Amy Meinecke

Question for everyone….what do you do with the invoices/bills from you vendors? Most of the invoices I receive from vendors are digital. In the past, we have printed each of them out and saved in a file. This seems like a waste of time, paper and physical space. Do you do this or save them digitally?
Amy Meinecke

Vita,
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for this class. Thank you for sharing your experiences both with the business and personally. You have shared the good, the bad and the ugly so to speak, so that we can learn. Your transparency is truly appreciated. It has been so helpful to see how you have transformed your business, which makes it possible for us to see and believe that we can do the same!

There are business classes out there that teach the importance of creating systems and procedures; that teach how to analyze financials, etc. But, it is so much more helpful to see how these steps have been accomplished in a business like my own. Your class has been so relatable and you are an excellent teacher and communicator. You have a genuine desire to help others achieve their goals and it shows.

I hope to see you in the future at the next conference perhaps! I wish all the very best for you, your team and your family. And, all the best to my fellow students. I hope we will all keep in touch to support one another and let each other know how we are doing.

Much appreciation,
Amy Meinecke

Good Afternoon from Amy Baradell. I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last class. I am sad to see it end but very excited about the possibilities ahead. Vita, your transparency about what has worked and what hasn’t worked has sped up the learning for all of us. You have made me rethink pretty much everything I do. This is good but a little overwhelming. Right now I am trying to prioritize and take it step by step. Amy and I have had a big year of change already in our business and we are ready to continue to move it forward. I think my biggest “aha moment”, even though I have heard it before, is staying true to my why and sticking to it. So much has to do with my mindset about work and being productive. You have given us permission to define a good day as a day that kept us in our “why”. Thank you! I am looking forward to the class tomorrow on our CEO mindsets.
I had emailed Vita earlier about policy and procedures for designers. Right now I feel like the document we give them is pretty overwhelming. Can you share how you set up this with your designers? The approach?
Thank you!
Amy Baradell

This is Amy B. Yes, with QB time they can clock in and out on each job during the day. I am able to set up their schedules and they know what they are working on. It has been awesome. We can see the hours spent on each job.

Vita,
I have not been tracking my time in specific detail. I am TERRIBLE at tracking my time. I already have enough distractions, that trying to track my time throughout the day would send me over the edge!🤪. However, I know what things suck my time and have been working on scheduling my time for certain types of tasks. I have asked for fewer interruptions from questions by having staff hold onto questions and checking in with them at certain times of day instead of every time a question comes to mind. This has been a huge help. Scheduling my time is still a work in progress. My office assistant is relatively new so there are more questions. My design consultant gave me 3 months notice so will have to hire someone new which will effect my schedule and time🤦‍♀️

Amy Meinecke

• This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by Amy Meinecke.

Hi All! In response to Vita’s request, I am sharing the KPIs we track. We have created a Google Sheet that is our “KPI Dashboard” where we enter data each month. We track bank account cash flow, info from our P&L (revenue, COGS, GP, Expenses, Net Profit). We also break down the P&L numbers by category or hard treatments and soft treatments. We also track #leads, #appointments, #sales, closing rate and avg $ sale. We note the $ value of estimates that have been approved, but are in progress (therefore don’t show on P&L since they haven’t been invoiced). Finally, we track our marketing expenses related leads and sales from sources that we pay for (i.e. Google ads, Houzz, Hunter Douglas website, etc.).

Amy Meinecke

Thank you Vita for your willingness to share so much of your business and experiences. This was a terrific first class and I’m excited to continue this process of learning how to move our business to the next level!
I have a question about your WTS and GM…did they have any experience in our industry before your hired them? I have hired office assistants over the last few years that have not had any industry experience. My current assistant has been with us for about 6 weeks. She is great, but does not have any knowledge about our industry. Wondering if you or anyone else in class has a structured system for teaching about window treatments? In order for the WTS or GM to take charge of managing projects, she will need a very good grasp of the various types of window treatments, how they work, what the components are, etc…Amy Meinecke