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During the night I had an ah-ha moment. When speaking with clients I always discuss having your home office clutter-free, organized and tidy. The weeks leading up to my holidays I was busy trying to get all the tasks sorted out and dropped the ball a little. I then shut the door of my office and decided I would deal with it all on my return. My return didn’t go to plan and I ended up taking off a little more time than expected. For the last two weeks I have been busily catching up on all the things that pile up whilst your away. During the last two weeks I have felt disorganized and if I am totally truthful my work has been fragmented.
Last night I woke up in the early hours feeling quite anxious about what I needed to achieve this week, there were flyers to produce, blog entries, finalize the details of my talk for the Kingston Women’s Business Network next week, final script adjustments for my free webinar the following day, clients to book in and the list goes on. Well, in those early hours came my ah-ha moment. Tomorrow morning I am not going to turn on my computer until 10am! I am going to grab some garbage bags, recycle boxes and my files for filing and I am going to work solid for two and a half hours and clear out my office, desk and filing. My gosh, I was like a woman on a mission. Bags of rubbish, papers shredded, papers filed, files labeled, floors swept, desk dusted, bins emptied, you name it I did it. I really was a mad woman and I was on a mission. For weeks, I had allowed myself to work in an unhealthy, messy and disorganized environment. My thoughts had been all over the place, I was wasting time looking for papers, notes etc. At one stage I spent about 10 minutes looking for my stapler, what was I thinking? Just leaving the computer off, not answering any calls and having a clear focus on what it was I wanted to achieve gave me the ability to clear out all of the clutter that had built up over the last two months and regain my sanity and my time. Whilst cleaning away the clutter and mess I felt I really made headway. I decided right there in the middle of the muddle that from now on I am going to turn my computer on ½ an hour later every morning and clear away, file, tidy and gain back my home office space. At least dedicating ½ an hour each morning means I won’t get myself into the pickle that I had found myself in. Do you have a similar story? How has de-cluttering helped you?
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Just recently hubby and I went on a fabulous touring holiday through the NSW South Coast in our campervan. We ended up in Bateman’s Bay at a caravan park just over the bridge. This caravan park had been recommended to us by a couple we met whilst staying in Merimbula. When we arrived we found we had a little problem that was going to take some days to sought out. This little problem meant that the accommodation we had booked was no longer suitable and we needed to change the accommodation style for 5 days. The staff there, particularly the receptionist, were amazing and were absolutely wonderful to us.
Now, this is where I saw the power of word of mouth marketing in action. We had been recommended to stay at this park from another couple. Normally we probably wouldn’t have even given it a thought. As they spoke so highly of the amenities, location and the staff we decided to go with their recommendation. This was a ‘sale’ due to word of mouth. Whilst staying in Bateman’s Bay we toured around several surrounding townships and as travelers do, you start chatting to others. Each time we were asked where we were staying we mentioned the place and how fabulous the staff had been. A couple we spoke to decided they also would give the ‘park a go’. Now the recommendation from the first couple to us sparked a sale. Our recommendation to the next couple sparked a sale and so you can see how the ball will roll. The power of word of mouth marketing should never be underestimated. Give great service, be pleasant to deal with and be priced at market expectation and you will see the power of word of mouth. The same applies for negative word of mouth marketing, give bad service, be grumpy and price yourself out of the market and you could see the power of word of mouth marketing from a totally different angle. Word Of Mouth Marketing – it costs you and your business absolutely nothing, not one cent but the benefits could be amazing! Sometimes, this marketing strategy can be lost in the hype of more exciting marketing strategies, it’s worth doing an analysis of your business to see which angle you would see the impact of word of mouth marketing. Do you have a story to share? For months now I have been very excited about the 2 week holiday my hubby and I were going to take together. For weeks there was a mass of preparation to go on our campervan holiday through the NSW south coast. Preparations included having the campervan mechanically sound, clothing for all seasons, food, and where we were going to visit. I am a planner so the months leading up were rather exciting in itself as I do love to plan. In fact I know I am on a roll when I start creating lists and getting underway.
I had left nothing to chance and had lists galore, maps galore and plans galore. The holiday started with a fabulous trip down to Lakes Entrance followed by a leisurely drive to Merimbula. The holiday was going to plan and I was in my element. As the first few days unfolded we found the campervan was a little restrictive. We had always only gone on short weekend trips of no more than 3-4 days. We found packing up the campervan to go out on a day trip a little cumbersome so we ended up spending more time walking and cycling, not actually venturing too far out of town. Over the course of the first week we decided that on our return to Melbourne we would look at upgrading the campervan to a small caravan or similar. By the time we reached Bateman’s Bay we had convinced ourselves that this was the best option. A few technical and physical hitches (my husband’s aching back) found us preferring to spend time staying in caravan park unit accommodation over staying in the somewhat cramped campervan. My plan had been to be the intrepid campervanner enjoying happy hour under the awning, sipping wine and chatting with other caravanners. This ended up not being the case as you were more removed from the action as you are in a unit. By the time we were heading home we had traded the campervan in on our own little caravan and are off next week to complete the transaction. Not what I planned? Far from it! I have to say you, can get so caught up in your plans that sometimes you miss the things right there in front of you that present themselves to you. It is the same in business; you can be so caught up in the planning if you’re not careful you may miss opportunities that present themselves out of nowhere. It is always ideal to have a plan, a road map of where you want your business to be heading, don’t be scared to divert off the route and pursue other opportunities, you never know where it may lead you. |
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