VitaVygovska
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VitaVygovskaParticipantthank you, Amy and Lisa for your kind praises!!! This WILL be very helpful to the next generation of students who are considering the class!!!
regarding the designer onboarding document.
believe it or not, we don’t have one 🙂
by design.when someone approaches us, i try to have a voice-to-voice conversation with them, expressing how we work, what pain points we address, and how their lives will be better if we are involved. i conclude the conversation by asking them to send us the specs, whatever specs they have at that point.
once they send the specs, i follow up with this email (pre-typed and loaded into text expander):
Hello
Thank you so much for your email.By way of this email, I’m
introducing you to my office team. Beata is our esteemed
window treatment specialist. She is the one going on appointments,
providing estimates, and answering product questions.
Lisa is our wonderful general manager. If and when the time comes, she will take care of your
orders from deposit to completion, handling all the back-end operations and details.
Here’s a link to our site with everyone’s pictures: https://www.vitaliainc.com/about-vitalia-inc
You’ll find our process to be organized, rooted in efficiency, and topped with great communication, so
that everyone is in-the-know.Beata will be putting together your summary estimate.
She will reach out directly if she has any questions.
If not, please expect to hear from her in the next few days.Thank you again for reaching out.
Hope to start working together.Then we pick up the process that I thought you.
lmk if this answers your question,
xoxo,
v.VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Elizabeth!
thank you so much!!!!
i really appreciate your kind words!!
xoxo,
v.VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Amy,
GREAT questions. EXACTLY what we’ll be discussing today!
for now, i’ll tell you best way to think about human resources in a manufacturing capacity is in terms of input hours and output hours.
how many workman hours do you have per week?
in other words, if you were to add all your seamstresses hours – how many is that?
that’s your input.
divide that by your revenue – that’s your output.
more today.
xoxo,
vVitaVygovskaParticipanthi Lisa,
thank you for your KPI’s. good job.
a few suggestions:
1. if you are closing 100% of your sales, consider increasing your pricing
2. any time a business services two different client groups (ie. design trade and consumer), it’s very challenging. you will continue to feel torn. i did. at one point, i had to draw a line in a sand and turn away one of those client groups. it was hard to say no to business in the short run, but very rewarding in the long runthank you for sharing about your borrowing money. That’s very brave!!!!! good for you. i KNOW you will see a return on your investment.
LOVE that you are working on your COA! Money loves count – COA IS part of that counting process, making sure that you take good care of your money.xoxo,
v.PS. i’ll upload my COA
VitaVygovskaParticipantAmy B, i’m really looking forward to digging into it to see if it can work for us.
thank you for the tip!
v.VitaVygovskaParticipantAmy,
i am SO sorry to hear that your design consultant gave notice.
i KNOW how it feels!
nothing you can do, but take it in stride and start looking for someone else.
having people to do your work is great…. until they quit 🙁
hang in there!!!
xoxo,
v.VitaVygovskaParticipantsorry, i got cut off.
question: so your seamstressess clock in and out everytime they start and finish the job?
it’s a function that’s available in qBO?VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Amy M. and Amy B.,
you guys are rock stars!!!
you are tracking so many KPI’s – that’s really great.do you guys track YOUR OWN time – what do you spend it on? Where are your time sucks?
about tracking time in QBO for payroll – that’s a really great idea. It’s something I have not done – omg, always room for improvement! i use gusto for our payro
VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Lisa,
yes, good question.
i will do it in ‘People” module, when going over some of my GM’s tasks.
xoxo,
v,VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Elizabeth,
i LOVE your idea!!!!!
much better than mine of writing things down.
Lisa, yes, do that 🙂btw, IF you ever decided to transcribe, do NOT do it yourself. Go on elance.com type site and hire someone to do it.
xoxo,
v.VitaVygovskaParticipantHi Ladies,
I just uploaded the presentation in powerpoint AND PDF.
powerpoint seems to look fuzzy, at least on my computer, i wonder if it has to do with the conversion.
PDF looks good.
lmk what you guys are seeing on your end.
i can also just send it to you directly via email.Lisa, so glad you liked today! YES, wasting time is my biggest pet peeve.
That’s why i designed this system that works for what i value.Elizabeth,
You are so welcome!!! yes, as you go, nice and steady, is the name of hte game. otherwise, the overwhelm takes over and nothing gets done.So excited you guys are rolling up your sleeves already!!!
xoxo,
v.VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Lisa,
so sorry for the delay. There are no notifications of a new message, unless that check-box is checked.
i’ve just gone into every week and checked it, so that i don’t miss any new messages.to answer your questions:
1. when to create a standard SOP. it can go either way: before you hire someone or after you hire them. if I were you, i would find the person first. once she (or he) is on board, AS you explain how you fabricate the roman shade, have her write down every step.
2. how to create an SOP for a custom product. Refer back to my favorite 80/20 rule. i guarantee that most of the time you fabricate a treatment a certain way. That’s the way you write down. This is The Lisa Brock way. For the other 20% (or whatever minority), next time a variation comes in, you write it down and save it as The Lisa Brock Way – variation #1. Preferably spell out what the variation is. For example. Roman Shade fabrication process is your staple. Roman Shade with Blackout Lining – is your variation #1. Roman Shade with interlining – is your variation #2.
3. Balance of working IN the business vs. ON the business. When i started putting together my SOP doc (this was during my ruminating stage, if you refer to 1st module), every early Friday morning (like 7am), i went to a local Dunkin Donuts and sat there for three hours working on it. I blocked my calendar and didn’t let anything steer me off course – no persistent customer, no networking event, no ‘i don’t feel like it’, no installation crisis, no needy kid :-). I only picked up the phone if it was my kid’s school. i was vigilant with my time and ruthless with interruptions.
i can tell you whole lot more – too much to type.
This is when it would be great to hear from everyone else in the class.
guys, how are you dealing the balance of IN vs. ON?VitaVygovskaParticipantHi Amy M and Amy B,
sooo glad you enjoyed the first class!!
my WTS had a lot of experience – i got lucky.
but i still had to teach her a lot about the Vitalia Inc ways.
my GM had zero experience.
this was a struggle.
one step at a time, one day at a time.
i potentially could have sped her learning curve up, if i hired an industry trainer/consultant.
in the end, everything takes time and patience. especially in our industry.
i google ‘how to be patient’ on the daily basis 🙂
we talk a LOT about the people component in the 4th module.
xoxo,
v.VitaVygovskaParticipanthi Lisa,
i hear you about the leadtimes.
they can be frustrating.
we tell our clients upfront what to expect.
we try to pad.
with designers, stay strong! stick to what will protect you.
it’s always better to underpromise.
designers, more than anyone, should understand the leadtimes.
they sometimes wait for their stuff 9-12months!!!
stick to your guns!!!
xo, vVitaVygovskaParticipanthi Myrna,
thank you for your great words of support and encouragement!
i’m so glad that you got what you needed from the class.
can’t wait to hear more once you’ve a chance to rewatch the videos.
until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
xoxo,
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