Scheduling for Business Success

When a business owner accepts a quote from a client, they are making a commitment to get the work done. It can be tempting to take all the work, which is offered, but you need a system to figure out how much work you currently have and whether you have the capacity to take on more.

Commitments must be honored if the business owner is going to get any positive word of mouth, so there needs to be a procedure to make sure a business owner does not commit to more work than they can accomplish.

Prom From Hell

A seamstress starts her own business. She is an experienced seamstress but has no ideas about running a business, she always worked for other people. When the word gets out in her community that she will make dresses for this year’s prom, the demand is strong. She accepts all the work she is offered, without considering how many hours there are until prom day. She is not charging very much for this work and she needs the money, so she takes on every prom dress.

Two weeks before the local high school prom is to take place there are over 30 dresses which have not had their first fitting. She is now spending time on the phone reassuring worried parents and teenagers that the dresses will be ready, and this is time she is not sewing.