When I was a child, my parents often entertained guests for dinner. One day, Mom had been busy with preparations in the kitchen, deeply immersed in eggs, flour and butter, with her hair standing in every direction possible. This was a delicate dessert to make, and it needed all her attention. All was quiet when she came flying into the hallway and called the family: she could not find her glasses and needed them right now! And she knew she had used them just a little while ago…
All of us, without exception, immediately dropped everything we were doing, turned around and went hunting through the house. Mom just could not read without her glasses!
We searched in the living room, the dining room, upstairs in the bedrooms; to no avail. Where could her glasses have disappeared to?
Then …. all of a sudden, my brother shouted: ” But Mom, they’re sitting right on your nose!”
In unison, all of us burst into laughter, except Mom; she certainly was not amused. How could we all have been so blind?
When my client Marcia called me early one morning, she was very upset. Her computer was missing important files, they had just … gone. Fortunately, I could put her at ease quite quickly; I had very early on in our working relationship set up regular backups for her. As the backups run automatically, and in the background, Marcia had simply forgotten about them.
Most of us have experienced situations similar to my mother, or Marcia. Often, they now live in our memory as funny stories, and are told as such. I cannot help but wonder, do you sometimes think that you might find yourself in a situation where a restore from backup is impossible? That you have lost something forever? That you are so stressed out, and overwhelmed, that you too don’t see what’s in front of your eyes?
Ever since that day, years ago, my mother always knew where her glasses were. Her solution was simple and effective; she bought a beautifully coloured string which hung around her neck and securely tied her glasses when she didn’t need them. Marcia now makes sure that every new computer is scheduled to have regular backups, so that she won’t find herself in the same situation again.
What solutions have you found in your business that are simple, effective and save you time? Do you know which areas of your business could use some help to run more smoothly and efficiently?