Georgina Walsh Business Coaching

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Woof!

Posted by March 27th, 2015

paddyWe have two Czech Woofers working here at the moment. A Woofer being someone who works on an organic farm, as a working holiday, in return for board and lodgings.

My children pointed out that ours is not technically an organic farm, I countered with the fact that it is all so natural (i.e. fairly wild!) that you couldn’t argue it was NOT organic.

Getting the Woofers up to speed here coincided with a few client sessions I had last week about taking on new staff, freelancers or hiring additional help by the hour. The three crucial points being, deciding what you need, finding the right person and bringing them up to speed.

Here are a few of the things I have done with our Woofers / discussed with my clients:

How do know you’re ready for help? Any of these sound familiar?

  • You’re working at maximum capacity
  • You’re making mistakes
  • You’re feeling totally overwhelmed
  • You’re not enjoying some of the tasks that you know someone else could do

Can you afford someone?

  • Increase your targets to cover your additional costs – what you focus on happens
  • Hire someone part-time or freelance to keep costs more manageable
  • Use the rule of thumb if you can afford to pay 50% of what someone will cost, their addition to your business will cover the other 50% (and hopefully more on top!)

What exactly do you want them to do? You know you need help, but to do what exactly?

  • Sit down right now and make a list of everything you need help with
  • Make a grid with 4 squares: I love doing, I’m good at, I hate doing, I’m not good at. Shape the role from there
  • Or over a two week period, as you’re working away, write down every job or task that you come across that you think someone else can do for you (this is often a great way to shape a role)

Who exactly do you want?

  • As well as the what, think about the who, the type of person you want
  • Think about their outlook, their values, their disposition

Getting up to speed:

  • Working arrangements often fail if time isn’t taken to bring someone up to speed
  • It’s going to take time to get someone doing everything you want in the way that you want, but it’s time incredibly well spent so don’t scrimp on it
  • Be extremely clear about what you want done; show and show again if necessary (don’t be tempted to take tasks back and re-do them yourself, you are only making a rod for your own back)
  • Be very clear on what you expect from them and what they expect from you – these expectations are not always verbalised which is where frustrations and misunderstandings begin

So, we had a few ups and downs settling in our very lovely Woofers, including language barriers, losing them in our local town, and the ponies being fed twice in one morning (the ponies were thrilled), but we are now on a great even keel, and they are helping us here no end.

From Cows to Camels

Posted by March 4th, 2015

20150228_173103Do you make sure you break away from your routine?

I’ve just taken a few days to swap the Irish countryside and a view of cows for a view of camels. I worked from Dubai. My husband was working out there and I took my laptop, myself and a very open mind to join him.

I did some work for clients, but also took a couple of business related books and did some big planning for my business.

  • I stretched out by the pool, and really stretched my thinking
  • I enjoyed lunch at the top of the Burg Khalifa, the world’s tallest building and thought big and tall (…and thankfully avoided vertigo)

New avenues, bigger thinking and bigger results.  The biggest difference in my planning was that it was not a half day out of routine, but four days.  I could have used Dubai as a holiday but I used if for both holiday and work. The joy of running a lifestyle business.

I suspect it will be a while before I have such a glamorous planning session again, but it was a great reminder of the importance of breaking from routine and planning and thinking big regularly.

  • How often do you currently break from your routine? 
  • How can you make this more often?
  • How can you make it longer – it might be not be in a four day stretch, but could it be two mornings in one week and two in the next?  I guarantee that time will be time well spent.
  • What books / creative thinking could you use?

Make sure you set yourself some big, hairy (and exciting) goals.
Think big, act big and it will help to ensure the next 12 months are your best year yet.
One of the areas I read up on was the Law of Attraction and positive thinking.

The Law of Attraction

I determined to think positively about getting an upgrade on my flight home.  My husband, who works in travel, declared it impossible due to the ticket I was on. Guess where I’m writing this from, seat 8A with a nice glass of Veuve Cliquot in front of me. Next time I’ll set my mind to First Class….
Think positive and set big goals!