Source/Contribution by : NJ Publications
Imagine you have a sharp 10 o'clock important client meeting. And you aren't a very systematic personality, so as usual you wake up at 9 after snoozing your alarm for the fifth time, completely baffled. You get out of the bed hastily, realizing you are late, you rush to the bathroom, perform your morning ablutions. It's 9:30 already. You are standing in front of the cupboard, and to add to your dismay there is no ironed shirt, it's 9:35 now. You quickly pick one and start ironing, you wear your clothes and are now looking for socks and handkerchief, in the debris of all the unimportant things that are piled up in your room. You are successful in finding socks but no luck with the handkerchief, so you drop the idea of the hankie, and proceed to looking for your car keys. It's 10:05 already, you decide to skip breakfast and run for the meeting. You drive real fast, and reached the client's place, a retired army major who was waiting for you since the past 25 mins. He looks at you and then at the clock, and gives you a bitter look. You know you have spoiled the meeting.
If in case, you would have kept things a little more organized, ironed your clothes and got sorted with your socks, hankie, car keys, and shoes a night before, the situation would have been different. You would have saved the crucial morning half hour, you could have gulped a glass of milk before leaving the house, and would have reached the client's place in time. Planning ahead and organizing your morning would have gotten you a warm welcome from the Major.
“The Triumph of anything is a matter of organization” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
So, to triumph in your business, you need to systematize it. We have listed a few tips which may be helpful to you and support you in the movement.
Check your phone every morning: The first thing to do is to check your mails, messages and missed calls. Reply and call back as required. There might be things which may require immediate action, so you know the things you have to add to your day's schedule.
Start your day with yesterday's close: Revive your yesterday's close, there may be things which were left open, like you were trying to approach a lead and you weren't able to get through his number, so that task remains unfinished, hence you have to add it to today's to-do list.
Plan: You have your yesterday's unfulfilled tasks, and you have a number of tasks for today and the coming days. So, prioritize and list down the tasks. You can use the scheduler in your mobile phone or your laptop, and book slots for client meetings and various other tasks. The automatic reminders will prompt you whenever a task is approaching.
Time: Financial advisory is a great profession when it comes to flexibility of timings. But then, you shouldn't be taking this flexibility for granted. Every business needs time and commitment, so you need to be professional in your ways and give enough time to your work. Missing a client meeting for going shopping with your wife on a weekday will not lead you anywhere.
Use minimum paper: If you really want to be clutter free, disown paper. All the information that is there in probably a warehouse full of papers, can be entered in a tiny laptop, so why waste space as well as contribute to cutting trees. Organize your clients' details, portfolios, prospects and all the information in the RAM. You can use apps, or may be simple excel files and folders and have the entire business systematized. Get your clients on the E-Wealth platform and get rid of all the paper, plus save your time for other productive activities.
Review: Track your progress regularly. Check your joblist and schedules regularly, tick the ones which are done, and assess the status of the unaccomplished tasks, and perform if any action is required on your part. This practice will help you remain in the loop always.
Being organized will lead you to success. An extra minute spent in organizing, will earn you an hour. So, it's time to clear up the mess, to bring in system and discipline into your business, because no business can ever succeed without being properly organized.
