TheFunded.com is now capturing a significant amount of media attention, and it is becoming more and more time consuming, as anyone might imagine. See my previous post on this matter. Below is some of the recent media attention:
So, how am I managing it? To be fair, it is going “OK.” Here is my analysis:
- Time Demands: It is taking half a “normal” work week, about 30 hours per week, to mange the media opportunities alone. Time requirements come in different forms: interviews, follow-up questions, introductions, photo shoots, etc. The sporadic nature of it is very distracting to a normal work week, but fun nonetheless. You need to keep in mind that reporters are working on deadline, a deadline much more important than your schedule.
- Growth Challenges: The media attention is leading to site and system growth, which requires further time consuming oversight. The other day, I needed to double server capacity. Today, I needed to write an instructional post for “newbies.” All of this happening while processing over 200 new Members applications per DAY. It takes a lot of focus and attention to grow without letting small things slip through the cracks. Big mistakes will lead to downtime, abuse, and failure.
- Unsolicited Interest: A lot of people want to meet and discuss “opportunities.” Some meetings are logical, and others are less obvious. Meanwhile, things become more black and white due to the growing limits on your available time, but you do not want to be rude and blow off the unexpected opportunities. Taking time to meet is about being a good person rather than a work machine.
- Lacking Product Progress: It becomes more difficult to quickly develop or innovate while in the eye of the media. You just do not have the same amount of time to innovate while managing the media and the growth. Also, you can not afford to make mistakes with the higher levels of usage.
- Forecasting: Expense and revenue forecasts quickly become irrelevant as the numbers take a life of their own. Everything increases in ways that you can not forecast. For example, my legal bill was one and half times larger than I would have expected, and advertising opportunities are outpacing subscriptions.
So, my performance can definitely use some improvements, most notably in time management. One strategy would be to develop a new routine that accommodated the “need it now” aspects of reporters working on a deadline. You still need to have your task list, but you need a lot of “flex time.” Any suggestions on how to manage the situation are welcome in the comments to this post…
It sounds like you need to delegate more tasks. It takes less time to supervise skilled assistants than to do it all yourself.
Specifically the above list suggests you need both a Personal Assistant, Public Relations manager, and Systems Administrator. Need help with servers, subscriptions, or creative & scalable solutions? Call me. For the former, California is already crawling with PA’s & PR flacks.
There are a lot of us out here who are interested in your ideas, and capable of professional level aide. Don’t just post it in the classifieds, but ask of us from this combined interest & talent pool.
That should free you up to do the things you do best: manage business forecasting & accountability.
Now that your email has been restored, are you still in need of assistance? I can do open-source programming too. The task dictates it’s requirements (form follows function). Installing, maintaining, managing, and optimizing systems is what I do best.
Being a fan of both architecture and futurist solutions should make anyone a prime candidate to apprentice your causes.