August 23, 2006.
I would love to say that I sat everyone down that I worked with , expressed my need for help due to being overwhelmed and everyone embraced me and took on the extra workload. We all hugged and sung kum-bay-ah. Ah....ya, when I write a book that is the way I will remember it.
What really happened is some uh, volunteers at my office told me I was being....bitchy, cranky, irritated, frustrated, and did they mention bitchy. So....being totally over-worked, over-tired, over-stressed, and doing more jobs than I can count I cried and said, 'Duh - I said I needed help about 20 times in the past three months, of course I am acting that way.'
There is a happy ending to this story, I have been resigned to let some of the 'control' that I have over running the business. We have also done some adjustment to our answering the phone with order inquiries. The 'giving someone control of the orders' is a tough one to give up. Any business owner will tell you they need to KNOW how they are doing, sales, margins - it's the food that fuels the fire.
So giving up something is good, it will give me time to focus on things I do well. Printing zillions of orders, managing them, processing them and keeping MOST in my head ("JOSEPH" in airplane tiles? That is a Warm Biscuit Order, rush it please! That birth certificate is a direct order, please check the gift wrap!) will hopefully be a thing of the past come September. I am eagerly waiting for my meeting with an office person today to go over all of her new responsibilities.
A website owner was speaking to me on the phone a few weeks ago and she said she had a 'buzzer or bell' that went off every time her website took an order. I am thinking THAT would be good to have, maybe then I could let go. But, um I would have to keep track of the orders for the day in my head...hmmm
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