A cautionary tale
The weather finally turned to double digits this week! As I sat at my desk facing the window and watching the sunshine hit the water, I decided to go for a walk.
From my new digs, I walk 15 minutes along the river, cross the street and straight to the rivers edge before turning around and coming back home.
I crossed the 4 lanes looking right then left and as my attention returned to what was directly in front of me I saw a very lovely white-haired lady in a rather large blue-black SUV right in front of me.
Not what you want to see while walking through the cross walk.
My hand came up like I was Superman or something and that was going to keep the car from hitting me. Luckily I was far enough across that my hand landed squarely on the front corner of her hood. It gave me a good turnaround but it prevented her running right into me.
Her car stopped, window still up as I swore at her asking her what she was doing and to pay more attention before she killed someone. She mouthed sorry before puttering away.
Gobsmacked, I texted my friend. “Someone just hit me with their car while I was walking.”
I was half way home before I felt any pain in my shoulder. Fuck. The adrenaline surge was gone. I texted my client, told him what happened and fell asleep for nearly 3 hours with a bag of frozen peas on my shoulder.
Later that evening, I went back to my desk.
One of our team members struggles with consistency and communication in her work. I tried to use this example to make a point that always coming in a hair under a deadline shouldn’t be our gold standard.
I agree that health is a top priority. But that’s not the point.
I couldn’t have predicted the accident but I was caught up on my work and if my client had told me to suck it up and get back to work, I’d have told him to pound sand.
We can’t control accidents or health crises. But we can control how we approach our work. Take the afternoon off when you’re done for the day—don’t leave things hanging just because the deadline isn’t today.
This is why it is so 👏damn 👏 important 👏 to have systems in your business.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an hour, a day, a week or a month. If you’re the only one who knows how to do something NO ONE can ever step in and help.
The biggest clap back I get on that is from solo business owners and hey, I get it because that’s me. A party of one.
Do you know how many times I went to add a new pop up but forgot how to damn do it?
(I’m not going to tell you because it’s freaking embarrassing.)
Or there was the one time that I created 12 months worth of templates for my content (from memory) but then realized after using the first one that I forgot a section and had to go back through every single one of them to update them.
You can hate me for it later, but please, please, please start creating your SOP’s now. They can be fancy or they can be simple. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s documented.
We have to-do lists, grocery lists, we write instructions down for our dog sitter and the kids. But when it comes to your business — arguably one of the most important things in your life.
That? Meh, we’re just gonna wing it. 👀
I built the SOP Starter eKit with you in mind. I know it’s overwhelming, I know that no one wants to do it and I know there are way sexier things to work on in your business.
But one day, you’re going to wish you had these and the longer you wait, the more there’s going to be to do.
You’re going to get:
1. The 4 phases of auditing your business and how to assess which tasks should be documented first.
2. The 6 golden rules to follow when documenting your business so you don’t drown in complexity and confusion.
3. An inside peek at my Google Drive to see how I keep everything organized.
4. A bonus bundle of templates and a blank SOP template to use in your own business.
Now go get started before you get hit by a car.
