Length Does Matter

I have been paying attention to other people's blogs and e-mails and I have to admit, I like my own...I might be a bit biased.

The issue that I am really referring to is length. Some blogs are just too long. I try to keep mine short and sweet and if there is more to write about on a specific subject, then I will break it up into parts. It is one thing to keep readers coming back often to read a couple of paragraphs, but when it turns into pages and pages, I just tune out or stop reading altogether. This is the same for e-mails. A quick concise e-mail is great, but when someone writes a tome it ends up only being quickly scanned because there is just not enough time to read it word for word.

The awareness for today is to not write a page if a paragraph will do. If a paragraph will not do, then break it up into manageable parts. Your readers will appreciate it.
~Paul

Bah, Humbug!

This has been a very busy week as I am trying to wrap things up for the year and there seems to be quite a few loose ends. I will be more consistent in my blogging next year, but for today, I have a bit of a rant to share.

It has been raining in Portland; no big surprise. I was at the post office this morning and once I reached the door, there were two women five to ten feet behind me, both holding multiple packages. I happily stopped to hold the door for them so that they could get out of the rain with their packages. I had a quick envelope to mail, but because I let the women walk in the door in front of me, they both took their place in line in front of me as well. It would have taken me less than a minute to be out of there, but because I was courteous and attempting to be helpful, I had to wait in line for over fifteen minutes for the two in front of me to take care of their business. For what it is worth, I never even received a thank you from either of the woman.

I know that during the holiday season we should be generous and giving, but I was pretty frustrated by this.

The awareness for today is to be tougher than me and just smile during the holiday season!
~Paul

A Funding Deal on the Edge

I may have already written about this and if I have, forgive the repetition, but I did want to vent a bit and this is a great medium for me to do so. About two years ago I met a very nice, sharp business consultant, I will call him Frank. He was very interested in the connecting that I do for debt financing and we have tried to work together several times.

Frank sent me a deal to look at in April of 2006. The deal was not strong enough for my sources, but the seed was planted. Frank and I kept in touch over the years and just checked in with each other every so often. After some major modifications to the business model and plan, Frank came back to me in August with a very solid business plan. I shared it with a few of my connections and there was interest immediately.

By the middle of October, one of my contacts had provided Frank and his client with a loan package and simply needed the client to submit the application. Nothing has happened yet. I check in every other week with Frank and he keeps trying to push his client, but the client has just sat on the paperwork.

Today, the lender contacted Frank to see if there was still interest and I sent over my own e-mail to Frank. Frank is as frustrated as I am. He put in a lot of time and effort, yet he cannot get his client to follow through with the application. To add to the situation, Frank has shared that the client needs the money at this stage to stay alive, yet he isn't doing everything he can.

All I can do is keep in touch with Frank and hope that his client will submit the paperwork so we can get this deal closed.

The awareness for today is that sometimes it eases frustration to write out the situation...just as I have done here.
~Paul

Efficiency and Patience

I work very efficiently and I am proud of that fact. However, it generally leaves me waiting on others which can be quite frustrating. When working with a client, funder, associate or new contact, there are always a variety of forms and agreements that must be completed and signed. Some of these forms are Non-Circumvention, Non-Disclosure Agreements (NCNDA) which I mentioned in my post here, Fee Agreements, Co-Marketing Agreements and more.

Once I know which agreement is needed, I request any information I may need to complete it and then I create the agreement based on templates I already have in place. I then print it, sign it in color, scan it back into my computer and then e-mail it to the other party for countersigning. The process takes a bit of time, but not too much. I then wait on the signature from the other party.

Currently I have three agreement awaiting countersignatures. One from April 4th, one from April 11th and one from April 17th (this one is still considered current as opposed to overdue). Each of these was already discussed with the other party in advance, so there are no surprises in them. I will not move forward without these agreements in place.

I definitely understand that people are busy and working on many projects. However, these agreements are in place to help them. I know I need to just wait and move onto other projects in the meantime. I definitely have my own issues with impatience; perhaps I will discuss that another time.

The awareness for today is that if you have agreements that you agree with, countersign them and return them to the other party and get your projects/deals moving.
~Paul

If You are Unavailable, Don't Answer Your Cell Phone

I am going to rant a bit on cell phone use today. For some background information, please see my post from January 3, 2007 called More On (or Moron) Phone Use.

First off, let me say thank you to those people who answer their phones in case of emergency, but then explain (cordially) that they are busy and will call back when they can.

Today's post is for those other folks who are not so kind. I have made some calls recently where the person answering her mobile phone is almost at the point of lecturing me that she cannot speak because she is busy. That is completely, acceptable, but wouldn't it make more sense to simply not answer her phone? If you are at a seminar and unavailable to speak, don't answer your phone. If you are rehearsing for a stage production you are in, turn off your phone. If you are unavailable, don't answer your phone!

I even have someone (a relative nonetheless) who answers his phone and immediately hits the end call button if he is busy. By his doing that, I cannot even leave a voicemail message. He could hit the ignore button on his phone so that it goes straight to his voicemail, but nooooo, he answers it and then hangs up. I generally have to call back a couple of times before I can leave him a message. I find that frustrating.

I would like to raise some awareness around the fact that just because you have your mobile phone with you at all times, you do not always have to answer it. If you are truly unavailable, either turn off your phone (but then you can't see the calls you missed) or simply don't answer it until you are available to do so.

Have a great day and try to think about what non-verbal messages you are sending out to people with your actions.
~Paul

Requests and Responses

Today, as I am trying to update the status of different projects I am working on, I realize that there are quite a few people who owe me responses. This is back to the fact that people send me requests and I reply with the information I would need to move forward and then I don't hear from them again until I chase them down.

I am going to let go a bit and just wait for these people to come back to me. If they don't, they don't and there is no loss to me other than potential income. I definitely have trouble closing out a project without a response. I would prefer a direct response rather than giving up on it because I have never heard back from the other side. The part that really frustrates me is why would the person contact me if they had no intention of following up? I know that it may not be that simple and that they may have been distracted with other work, but come on...have the decency to say so.

Awareness is the key here. Pay attention to what you ask of people and respond when they come back to you.

End of rant.

Recycle

Here is my rant for the day.

My office has shared space for trash and recycling. I took down some recycling and broke down all of my boxes. I also had some trash and took that down as well. As I was putting the trash into the dumpster, I saw that there at least ten boxes that in there that were not even broken down.

How unconscious must one be to not even care that there are separate boxes for recycling? This person could have at least simply put the boxes in the recycling...even if they didn't break them down.

To me this is so simple. Our natural resources will not last forever (period). Why not help where we can?

For those of you who don't recycle...try to make some effort. I know not everyone will have a compost heap, but at least separate paper recycling from your trash. Or, go on living life like you are the only one who matters and give no thought to anyone or anything else in this world.

Passing Business Cards

I was at a networking event last night with about 150 people. It was very crowded and noisy, so it was difficult to talk to many people. Towards the end of the night, a woman was making her way through the room handing everyone her card, asking for their card and then just walking away.

Generally a card that I am handed blindly gets thrown out. The only way to really network is to talk to people and actually make a connection. Then it makes sense to trade cards and get in touch in the future. Often when someone hands me a card without us speaking first, I have no idea what they do and it is a waste of paper.

Take the time to speak with someone first if you are interested in getting their card or giving them one of yours. Don't waste time just throwing cards at as many people as possible.

Computer Dependency

I am just going to vent for a quick second. Computers save us a lot of time...until they no longer do. Some days they just freeze up or crash and there is a lot more time spent on getting them up and running than is necessary.

Today is one of those days. I think I have resolved the problem, but it has left me quite frustrated. Time to step away from the computer for a bit.

Looking forward to the weekend!