Office Time Review

Office Time is a timeKEEPER! So I'm all in with Office Time. I've got the OS version for the desktop as well as the iOS version on both the iPad and iPhone. ...and I love it! For over thirty years I made valiant attempts to accurately record the time spent on creative projects whose ultimate billing was a reflection of and dependent upon my time expended. In some cases I would record the time on each successive draft, on others I would create a recap sheet and at other times I've tried to keep a spiral notebook with running record of all projects in one place. All of these options had their pros but they also had their cons. If this sounds familiar to you you'll very much enjoy Office Time. The need to write both starting and ending times and then do the math to turn the minutes into billing based on the applicable hourly rate was a time waster. Backing out the un-billable time occasioned by a phone call or other unplanned interruption was more guesswork than anything else. Was the guess short changing me or the client? Then there were the times when work was done on a project when the applicable time sheet was not in hand. Many a time the scribbled "note on a napkin" accounting for the time spent never ended up getting entered in the proper timesheet. Enter Office Time (insert drum roll here). Simple. Effective. Pays for itself quickly. Now, no matter where I am, I can accurately track the time I spend on anything and everything. I may not be in front of my iMac but likely will have the iPad nearby. If not, I'm never without the iPhone. Since Office Time syncs between its desktop and mobile apps I never lose track time earned nor bill for more time than spent. No guessing or reconstructing necessary unless I'm doing a lot of creative in the shower. Everyone keeps track of time for different reasons. Some need to track billable time while some have an interest in recording time donated to a community project. - yet some do both. Office Time allows you to create as many "projects" as you like and apply any number of "categories" to the time spent. While writing this review I stopped for a conference call and a simple click stopped the timing. On return another click to start session number two. The next interruption was unplanned taking me away from the iPad, leaving it idle for 15 minutes, although the timer kept running. On my return to the iPad I was reminded it had been idle for 15 minutes and given the option to deduct that time from the timer. Another simple but great feature. Relying on reviews, however thorough, is not necessary since Office Time offers a fully featured 30 day demo. This review took exactly 51 minutes to write. I know this because I use the iPhone App to record the time as I penned it on the iPad.

When Your Customers Become a Bother You May Need to Rethink Your Business Plan

Although I’ve always tried to create the impression that I am so careful as to be infallible, I do  on occasion make a mistake. One such mistake happened recently which raised an interesting customer relationship issue.

My customer wanted a repeat order on an item I sourced thru my vendor, Kinroj Inc., so I efficiently emailed my vendor for an exact repeat. Oh, efficient but stupid, as my customer had changed their address since the original order. In fact, that previous order was the very last item delivered while they were still at the old address.

No big deal - right. I called my vendor, Kinroj, Inc. and told the helpful sales coordinator that I made a mistake on the ship to address ad needed to have them change it. The very first thing the sales coordinator said was “UPS charges us $25.00 to change the address so we will change you $25.00”. 

Maybe you’re thinking they should have first  asked me the correct address or assured me they would be able to take care of it, instead of leading with the extra charge? I know I was thinking exactly that.

So it’s always good to get another opinion, which I did by calling UPS directly. I asked if the recipient could make the change and was told that the sender (my valued vendor) had not allowed that option - only the vendor could change the ship to address. Just before hanging up I asked how much the charge was from UPS and was told the charge to change an address was $15.00 - that’s $15.00 not $25.00.

Back to the helpful sales coordinator who acknowledged that UPS charged $15.00 but they (Kinroj, Inc.) charged an additional $10.00 because of the "time it took them to make the change." 

Now I don’t think this “project” required any overtime, or bringing on additional hires to complete the task. Is it just another example of a business just fed up with having to deal with the imperfections of its customers?

At first iI thought this was the result of an employee who lost track of the bigger picture. Until I got this email reply from the owner of the company

“As to the charge of $10 for fixing a problem, not of our creation, I do not find that to be exorbitant at all. If you think about it, we have to take those 5 minutes (which is really longer) getting hold of UPS and making it clear as to what is wanted; then she has to inform accounting that we will be billed by UPS for $15  (for something that only takes them 5 minutes), on order number xxxx, because the shipment has been redirected; and then we have to create an invoice and send it to you. In some cases we have to wait to get paid, in some cases we can run a credit card immediately. In all cases UPS gets their money within 7 days. I am sorry, but, I find $10 fee on top of $15 from UPS a small price to pay for a mistake.”

2 Questions...

How would you feel toward a vendor who had this policy? 

How would YOU deal with this situation to be fair to all parties and preserve your customer?

Your Brand is Not Your Logo

Your brand is about making choices!

Your Brand is how you and/or your product or service are perceived by your existing and prospective employees, suppliers and customers.

Your brand should not be confused with your logo. A logo may identify you, whereas a brand defines you.

Your brand is one part what you tell people you are and nine parts what you show people you are. The saying is old but true “Actions Speak Louder Than Words”

How you dress, or how you dress your trucks, appoint your office or deliver your quotes, reports or proposals are all part of and establish your Brand. Tiger Woods’ Red shirt on Sunday, UPS’s big brown trucks, Jim Tressel’s red vest, all part of the overall brand. While dress may be integral to a particular brand it is only part of the brand.

The necessity to survive in the initial stages of a new enterprise often drives decision makers to dilute their brand by trying to be all things to all people. Not wanting to lose out on any potential business, their marketing messages attempt to encompass so much that they become overly general and uninformative. Their attempt not to leave anything out results in the failure to properly promote and develop their true core business.

The heart and soul of your brand is the value your product or service delivers to your customer, the integrity you demonstrate in relations with your customers, suppliers and employees and the qualities which make your product or service unique in relation to your competitor(s).

Identify, prioritize and focus.

Fear of Failure – Taking Risks

Our own self perpetuated fear can be our worst enemy and greatest impediment to thinking and acting with creative risk. Creative risk is the ingredient that results in ideas, inventions or solutions that represent a leap in end results. Creative risk is the courage to go where no man has gone before (why does that sound so familiar?). Creative risk is the courage to find new and different solutions to old challenges, rather than imitate existing solutions. Creative risk is “thinking different”.

Accidental Creative Podcast #211 (which is worth checking out for anyone who needs to maintain their creativity on an ongoing basis) refers to a practice of Neil Fiore covered in his book “The Now Habit”. Dr. Fiore presents a patient with a 6 inch wide by 10 foot long board, asking if they think they could walk across the plank. They answer in the affirmative until he changes up the challenge by asking what if he elevated it 100 feet in the air suspended between two buildings. The of course not response illustrates how the depth of our fear of failure is affected by the perceived consequences of the failure.

A fear of failure often times interferes with progress, success and growth. Taking calculated risks is no guarantee of success. Unwillingness to take take risks is a guarantee of failure.

So Wrong That It's Right? Seeing Out of the Box!

There are many ways to think out of the box but sometimes the box is actually inside another box. Sound confusing?

So I have this great client who knows the value of his employees being dressed like a polished team. He also knows that when his people like the apparel they are required to wear they feel better wearing it and they work better as well. Now I was initially surprised when he told me that while everyone loved all their shirts, the gray shirts (with black logo) where the logos weren’t as visible as the white shirts actually often got them more attention. How does that work? 

It seems that while waiting on line at various venues my client noticed people would make eye contact with his logo and particularly when he wore the gray shirt with the black logo (because it was harder to see)  people would squint and approach for a closer look. More often than not, being then within conversational range, they would then engage in conversation about the business behind the logo. The logo that was harder to see actually resulted in unexpected business generation. 

Often times, thinking things all the way thru to their conclusion, then stepping back and viewing from a different angle, results in a polar opposite conclusion. Things aren’t always what they first appear to be.

Rule of 3

The magic of three. No, I don’t mean the superstition that bad things come in threes, nor the “photographic rule of thirds”. 

The Rule of  3, subject of this blog, embraces the concept that things that are presented in threes enable us to more clearly make a point that is also more effective and more memorable. All know well the slogans “Just Say No”, or “Just Do It”, or “I’m lovin’ it”.

Throughout our culture from the Three Bears to the Three Little Pigs, to Bettlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, there is a special power (perhaps even magical) to expressing ideas with the Rule of 3.

True, there are examples of famous two and four element components in speeches but none has the power of three.

JFK beckoned, “…ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Winston Churchill's reference to “blood, toil, tears and sweat" represents a formidable four element effort, although later shortened to ”blood, sweat and tears”.

Proper use of the Rule of 3 not only allows one to communicate a concept, but to emphasize it and then make it memorable. There are untold examples of the use of 3’s in every form in which we communicate.

Movie trilogies, 3 color flags of nations, mottos such as “location, location, location”, Blood, Sweat and Tears and the list goes on.

Appreciating and mastering the Rule of 3 will enhance your ability to communicate, educate and convince. The effective use of three in all forms of communication, including comedy, are endless. (Three guys walk into a bar…) Three is the smallest number of elements we need to form a pattern. Comedians have long utilized our expectation of a pattern to create their humor. 

Example: Laura Kightlinger: “I can’t think of anything worse after a night of drinking than waking up next to someone and not being able to remember their name, or how you met, or why they’re dead.”

 Master three and you will see how effective your communication will be.

And that’s “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…”

Better Late Than Never?

We’ve all heard the saying “better late than never” but does that really apply to business meetings? The meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Six of the eight people arrive before 8 a.m., get settled and are ready to work at 8 sharp. The meeting leader waits respectfully for 5 minutes to allow the two stragglers time to show up but alas, they do not. That is, not until 10 minutes into the meeting.

OK, so there is always some variable to overcome, like parking, traffic or weather, but what about the late comers who are ALWAYS late no matter whether rain or shine, night or day, weekday or weekend. 

I can’t think of a single positive personal brand element to attribute to constant late arrival. Does the perennial late comer enter the room unnoticed and does their personal brand not suffer from being late? What thoughts cross your mind when the later comer(s) show up?

Does being habitually late reveal anything other than either disrespect for the others at the event or meeting or incompetence? Does lateness come without a price?

Has Snail Mail Regained its Impact?

It doesn’t seem like too long ago when the common wisdom was to send a hand written note to thank someone whom you had just interviewed with or visited in a sales call. When I say send, I mean via the United States Postal Service, in an envelope with a postage stamp stuck in its corner.
Likewise it seems like only yesterday that our mailbox (the one attached to the exterior of our home) was crammed full of offers of every kind and description. Now, it’s our email mailbox that is crammed full of pitches, promos and pleas at a seemingly faster rate and quantity than ever achieved by regular mail.
The daily routine of tearing envelopes in half and recycling their contents without even considering opening them is still very fresh in my mind but it has almost entirely been replaced by ridding myself of unwanted email promotions. Fortunately I don’t have to expend the energy of tearing anything in half before clicking the trash icon.
Email marketing is clearly the rule not the exception in today’s business climate but two factors in its implementation are rendering it less and less effective. First, the sheer numbers of vendors and would be vendors who are emailing is growing exponentially. Second, the frequency of each sender is also growing at an alarming rate. A complaint I hear time and again is that even when someone has signed up for a “vendors email alerts” the alerts come so frequently as to render them more nuisance than news. More intrusive than interesting.
We would never have dreamed of sending written notes to our customers every single week, week in and week out, but many businesses do not hesitate to send one or even two emails to customer each and every week. Unfortunately they are just as easy to trash without reading as they are to send without thinking.
Enter U.S. Mail. Handwritten on paper… Placed in an envelope with a stamp on it… The last time I got one of those was five months ago, and I remember what it was about, who sent it and particularly the positive impression that it made. The only thing I remember about the hundreds of emails I trashed in the last week is that I wish I hadn’t gotten them.
The next time you want to make both an old fashioned and a solid impression with a customer, try making it on paper and delivering it with a stamp.