I spent quite a while getting my footing in South Carolina. I met new people, I learned more about the area. I learned more about my new career. I tried to stay professional while maintaining my sense of self. After all, I’m Not Your Average Realtor. I really think it’s important to bring your personality to your work (but that’s a topic for another day).
Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses…even if they’re not roses.
Today I want to talk about how important it is to set up a process from the beginning. I wish someone had told me this when I started Pawsitively Pooches. I knew it. But I didn’t know it. It’s probably the biggest reason I had my HUGE failure (if you didn’t start at the beginning, check it out: The Big Failure). If had a functional system I never would have ended up where I did. If I have to find an upside (and I do, it’s who I am), it’s that I learned a lot.
Right now I’m learning how to do things in the real world that I’ve only done hypothetically (or a couple of times). I’m pretty good with talking to people and managing clients. But it’s hard to know if I’m doing things right when I don’t have any frame of reference. I’m fortunate to have a crew of people who are happy to help me and a brokerage that ensures compliance every step of the way. Honestly, it’s a relief. Even with all of that, I want to make sure that I’m providing the best service for my clients and helping my team in every way I can. To do that, I need a system. I need to make sure that if I say I’m going to do something, it gets done. And that it gets done correctly. I also want to ensure that if something goes missing or isn’t working, I have everything in an easy to find folder and can get it to whoever needs it.
So what though? We all want to be organized but so many of us aren’t. I’ve always been better at organizing work than home but it’s still a challenge for me. I took some extra time this week to make a plan. To set things up so they’re easy for me to do in the beginning and organized in a way that I should always be able to find them. I hope it works. The reality is it will probably work for a little while and then it won’t. So I’ll have to come up with a new plan. The trick will be recognizing when it’s time and taking the time to do it.
Cross your fingers for me! What do you wish you had organized better the FIRST (or second) time you did it?