Valuing Time and Money

These days it’s a daily question – “how’s your business surviving ?” My answer is always the same – we’re doing really well. Now that’s not to say that we haven’t seen things change in the past few months but as a business we’re feeling really positive about our current position and our future. We’ve retained all of our clients and have signed up many new ones that are using us consistently as well. We are even opening a second office in the Spring which means adding an additional staff person and many new opportunities. Of course, like many other companies, we’ve had a few clients that are using us less frequently than they have in the past, but that is to be expected. Overall, morale is good . We are enjoying our work because in many instances its valued even more by our clients because they are working longer hours and have more stress and less time to focus on their personal lives.
People often think that a person must value either their time or their money – but we offer people the opportunity to do both. Our flexible model allows our clients to utilize our support when needed and budget the amount of money they allocate to our services accordingly. We’re here to help them regardless of whether they use us one hour a month or 15 hours a week. Good economy or not, our business model is the same – we offer personal assistance to people on an as needed basis to make their lives simplified.

The Dilemma of Taking a Vacation

We just returned from a week long vacation. As small business owners taking vacation is hard. Because Eddie and I are married (and like to vacation together!) and the co-founders of Fini Concierge, when we go on vacation it is a greater challenge to the team than if just one of us was gone.

I know that it is hard for a lot of people to take off, leaving their work behind, whether they own the business or not. But for business owners, and especially small business owners, I think there are several additional layers of challenge when they are away from their businesses. Will things run smoothly if you are not there to support your team? What if an emergency happens? How do you account for loss of revenue if you are not there to generate business? Not to mention the loss of control that we feel.

We took our first week long vacation last year when we only had one staff person working with us. It turned out to be one of the best things we ever did. Not only did it give us a break that we really needed but it also gave her the chance to be in control -- to successfully problem solve, deepen her relationships with client’s and instilled a new level of confidence in her own abilities.

And we’re always so pleasantly surprised at how happy our clients are that we’re going away – provided that we’re coming back! You deserve it! Enjoy yourselves! And have fun! are the sorts of responses that we get to our announcement that we’ll be away. Of course, it’s impossible to turn your brain totally off when on vacation. At dinner we’d find ourselves discussing clients or goals for the next year and even when on the beach I find my mind drifting to things I’ll work on when I get back. But that’s not all bad as it does give you a different perspective on things then when you’re bogged down in the thick of it.

We founded Fini Concierge based on the principles that people should have a choice to live life differently – to have help when and if they want it -- to make life easier and less stressful. We strive to help people feel that they have balanced lifestyles and that includes vacation and time off to rejuvenate and focus on themselves and those that are special to them. If we don’t do the same we’re not living what we are trying to help create for others. So this year, with a larger team to bear the burden of our absence, it was that much easier to leave know that they’d do great without us…and we really enjoyed our time away!

Chantal