So a couple of years ago the cell phone is getting to be enough of a pain in the tail that I put my foot down and said to my wife (I’m a one man op) that if they call the office during the day, don’t tell them to call me. I never get any work done yapping all day long and take a message and I’ll call them back. Now it’s evolved to getting home at 5 or 6 and there’s the list. If I call them now, I won’t be done until bed, and I’m not a big fan of elongating “normal business hours”. Once I start calling after hours, it all comes back, and people you call at 6pm start to feel real free calling you at home on Sunday night, or when you’ve already been in the rack for an hour. Thats no good either. Well you could call the next day, but I’m back at square 1, and if I start dealing with the bid stuff right off the bat I might as well not pick up a hammer until noon. I can’t be the only idiot to fight with this. How do you juggle work, phone, bids, get it all done in some kind of orderly fashion and still have time to get away for a few hours a day? Please don’t say start hiring.
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Talk on the cell, while shooting nails, keeps the calls short;)
Brudoggie
Real answer- long drawn out days!
Part of why I'm an employee again.
hey RW,
"How do you juggle work, phone, bids, get it all done in some kind of orderly fashion and still have time to get away for a few hours a day?"
I'll take a shot just at the phone. Can you break down your calls by type, ex:
1) clients
2) prospective clients
3) subs
4) suppliers
...etc.
Then say to yourself, why are these people calling me? And what can I do to
1) reduce the # of calls
2) reduce the time spent on each call
Can you ask (make) clients write down their questions each day and only call you at certain times of the week if it's not urgent. Can you raise your prices to discourage tire kickers and low ballers. Can YOU write down your own questions and issues (maybe you do this already) to deal with them all at once when the appropriate person calls or vice versa so you don't have to trade calls all day long to say "and one MORE thing...", can you develop clear, reusable specs from job to job on how you want your subs to do your work. Etc.
What I'm trying to say is I think there ARE ways to cut down on phone time if you make that your goal.
best, GO
I run a service business and am out of the office most of the day and have went through the same thing that your now going through with the cell phone during the day vs up late making call backs. What I now do is I put all of my incomming calls through a recording machine and use a pager that notifies me that I have a incoming call. So if I am not busy when it comes in I can pick it up and if I don't pick it up the recorder will. then during the day when I have time, usaly during break time I call the recorder and enter my code and do most of my call backs during the day when I have time. That way when I get back to the office there is just a few calls to make. On the after hour incomming calls it works the same way with one exception and that is if I choose to wear the pager or not, if I want the time off I don't wear it. Until I got this machine what I did was to turn off my cell so that all calls were routed to my message center and then when I had the time I would make the needed calls.
An adventure is an unplanned journey!
I do something similar. I have an answering machiine. During breaks, driving time etc. I call the machine and retrieve messages. Then I can call them at that time or later if I wish. The time to make calls has to happen, its just controling it to your besgt advantage. DanT
Why not make your wife your office manager. She is already taking the messages have her answer/screen calls. When she does not know the answer she gets it from you. This allows you to handle the important calls
This is what I do for Lars. I take the messages. Ask them what it may be concerning or what I can tell Lars. The ones that I think he needs to talk to I track him down and tell him about it. If it can wait I write it down. From March to about November he works some late hours, so I ask them how late and how early can he call them back. Sometimes I know the answers that they are looking for and that saves him some time. He takes calls on weekends etc. whenever most of the time. I have had calls as late as 11:30pm. We are night owls and some repeat customers know this and will call. Some here don't like that concept, but if we don't want to take a call the answering machine can take the message.
Tamara
Edited 10/4/2002 5:01:38 PM ET by Roucrumom
Frustrating, isn't it?
I used to get all bent about the phone ringing. I felt like it was a big interruption and stopping my work.
I had to change my attitude.
Now I just figure that I will be on the phone and management stuff for three hours a day. I only schedule five hours worth for myself of real productive work. On big jobs, I handle the little things and delegate or subcontract. Then, if I get interrupted, the work can still go on without me. One beauty of this way of thinking, besides relieving my own stress from self-induced overwork, is that the job can go on and the money keep flowing when I go on vacation.
Excellence is its own reward!
right on piffen.... sorta like a business, no ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Oui, oui!.
Excellence is its own reward!
the big dogs stole my thunder!
Don't plan on or estimate for an 8 hr day worked....if you plan on only putting in 8 hrs.
If there's that many calls......estimate a full day's work to be worth..say....6 production hrs....5 if you take a long lunch...and go from there.
It's your company...make the rules to suit you. Or work 4 10's and have a day for returning calls.
For a one man band.....that seems like a lot of calls.....maybe sit down and figure why so many calls need to be made...maybe more explaining and documentation has to be made up front.
One way I've discoved to cut those semi-annoying calls short is to fire up the saw.
Jeff.......Sometimes on the toll road of life.....a handful of change is good.......
I agree with the your company, your rules. That is the biggest reason I am in business. Love the saw idea to shorten calls. I don't give customers my cell phone number at all and rarely give out my number to suppliers. DanT
I give out the cell # to those I consider important but I learned early to use the caller ID and attached voice mail. I was working on a damp wood 8/12 roof that I could barely stay on to put the last few ridges in place when the customer who called starterd chatting about the weather and her finger polish or some equally idiotic thing. We lost our connection....
Excellence is its own reward!
Why is it that when your 10 feet or higher in the air standing on a wall plate that the phone rings and its always the call from someone your waiting on to call back from the call you made when you were safely on the ground.Its like they have a sixth sense at knowing when your in the most precarious situation.Caller ID helps but still it never fails that its the call you have to answer.I can't wait till they invent a phone that clips to my ear and I can answer it by voice command.
ANDYSZ2
Andy, I use a over-the-ear plantronics earpiece with a microphone for driving and taking calls as well as on job site.
Both my mother and wife have a Panasonic 310 cell phone which has voice commands .....
Look for a phone that will do what you need.
Now, if I could just use voice command to make appointments on my Palm Pilot instead of trying to write them down .....At my age, my fingers & knees arrive at work an hour after I do.
Aaron the HandymanVancouver, Canada
It's only one minor improvement, but I just got one of those goofy hands-free thingys that looks like a secret service ear plug. I do my talking during drive times or else keep the phone in a pocket while I continue to work.
And firing up a saw or shooting a long series of nails works every time for those chatty types. Especially with the hands free set, because that is one seriously sensitive microphone.
I think I'll give the demo hammer a permanant place in the truck from now on.
The only inconsiderate person I've had call me on my cell is DW.
I was hanging off a set of trusses in a downpour trying to get the last 3 set when she calls. She just can't seem to be made to understand that just because she's comfy and dry, and feels like talking that I also feel the same. Even repeated requests to "Make it quick" don't work.
Most of my customers and/or suppliers have been really considerate, and avoid using the cell unless it's important.
Moroccan Proverb: The world has not promised anything to anybody.
My wife is the same way I am notorious for using the saw as a way to make her cut it short,but she has been doing alot better lately by waiting till lunch time.
ANDYSZ2