Holy Crap! There is just too much to get done! Since I got back from NAB a few weeks ago, business is booming. This is fantastic for LooseKeys but for me it’s another story. Projects don’t seem to be moving as quickly as they should and I feel like the work isn’t looking as good as I want or its taking longer to get it to look good. I know everything will get done, I’ll make it through but there’s been a moment everyday for the last week where I just freak out. These moments don’t really help because I end up shutting down and they just make me more stressed about the projects. Isn’t this the reason I started running, to help manage this stress? But lately I’m at a point where I’m worried about running because it’s taking time away from me working. Also there’s been too many nights of little sleep and that doesn’t help get things done either, at least in the long term. Thank goodness I love what I’m doing but I need to make sure I’m using my time efficiently and focusing. So I’ve been trying to turn off Twitter and Facebook; I know there isn’t anything that’s going to happen I’ll miss. And I’m making lists… have to keep those to-do lists and ask for help when it’s needed. 

All right, I really should be working and not blogging… back to it. 

As the founder or owner of your business, you may be  the one leading your business. You’re the captain of the ship, the one making sure the ship is steered in the right direction. As captain, you’d be the one behind the wheel. Great captains have a strong crew; just like the captain, great leaders build great businesses. They are passionate and committed to their business and are willing to go down with the ship if things go wrong. The captain needs to be the one that creates a place that buzzes with creativity and productivity. If the captains locked in his office busy counting his gold and not keeping track of what the crew is up to, there’s going to be issues. 

As the captain, you need to realize your own limitations and know when it’s time to recruit new crew members to help keep track of places where you’re falling short. Learn to deal effectively with change and transform your vision into reality if you want to become a captain that your team will respect and trust. 

One of the most important aspects of a good business or company is one that supports each other. Not just with moral support but when issues come up that need to be taken care of. A good business has people that aren’t afraid to step in when and where it’s needed. Which I’ve learned first hand starting my own business. It doesn’t matter if its part of your job or your problem; if you can fix it, take care of it. Don’t worry about someone getting upset you did their job. Think of it as a a bomb that needs to be taken care of now before it screws up the whole team. You’re more likely to upset people for doing nothing then by doing something. 

That’s something I’m aware of when looking for people to work with. The people who stand out are not the ones that just do their job and then call it done but someone who’s not afraid to jump in and help when it’s needed. 

Most of the time when people talk about business you’ll hear things like, “business is cut throat,” and “business should never be personal.” Everyone runs their business differently, no one answer works for all but I don’t believe that a person must always separate their personal feelings from that of their business relationships.

Zig Ziglar had a great saying “You will get everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.” I try to be generous to others in my private life but I also find it important to help out people in business too. There are a lot of opportunities to be helpful in business relationships; from making introductions between people to sharing resources like office space and equipment with others. Sometimes its just something as small as referring someone else for a job. I often pass on work to my friends and colleagues that I’m too busy for or if a project is beyond my skills. Most of the time people I refer for projects end up working out and both that client and the friend benefit. In return, these people thank me and sometimes refer me to someone else for another project. These referrals are on projects that I would have never got if I didn’t first think of someone else. Just by taking a few moments out of my day to refer someone else ended up getting me more work. This is just one example of how being courteous can improve your life and business. That good deed you do for someone else will usually come back to you twice over. It all begins with thinking of others first.

So, is there anything I can do to help you out?

Recently I finished a project under LooseKeys that really shows that we’re willing to go above and beyond the projects original scope and work with the clients to make a better video for them. The goal for every video is to create a piece that explains the product or service well and also to make something that both me and the client are happy to show off. I want every client that comes to LooseKeys to be proud and excited to use their video wherever they might see fit. Having a video that they are not happy with even if I think it looks great, isn’t going to help them. After all, they aren’t going to show it to anyone or recommend my services down the line if they aren’t truly proud of it. The reason I say that we went above and beyond what is typically done is because we ended up creating two versions of this particular video. The client was new and unfamiliar with video and needed a bit of hand holding along the way, which I did my best to accommodate. I tried to make sure they understood the steps and the process and I made sure they were approving every phase before moving on. At first it seemed totally fine; the video was done and I was happy with it but they weren’t. It just didn’t flow and move the way they wanted. Rather then going off on them and telling them about how they approved it all along the way, I took a deep breath and listened. I could have easily told them that this video was done now so hand over my money for the work that I completed. But like I said if they aren’t happy with the product it does them no good. It’s just going to sit on someones desktop at the company and never be seen by anyone. Instead I decided to suck it up and take another stab at the video from basically the beginning. Of course this took some extra time, but in the end the client was extremely happy with how the new video turned out. They also recognized that I went above and beyond and appreciated that. I still believe the first version of the video was good but the final was a better product and that’s what’s important. These are the sort of jobs you learn from and hope this knowledge will make the next project run smoother. 

Don’t kid yourself, you physically can’t do it all by yourself and don’t worry it’s not a sign or weakness or failure to ask for help. For many of us, asking for help can be a difficult thing to do. Sure it may be hard to admit you need a hand, you’ve been making it work this long without that help but at some point there comes a time when you’re better off getting things off your plate and your mind. If you’re getting better at your work or your business is growing you’ll need to use your time to focus on harder, more time consuming things. It doesn’t mean you failed or couldn’t cut it, your efforts were just focused someplace better. But figuring out which tasks to give up and hand off is the hardest part and this is what I think makes a good leader or great boss.

That’s the fight I’m having with my work right now and its something that needs to happen if I’m going to grow LooseKeys. Most of the time I can be a “lone ranger” of sorts and do everything myself. It’s not because I’m afraid to ask for help but more often then not its because I want to prove that I can do it all myself. But it’s gotten to the point that I need to figure out the best way to scale up or pull back a little. More and more I’m starting to see the benefit of asking for help to get the work done. And I’m finding in most cases that the work is better when you are putting faith and trust in another person. The people I’ve chosen to work with have been doing such great work with each and every video that I’m receiving more requests with even larger projects on the horizon. Now I’ve always been a team player and love working with others but it’s a different thought process when it’s your team and it’s your job to figure out how to make it all work. At times I have it in my head that I’m the only one that knows how to do it the right way. But you can’t play a game of baseball by playing every position on the team so why am I thinking of the business as a single man game. Just sitting down and creating the work or doing the sales is the easy part but being the leader and finding the right people to make your team great is trickier then you’d think. If you just ask, you can quickly find some great people out there that are willing to help you in any way they can. You just have to ask for it. You’ll likely see me giving up more responsibilities on some projects and trusting the team I’ve been putting together to handle more so I can focus on other parts of the business that might not seem as exciting but are crucial. Success is almost never forged alone, there is always a team right there with you, you just have to know when to ask.