Over the past four months, theSkimm family has expanded from 2 to 7. With that growth, theSkimm kind of resembles the Duggar family. Minus Jim Bob.
We’ve learned that having a family is exhausting. Turns out people need to be managed and they don’t read your mind. While the latter is disappointing, the former has been a learning curve for us. Last week, Skimm A & B worked out of SF and had one of their most productive days of work in a very long time. When we thought about why, we realized it was because we didn’t have to talk to anyone. No offense to our team.
Things we’ve learned about managing
1. You have to be organized
Each week we have a team meeting and there has to be a clear agenda. Each day, multiple people are asking for direction and feedback. We have to be clear about giving that.
2. You have to talk. A lot.
Each week we hold 1-on-1s with each team member. Last week, these meetings took 6 hours. We have since put a 20 minute cap and told our team that the meetings are for them–if they want to talk, we are giving them the time. Don’t have an update? Don’t need to meet.
3. You have to remember things
Every day we are putting out fires, brainstorming, and tossing out a lot of ideas. We have to remember what’s in and what’s out — and so does our team, who has to follow up. Easier said than done. We’ve now each developed our own to-do list email system to keep track of what we’ve delegated to people.
4. You are always on
Sometimes we have days we want to sit in a corner, write, eat cookies, and not speak to anyone. But ‘me’ time is non-existent, leaving us to wonder ‘Is this what it’s like to have kids?’
5. It’s hard. Nuff said.
NEW ENTREPRENEUR LESSON OF THE DAY: Buy wine.
Originally published at blog.theskimm.com.
