PP 173: Using the Leaf Blower on the Snow

Quick Show Notes: Using the Leaf Blower on the Snow

Using the wrong tools in our business can cost us valuable time and energy. In this episode, I share a humorous story from my past and the parallels I see between the story and entrepreneurship.

Episode Transcription – Using the Leaf Blower on the Snow

In today’s episode, I’m going to share one of my blog articles from a few years ago, just because I was inspired by the changing seasons and the sounds that I’m hearing outside.

It’s mid fall here in Ohio. As I’m recording this, and unlike many other places in the US, especially the Northeast where I grew up, we are just starting to experience the leaves falling and the real onset of allergies. However, as I was working today, I heard one of my neighbors using the leaf blower outside. And it got me thinking about something that my husband and I experienced a few years ago.

Using the Leaf Blower on the Snow

We were living in an apartment complex, and, well past midnight one night, we heard a very loud sound outside.

Now before I read the article I wrote to you I do want you to know that this article was originally written in January of 2014. However, the context isn’t necessarily about snow, but about the tools that we use in our business. So without further ado, here’s the article I wrote, called using the leaf blower on the snow.

In the wee hours of the morning, I was shocked to hear one of our neighbors using the leaf blower on the snow. By wee hours. I mean 1:30am and if you’ve never heard a leaf blower, let me tell you. They’re about 10 times louder than snow blowers.

I’d seen this guy using the leaf blower on the snow before and it made me scratch my head and wonder why. Surely this isn’t an efficient use of his time. And using the leaf blower on the snow at 1:30am is an open invitation to any one of our neighbors to run at you with their snow shovel and a bucket of salt.

In the world of business, there are thousands and thousands of tools out there to help business owners operate their businesses efficiently and affordably.

Do you want to make a financial spreadsheet? Try Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheets.

Need to make a presentation, use PowerPoint, Prezi or Keynote.

Need to show your clients something on your computer?

Try Skype.

Please know, I didn’t say graph paper for spreadsheets, a flip pad for a presentations or your Polaroid camera for a screen share.

Would they work?

Yes.

Are they ideal solutions today?

No.

Just like my neighbor using the leaf blower on the snow, many small business owners are using antiquated or inefficient tools to run their businesses on a daily basis. These outdated tools take extra energy and effort and often leave the owners feeling dejected, defeated and, well, broke.

They have wasted so much time being inefficient with small tasks that when it comes to helping their clients and our customers, they are wiped out and or the day is over.

Jumping back into the Positive Productivity podcast, I want you to think about the systems and tools that you are using in your business.

Remember that sometimes a thick tip Sharpie marker is not the best tool to color in between the lines. And playing email tag to set an appointment is not necessarily a great use of time either.

By the way, if you’re trying to set appointments, Acuity and Calendly are great, inexpensive tools that you can use to set up your own scheduling link. I personally use ScheduleOnce and it has saved so much time.

Take a look at the tools and systems you’re using, and also take a look at the time that it’s taking you to use the systems and tools that you’re using.

Is the amount of time wasted costing you money? In the last month I shared with you that I had put so much time into editing my podcasts over the last three months and I hadn’t even thought about what my time was actually costing me.

While I should have gone and rehired my editing team, which I’ve now done, I was spending 75 hours a month editing my own show.

This is not a good use of my time and in the end cost me 10s of thousands of dollars in inefficient time usage.

I know that spending money can sometimes be scary, especially when we don’t have a time machine to see how that financial investment is going to directly affect our future. But sometimes we need to take a step of faith and know that these investments are smart investments.

As you’re moving forward today, take a look at your tools and systems. See if you’re using a leaf blower on the snow and decide what you can do differently.

Now with all this said, go forth and have a positive and productive day.