The secret to better communication, making money and not wasting time

If you have ever had to explain your expectations over and over to an employee, you know what I am talking about. If you have ever left money on the table with a customer because you delivered their product under new timelines and different specifications and did not feel like you had a simple way to ask for more money, you know what I am talking about. 

Communicating effectively is not as easy as it sounds yet I make it very simple for you in this week's video. The secret to better communication, making money and not wasting time in business is to create templates, checklists and documents for every person, product and position in your business, including yourself. You have to spend the time and the energy up front to create ONE document or checklist or template for your business or your position- and you will never have to waste your time or energy (which is worth a lot of money) explaining timelines, edits, roles & responsibilities again. Nor will you ever have to awkwardly ask a client for more money or worse, leave money uncollected because you did not document the original order with all the specifications clearly documented. 

I know you think you don't have the time to do this. Ask yourself then, why do you have the time to clarify your expectations to a team member or repetitively explain to an intern what you need or awkwardly ask for more money from a customer when they changed their order or timeline? It is not effective to run your business or your career without clearly defined Roles and Responsibilities for every person on your team and a template for every customer order. Even if your boss didn't provide you with a R & R document prior to hiring you, you need to write one up for yourself and define your own Roles & Responsibilities as you believe them to be. You then take that document to your boss and collaborate on expectations, agree to your role and hold your boss accountable to those agreed upon expectations. You don't want your boss adding more to your plate, moving up a timeline or changing expectations - it leads to confusion, mismanagement of your time and most often a disgruntled employee. 

Think of a professional photographer or event planner- they come to you with a giant checklist of options for you to choose from prior to starting. Most often, they even provide you with a list of things you didn't even think of! They are the experts in their field and as such, they provide you with the options, timelines, budgets, edits, change order protocol for your event.  You need to do the same thing for your customers so you leave no room for uncollected fees for any changes to the project or product. 

Same goes for your team. Everyone on your team, regardless of title (there may be 3 Finance Officers or 3 Product Designers) must have a separate Roles & Responsibilities document that you go over with them on the day they start. Ideally, before they start. You clearly set your expectations before they begin their job so they can hit the ground running and you can confidently expect them to know what to do without interrupting you for clarification or direction. When you create well-defined Roles & Responsibility documents that you go over with every person on your team- it avoids conflicts within your team because no one is overlapping responsibilities and egos don't get involved due to confusing expectations. 

The secret to better communication, making money and not wasting time in business is to make sure you are clear and consistent at the onset of any project or hire. You will not regret the time you spend documenting your expectations and collaborating with your team members or customers at the beginning of any professional relationship. You will regret the time and energy and money you waste if you don't.