Welcome to part one of my series on helping small business owners get more from their email. Before we can delve into specific strategies it’s important to understand what email is and what it is not. Email is many things to many people. Here’s the breakdown for small business owners and anyone else interested in getting a handle on email.
Get The Gist
Email Is Not:
- Email is not a task manager/todo list.
- Email is not file storage.
- Email is not a calendar.
- Email is not a filing system.
Email Is:
- Email sells.
- Email is how business and customers communicate.
- Email saves time.
- Email creates and maintains conversation.
- Email clarifies.
- Email lets everyone speak.
Email Is Not
Email Is Not a Task Manager
Your email is not a task manager or to-do list. Yes, there are those with ninja-like skills who can use their email as a task manager. However, if you have those skills and are stress free and uber-productive then why are you reading this article? Let me repeat: Email is not a task manager. Email is a means of communication and point of reference.
Email Is Not File Storage
Yes, it’s true: You can create a document, attach it to an email and send it to yourself at home. Edit it, then attach it to another email and send it back to yourself at the office. Yes, you can send a document to 10 people. Have them all make changes, email the 10 copies back and compile the changes.
The above scenarios are bad ideas.
Email storage is not infinite. Just ask your email administrator. If you haven’t hit the wall yet you will soon. The sooner you can break the habit of using email as file storage the better.
Emailing unnecessary attachments creates risk. Opening email attachments is one of the most common methods of how viruses spread. Getting yourself, your employees, your customers and your business partners in the habit of opening attachments puts everyone at risk.
Email Is Not a Calendar
Your calendar is your calendar. Email is email. They’re even spelled different. Email is what you may use to discuss events that should be on your calendar. Yes, this is confusing since some email clients have a calendar built in. Trust me, if you’re digging through emails to figure out what time and place to be somewhere you’re wasting your time. Like the old saying: what is time? That’s right, money.
Email is not a supplement to, or replacement of, your calendar. It can be reference material for specific events ON your calendar. It cannot replace calendar events or the calendar tool itself.
If you have meetings, soccer practices, deliveries or whatever that are buried in emails instead of being on your calendar stop reading this article. Seriously, stop right now. Go and find them all and put them on your calendar. If they have a start and stop time use it. If they don’t put them on as “All Day” events. I’ll cover more on calendar usage later but right now get all events out of email.
There are those people who can look up events in their email to figure out dates, times and places. They do so while everyone else stands around waiting. Remember: you as the small business owner are an extension of your brand and your business. Don’t make people wait on you.
Email Is Not a Filing System
I knew a guy who would email everything to himself. New phone numbers, addresses, grocery lists. He’d scan papers and email them to himself. Photos from his digital camera? You guessed it. I even caught him, once, printing an email, marking it up with pen, scanning it, then emailing the scanned image back to himself. He’d always want to “save it for later.” It doesn’t work for mustaches and it doesn’t work for email.
This is not to say you shouldn’t file emails. You should. And I’ll be covering that later in the series. Anything that originates as an email should stay in email form. A receipt emailed as part of an online order or a friend’s change of address sent out via email. These things should be kept and filed in email form. But don’t needlessly create emails for yourself.
There are ways to go paperless. My favorite, and what I use personally, is Evernote. I’ll be covering those options later. But for now, stop needlessly emailing yourself!
Hopefully this helps you tame the wild beast that is email. Next in the series I’ll be covering how to get your inbox empty and keep your email organized: Get Organized and Get Empty.
Email Is
Email Sells
Email sells you and, by extension, your business. When I say “Email Sells” I’m not referencing email ad campaigns. (I’ll cover that another day). Good email usage sells you as a business owner to your customers, your business partners/suppliers and to your employees. Mastering your email is like showing up to the bank asking for a loan in a suit and tie. Poor email skills is more like showing up in sweats and torn t-shirt. Your presentation may be spot on but good luck overcoming that initial impression.
Because email is so pervasive it’s a constant reflection of your business acumen. Consciously or subconsciously it reflects on your ability to lead your employees. To demonstrate you have enough business sense they can depend on you for their livelihood.
Email shows your customers and suppliers you are professional and can deliver quality products and quality service. Good email skills demonstrates you are organized, dependable and trustworthy. Poor communication, especially via email, will only frustrate and alienate the people who drive your business.
Email Is How Business Communicates
Email is one of the dominant means of business and personal communication. That landscape is changing but email still dominates most sectors. Like it or not it’s here to stay. There are those of us who prefer face time. Who would rather pick up the phone then have an email “conversation.” However, not everyone shares these preferences. More and more business communication is moving towards email. Getting a handle on your inbox is the only way to successfully manage such a critical tool.
Email Saves Time
A good email is succinct.
Email Creates Conversation
A series of emails constrained to a specific topic create a conversation. In most email clients these conversations can be or are “threaded.” They are strung together so you can see the entire conversation in one place. What makes email unique is it enables people in the conversation to participate when they have the time and energy. The conversation can take place over hours or days as opposed to seconds or minutes. This allows ideas to percolate which can lead to greater output then a passing conversation in person.
Email Clarifies
Often what we say isn’t what others hear. It’s a good idea to summarize in-person conversations and email them to everyone relevant to the conversation. When I worked for larger organizations I often thought this practice was merely a CYA policy. And for some people it was. But more importantly, it clarified what was previously implied or only “understood.” These clarifications often nip problems in the bud. Because they take place after the initial conversation everyone’s had time for the ideas to “sink in” and may need to elaborate on what was discussed. It also gives everyone the opportunity to ask questions. Perhaps they either thought of the question after or didn’t feel appropriate asking in person.
Email Lets Everyone Speak
Not all your employees are entrepreneurs. They may not all have the outgoing personality and drive to speak their minds. Or they may just need more time to process ideas. Email will help you get more from those employees. Not all employees are at their best with face time. The better you use email to supplement face time with those employees the better they’ll perform for you.
Next in the series I’ll be covering specific strategies to setup your inbox and keep the mountain of email under control.
All Things Dave 