Buzz!Words

Email is Like Laundry

After spending hours on Saturday cleaning up my email, it came to me.  Email is like laundry.  There is one brief shining moment when there is no laundry in the basket.  It is all done.  And then, that first dirty sock lands.  And before you know it, there are 150 unanswered emails piled up waiting for attention.

Customers expect prompt answers to their emails.  If you don't manage your email effectively, you could be losing sales.  Recent data from Realtor.com shows that 78% of all email inquiries to realtors are not answered within 8 hours, and 44% are not answered at all.  Getting on top of your email is critical to managing your business. 

I've been reading David Allen's book, Ready for Anything.  Here are a couple of tips from him on email management:

1. Respond within 24 hours, even if only to say, I'll get back to you.
2. Not every email should be responded to via email -- if it is very sensitive or might be confrontational, use the phone.
3. Sort your email into categories:  immediate attention; needs more thought; to read later and then make a list of tasks and file the emails. 
4. Set up folders in your email in-box to sort stuff - e.g. Reading; Phone calls later; Quotes; History files
5. Set aside 1 - 2 hours a week to clean out your email - read the stuff in the reading file; make the follow up phone calls.

I'm finding it really helps me stay more in control, more productive and less reactive. 

Sharing Your Vision of the World

I just found a wonderful website called Change This.  Change This is dedicated to using the internet as a communication tool to spread new ideas that radically challenge the status quo.  The site uses manifestos as a way of communicating the call for change.

This week there were several new manifestos on all kinds of different topics, Environmental Sustainability; Government Deregulation.... but my favourite this week is the Tyranny of Email.  The author shares his six rules for avoiding the tyranny of email.  Number one, is turn off outlook while you are working on other things. 

I must admit, whenever I feel like avoiding a bit of work, I switch over to my email and browse around a bit.... it's just as efficient a time waster as my coffee break, without the benefit of coffee. 

I swear, from now on I will turn off my email while working on key projects.  I swear.....

One Woman Entrepreneur's Story

Congratulations to Joanne Papari, President of Biochem Environmental Solutions.  Joanne recently received the Rotman Business School's Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, for innovation. 

Here is an exerpt from Ellen Rosman's column in the Toronto Star (the Star only posts for 7 days, so I'm not including a link):

Last week, the Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year awards gave national recognition to female business owners. Three of the five winners came from the Toronto area.

As a frequent guest at the awards dinner, I never fail to be impressed by how hard these women work to achieve their success and how many sacrifices they make along the way.

Joanne Papari-Doulaverakis told a story about how she came home from the office one day at 5.30 p.m. Her young son kept asking if she was sick.

No, she replied, I'm fine. Why do you ask?

"Because you've never here in the daylight," her son replied.

Papari-Doulaverakis invited her husband and two children to join her on the stage, an acknowledgement of how they contributed to her award.

Born and raised in Greece, she moved to Canada in 1977 to study chemical engineering at the University of Windsor. She was hired as a chemical sales representative at Rochester Midland Corp. and worked her way up to become the top manager in Canada. In 1996, she started Biochem Environmental Solutions in Concord. It's in "the glamorous business of washroom hygiene," developing products such as waterless hand sanitizers, automatic faucets and flush valves and garbage dispensers that pop open at the press of a button.

She won an award for innovation, honouring her leadership in reducing the risk of bacteria and cross-contamination in public washrooms.

Joanne is a client of mine, and I have come to admire her determination, sacrifice and drive to build her business.  Her story is inspiring to me.  Congratulations Joanne.