We recently connected with Lindsay Barrows and have shared our conversation below.
Lindsay, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
The best advice I have to avoid burnout is to eliminate, automate, and delegate. I once wrote down every single task I did for my business, and simply asked myself “what can I NOT do without compromising my quality of service?”. I took a few things out that were not even needed, and just no longer had those items on my “to-do” list. After I eliminated everything that I could, I then tried to automate where possible. I use Honeybook, so there is a ton of automation built into that system, but then I also use tools like Zapier to automate more tasks. Finally, I tried to delegate as much as possible, always being intentional on how I did it. If I felt like a staff member showed promise to eventually take a lead role in a certain area, I started delegating tasks to them in that area. Overall, having a great staff to delegate to is my biggest stress reliever, but before I had a crew it was just me, and eliminating and automating was such a huge help!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Man, I just love what I do! I get to be with couples on the best day of their lives, which is just awesome! I started as an Etsy seller making wedding favors but moved into Wedding Planning so I could be more involved and hands-on. One thing led to another, and I now own 2 wedding planning brands, manage 3 wedding venues, and just started a wedding rental company. The best thing about my business is hands down my amazing staff! If you talk to anyone who works with any of the 6 brands we manage, Custom Love Gifts & Events, All in the Details Event Planning, The Loyston at Coppertop Estates, Mountain Mist Farm Venue, Wildflower Event Center, or Something Borrowed Event Rentals, you will find the most professional and passionate people! Finding people who are just as in love with the wedding industry as I am, and getting to work with them every day, has truly been the best part of being in this business!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Understanding cash flow is such an important part of being successful in business. Most people focus on profit, and yes you definitely need to have that, but if your cash flow runs out you may go out of business before you even get to the profit part! I went to school and got an MBA, so I understand how to put everything into spreadsheets to calculate our business finacnes and forecast for the upcoming months. I usually start planning financials for the following year in July, and it takes months to finish and perfect it, and then remains a working document for the year I planned. You don’t have to get a Masters in Business to do so, just start with a course in Excel or even teach yourself how to use Google Sheets by watching tutorials online.
Delegating is a skill that is so underrated. It is hard to hand off things in the beginning, because you just don’t trust someone to do it like you do as the owner, but it is a MUST DO. You can’t be everywhere at once and know all the things, you have to delegate or you will get overwhelmed. I suggest making sure you are very clear and concise when you delegate on the specifics of the task, the results you are looking for, and giving an overall understanding of the project. I feel like Asana is a great tool to use as a to-do list, and it is also how I started delegating to my team. A bonus for those just getting started is that it is free to use!
Designing SOPs (standard operating procedures) is a great quality for a business owner. If you go by the old saying “if you want it done right, you better do it yourself” then instead you should try to develop standard operating procedures and list out what “done right” means so you can train others to offer the same services and product that you do, even when you are not there. Even as a beginner and a sole member of a team, I always started a bulleted list of tasks and started to track exactly how I did things so one day I could hand it over to someone else and move on the the next project. This probably explains how I can run 6 different businesses at the same time!
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is the best book for life, just not business, if you really want to make an impact! It is such great information that can be universally used by all!! My favorite tidbit is “Begin with the End in Mind”, meaning start as if you are always working towards that end goal. Using this as a framework, when we develop anything for our businesses, I try to create it as it would run once it is a big company so that we don’t end up having to go backwards and re-do procedures and processes as we get bigger.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.customlovegifts.com
- Instagram: @customlovegifts
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CustomLOVEgifts
Image Credits
Break the Mold Photo AC Goodman Photography Michelle Lea Photographie ST Photography
