Episode 064: It's a struggle to determine where our time is best spent, and then who and when to delegate a few tasks to free up our time. Then of course, there's the frustration of someone else completing the task in a different way, which tries your patience. Time management is tough! Join Vonda and Lori as they give tips to help you affectedly delegate for the best results.
This presentation was recorded initially for Illinois State Florist Association, a great group of forward thinking florists! We thank Tina Davis AIFD, Blythe Flowers for asking us to join in th fun.
We talked a bit about Sales Prep School which will be launching soon!
Our Sponsors
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
Flower Prep School
Flower Clique
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
Episode 064: It's a struggle to determine where our time is best spent, and then who and when to delegate a few tasks to free up our time. Then of course, there's the frustration of someone else completing the task in a different way, which tries your patience. Time management is tough! Join Vonda and Lori as they give tips to help you affectedly delegate for the best results.
This presentation was recorded initially for Illinois State Florist Association, a great group of forward thinking florists! We thank Tina Davis AIFD, Blythe Flowers for asking us to join in th fun.
We talked a bit about Sales Prep School which will be launching soon!
Our Sponsors
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
Flower Prep School
Flower Clique
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
A question to ask yourself, where do you feel? You bring the most value to your team? Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, fondel of fever and Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and Fen are a perfect combination. Kind of like us Vonda, Laurie. We're so happy to be here today. Aren't we
Speaker 2:Way we are, as we are every day. Yes we are. You know, Vonda last week we recorded a webinar or a zoom meeting actually for the Illinois state floral association. Right. We did,
Speaker 3:It was so nice to be able to do that. You know, as I mentioned in the presentation back to my old stomping grounds at Illinois. Yes. And the information was so relevant, we thought we'd share it on the podcast today.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Typically pre COVID. We would have been able to go and be present and to meet all the fun people and to interact with them. But we weren't able to do that, but we are very grateful that they were fine with us sharing our information with everybody else.
Speaker 3:Exactly. You know, so often we think we can do everything ourselves and we can, and it puts us in overload. Right. You know, it makes it, so you really can't enjoy what you really want to do. So this presentation was about time and patience in the struggle is real.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So let's take a listen
Speaker 3:Time in patience. The struggle is real. We've been there. Right? Laurie.
Speaker 2:It was very real. I feel like this whole year, last year of 2020 time and patience has been an ongoing theme. So, uh, we're going to talk about it today.
Speaker 3:We are, and we've got some tips to help get through that because it is, unless you keep on track or have an idea of where you're going and how you need to get there, it really is difficult. And this whole, last year, 2020, as you mentioned, Laurie has been a year of being reactive. We had no idea what
Speaker 2:Right. We did not. I don't think there, um, I don't think it's anyone's fault that we lived in the reactive world, but because we didn't see what was getting ready to happen. But I do think moving forward, we have a lot of tips and encouragement that we can give you. Um, and just share with you how we've helped our members try to be more proactive than reactive, but Vonda, you had a good story when you were talking about the difference, um, that brought up something in your back
Speaker 4:When you, the, the story that comes to my mind, whenever I think that is, you've all been there when the fire inspector comes in, right. Fire inspector comes in and you're just like, you know, he's going to find something. It was always one of those things that you're trying your hardest to make sure he doesn't because the beautiful thing about a firefighter coming in the inspector and not finding anything, it means you're safe. Right? So your whole idea
Speaker 3:Is, is you want to be proactive, so you don't have to be reactive in the case of a fire.
Speaker 2:Right. And you even said,
Speaker 4:It always seemed to fall on around a holiday. They would come in and you would have made getting all of your Christmas trees ready. And it's like, you have too many chords, you have this and that. And as frustrating as it is at the moment, because you're thinking that's taking even more time
Speaker 2:In reality, it's not, because now you're safe and you're not going to have to worry about having a 30 days of holiday, you know, of lights being up or whatever you had. And so I just, I loved that. I think every shop could identify somewhat with that story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so. I do. And so now we look at what is reactive in a store, you know, not just the fire department and be reactive having to fix those things, but it's like, you know, are you reactive in like, I've got things to sell in the store and when they sell out, Oh, well, I'll figure it out at that point. Um, same thing. I'm not sure what's on my website, but when it comes to things on the website, once they order it, then I'll try to figure out if I can get to the wholesaler and get those flowers. So it's the reactive. Right,
Speaker 2:Right, right. I think pre COVID we had the luxury of being a little more reactive because I know a lot of our flower shop members said, you know, they might call their wholesaler or drive into their wholesaler over there a couple of times a day, depending on what they needed at. Or if somebody called an order to flower, they didn't have, they'd say sure, we can do it, knowing that they could just run and go get it. It's not anymore. We can't be reactive like that because there's a flour shortage,
Speaker 3:Ours and the containers and everything else. So, so now we really do have to be more proactive in everything we're doing in our shops in our lives. Right,
Speaker 2:Right, right. Right. So examples of being proactive in your business in your flower shop might be, I know what selling on my store. And I also know my inventory that I can replenish as needed. Or if I, if I'm going to be out of a certain product, I know what I can replace it with. That will work just fine. Exactly. It's like,
Speaker 4:You're not going to be there with nothing to replace it with as well as beautiful gift line that you have in the store.
Speaker 2:Right. And you know, another example, uh, we're looking we've websites have been lifesavers, right? As far as revenue sources, um, during this week. So knowing exactly what's on your website and making sure what's on there matches when you walk into your cooler and look around, you should see all of the flowers that are, you're seeing on your website,
Speaker 4:Because if you're not, you need to get those off your website so that when the customer calls, they're not upset because they couldn't get what they really wanted. So limit the number of things on there, which is a whole nother subject, right. Is the lots of choice it is. But let's go back Lori, to, to your why, why are you doing this now? This is what is going to get you to where that time and patients come in, go back to your why, why didn't you owning a flower shop? Obviously it's something at one time or another you loved and you were passionate about. And I think we've had enough weeks past Valentine's day. You're probably getting back there again to where you're loving what you do, but what specifically in that shop do you love to do?
Speaker 2:Right? So, um, one of the things I've noticed, especially during this reactive year of 2020, and even moving into 2021, because a lot of the flower issues are still are still occurring. Um, flower shops are so busy doing everything like flower shop owners. They forget why they got into the business in the first place. And sometimes when you forget that and you're not able to do what brings you joy, you're wide white. Maybe you're, you're a designer. You know, let's just use that because that's kind of an obvious thing. You love designing flowers that you've been so busy dealing with your wholesale or dealing with your scheduling of employees. Who's some people can't even get employees anymore. And a lot of them haven't come back yet. And all you're doing all of these things, you actually wake up dreading to go to work and you hate your job. You got to go back to your why and remember, okay, why did I open my doors? Why did I put at open for business sign on my door? What was my reason? And start writing that thing, those types of things down. So you can rework your mindset because we all are in that other frame of mind and just doing enough to get by to the next day. And you're not doing of what, what you love. So if you could do one thing in your business all day long, what would that be? Don't overthink it because you know, our mind starts spiraling. And then we second guess ourselves and we start not being confident first 30 seconds. Right? Done. What is it you want to do? If you could do it all day long. Second question. Same question. What is the other thing you want to do? The next question. The third question, right? Fonda. What's the other thing you want to do once those are done, those three things are what bring you the most joy and the most value and what you're best at all of these other things, time to get rid of them,
Speaker 3:Delegate them. I mean, look at you every day in the shop. You know, if you're there by yourself now because of, you know, 2020, and you don't have as many parents and you're having to clean the buckets, you're having to, you know, process the flowers that you have in design and you have to deliver, and you have to work on the office. Things, you have to figure out what your, those, like Lori said, one, two, and three, the most important things for you personally to do that. Nobody can do better than you. Right, Laurie.
Speaker 2:Right? Right. And so a question to ask yourself, and we're actually going to touch on this question later, too, in a different way, is where do you feel? You bring the most value to your team? I know you're a leader of your team. You're the business owner, likely, maybe some of you aren't, but most of you are, where do you know you are the most valuable and that's going to help you identify those top three things too.
Speaker 3:Or like what you're saying here, what are you the best at? What are you the best at? And, and what do you love most? So those are helping you come up with your three things,
Speaker 2:Right? Right. What are your most time consuming jobs? The other thing is, I understand you guys are going well. I can't, I can't just get rid of these. I have a small business, right work. We're going to help give you some tools about that. But what, what I'm trying to make you understand is if you allow these other 13, 14 items to consume the majority of your time, and then through 2021, you're going to hate your business so much. You're going to want to get rid of it because you don't even remember why you got into it in the first place.
Speaker 3:So you have to let it go, let go. Those things that, yes, you enjoy doing them sometimes. Or, you know, they'd have to be done. You have
Speaker 4:To, we'll get to this. We have to go and be able to delegate to pass it on to someone else, Laurie,
Speaker 2:Right now here's where it can get tricky because what we love to do and what we think we bring the most value to might be the same thing that somebody else on your staff does too. I'm just going to use an obvious example of ed designer. If you're a business owner and you're a designer and that is your love, that's great. But you might also have a designer on staff that is also as good at it. And as passionate and can do the same thing, just maybe a little differently, you know, this is where control issues come in. And we talk about relinquishing controls a lot with, again, with our flower flick members, because it's, it's really hard, but you got to go back to, if you want to free up your time, you've got to delegate this. They may not design the same way you do. But as long as the end result gets the job done and is still beautiful and still can make a customer happy. You need to be okay with that. The only caution I would give you and Vonda, I think you would agree with this is, you know, if you make an arrangement and it takes about 20 minutes, but their arrangement takes 45, then that's a whole another conversation because that's a productivity issue and you need to have a one-on-one with that person.
Speaker 4:That's where your patients come in and you have to come in and we'll go on to this, but do you have to mentor them? But the only way, sometimes we think if you use design, I'm going to use making a display in the flower shop. When I do a display in the flower shop, I clear the display. Then I will go in and look at what I have for new merchandise to put in. I come up with what goes there and I come, I go a, B, C, D E. I get there in this method that I didn't like to use. Not someone else can come in and do a display and do it differently. They might just go a to CDE. And I'm like, no, you can't do it that way. You have to relinquish control. As long as the end result is very satisfying. And it's maybe not be just the way you did it, but it is beautiful. It was a beautiful display. We'll have to let that go and let the results speak for itself. Not the way it was achieved. Right? Right. I love the result is the focus not how it was achieved. So maybe write that on a little post-it note and put it back in your designer or somewhere to remind yourself, listen, the result is the focus. As long as the design gets arranged, or the display gets redone, or the website gets chains
Speaker 2:And it happens in a timely manner, then, then you're good. You can let it go.
Speaker 4:So trying to figure out who you can empower to help you alleviate some of the things that are taking up all your time, you have to really look within your team, look and see what are the strengths of each one of those individuals. Now, if someone is on their cell phone all the time and it's driving you crazy, right? And maybe that's the person you really empower to post social media posts, give them the steps in which it needs to be done. The picture, maybe how to help them with the captions. They have to come to you for approval first, you know, whatever that looks like, but empower them to do it. I mean, if there's somebody who's really detail oriented, maybe they're the people who don't do the quality control before it goes out, the door goes over to the, to the delivery table. The delivery table gets looked at by this person who's working for quality control and okay, that's a good one. So, you know, there's certain people on the team that have great values that you have to look inside and try to figure that out. Right? And another thing I want to add is yes, you should look and see where each one is valuable, but I also challenge you to have a one-on-one with each of your team members. I tell again, our, our clip from the resist all the time when they're having this same issue, sit down with each one of them privately and ask them this.
Speaker 2:Where do you feel? You bring the most value to our store? Clearly I hired you because I saw value in you. I want you to tell me, where do you feel the most value? And you might be surprised at the answer. You know, you might think they're super strong, their sale at answering the phone. And they love that because that's what you hired them for. Maybe they want to learn to be a designer or an assistant designer, you know, let them speak. And if it aligns with something that you're like, wow. Yeah, I love that. Nurture that, mentor that and help them grow into that position.
Speaker 4:It's sometimes the easy things that we forget. Right. Just ask the question, ask anyone wants to be heard. Right? Right. So then of course you want to delegate wisely. You, you called this the secret sauce.
Speaker 2:Yes. This is the secret sauce.
Speaker 4:Really look at, identify who it is. You're going to mentor them and then outline the expectations. This is where your patients comes in. And it alleviates that frustration. If you're identifying clearly who it is, you have to help and lock along the way because mentorship is everything in your business, right? And it's time consuming. I'm going to be super honest with you upfront. It is going to take your time. But here's the thing it's short term. You know, you're looking at these other 13 tasks that you have to do all the time that are huge. Time sucks. Spend your time mentoring this person and you'll, and you know, maybe meeting with them twice a week or whatever your agenda is slowly, that's going to go away and there's back. There's your time back? Well, the clear difference in this is the mentoring. And also really let them know what you expect out of them. Most employees fail because they don't know what was expected of them. You're expecting one thing. They're thinking you're expecting something else. So that communication is really key. Look at the role and then come back and check on them. As Laurie said, a couple of times a week, come back and walk alongside them and say, Oh my gosh, you know, this looks really great. Give them encouragement, but also make sure you're being understood of whatever. You're asking them to make some little changes on
Speaker 2:Right. As the story I always like to share with this, it reminds me of teaching our kids how to ride a bike. Every, I have three children. They're all adults now, but all three of them learned a little bit differently. Some took more time. The other, some just picked it up and were like, mom, I got this. Right. But here's the thing. When you're teaching them or mentoring them, you want them to feel safe. You want them to know, Hey, I'm right here. I'm right here. If you need me, you might be running alongside of them for a while, holding onto that seat. And at some point you can let go. Some of them just take off and it's great. And you're so proud. Others are going to take off for a minute and then something's going to happen and they're gonna fall. Right. You're going to go get them. You're going to pick them back up and say, Hey, you're okay. Let's try again. Get back up on here. It takes patience, but it's so worth it because eventually that kid's gonna ride a bike without you having to hold on. The other thing I'm going to create
Speaker 4:Freeing, right? It's
Speaker 2:It's frame. Yep. Sad. Because usually the last trial, but that's a whole nother story. Right? Right. Even when they're riding out on the cul-de-sac by themselves saying, look, you're still watching maybe from inside the window now because they don't know it, but you're still monitoring. And if they fall, maybe you don't run over to help them immediately. You see if they can solve the problem by themselves. And usually they do.
Speaker 4:And that's what you're doing. You're teaching that person, you know,
Speaker 3:Really do it the way needs to be done for the store. The way we're doing it from a to E is not important that they're getting it done correctly. And you're walking alongside of it. That's the key. Lori is, you know, get them there, run alongside of them, but then always continue to be looking for the positive. Don't be looking for something like, Oh, I can't believe they did that. If there is something that you're thinking, isn't correct. That's when you need to go back to that mentorship stage and say, you know what? Let's try it this way. That's getting, that's a little frustrating. Be honest. You have to have open communication for this to work.
Speaker 2:Right. I think of when you were teaching me how to, um, what's it called nest make a nest. When she was dating the lace name for design greens, what was just, you could have been blindfolded and done it. It was really hard for me because I couldn't quite, it wouldn't stay. And I, I, myself didn't have patience, but I think about how you and your friends you leave were so patient, you actually kind of took turns helping me through that part. And you taught a little bit different way. So my advice is if you feel that your patience is running, then trying to mentor this person, find somebody else on staff that can give you a little bit of a break. That's okay, we're human. We know our shortcomings. If it's not something you're really gifted at find somebody else to step in because it's only gonna make things worse. It is.
Speaker 3:And this is the whole idea is for you to be able to reap those rewards, right? And get back your time. You have to have the patients and then you will return to the time.
Speaker 2:Right? Right. Exactly. One thing I want to say about time management, we hear that word. It's kind of a buzz word. It's been that way. For years, time management. I don't have enough time. Here's what I want you to remember. The goal for time management is not to delegate all this and free up your time. So you can just fill it with more stuff. The goal is to free your time to do more of what brings you joy. That might be ways in growing your business. It might be more time with your family. It might be lunching with your friends. I don't know it's different for everybody, but don't work really hard to delegate all of this. Only to fill that back up with stuff you don't want. Well, and we were sh someone just shared with us last week is that their reward gave it everything. Their reward was to be able to go out one day a week or one afternoon, a week and take deliveries. Yeah. It was a business owner. She very
Speaker 3:Successful. She called me and she was in her car and I'm like, Oh, are you off today? And she's like, no, I'm delivering. And the windows are open. And I went through Starbucks. She's like all excited. I'm like, Oh, did your delivery driver not show up? She said, Oh no, it's my day. I reward myself because she loves to be a delight. She loves to deliver flowers, but she knows she's more valuable in other parts of her business because there are, she can only do things. Other people can't do. So she rewards herself. And I love that. I think we should all do that. You know? And I joke about that. We eat healthy all day and maybe we get the dessert that night, or it's the same concept. If you have to delegate something that brings you joy because somebody else can do it. It doesn't mean you can't ever design that's right. And it's because you've hired somebody to design. You will get to do those really exciting arrangements from the customer or whoever it is. But yes, reward yourself in ways that are really beneficial to you. Don't fill it up. Like you said, Laurie, with something that doesn't make any sense. Right. So I hope every one got a few little nuggets out of the presentation today. And I think one of the biggest takeaways that I had was really you have to delegate, but delegate wisely. Yup. Yup. The, the biggest thing I want people to know is just because you delegate, if you delegate something you love, make sure and reward yourself with that. At some point you can always go and do it. Yeah. And one thing that I think you gave a really good visual on is that walk beside the person on the bike run beside your child, your run, run, run. And that's what we have to remember that when you delegate and you're mentoring to walk beside that person for a while to make sure they're doing it great. And then you just be able to walk away and go, okay, I do have my time back. Exactly. Okay. Vonda. We are at the moment where I ask you what is giving what's inspiring you right now. And so I'm going to start because I just was on the phone this morning with one of our beta testers for our sales prep school that we are launching for our members on what is a March 22nd. Anyway, I'm just so inspired by the feedback we're getting. Um, and to think a year ago, this was just kind of a dream and now we're wrapping it up. It's, it's, it's very, it's a weird feeling, but I'm super excited. That's really interesting because what's inspiring me is kind of on the other side of that, right. Where I'm truly inspired by all the people who have asked questions and things. But, you know, I reached out to get a little bit of information to put into sales prep school from flora next, Josh at flora next, an ask him a question and he just responded right away. And their customer service was amazing. And I just want to do a shout out and say, boy, I'm inspired by their customer service boy. That's what we need to be like. And I think we are, but I just was super inspired by that. I love that. I love that. It did. I think because we deal in customer service when we receive it, we get it because it's hard. Sometimes it is. And it really makes you so appreciate it even more. Doesn't it. I totally get it. So that's great. All right. Have a great day, everyone. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flashbacks,
Speaker 1:Alexa, we look forward to next week.
Speaker 3:So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].