Time management is almost an elusive concept. No matter who you talk to, there never seems to be enough time in the day for the tasks that need to get done. And because the promotional products industry can bring unique curveballs to distributors, it can make sticking to the most important tasks difficult.
“The promo industry is like no other job profession,” says Chris Babiash, president and CEO of Blaine, Minnesota-based Booshie Inc. “One day can be totally normal office hours, no meetings to the next day, it’s five rush orders, and you gotta drop everything you’re doing. So, having a foolproof plan to operate with every day can almost be nearly impossible.”
Christina Maag, CEO and brand consultant at Boise, Idaho-based Hoopla, says even when she does block out time in her calendar for specific tasks, like replying to emails, clients come in with rush orders. For her, most times sales trump strategic work, so keeping focus on other tasks can be challenging.
Dave Rodnick, owner of Milford, Connecticut-based Ardmore Promo, feels similarly. “My time is predicated on things that make money first,” he says, “and all the other tasks come after that.”
While there’s no fix-all for getting more time back in a day and the inevitable fire drill will happen, distributors can make realistic adjustments to better manage their time. Whether it’s better identifying goals and delegating work or implementing technology, discover ways your business can run better.
Hack No. 1: Make a List and Prioritize It
To-do lists, planners, sticky notes: These are all ways people visualize and manage tasks and ultimately accomplish daily, monthly, quarterly, or yearly goals. Setting goals or tasks for yourself or employee dictates how time will be spent. If tasks aren’t outlined and prioritized, there’s not a clear vision of what needs to be done, and time can easily get eaten up by less important tasks.
For Babiash, an old-fashioned pen-and-paper list does the trick. Every day, he refers to two different lists. “There’s the sticky note list of ‘has to happen today.’ Then, there’s the notebook that is the list that never ends,” he says. “And every day 10 things get added to the list, and every day five things get subtracted from the list.
But the list is always reprioritized almost every day based on the urgency of the need. That ultimate yellow 3M sticky note is simple, and odd as it sounds, dictates everything. The five things on that list are happening no matter what. And then the master list — we knock them off as we can, and we add them on as we can.”
Brian Ensign, owner of Colorado-based Be Branded, reminds distributors that priorities might change throughout the year and to adjust for that. “If you are having issues with time management then figure out where your time is going by writing down each task you do and how long it is taking,” he advises. “Having a goal buddy or putting your goals out there to the world on social media so that you are accountable to your goals can also be helpful.”
Hack No. 2: Block Out Time
Once the list is made and goals are set, it’s time for action. Knowing when you’re most productive can help. Some people get the most done in the morning, while others thrive during the afternoon. Pinpoint that time and focus on your most important tasks then.
“I feel like even if I have the best intentions and set time aside to work on something strategic, if my e-mail is open, which it always is, and I know that’s not a good practice, I get sucked into my emails and kind of struggle with getting anything that’s not sales related [done],” Maag says.
To help combat this, she does her best to tackle her inbox in the morning. For anything that doesn’t need her attention right away, she sets a reminder to get back to it the next day or a later date. At the end of each day, her goal is to have a clean inbox. She then blocks off time for the following day for any upcoming projects or tasks she didn’t get to the previous day.
“I also color code my calendar, so that it’s easy for me to take a glance at it and say, ‘OK, anything that’s this color means I’m actually having a call or physically in a meeting,’ and then I color code things that are personal,” she shares. “And then everything else kind of has more of a generic color.”
Hack No. 3: Delegate Tasks
Many successful business owners will tell you it takes a great team, big or small, to make things happen. Being able to rely on that team and trust them with different tasks is a major key to time management.
While giving responsibility to someone else seems like a simple fix, Babiash says it’s not always easy. “A lot of people struggle with delegation because when you’re dealing in a world of entrepreneurs or small businesses and decision-makers, people want everything done their way,” he says. “You gotta be OK that the task got done, even if it’s not done the way that you would do it.”
For him, his operations manager is his right-hand man. Babiash trusts him to take care of day-to-day operations, including production, shipping, and managing the part-time workers, for example. This gives Babiash the time to work in and on the business. For those that struggle with this, taking small steps might help. Something that works for Rodnick is delegating tasks that are not “money makers” to his support person. This includes things like ordering, invoicing, and general business tasks.
Ensign says delegating tasks is key to having “a life in this industry.” He delegates to his in-person and virtual assistants, which helps him accomplish goals, especially when he wants to network and take meetings that have project potential. “Trusting your team and figuring out ways to let go of control is crucial,” he adds. He also delegates tasks to those outside the business. Be Branded is an AIA Corporation member, so its invoicing, supplier management, and financing are all outsourced.
Hack No. 4: Implement Workflow Apps
Time management takes intention, and, thankfully, there are some tools to help distributors work more efficiently. While there are plenty of options to choose from, Maag urges distributors to fight the urge to buy too many apps. She suggests joining a mastermind group where other distributors share what works for them and what doesn’t. At Hoopla, the team leans heavily on Slack to streamline its work. It uses Slack for quick conversations and questions, as well as the app’s canvas capabilities, which lets users easily create and collaborate on projects. Hoopla has a canvas for all open quotes and one for its orders. The order entry person updates both at the end of each day. If they have questions, they can easily tag a team member in the canvas so it can be addressed quickly and easily.
Every Monday, the Hoopla team hops on a Zoom call to go over its orders in ESP, ask questions, and address any issues to ensure it hits the week’s targets. Throughout the week, the team stays up to date via Slack, and Maag says this system has boded well for the company.
“Honestly, we have never missed an in-hands date, and the company’s been around for four years,” she shares. “I would say Slack is really our driver for internal organization.”
Hoopla also uses Slack for non-sales related needs like marketing, where team members can share content ideas and suggest blog topics without clogging up email inboxes. At Booshie Inc., Babiash has invested in Google Drive to store all its art files, and it runs commonsku for its order management and CRM needs. Babiash notes how the software operates like a social media platform, where he can tag team members in a message within a project, and they’ll be notified immediately. TVs in Booshie’s warehouse, displaying its cloud and Google processes for everyone to see, streamlines project workflow. This approach saves time and builds trust with employees, Babiash says. Allowing employees access to “anything and everything” frees him up to do his own tasks.
At Be Branded, Ensign uses Asana to manage team projects, an app that easily organizes and tracks team and individual work. This gives Ensign a better understanding of his team’s capacity and if he can add tasks to their plates.
Hack No. 5: Use Email Features and Templates
Like Slack, Maag uses mentions and tags in emails to communicate tasks and expectations to team members, minimizing any back and forth. If she needs team members to jump in on different tasks, she’ll at (@) them for specific things. “I’ll say, ‘@Pearl, do this. @Ella, do this,’ so they know which items are delegated to them,” she explains.
For recurring emails, Maag has found email templates to be extremely timesaving. Whether Hoopla needs to request a quote from a supplier, or a new client comes in with a project, it has an email template ready to go to that outlines everything they need to know.
“We have e-mail templates for proofs,” she says. “We have e-mail templates for estimated ship dates, so that way we’re not rewriting the same information over and over again. We just insert the template and then add — if it’s a supplier quote — the product number, the color, the in-hands date, anything we need to do.”
Hack No. 6: Lean on Supplier Relationships
Any distributor would be remiss if they didn’t build strong supplier relationships for various reasons, but Babiash and Ensign say it can save a distributor time when it comes to project ideas. Babiash suggests having a core list of 20-25 suppliers who distributors can send customer art and project information to, asking for ideas and ways to execute.
“We’re an expert at being a distributor, and we’re supposed to do what’s best to get that ROI for our end-users and our customers,” Babiash says. “I know enough to be dangerous about every supplier, but I don’t know every supplier’s products and every supplier’s means or methods on how they can decorate, or how they can exploit that [product].”
Leaning on that relationship can save distributors from any back and forth with suppliers and clients, as well as avoid misinformation, which can cause friction and hurt the relationship.
“Suppliers want to help, and they want to build partnerships,” Ensign adds. “Take advantage of them doing research for specific projects and also creating virtuals for your customers.”
With these time management hacks, distributors can create a clear path forward with more focus and less interruption. One person can’t do it all, so leaning on outside resources, workflow apps, and a good team is necessary. And while most people’s grievance is that they just don’t have the time, Babiash argues everything can get done.
“Everyone has time,” he says. “It’s just how you prioritize your time and make time for the things that you need to do.”
