If you’re new to business, the first thing you have to do is get organized. At BlitzMetrics, Level 1 is all about mastering the fundamentals of personal efficiency, and it starts with one simple triangle: Do, Delegate, Delete.
The Do, Delegate, Delete triangle
Everything that comes into your inbox needs to be processed. And when we say inbox, we don’t just mean your email. It’s your task list, your reminders, your phone notes. You’ve got one box where you process all the things you have going on.
The number one thing we see new specialists fail on is that they can’t get organized. They lose control. Think about when your room gets dirty and things keep getting dirtier until it’s a total mess and you just want to push it off. You don’t want your business communication to be like that.
Every time something comes in, you want to do it, delegate it, or delete it.
Why this matters in business
We have clients everywhere. They could be in another country, connecting through Skype, email, Basecamp, or Facebook Messages. You’ve got a lot of communication to deal with, and if you’ve never learned how to organize yourself, Do, Delegate, Delete is absolutely key.
You’ve got to be able to reply to emails within 24 hours at the latest, usually the same business day. You don’t have to work on the weekend, but you’ve got to be responsive. We’re known for being responsive.
Being a reliable team member
You’ve got to reliably respond when something’s assigned to you from a team lead. Maybe there’s something you need to read. Maybe there’s critical directions you need to complete a task. Maybe there’s something you don’t know how to do and you’ve got to look it up and study to complete it.
Maybe someone else is counting on you to finish something so they can complete their project. If you’re going to be part of a team, when you start out at Level 1, you’ve got to absolutely master these fundamental organizational basics.
The tools you’ll learn
That also means learning things like using Basecamp, using our dashboard, getting organized in Business Manager. We’ve got lots of tricks for managing your email inside Gmail, using tools like Boomerang, creating canned templates, and responding to people instead of just brushing things away.
Demonstrating your skills
When you learn personal efficiency at Level 1, you demonstrate that you can do the basics. Put together simple diagrams. Help new clients get onboarded inside Basecamp. Create a dashboard report. Set up some digital plumbing. Edit a video. Whatever skill area you come in with, you’ve got to show that you’re organized first, then you can handle the basic tasks and be part of a team.
From employee to entrepreneur
In school or a retail job, you just showed up for your shift. Maybe nine o’clock to 5:00 PM, and all you had to do was show up and leave at five. In the world of business, you have things that are due and it’s independent of what time it is.
Being able to manage your time is the key to initially moving from being just an employee to being somebody who can actually enjoy the freedom of being independent, working the way you want without abusing that flexibility.
This article connects to BlitzMetrics processes including Digital Plumbing, one-minute video, 9 Triangles framework, SEO Tree. Each of these concepts has a definitive article that explains the full framework.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified.