Filter Your Messages – Filtering is a great way to help you organize email. You can assign rules in your email so that a certain person’s email will be automatically filed in a folder, or email with a certain subject line will be automatically sent to a folder…so, why would you do this?  Well, for instance Michelle and I send each other quite a few emails every day – we could easily spend all day responding back and forth to each other when some of the messages may not be urgent and we should instead be focusing on other projects or deliverables.  So, we both have each other’s emails set to be sent to a folder so that when we have time to sit and focus all of our emails are already chunked together in a folder for easy access.  That way they’re already out of the inbox and filed away – and to be sure they don’t get lost, I title my folder “New Michelle Lorett a email”.  Once I’ve responded to her messages, then they are archived in the appropriate folder.

Simplify with Sage Tip: Think about people who send you a lot of email, or maybe you receive fun blog posts via email – set up a filtering system for these messages to help clean up your inbox.

5.  Pick up the Phone – I often will receive an email from someone who is asking a one liner question, but my response requires much more than one line back.  In that situation, I often will pick up the phone and call the sender.  Although our technology age is wonderful, there are just certain situations where it makes so much more sense to pick up the phone.  Example – I receive an inquiry from a client asking me for rehearsal dinner venue ideas.  Instead of me responding to ask all sorts of questions via email, I try to pick up the phone so we can have a conversation instead of going back and forth over email – which usually saves both of us a ton of time and also helps make sure we have clear communication so I understand the bride’s needs and she can clearly convey her vision.  Going back to our example, once you have that phone call you can follow up with an email providing your client with rehearsal dinner venue ideas. Sounds simple, but I have to continually remind myself that phone calls are sometimes the best way to respond depending on the situation!

Simplify with Sage Tip: Go through the emails still sitting in your inbox that are requiring follow-up and determine if there are any you can respond to with a phone call instead.  After all, there still is nothing better than human connection when you’re doing business!

Tomorrow we’ll be reviewing email etiquette, so stay tuned for tips on the “Do’s and Dont’s of email”

ACK! Are you backed up? (Creative Commons License)

I read this post of my gal pal Laurel McConnell‘s on backing up your computer data in July and it’s taken me this long to do something about it.  For months I’ve been meaning to back up all of the stuff on my laptop and desktop computers.  Who are we kidding?  It’s probably been a year since I backed up certain files my computers.  ARGH!  Shame on me!  I know the danger of losing all of my files, particularly my client’s design files or even personal photos.  But, I just don’t seem to find the time to back up my computers all that frequently.

Out with the old…

My system typically involves something archaic like copying to writable CDs (mutiple CDs) or to an external hard-drive.  Both of these processes are labor intensive.  They require me to

1) sit down and sit still – something I don’t do often

2) figure out which vital files I need to back-up

3) drag and drop files over a few hours (the transferring can take a long time)

In with the new…

So, this weekend, I jumped on the Carbonite bandwagon.  And, I seriously cannot believe it took me so long!  This is what is required to start AUTOMATIC and NON-LABOR-INTENSIVE backup.  (This means that you don’t have to do anything but have an internet connection for your computer(s) to be backed up.)

1.) sign up for  a free 14-day trial at www.carbonite.com (the sign-up is ridiculously easy: emaily & password, done)

2.) you’ll be directed to download the software, run to install, and start it

3.) Carbonite will begin to back-up your files (the first back-up takes several days but is done whenever you are online… no need to sit there and wait for it)

It is seriously THAT easy.  From there on, every time the computer is on the internet, Carbonite will back up your files.  You don’t even know that it’s happening!  It’s like magic!  After the end of 14 days, the charge is $55/year.  Yes, it’s seriously that easy and cheap.

There are few other companies out there.  Laurel recommends Backblaze because it allows you to back up external drives.  And, if you are in the creative fields you may want to back up your files on a few different sources (online, external hard drive, CDs, etc.)  But start with something… the online sources are the best for ensuring at least one back-up is being done periodically.

What backing up systems do you recommend?