Superheroes Anyone?

I was recently inspired by my girlfriend Shelly R’s recent post:

“Wishing I had a clone of me... there is soooo much to do, so little time and only me to get it done, today I'm gonna have to pull out my red velvet cape and get my super woman on... :-)”

I am sure many of us (men included) feel the need to whip out our inner superhero in order to make it through the day/week.

So my next promotion is dedicated to all the superheroes out there:

Of Chickens & Broomsticks

Yesterday I volunteered to help one of my girlfriends clean out her new apartment so that she could move in over the weekend and this led to the most exciting adventure thus far for the year!

She told me it was a cosy, one bedroom apartment located in an idyllic setting. This is how the real estate agent described the apartment to her – this is how she described it to me. Sounds great right? But this is Trinidad! The entire Caribbean is idyllic! When a real estate agent says that to you… be worried!

We arrived at the street that led to the apartment, and though located in Curepe (which is a small town a few miles away from the capital city of Port of Spain) I felt as if I were walking through the village of Moruga (which is about as far away from Port of Spain that you can get in Trinidad).

The entire street had chickens, dogs, ducks and other assorted wildlife roaming freely. There was a LOT of foliage and to top it off we actually had to cross a bridge (yes there was a river) to get to the apartment!

We finally arrived at the yard with the apartment. And I really mean that. It was a yard. With the requisite dirt, stones, grass and three chickens pecking busily about!

Trying to ease my discomfort with unfamiliar territory I jokingly referred to the three chickens as “Sunday lunch” and we started to make all the local jokes regarding “yard fowls” etc. As we got nearer, one of the chickens came towards us sizing us up from head to toe.  I laughed and pointed him out to my girlfriend and started to veer left to avoid him.

Imagine my surprise when he mirrored my change in direction! I paused, and went to the right thinking to myself “this is just a fluke”. The rooster also went right! I stopped walking immediately and started backing up. The more I backed up the more he came forward. And as I was increasing speed – so was he!

My girlfriend, in utter disbelief picked up three stones from the yard and began to pelt it at the rooster. By this time I was screaming at the top of my lungs “what, what, what?” I had no idea the question I wanted to ask, but it was all I could manage.

It was Priscilla, dear sweet Priscilla, who was born and raised in a rural village in Central Trinidad who took the situation in hand.

My girl whipped out the broomstick that we came with and charged Mr. Rooster head on with a war cry that would have put Xena, Warrior Princess to shame.

Just as the rooster and the broomstick were about to be introduced the owner of said rooster came out from seemingly nowhere and scooped him up.

Mr. Rooster

It took us as at least 30 seconds to compose ourselves. We were laughing and crying, breathing hard and buffing the man for not putting a leash on his rooster. He was laughing so hard I thought he might have collapsed.

I turned to my girlfriend and let her know “Never me again!”

Letting Go!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas 2011 was Heavenly Hands’ first Christmas ever. To say that it was a baptism of fire would be an understatement. It was my plan to share about all the different cleaning tips we picked up and the many ways we learned to do the work smarter – tips anyone who maintains their own home could put to use.

However recent events, coupled with the birth of a New Year lead me to share a different lesson I learned over the last two months:

October marked the rebirth of HHCS. We shut down all operations during the month of September and started afresh in October. During that transitioning period we carried over a few clients from the “old” HHCS to the “new” HHCS. Clients that we considered “great” as well as a couple we could do without. But I don’t know how many of you remember what it’s like to start a business – but I felt that I would keep both types of clients – if only to help with my bottom line.

I would tell anyone now – DON’T DO THAT!!!

If you think a client is not worth the trouble – then LET THEM GO!

I had a client that was REALLY difficult. She gave a lot of problems every time her monthly bill came along and she was very caustic – not overly so – but enough to make you dread answering her phone calls. And boy could she complain!

The clincher came during the hectic Christmas season.

Cleaning is very labour intensive and one man down can put your schedule in serious jeopardy. Well imagine having TWO members of staff ill! Naturally my schedule – which was planned down to the last second – fell to pieces like a house of cards.

I spent the week reshuffling clients’ appointments and “apology” became my second name. That is until I reached the client in question. I called to reschedule her appointment, profusely apologising for the inconvenience. She wanted to know the reason behind the change – a very fair question. So I went on to explain how dangerously ill two of my staff members had become – one in fact had to be hospitalised.

Her response was a terse “I don’t care if your staff is in the hospital!” and went on to complain about the inconvenience the change made. (By the way, her original appointment was for two weeks before – but her new floors were not completely installed because of shipping delays. So she postponed her appointment not once – but TWICE. And now here I was delaying her appointment by ONE DAY and this was the response.)

Immediately I should have dropped her there and then – but I think that I had become so accustomed to her attitude that I let the entire episode pass. 

Big mistake.

On the day of the cleaning she was so abusive to my staff that two of them were in tears and threatened to leave the company.

An honest, hardworking, loyal worker is not that easy to come by and I needed to make a decision.

And despite all that had gone before I AGONISED over the decision.

I felt that if I let this client go, I would not be able to replace the income she brought in.

I felt that if I let her go it would be some sort of failure on my part.

I felt that because of her influence – I would also lose the business of the households that she had referred.

I just felt afraid.

Then I had to forget my fear and face reality.

If my two girls left I would lose not two members of staff – but MONTHS of training and team-building.

I would lose two relationships I had come to treasure.

I would lose two people who had stood by me when the chips were down and who had believed in my vision enough to tough it out.

No client was worth that. No matter WHAT they contributed to the bottom line.

So I made the call and wrote the email. And I still felt that fear while doing both. But after it was over the relief was amazing!

And God was so good to me that I gained FOUR new clients within the last week! But even if I didn’t I still would not have regretted the decision.

I would say that if you know that there are things that you know that are not good for you and that you should let go – JUST DO IT!

Don’t let your fears keep you from moving forward. Don’t let you fears keep you marching in place.

It’s a New Year people – the least we can do is learn from the mistakes we made last year.