Back in the “old days” (when TV was black and white) I used to watch wrestling on TV and they would have tag-team matches, which involved two teams of two wrestlers.
They would take it in turn to beat each other to a pulp – or that was how the show was made to look.
Recently, I’ve had the distinct feeling of being on a tag team.
On the 1st July this year I became a partner in Demand Flow Intelligence (DFI).
The other partner is Andy.
We make a great team – he’s the CEO/Business Development Manager/Salesperson and I’m the Technical Director, officially responsible for delivering the services he sells.
So far it’s been working well, with some interesting learning experiences.
The tag-team part has been the result of factors beyond our control.
When I started, Andy was in the UK visiting family.
That meant that for two weeks I was running the business – talk about getting thrown in at the deep end.
He returned on 20th July.
We then managed a few weeks of relative calm where we were able to get a few business systems and processes in place and things were going very nicely with noticeable progress being made.
Then, in early August, Danita and I had to go to Perth because my father’s health had dramatically deteriorated, resulting in his death while we were there.
So, it was now Andy’s turn to be running everything.
While I was still in the country, the time difference and the fact that I was considerably distracted meant that I really wasn’t a lot of help.
That took us till quite late in August.
Fast forward to last week (last week of September).
As a result of a series of Jewish Holy Days at this time (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkoth) my availability has been limited but we’d factored it all in and things were running smoothly.
(Have you ever noticed that when things start to run smoothly the Universe somehow has a habit of interfering?)
On Wednesday, Andy and I had a long Work In Progress meeting sorting out what projects we had on the go and what needed to be done to keep things moving for our clients.
I left the meeting at 2.30 feeling like everything was under control and we were doing well.
Things were under control, but not by us!
At 3.30 I had a message from Andy saying his father in the U.K. had just died and he was looking to fly out the next day.
Suddenly all the client meetings and interactions Andy was handling had fallen back on me – YIKES!
This is working (sort of) thanks to modern technology – Skype, SMS and emails combined with cloud based applications really have made the world into a global village.
Wherever you are, you’re accessible, although the time difference between Australia and the UK can make it challenging to have a real conversation, even if technologically possible.
Once Andy returns, due 6th October, he flies out on the 7th to New Zealand getting back from there on the 14th.
A week later we have an important breakfast event called “Who Stole My Sales? Catching the Sales and Marketing Productivity Thief“.
I’m not sure what state Andy’s going to be in after all that but it looks like I might be running things for a bit longer than planned.
Danita’s Business Change
While all this has been going on for me, Danita finished up in her role as General Manager of She Business.
It had been almost a five year commitment to that business and as it wasn’t working well for her anymore, she decided it was time to call it a day.
She’s been developing her own business offering and has already picked up a few clients she’s enjoying working with.
The Lessons
There have been two big lessons coming out of all this.
1. Andy and I have to be very good at communicating and developing hand-off processes to ensure continuity for our clients.
2. Danita has become more relaxed since leaving She Business and it’s lovely having her sane self back again, so she’s now clearer on what works for her and what doesn’t.
The challenge now is for me not to fall into the same situation she was in and to maintain some perspective and not get into working 24/7 – something she is very good at reminding me about.
A month after my father passed away, Andy’s did.
Since we seem to playing a tag-team match, I’ve told him he has to be very careful looking after his mother and I’ll look after mine – I don’t want another trip to Perth at the moment.