After being fired from a management job in publishing in 1991, I first started my business…about a year later my second daughter was born. One of the upstairs bedrooms was my office. Even though I paid the mortgage, I got evicted. We gutted the basement and made an office suite with two work stations. In short order I dropped some stuff all over the new floor and stained it pretty bad.
I looked for a service that would clean and polish the floor. I would cost me about $250 for someone to come in. Given very limited start up money and a very tight budget, I decided to save some money. I went to a machine rental place and renting a floor cleaner/polisher machine (I’m sure it has a more technical name) for about $100.
I brought the machine into the house and almost broke my neck getting it downstairs.
I got all the off ice stuff and important papers off the floor and onto my desk. I turned the machine on and polished away.
While I was cleaning and polishing the floor, the phone rang and the fax machine went off . The floor around my office equipment was wet with cleaning fluid. I could not answer the phone . It could have been a client or prospective client AND I couldn’t get to the fax to review an important document until the floor dried.
I soon learned that clients come first and everything else in business comes second or third.
Moral of the story: With one tuchus, you can’t dance at two weddings. Establish priorities and focus on what’s important and don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.