When life gives you lemons
Business owners like being in control and having freedom. It's often what drives them, or part of it at least, to put in the dedication and sweat required to start a successful practice.
Unfortunately, there are always things that cannot be controlled. For any business owner, this presents a certain level of risk. There are a few situations that come to mind when speaking about what can be controlled, and what can not be controlled. They’re tied in closely with the way we work and what our vision is here at Timely.
At Timely, employees work from home. They use their own computers. They sit at their living room tables and drink their own coffee. All of the company files are stored in a shared Google Drive folder. All communication happens online. It’s an efficient way to work and it gives us freedom and control.
Recently here in Dunedin, the small city in the South Island of New Zealand where Timely is headquartered, there have been several events that have prevented other businesses from doing work.
An overnight snowfall recently closed many of the roads leading into the city. Those who were unable to log into their work from home were forced to take a day off. Enjoyable for employees, yes, but for customers in other parts of the world who were unaffected by the snowfall, this day off was an inconvenience.
Two weeks after, Dunedin was hit by the worst flooding it’s had in 100 years. People had to evacuate their homes and businesses. Roads were closed. The work situation repeated itself, but this time it was at least ten times worse. Again, those who were able to work from the cloud had the privilege of carrying on with their working day unaffected by the stormy weather.
Timely’s booking software provides you with the same benefits that we enjoy every day; the ability to get on with your working day, no matter what is happening outside.
When unforeseen circumstances arise, such as a heavy snowfall or flooding, you are free to log in to your account from your laptop, iPad, smartphone, and communicate with your clients. You can change appointments or cancel them. This is true freedom in business; you are able to respond to events that are out of your control quickly, easily, and efficiently.
You can rest in peace knowing that your data, which in many cases is the heart of your business, will always be safe. It’s not stored on a physical computer where there’s risk of theft, viruses, or damage. It’s in the cloud, protected by bank-strength security and available instantly from wherever you choose to log in from.
More than anything, being flexible with how you’re able to work is what it means to be in control at all times. There will always be circumstances that you can not change. You can not tell the snow to stop snowing, or the rain to stop raining. But if the tools you use allow you to do your work regardless of what comes up, the peace of mind, security, and professionalism you hold is unparalleled.
