Doing It All Is Possible

The first 4 years that I owned Gourmet Gifts, I was able to manage it myself.  Even though I worked a full time job, was raising kids and getting my degree, I was able to start Gourmet Gifts and become relatively successful with it after my second year.  It took two years to say that I was "successful".  But as GG got more busy and the phones were ringing more regularly, I realized the need to hire.  And so I did and I have to admit, I was scared to put someone on payroll primarily because I realized that her paycheck is important.  I wanted to grow GG big enough to be able to keep her very busy.  Then came an office manager, a personal assistant, a house manager and so on.  Up until August of last year, I had three virtual assistants, two program managers, a house manager and a manager for Gourmet Gifts.  But in August of last year, I was laid off from my corporate job and decided to hit the reset button.  I let my personal assistant go as well as one virtual assistants.  I wanted to see how much I could handle on my own, after all, I'm going to have at least a year off and can decide if I want to go back to corporate or not (and I do!).  (And, I was able to save some money - I was unemployed for the first time in my life and completely out of my comfort zone but that's a whole other story!)

My turning point through this process was so incredible.  I realized that so much more automation can be employed.  For six weeks, I studied everything that needed to get done for all of our seven companies.  I sat down at the end of the six weeks and made a whole new staffing plan, started using more apps and automation and most important, allowed more time in my schedule for good quality conversations.  I quadrupled my time speaking to those in the gift basket industry, took on more consulting clients and set time in my schedule each week to reflect.  I'm finding, now, that I am 110% focused, more confident and am able to spend more time helping others.

My turning point is that I can do it all but I don't want to do every little thing.  I want to have a solid staff that can take credit for our successes.  So, Angela, Oralia, Amy, Lisa, Twila and Ellen, hats off to you for helping me achieve my dreams of success.  It's because of you that I can say I'm truly living my dream.