Archive for the 'Get Organized!' Category
Happy New Year Leapers!
Hope you had a fantastic Holiday Break filled with great food and great moments with family and friends! Margarita and I are taking some focused Bubble Time this week to really work ON our lifestyle and business. It’s a great opportunity for us to get a lot done while slowly re-integrating into our schedules and daily rituals.
One key factor in preparing for a new year is to reflect and evaluate the previous one. It’s important to look into the eyes of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly to learn as much from it as we can and to recognize patterns so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
As Margarita and I are reviewing 2011 and planning for 2012…we are asking ourselves some tough but valuable questions and I thought I would share some of these questions with you, as they are powerful and important to reflect upon in order to raise the bar and move forward.
Investing 15 -20 minutes in this questionnaire will definitely prepare you for a great 2012. Here you go! Are you ready for 2012?
https://leapzone.wufoo.com/forms/w7×3k1/
P.S. By filling this out before January 7th, you are automatically entered to win one full year of MyLeapTools.com*.
*MyLeapTools™ is packed with kick-butt tools, templates, strategies and methodologies that have greatly helped us, and our clients, take their brand and business to the next level. Each item comes with a kick-ass tutorial explaining how to best use it and what it will do for you!
I look forward to continue to be a part of your “virtual team” to help you raise the bar and take your business to the next level.
Enjoy and cheers to a kick ass 2012!
Isabelle 
Catalyst at LeapZone Strategies
Host of LeapTV.com
CONGRATULATIONS to Colleen MacDonald of Coco Fleur, winner of our MyLeapTools.com Pre-Registration Contest!
Colleen has won a fantastic online advertising package on LeapTV.com, which includes 1 month FREE logo placement in our Sidekick Sponsor Widget, valued at $149!
A big thank you to all of the contest participants! Stay tuned for future contests and promotions on www.myleaptools.com!
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When asked about his outstanding performance on the ice, Wayne Gretzky replied, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
Where is your business focusing? I’ve found that one of the most powerful practices as an entrepreneur is to regularly spend time away from my office and my daily tacticals every month to dream a little and to envision my company 1, 3, 5 years into the future. At LeapZone, Margarita and I spend at least 1 day a month, away from the office, to stay connected and stay aligned with what makes us and keeps us great.
Here is what we normally keep an eye on.
1. Our Brand Foundation: We religiously stay connected with our values, purpose, brand promise, x-factor and unique selling proposition to make sure that we are in alignment.
2. Our Systems: We constantly look for ways to refining and simplify our systems and client touch points to make sure that we are efficient and consistent. People want to seamless and consistent experiences.
3. Our Auto-Pilot: We always look for ways to simplify, eliminate or automate all of our re-occurring tasks where ever possible.
Every time I take time away to “fly into the future” to look at my business from a bird’s eye view, it helps me look at my business from an entrepreneur’s perspective instead of a technician lost in a sea of TO DOs. It makes it easier for me to stay connected to my present purpose allowing me to better push through obstacles while keeping an eye on the big picture.
Spend some time in the future and you’ll be able to “skate to where the puck is going to be!”
Your storage space can be boxes of unknown heirlooms and junk gathering dust and costing you money, or an extension of your living space to shelve infrequently used items that are easy to retrieve whenever you want. Storing it right also allows you to spend less on storage space than you thought, and get the walk-in closet you always dreamed of!
Deciding to use storage is a great time to sort through your items first. Remember that old computer acronym GIGO -garbage in, garbage out? It can apply to poorly planned storage spaces too.
The best way to start is to quickly sort items into 4 piles:
1. to donate
2. to throw away
3. to keep a: seasonal use and b: archive
4. I have no idea
This fourth pile prevents you from wasting time agonizing over what to do with a particular item, then getting frustrated and giving up (temper tantrums optional). If you can’t decide in 10 seconds or less, put the item into pile 4 and move on. You may be surprised at how much sorts itself into piles 1-3, when you keep going.
Label all boxes and their contents. If you plan to just ‘throw things in a box to get them out of here’, you may want to try the 4 piles method first.
Make a list of your items and boxes in storage. Do it while you are packing the box. Just jot the contents of the box down on paper, and when the box is full assign it a number. The number is all you have to label the box with. Label the 2 adjacent sides of the box so it can be seen in a stack. Extra marks for keeping your list in Excel for easy editing and sorting. Keep the list at home and a copy in the storage locker, for fast retrieval of needed items.
Rectangular storage spaces of 7-8 feet wide work well for lining the sides and back wall with stacks of boxes (or ideally shelves) or furniture, and leaving a centre aisleway so that all items can be seen and easily reached. Square storage spaces are hard to use efficiently as the middle space is wasted, or not all items are easily accessible. A row of boxes or shelving can be added in the middle but then you need twice the aisle space.
Boxes should be a uniform size. This helps in stacking and labelling. If using shelves, it allows you to set the shelf height to a uniform minimum, allowing for more shelves. An ideal multi-purpose storage box is sold at office supply stores, often called a ‘Banker’s Box’. They are sturdy enough for a load of books, big enough for holding files, but just the right size for lifting, aided by built-in handles. Separate lids make frequent access easy. (Sturdy yet reasonably priced shelving can be purchased from stores like Costco or Ikea).
Keep seasonal items such as Christmas decorations, off-season clothes, skiis, golf clubs etc. up front for grab ‘n go convenience. Archived boxes and old files at the very back.
Many of us run a home office. Storing archived accounting files, excess inventory and other supplies in our homes can make us unpopular with loved ones. Renting a storage space for business can be a tax deductible expense.
Do you have furniture that you are considering storing? It is perfectly acceptable to store precious items, like grandma’s rocker for when the baby is born. Before you store, you may want to consider the value of the piece before spending money to store it. Flip through some flyers to judge the replacement value of that dining room set. If its value is less than the cost of storing, consider selling it instead and storing the cash instead.
With the real estate market fluctuating, it may not be the time to get a bigger place, even if you really need it. Renting a storage locker can cost way less than renting or buying more living space, and it may even free up enough living space to make a move unnecessary.
Storage Industry stats:
The Storage industry in Canada was estimated to be worth $8 Billion in 2006. Currently there are approximately 2,800 self storage facilities across the country, up from approximately 2,200 in 1999. There is an average of 2.5 square feet of self storage space per capita in Canada, compared with about 6.0 square feet per capita in the US. This would imply there is still more room for growth in the Canadian industry. In the United States, there are more than 50,000 self storage locations, 20,000 of those are new in the last 7 years.
In the Lower Mainland there are approx. 108 facilities as of 2008, with an average 2.34 square feet per capita (slightly below the national average). According to Candace Watson of Canadian Self Storage Valuation Services Inc. Between 2006 – 2008, 16 new facilities opened in the lower mainland.
- Article by Tami Reilly, of Get Organized, Office Management Consultant working for Vancouver Self Storage in Marpole, Canada’s first ‘Green unbuilt’ storage facility.
Here are a few ways to get more of the things done at the office that actually make you money, while thinking less about the other stuff.
1) Set up a system or two to “automate” recurring tasks. These can be easy, such as delegating payroll to a company like Ceridian or ADP (which now cost less than your own time), or automating office supply deliveries.
2) Create and automate forms and templates. Get a little more creative by formatting recurring data entry items and creating templates for customer service letters and emails that get re-written time and time again, or get a customer form re-formatted in Adobe PDF with fill able fields, it’s simple and your customers will love the ease.
Get your people together and make a “recurring task” list of things you would love to delegate, automate or simplify to free yourself up for the good stuff!
