When’s the last time you saw a clear block of time in your diary?
When Mark first got in touch with me, his work-life balance was non-existent and his diary, well…it still makes me shudder to think about!
A solo business owner, Mark’s schedule was bursting with client appointments, his inbox was flooded with new enquiries and leads day and night and his phone littered with client texts that he’d quickly scanned in-between appointments whilst stuffing a sandwich down his throat, and promptly forgot.
Late to get home for his childcare commitments and replacing precious family time with extra evening appointments to allow the backlog of enquiries to hover over him a bit longer was totally normal.
It wasn’t easy at first – after all, delegating is a huge blocker of growth for many. But after chatting it through over lunch, some gentle coaxing and thorough planning on my side, we worked together to delegate the admin-heavy tasks over to me and created an action plan:
- All client communication was directed to a dedicated appointment line that I would manage via call and text
- We set up a dedicated ‘Action for Georgia’ folder within his inbox for him to quickly dump anything that I could help with into
- I introduced fixed travel time slots into the diary that would ensure timely arrival to commitments and avoid appointment overlap
- Simply switching on and utilising some powerful appointment reminder and follow up automation features within his existing software
Was any of this rocket science to implement? Nope. But did Mark have the clear headspace to achieve this kind of overhaul on his own? Hell no.
Sure enough, after about a month of working through the backlog and finding a comfortable rhythm between the two of us, I was able to block out mornings and afternoons of dedicated ‘desk time’ for Mark to begin developing creative new ideas for his business to grow, write specialist blog content for his website and plan events and workshops, something that he’d wanted to do for years.
Mark saw an immediate reduction in no-shows and cancellations. His lunch breaks are now diarised (and non-negotiable)! And his downtime is finally clear to spend exclusively with his young family.
Maybe you could be a little more like Mark…?