As the Practice Administrator for Horse Sense, I serve as Shannon’s “right hand." In essence, my job is to run the daily operations of Horse Sense. From EAP to EAL to Horse Sense, Business Sense, it is my job to have my “fingers on the pulse." That doesn’t mean micro-manage and be a part of every aspect, but rather to know what is going on. So let me share with you some things I have learned about doing my job, and keeping up with the business.

Principle 1: Have a “go to” person
When you are as busy as Shannon is (and now me) you need a person that you can depend on to help out with the “little stuff," to be a sounding board, to be a “barometer," etc. For Shannon, on any given day, that is one of my responsibilities and I feel honored that Shannon trusts and respects me. My “go to” person in our office is Josie. She fills those rolls I just listed and she does a lot more! 

Find this person in your business. I don’t think it has to be an employee necessarily if you are not structured to support this, but find someone (friend, consultant, spouse). Finally, here are the two most important components of this relationship: trust and respect.

Principle 2: Thank the people who support you (and do it often).
Acknowledging staff routinely is critical for morale and productivity. It can be one of the hardest areas to remember in the daily grind. It is so easy to be critical and find fault. I would guess for all the good going on in your business there is much less wrong or in need of change. However, I bet it is pretty easy to find fault and be critical (even of yourself). 

Recognize the daily grind, the mundane, the monotonous work that has to get done daily just as readily as you recognize something special that has occurred. A simple “thank you” goes miles! I sent an e-mail to one of the Horse Sense staff thanking them one evening, and it was the first thing they saw the next morning when they came into work. That person thanked me and told me what a bright spot that was for their day. It was easy for me to do. It took no time at all. It was sincere, and it made a difference.

Have a great week!

Lisa

Happy Spring and Spring-cleaning!! Tis that time of the year to try and review the basics and straighten up accordingly. For us it is audit time with our insurance friends. So I actually have a motive to get it done. So what does this look like from my position as the Practice Administrator?  Here is a basic list to review and clean or straighten up:

• Personnel Files
• Policies & Procedures
• General Ledger (the books)
• Tax Payment records (state & federal)
• Insurance (review health, worker's comp & liability)
• Internal audit of client records
• Grant paperwork/files
  

Some people are great at keeping up with all these materials on a regular basis. Some people prefer to do periodic cleanings (more my speed). There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way as long as at least once a year you are going through these things. Call it a self-audit.

April is a very busy month for us, and probably one of the hardest as far as paperwork, premiums, federal and state reports, etc. So May is a great month to re-cap and straighten up. For example, my staff hasn’t seen the wood on the top of my desk in probably a month (I pull everything I am working on and keep it out on my desk), but they will in the very near future. I have done my hoop jumping for the first quarter and now it is time to review all areas, file what needs to be filed and find my desk.

It seems like a lot, but don’t despair! You don’t have to do all the above in one day. Spread this out over the course of the month, and get help if you can. Start simple and work up to the more difficult and arduous. By the way, no, I don’t know what the easiest one is to start with. I will tell you that I will be starting with personnel files because it is always the last one on my list. This year I am making it the first.

So jump in and fear not! You will feel great when it is done and be surprised upon review how organized you are and how much you know.

Whether you’ve been in business for a few months or a few years, if you periodically remove the figurative cobwebs, you’ll give an energetic boost to your business! Here’s a simple 3-step process to do this.

1. Assess your business. Look at all aspects of your business – clients, administration, marketing, environment, staffing, etc. Block out 30 minutes, grab a sheet of paper and make three columns. Label them

• What's working well? - Celebrate your successes!
• What's not working so well? - Identify what needs improvement.
• What can I change? - List the areas you know you can modify
  

2. Create a plan. After you’ve done your initial assessment, look at the third column “what can I change?” and prioritize it. Look at three things that could make the biggest impact on your bottom line and three things that would be easy and quick to fix that would make you feel a sense of accomplishment. For example:

Quick fixes:

• Buy a new phone system
• Add an e-mail signature with a link to my website at the bottom of all outgoing e-mails
• Clean off your desk
  

Big impact fixes:

• Schedule weekly staff meetings to improve communication
• join a new networking group to help generate more word-of-mouth client referrals
• Finally hire that website designer and build a website
  

3. Just do it! Once you’ve identified the areas you want to work on, create a timeline and just do it! Don’t think you have to change everything over night, either.  Start with 3-6 changes and watch the momentum build.

You’ll feel a spring in your step and likely see an increase in your business in no time!

The first day of the Strides to Success workshop is behind us, and I can't say enough good about this organization. Kacey, Laura and myself are all here in chilly Indiana to participate in a 4 day workshop on developing EAL programs with and for your local school systems. It's already been well worth the trip, and it's only day one!

Today was primarily a classroom day, with lots of important information about working with schools, designing lesson plans, and learning about how to talk to your school system. It reminds me a lot of what I often say about Juvenile Justice: it's not rocket-science to figure it out, but it is a specialized language for a unique audience that you need to learn about and be familiar with before you can make any inroads.

While this is true for any new program you develop, it's amazing how often I see programs just thinking they'll wake up tomorrow, march in to Important-Potential-Client's office, and blow them away by the EAP/EAL program, culminating in signing them up for a 5 year contract on the spot. There's a little more elbow grease that goes into it, not to mention trial and error!

Already they've addressed some of the troubles we'd encountered in our attempts to get a school program up and running beyond a semester-long program. We'd had good feedback and positive experiences, but something always seemed missing. Turns out we just didn't know what we didn't know. That's why I recommend seeking the experts who have already trudged the road before and learned, sometimes the hard way, the best ways to grow and develop.

Also, I'm delighted to see so many others here who tell me they came after stumbling upon the Strides information on the Horse Sense website or based on hearing Debbie Anderson, Executive Director and Co-founder of Strides in our Free Monthly Telecall with her recently. (If you missed the call, you can download the notes for free by visiting here. You can also purchase the MP3 & the transcript at the same site.) My goal of driving folks to high-quality programs and programming is working, and I'm honored to be a part of your journey to a successful EAP/EAL program in your community!

All the best!

Shannon

Greetings Bloggers,

In many of Shannon's teleclasses and training sessions over the last year she has mentioned the concept of "chasing chickens." That phrase certainly conjures up a clear visual picture for me of my youngest brother in my great grandmother's chicken coup trying to catch one of her 25 prized chickens and each going in 25 different directions!

In business we face the same thing . . . they're called distractions or interruptions. How do we handle them? Do we allow ourselves to be sucked into the moment and make each interruption a priority, thus wasting valuable time on something which could have been addressed later?

Four distractions identified:

• An associate sees you alone and not appearing to be "busy" and assumes you are available.
• A friend or family member shows up and sees you out in the barn so you must not be busy doing anything important.
• Your office door is open and your assistant or other co-worker assumes you are not working on anything important.
• A client or colleague wants to meet you for lunch with the intended purpose of "catching up."

Four Tips for handling distractions:

• Schedule regular "closed door" periods of time and block them out on your calendar so that everyone knows.
• If interrupted and you're sitting, stand up immediately if you desire to get back quickly to your work. If you are already standing when interrupted and you cannot engage in the interruption at that moment, begin moving so that the individual will know that you cannot be interrupted.
• Avoid eye contact.
• Make fewer trips through the office or common areas.

The cost of our lost time with distractions goes something like this: 30 minutes per day equals 210 minutes per week which equals 180 hours per year and 180 hours per year is equal to 15.8 8-hour work days. Some of us allow more time to be lost on distractions. I don't know about you but I sure would love to have that 15.8 days to add back to the value of my business which in turn gets passed on to my clients like Shannon.

VIRTUAL TASK: What's distracting your valuable time?

VIRTUAL ACTION: Put one tip for handling distractions into play in 2008.

Virtual Lauri
Shannon's Virtual Assistant

Greetings! 

The focus here is on organization and saving time and money.

Some of what you will see here you might think is basic and common sense, but you would be surprised how often “basic” and “common sense” are missed.  How often do you put off the simple tasks because they can wait and something else is more important?

For example:  I very much dislike filing.  Filing means I have to make files, and making files is boring and takes time.  I know what I have and I know where it is.  My colleagues laugh at me because of my particular filing system: strategically placed on my desk or on the floor next to me.  But once I hit a certain point, I file like a mad woman.  It takes me a couple of hours, but it all gets filed and organized.

My friends, this is the wrong approach.  Work with me here...file as you go.  If you stay organized and up on your stacks of paper as far as filing and organizing, you will save much time.  Seem overly simple, yes.  Again, how many of you put off something as simple as this because there is something more important?

Lisa
Your Horse Sense PA

Greetings!

In this “episode” of compliance I am going to address other compliance issues.  Do you know what you have in your filing cabinets?  If you get a visit from someone saying they are an investigator are you prepared to have that person (or persons) start at one corner of your office and not stop until they are at the far corner of your barn?

HIPAA was fun, but let’s get into what you need to have “on deck” for the other “players” in the compliance game.  Before I generate the list, I want to remind you that your are open to inspections from the federal government, state government, granting agencies and private sector parties that have an investment in your business (ex: insurance companies).

Okay, so get ready to hit the print button on this and start hunting to see if you are compliant.  Here’s the list of what you are responsible for:

• Certificates of Insurance(s)
• Records on all financial transactions
• W-2’s, I-9’s, and 1099 forms
• Payroll records for anyone and everyone
• Tax returns and records on what you have paid (SS, unemployment, sales tax, Etc.)
• Worker’s Comp records
• Policies and Procedures
• Personnel Files: resumes, evaluations, rate of pay, start date, criminal background checks, copies of driver’s licenses and SS numbers.  This list goes on, and feel free to contact me.

• Conflict of Interest policy and statement
• Health Insurance Records
• Subcontract Agreements
• Grant Agreements
• Articles of Incorporation
• Fiscal accounting policies

 Okay, I’ll stop...and yes there is more.  Don’t panic, take a breath and pause.  This list is doable. If you think you don’t have it together, I bet you have 75% of it.  But do you know where it is?  Is it readily accessible and is it efficiently compiled?

Some of you may be wondering,  “What happens if I don’t have this stuff together and I get audited?”  Depends on what agency is auditing you and what mood the auditor is in.  Consequences can range from slap on the wrist and a warning all the way up to hefty fines, jail time, loss of license(s) or certificates, and closure of your business.

The area of compliance, I think, is one of the easiest things for you to keep up with and probably the number one thing blown off or overlooked by programs.  It may prove costly to you if you don’t take the time to make sure all your ducks are in a row.

I have one more entry on compliance and then we’ll move on to less scary and more fun administrative stuff.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us here at Horse Sense if you want or need help with any of this.

‘Til Next Time!

Lisa
Practice Administrator

Are you living in a maze of file stacks in your office or in your car? Do you wake in the middle of the night with your thoughts racing about all the goals and tasks you need to accomplish and feel overwhelmed?  Do you find yourself forgetting appointments?  Do you tell your colleagues and friends that you need more than 24 hours in a day? If any of these describes you, read on.  You are a candidate to form the perfect alliance with a virtual assistant just like Shannon because:

1. Cloning isn’t an option.  While you may believe that you are the only one who can best serve the needs of your business and clients, cloning a human being has not met with scientific success.  It is a misnomer to believe that if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.  Rather the smart, savvy business person believes in the team and thinking outside the box to be successful.  A virtual assistant provides just that – a professional relationship with the same drive to have your business and client’s best interest at the heart of their business without the traditional setting of the workplace.
   

2. Two heads are better than one.  It takes a team to build a business properly.  A virtual assistant will support your needs while bringing a fresh perspective on problem solving and offering a diverse network of resources.
   

3. Time is money.  Experience the freedom to concentrate on your business rather than the routine, mundane tasks associated with running your business.  If your billable hours are $150 per hour then contract an assistant who can do the $35 to $50 per hour of work so that you can land the next new contract that reinforces why you operate a business.
   

VIRTUAL TASKS:  Shannon discovered in the growth of her business that she needed help with scheduling, communication, website maintenance, shopping cart assistance, database management, travel & speaking assistance, and a host of other administrative tasks.

VIRTUAL ACTION:  Like Shannon you can’t be more than one individual and you need the expertise of the team.  What tasks are stealing your time from productively moving forward?

• Make a list of tasks
• Talk the list over with a confidant
• Take action