Doing What You're Best At
The Water Superstore and I are now co-clients. They buy website development and internet marketing services from me and I buy water and healthy water-related products from them. I used their drive-thru service the other day and I have to say, it's slick. Check out the video.
I observed something yesterday that got me thinking about doing what you're best at. The owner of the business who spends the majority of her time in the office was struggling with their fancy POS system. One of her staff suggested the solution to her problem. He works on the system every day. She doesn't, and as a result, was unfamiliar with the system.
Another of my clients has been having issues with his Blackberry. I got called - Rogers got called and I'm sure he has spent several hours trying to resolve the problem. Perhaps more. I have a feeling if I had a chance to sit down with his Blackberry, his desktop and Rogers tech support we would have had the whole thing ironed out in much less time. Why? Because Rogers tech support and I deal with e-mail issues every day whereas my client does not.
Bookkeeping is NOT one of my strengths. I know that, so instead of busting my tail to learn how to be a better bookkeeper, I put all my receipts and invoices into a big manila envelope and send it to my bookkeeper who handles things for me. I KNOW it's not a strength so I don't worry about it - I pay a professional.
You're probably a professional at something. It makes sense for you to focus on what you're really good at and let OTHER professionals handle the things that distract you from what you SHOULD be doing.
That being said, there are some areas where a professional's not required. I spent an hour and a half sorting out a low drive space issue on my desktop. It turned out there were 10GB of files that the Windows disk cleanup service didn't pick up on. A technician may not have known those files were safe to delete either. I did, so presto - problem solved. However, if I had a more serious hardware problem - like the network wasn't working or some other issue, I would have called a technician.
Sometimes a DIY fix is sufficient. As long as it doesn't HURT your business. KNOWING it won't hurt your business is another thing altogether.
I observed something yesterday that got me thinking about doing what you're best at. The owner of the business who spends the majority of her time in the office was struggling with their fancy POS system. One of her staff suggested the solution to her problem. He works on the system every day. She doesn't, and as a result, was unfamiliar with the system.
Another of my clients has been having issues with his Blackberry. I got called - Rogers got called and I'm sure he has spent several hours trying to resolve the problem. Perhaps more. I have a feeling if I had a chance to sit down with his Blackberry, his desktop and Rogers tech support we would have had the whole thing ironed out in much less time. Why? Because Rogers tech support and I deal with e-mail issues every day whereas my client does not.
Bookkeeping is NOT one of my strengths. I know that, so instead of busting my tail to learn how to be a better bookkeeper, I put all my receipts and invoices into a big manila envelope and send it to my bookkeeper who handles things for me. I KNOW it's not a strength so I don't worry about it - I pay a professional.
You're probably a professional at something. It makes sense for you to focus on what you're really good at and let OTHER professionals handle the things that distract you from what you SHOULD be doing.
That being said, there are some areas where a professional's not required. I spent an hour and a half sorting out a low drive space issue on my desktop. It turned out there were 10GB of files that the Windows disk cleanup service didn't pick up on. A technician may not have known those files were safe to delete either. I did, so presto - problem solved. However, if I had a more serious hardware problem - like the network wasn't working or some other issue, I would have called a technician.
Sometimes a DIY fix is sufficient. As long as it doesn't HURT your business. KNOWING it won't hurt your business is another thing altogether.
Labels: focus, professional, specialist, water superstore
posted by Mark Kawabe at
6:17 AM
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