When going on a date with the wife, I leave my cellphone at home. This way, I am not tempted to check it and I can be present with her. Because we still have a youngin’ at home, she does bring her phone.
Last Saturday night, she handed me her phone to texts the kids to see if they wanted us to bring anything back for them. I then slipped the phone into my back pocket and forgot about it as we went on our merry way.
We go back to the car, I plop down into the driver’s seat and start the car. Karen says, “Let me see if the kids texted back.” I hand her the phone and her face drops.
The screen, while not cracked has a bunch of funky colored vertical lines flickering on it and you couldn’t use the phone. Not good, my friend. Not good.
Sunday morning, I get up bright and early and get to the Apple store before it opens. When I arrive, there’s already a line outside. There are also employees outside with iPads in hands, making appointments. Fortunately I got an appointment 30 minutes later and in 90 minutes, the phone was fixed.
When I when back to the Apple store, it was PACKED… insanely so. But what looked the chaos was actually under control by the store’s employees because they were following procedures and systems.
As an entrepreneur, I don’t like creating systems. I just like getting stuff done! In the beginning of a business that is what needs to happen. (Read the book “Lean Start-Up.”)
BUT, having written systems are necessary if you want to succeed long term and build your business.
When I was a professional entertainer, I had systems, checklists and procedures for every aspect of my show. When I got lazy or felt I had it “under control” and didn’t need to follow my systems, something almost always went wrong.
Here’s your challenge for this week:
Create a simple system for ONE aspect of your business that you do on a consistent basis. It could be something as simple as a system for answering email. You decide what it should be and then document it. Then start following that system and see how much more productive you are and how much less stress you have.
Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!
Dave “The iPhone Killer” Dee