BusinessLawGuy's Blog

Organization is more important than ever. Many of us are working remotely. Even if you aren’t, being organized makes a difference. If you have children, school is about to start around the country with remote learning, pulling even more on your time. Being organized will put you in the best position to be successful in all facets of your life.

Now is the time to organize or, if you are organized, to reorganize. Delay rarely helps in any situation and disorganization leads to disaster. It not only can make you late on your commitments, it can adversely affect your business and personal life.

We live in a “what have you done for me lately” world that demands that expectations not just to be met, but exceeded. Through being organized you can regularly set realistic expectations you know you can meet. If you are unorganized you will have trouble meeting expectations and your clients, co-workers, and others will see it as a negative.

To do this you need to come up with strategies that work for you. It may be keeping lists and calendaring items. Maybe you need another person, such as an accountability partner, to help keep you on track. There are many tools you can utilize to be better organized and keep on task. You have to know yourself well enough to know what will and won’t work for you. Of course, you then have to put what will work in motion and commit to it.

You should start today. The better you organize yourself, the sooner you will set yourself up for success. The point is you have to work hard to be organized. If you try you will see how it benefits you in business and generally.

If you are not sure where to start, find someone you know who is successful and organized and see if they will formally or informally serve as an accountability partner for you. It is investing in yourself and worth every minute you put into it.

Have you ever trained or practiced something with a goal in mind, such as improving your time on your daily run, memorizing your lines for your role at the local theater, or something similar? When you do, you have to make time to work up to your goal. With no preparation, you may finish the race, but it won’t be fast and you likely will feel it in your body for quite some time. If you don’t practice those lines and really get them down, the opening night will be uncomfortable, at best. These are examples of why preparation matters.

Similarly, why wouldn’t you prepare for any important event or conversation, such as a meeting with a supervisor regarding performance, salary or bonus issues, a job interview, an important conversation with a child, co-worker, spouse, etc. If it’s important to you, it’s worth your time, and not preparing hurts your chance to achieve whatever you define as success for the event or situation.

It helps if you know what you want to accomplish in a given situation. If it’s an important conversation, knowing the message you want to communicate will increase your chances of making sure you and your position(s) are understood and you will be able to give it your best shot. Preparation will put you in a better place to communicate clearly and effectively, which can help you achieve goals or desired results. Being prepared also will bolster your reputation and what others who deal with you think about you, which is important because reputation is everything.

So prepare for those important events, meetings or conversations, and see where it gets you. As Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Don’t be that person!

I have been thinking about change during the last few months as many businesses have had to convert to remote working, and others have lost their jobs or businesses. It caused me to go back to a post I wrote in January 2014, which resonates today (and everyday). I have updated it, but it remains truth that change is constant.

Winners know this. What do I mean?  Being able to adjust on the fly is important.  In my world it can mean abandoning the entire oral argument you spent hours preparing because of a question or statement by the judge, a position taken by my opposing counsel or a client question. It also means having change forced upon you where you need to figure out how to network and develop business in a world where social distancing is the new norm and many businesses remain closed. The ability to shift gears on the fly allows you to be focused on the prize, whatever it may be.

Many times the change or adjustment does not need to be a split second decision.  What if you plan a new business initiative, spend hundreds of hours on it and then learn something has changed or you missed a piece of information that makes it more challenging to succeed?  Change is needed. Is it to scrap everything in the face of adversity?  Is it to rethink and tweak your plan?  Of course the true answer is that it depends on the situation.  But once you acknowledge change is needed you have taken the first step.

Change matters in your professional life.  Don’t become stagnant because the current circumstances don’t allow it, i.e. if you don’t change and adjust others will do so and pass you by.  To be on the top of your game you have to know when to adjust.  Stay up to date on what you need to know to do what you do.  Information is power.  Information is another thing that lets you know when you have to change or adjust.

Life is both a gift and a challenge in which we all can do a better job of doing our best for our customers and clients, as well as ourselves.  So pay attention!  Look for when you have to make adjustments or when change is being forced upon you by circumstance. Being open to change will bring creative ideas and opportunity, and allow you to shape your future.

Reputation takes a lifetime to build and mere seconds to lose. This is why your reputation and the reputation of your business matter in all you do during work hours and outside of those hours. This relates both to an overall picture of what others think and what you do that fits within those general thoughts, or not.

We all are ambassadors for the companies we work for. No role is bigger or smaller than other roles, just different. All roles are important and allow your business to function. It’s important to act in a manner that reflects well on you and your business to allow the business to function and to maintain its good reputation you have helped it earn.

Reputation is mainly is defined to two ways:

1. the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something ; and
2. a widespread belief that someone or something has a particular habit or characteristic.

I think the definitions are different, though connected. Your reputation clearly is what others in your circles or communities thing of you. An example could be that you have a reputation for being honest, charitable and a hard worker. At the same time, the beliefs of others are built on knowing your habits and characteristics that support such a reputation. An example of this is that each Saturday morning you volunteer at a local foodbank. Because of your habit to volunteer, part of your reputation is that you are charitable. What you do translates into who you are in your own eyes and the eyes of others.

Actions and inactions that can affect your reputation, and that of your business are numerous. Examples include not getting work done timely or within expectations, lying, or being careless on social media, even on your personal accounts. Do one or more of these and the response will be swift and negative.

On the other hand, when you do good, you have to continually do so for it to become part of your reputation. If you continually miss internal or external deadlines others at your business or the customers you need to succeed may not want to work with you again. If you volunteer each week, it may be months (if you are lucky) or more likely years before that habit becomes part of your broader reputation. It may not seem fair one bad act or mistake can follow you for a long time while doing good can take years to penetrate your community as to who you are, but knowing this should help guide choices you make.

Your reputation is built on peoples’ experiences with you. The reputation of your business is built on peoples’ experiences with you. We all deal with a broad group of people. This includes co-workers, clients, vendors, and people we deal with in our personal lives, from friends and family, to the person who cuts your hair or services your car. How you deal with and treat these different people reflects on you and your business.

Doing your best at all times is one way to work on and protect your reputation by doing things in a way that reflect well on you and your business, and positively affect the way others think of both. Once in a while, think about whether there are things you can do better at work or home. Then do your best and a good reputation will follow.

Being healthy obviously is good for you. It also is good for your business. It gives you energy. You can work out with others, including people you work with, customers, referral sources, etc. It is what you make it, and that can turn into something powerful in your life.

People seemed to really get into exercise when the quarantines and stay at home orders started. As time has gone by (and it has gotten really hot where I live), the amount of people I see out exercising, even early morning, has significantly decreased. We all should make exercising part of our routine because it has huge benefits for your body, brain and mental health. And to your business, if you make it so.

Everyone seems to be losing a bit of focus as the pandemic continues. Exercise gives you something else to focus on. It also can help you find your center. Plus, we all can use stress relief in relation to our personal and professional lives.

Some people like to exercise by themselves. It can provide tome to think about your day, your work, relationships or whatever else may be on your mind. Others want to do so with others because it helps keep them accountable to show up and do their best. Or it may be for social reasons. You can exercise with the same person regularly or do different things with different people, from friends to family to business connections.

I have a partner who hikes with a woman she met professionally and who later became her friend. When they hike together the range of topics discussed run the gamut from personal to business, and they each have had business referred from the other over the years.

As we head into summer, it is as good a time as any to think about your health and what you can do to maintain it or improve it, as well as deepen connections if you choose to, like my partner has.  Don’t only think about this when coming up with New Year’s resolutions.  Whether changing your diet, exercising more or starting for the first time, do something.  Invest in yourself.

Do you set goals? You should, and they should be in writing. If you have, you should revisit them often to see where you are on the road to achieving your goals. Writing goals and not reviewing them will negatively affect your chance to reach them.

You need to write down your goals. I currently am outlining my goals because June is the fiscal year end for my firm. Everyone at my firm writes down SMART goals for the next fiscal year. We also have mentoring and accountability groups that meet throughout the year to discuss goals and help our people be in the best position to reach their goals.

You need to keep your goals where you can see them. I keep copies on my desk and on my computer desktop where I can see my goals every day and review them regularly. It can help to make a weekly or monthly calendar event to remind you to review your goals. 

Work on your goals. The idea is to set goals, review them and work on them.  Yes, work on them.  This is important planning and work. Doesn’t your career or business deserve your focus and attention?

Change your direction. I saw a great quote from Jim Rohn, which inspired my topic this week. He said “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” How true. So get on it and change your direction!

What are  you doing right now? Are you focusing on reading these words? Do you have an eye on your email, texts, or social media? If you are working from home, are you dealing with your children? Or maybe you are do some combination or all of these activities.  Or are you on the phone?  We all think we can multi-task and do it well, but the truth is we can’t.

How many times a day, when you are on the phone, can you hear the keyboard and mouse clicks on the other end of the line?  Are they taking notes or looking up something relevant to the conversation, or are they surfing Twitter or Facebook?  Or maybe they are reading an unrelated, substantive email? You know they weren’t listening when they ask you to repeat what you just said after you ask them a question because they don’t know what you asked.

Doing any of these activities while talking to someone on the phone is comparable to looking at your emails and texts while in a meeting or at lunch with someone. In both cases you are checked out and telling  the people speaking or who you are dining with that they are not as important as whatever is on your phone.

It simply is very hard to focus on two things (or more) at once.  Coming across as your best possible self or doing your best work matters. It’s your reputation and people remember.

For a week (or for those truly device or multi-tasking addicted, a day) try to focus on what is in front of you, whether a person or a project.  If you are heading into a meeting, don’t  bring  your phone or leave it in your pocket or purse. Better yet, turn it off. When you are on the phone, leave that mouse alone and keep things that interest you off of the screen(s) in front of you. If you have room and a wireless headset, get up and walk around focusing on the conversation.

This is about focus and respect. No one may know you are trying to multi-task other than you, but it is amazing what you learn when you actually listen.

For most of the past two and a half months in person networking hasn’t existed. It remains of the utmost importance for all of us, whether we are lucky enough to be able to work or are unemployed. Many people I speak with have not networked or conducted business development activities since offices closed and stay at home orders went into effect. Doing nothing is harmful in the long run and despite businesses now being allowed to open in most states, normal networking and business development activities will take longer to become the norm again.

Most of my networking involves meeting people for coffee, lunch or drinks. This hasn’t happened since the first week in March. In Arizona, coffee shops and restaurants are allowed to be open, but will the people I want to meet with be ready to go back yet? I’m not sure I am ready to go back yet. So we each need to determine for ourselves what we are comfortable with and how to deal with people whose comfort levels are different than ours.

The answers depend on you. You may be ready to dine out. If you are, you will have to navigate setting up meetings carefully and responding positively when others aren’t willing to meet in person. You likely don’t want to do yet another Zoom meeting, but that may be the only way to get an audience with some people. If that is where they are, you need to accept that. We each get to choose how we feel about the current state of social distancing and the risks we are or aren’t willing to take. We all need to be respectful and take that meeting you want in whatever form you and the other person can agree on.

Of course, with people you know, there are other options to connect. Yes, I mean picking up the phone, emailing, texting, etc. The manner of communication depends on your relationship with the other person. Making time each day to maintain connections is important. It is a form of investing in yourself.

You need to do the same things you always should be doing. These include making lists of people you know and want to connect with, as well as people you want to meet. Then take the time to contact those you know or finding someone who can connect you to those you want to know. Whether to have those willing to connect you do so now or in the future is up to you, but putting the wheels in motion will make it happen sooner than later either way as the world opens up again.

We all need to take action now for our futures. What are your plans?

During this social distancing and quarantine limbo we currently find ourselves in, I have found myself taking time to think about my career, the road to where I am, and the road forward. Through doing so, I had some random thoughts that connect into an outline on trying to build a sustaining career. I wish someone had told me some of these back in the day, but trial and error, along with wrong turns, are how you learn so you can make better decisions down the road, thereby giving yourself the best opportunity to achieve success.

1. Being the star may be short-lived

Being a rainmaker or achieving success usually takes hard work and time. At points it feels like it is easy to break through, but it is harder to sustain. Your hard work generally needs to be continuous to sustain a great career.

2. Quality counts.

If you want to maintain your reputation and have longevity at a high level expect to work hard. Try to be professional even when others are not because people will remember the one time you lack professionalism if you let it happen. It may be easy to game the system for a short time, but it’s hard to game the system during your entire career. Your best bet is to focus on your work and do your best for your clients or customers.

3. Talent is not something you are born with.

There is no way around the fact that you have to do your work and homework to do your best for your clients or customers. Find a business or a niche within your business you like. Once you do, then get down to learning and do your best. If you do it’s likely your clients, customers and professional acquaintances will help spread the word for you. The goal is being looked at as an expert and having longevity.

4. Throwing it all at the wall doesn’t work well.

Even if it makes you feel good to get the message out every way you can, unless your target market is listening it’s wasted time and effort. For most of us it’s not a numbers game, but about personal connections. One personal email to an important connector is more important than a press release sent out randomly. That personal touch is everything. People remember personal emails, phone calls and meetings, which can pay dividends in the future.

At the same time, if you’re using the written word, use spellcheck and proofread!

5. Invest in yourself.

Success is slow. Take the time to learn well and to put what you learn into practice. Your focus on putting effort into learning your craft and building your reputation will result in business if you maintain the course. Once you have business, treat clients, customers and everyone you deal with how you would want to be treated.

There’s plenty of business to do. There is plenty of money to be made. Business and money come easier if you work on you and your business, and don’t make only the numbers your top priority.