Julie Murphy
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05-12-2021 at 4:52 pm in reply to: Post a review for Vita’s “Scale Your Small Business” class #19192
julie.murphyParticipantThis class should be bottled and mass produced. Every small business out there could greatly benefit from Vita’s business model she has created with her high level of organization and systemization. Her eagerness and excitement to share her process and watch others benefit from her knowledge is palpable. The class was engaging, easy to follow, and left me wanting more after each class! She has changed my approach to my business for life!
julie.murphyParticipantThis class has caused an avalanche for me!….my mind is tumbling tumbling tumbling.
I never have enough time….I am not organized enough….I am overwhelmed by the amount of work I have and the lack of process I have.
I know what needs to be done, and you have provided me with a clear path of things I can do to make many of these negative things disappear….BUT, it takes time to implement and I am feeling overwhelmed by that.
We did 1.2 million in sales last year…our busiest year yet. We have already done 700,000 at the end of the first quarter this year….and wait for it….I do every measure, do every estimate, write every work order, and go on every install….so you can see where I am going with this. I am at the bottom of this avalanche covered by all of the above items.
To top it all off, my 35 year old brother in law died in November from a rapidly growing brain tumor, leaving his pregnant wife and 2 year old daughter behind. John J. Antonellli IV arrived on January 11th (we call him Jack)… Thankfully we live next door to them. But as you can imagine, my husband and I and my 4 children have become the surrogate parents/siblings to Mollie and her children….so my life is soooo complicated at the moment!! I only share this because I really do feel like I have been hit with an avalanche. I am just really overwhelmed.
I am in the process of digging myself out with the help of my great family, my great staff, and now my great Process Friends.julie.murphyParticipantFirst off so very happy I took this class…just wanted to say that.
Where am I this week: I am completely overwhelmed with the volume of work we have coming through our doors at the moment. I know it is a great problem to have but as you all know…it is still a problem. I know I have to set aside the time to start implementing some of these changes, but to be honest, I don’t have the bandwidth at the moment!How are you feeling: I am both stressed but energized by the stress….that is typically how I feel
What is on my mind: Since I started taking this class, every time I go out to a measure or on an install I say to myself…how do I get to the point where I am not the one doing this? I know that is something that needs to be done over a period of time, but that is really where my mind is every day since taking this class.
Plans created/steps: I currently use Google Calendar so I am trying to see if I can make changes to that similar to yours, or if I need to change that system. That seems to be the easiest thing to implement so far. We just spent a ton of time perfecting our QB so that we aren’t reinventing the wheel each time, so I am hesitant to change the way we do estimates. Honestly, 95% of the time our original estimates are the ones that are implemented so we don’t spend a ton of time on revisions other than fabric changes. I downloaded the free version of Air Table and have been spending some time with it, so I hope to enlist someone to do that data entry for me. I need my files cleaned up for sure…so going to enlist someone to do that for me as well…I know just the person….and then start saving documents in your recommended way!
I don’t sleep through the night…I am always waking up thinking about this or that…did that get fabricated correctly, did I order this or that yet…so I see a huge place for Air Table in my life…really excited (and overwhelmed) with the concept of utilizing this tool.
julie.murphyParticipantI am curious if you act only as CEO on your process flows or if you are sometimes the WTS? And if you only act as CEO…what tasks are you doing? I am hopeful that you will be spending some time on the process of how you communicate what your WTS measures to what gets fabricated…not the fabrication techniques, but the process of what you do with your measures/how that is communicated throughout your air table process. We use Good Notes to take our measures…photos with measures directly on them that get saved to Drop Box so all have access. It has been a game changer for me as now I always have access to every client/every job/every room on my iPad vs. the folders we used to use that were always at the office. We have spent a lot of time customizing quickbooks to expedite the estimate/invoice/report portion of our business recently so hopeful that it won’t be too difficult using QB with AT? Also, what percentage of your business is hard treatment sales/installation vs. soft treatment? And what is your current lead times? So curious as to how you are doing 750,000 with one person sewing? So many questions!!
julie.murphyParticipantI purchased this business 7 years ago so that I could help pay for my 4 children’s college educations and provide an extra source of income which would contribute to my own retirement as well as ease the financial household stress.
My Goals:
1. Fix the processes that are lacking in my business: Human Resource Details, Policies and Procedures, Processes in the office as well as solid fabrication processes.
2. Decrease the chaos that surrounds meeting install dates
3. Set a better example for my employees by improving my organizational skills
4. Relieve a good portion of my current responsibilities to decrease my stress level
5. Improve all of these areas to truly create a sellable business that I can be proud of and that will succeed as seamlessly as possible.julie.murphyParticipantMy A-HA moment was that I did not see the CEO “color” anywhere on that flow sheet! And I am saying to myself…I have employees to assist me, but I do not have the processes in place for that to happen efficiently. I can’t wait to see/hear how the CEO isn’t directly the “doer” of any of those tasks!
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