nov dec issue FINAL.indd - Custom Home Furnishings Academy

Time Management
Wilmoed Sisson
useful for taking pictures of interesting window treatments
you run across in your travels, or to photograph fabric
samples. Find out how much your carrier charges to send
the pictures though. Depending on your calling plan, it
could be up to 25 cents per
photo.
One word of caution, cell
phones can keep you too much
in touch. Make a point of
turning off your phone when
meeting with clients. You will
be letting them know that they
are what is important.
Where am I
The last gadget that travels
with me is my Global
Positioning System (GPS)
receiver. This device, along with proper mapping software,
has saved me immense amounts of time and stress. I no
longer worry about getting lost. I also like knowing exactly
when I will arrive at my destination. I know whether I
have to call the client to tell them I will be late. The type
of receiver I use plugs into my PocketPC and cost less than
$100. The mapping software I use (Mapopolis) costs $99
for the annual map license and covers all of North America.
Send/Receive
Email can be either a blessing or a curse and is often
both. Becoming an efficient email reader takes a bit of
preparation but pays off in the long run.
First, you need to analyze the categories of email you
get and set up folders for each category. I like to have a
separate folder for each email list I am on. Plus I have other
folders for specific community groups I am a part of, or for
special projects. I have programmed Outlook to sort the
incoming mail into the proper folders. I can see at a glance
what kinds of messages I have received. This lets me focus
on one category at a time without constantly having to
“change hats.”
Of course, take advantage of spam-filtering software. The
newest versions of Outlook have junk mail filtering built in
so you don’t need to buy additional software.
One last time-saver. Invest in a good virus protection
program and make regular backups of your data. This may
not save time immediately but if you ever get socked with a
nasty computer virus or lose your computer to a hard drive
failure, you’re going to be spending a LOT of time trying to
restore your information. The last hard drive
failure we had took more than a month to fully
recover from.
When all is said and done, the whole concept
of “time management” really is an illusion.
You cannot really manage time, you can only
make choices about what to do with the time
you have. Making good choices takes practice,
determination, and sometimes courage, but the
payoff is knowing that you have made the right
choices for you, your family and your business.
Sources and Web Sites
Taskline:
www.resultsware.com.
Special offer for CHF Forum Members:
Get a 15% discount by entering
Code TLCHF at checkout.
(Offer expires April 2007.)
ListPro:
www.iliumsoft.com.
PostIt Pro:
www.3m.com/us/office/postit/digital/digital_notes.html.
Mapopolis:
www.mapopolis.com.
Welmoed Sisson, CWP, CWTC, is the owner of
Sewing Seams Easy, a retail window treatment
workroom. She is Secretary of the Maryland
Chapter of the WCAA, and has created
“Trend Vignettes” for the past two IWCE
conferences. Her work has been published in
Window Fashions magazine, she is a regular
columnist for the popular sewing website, PatternReview.
com, and she publishes a monthly e-newsletter, The Couture
Home. Welmoed lives in Boyds, Maryland with her husband
Bob and their two children.
36 The Custom Home Furnishings Magazine November/December 2006