The Magical Inbox – My First Scientology Business Courses
I was only 25 when I decided that I was ready for something more than a life of servitude to faceless CEO’s. I figured, if I can work as hard for myself as I did for these big companies, then I could surely make a good go of it as my own boss.
My first business was formerly known in north Texas as The Body Wrap Shop, and for reasons that are totally ridiculous, we had to change our name about 18 months into it. I have since sold that business (again) and it operates under Wrap Me Now! But our beginnings were very precarious and though I would have gladly traded the company we had to deal with to get started for the devil himself, I’ve picked up some amazingly cool business tools along the way.
When my husband & I jumped into this business, we didn’t recognize the signs that were in front of us that said, “You’re dealing with the bottom of the Scientology cesspool.” These people are what gives Scientologists a worse name than they’ve already made for themselves.
So I remember popping in for a surprise visit before I gave the ‘parent company’ that we were buying our license from to see how they operate. I had pretty high expectations from someone who was asking for $35K. I was actually in Clearwater, FL on business anyways and was dressed like someone who could play the part of a pretty good sales(wo)man.
Clean, tailored suit and all, I strode into this run down facility on Belcher Rd with a little bit of confusion. Before I could even see the chimney stacks of cigarette smoke from an assembly of bovine-resembling women, I could taste the stale, dense fumes. My first instinct was to protect my unsullied suit from this stench. I grew up with a father who is a smokestack himself and the compulsion to protect my wardrobe was more instinctual than calculated at that moment.
At any rate, let’s say that my first encounters with Scientologists were very contradictory to their core beliefs. We will definitely explore more of this later.
It turns out that my soon to be Advertising-Co-operative-Sort-of-Business-Partner, “MW” is a devout Scientologist too. She had somehow persuaded me to go to one of her business meetings she was setting up for small business owners. I thought she needed some support, so I volunteered to attend.
Here is the first of many tips that has changed my life and organization of my companies.
Magical Inboxes!
I know you must think this is elementary, but it goes deeper than this. The key: inboxes, pending boxes and out boxes for every ‘hat’ you wear or subject you are in charge of.
That started to revolutionize the way my business was run. The magic of inboxes was quickly recognized in my small but growing company. I probably had about 12 employees at the time and I was in charge of every aspect of my business. The issue I had with the inbox system prior was that my inbox was always full and seemed so daunting that the mere thought of tackling it would just send me into a mental straight-jacket keeping me from any real progress. My pending box was just another place to store incoming items. My outbox was always empty because I couldn’t organize myself enough to get anything done.
The Magical Inboxes that I had set up for each hat I wore became 3 rows x 6 columns of wall pockets Big J-Oda generously screwed to one wall I had cleared off for just this new Magical Inbox system.
I then set up an inbox for all of my on going items of concern. I had an inbox for:
- Accounting
- Client Issues
- Staff communications
- Advertising
- Gift Certificates
So each column was comprised of an inbox on the top row, then a pending box, then the outbox, though after much usage, I realized that outboxes were usually empty because by the time something got processed, it seemed to poof! just magically disappear. What this also did for me was to keep an eye on each task as I was ready to tackle them and ironically enough, it helped me to organize my day to take care of issues efficiently.
The most loathsome sight was anything in my Client Issues inbox. We prided ourselves on not having very many, maybe one every other month or so, which was no small feat with our volume of business. So to see anything in Client Issues Inbox meant that we took corrective action promptly.
Of course, when we would see items in the Gift Certificate Inbox, that usually meant that we needed to send in our Spa Finder vouchers so we could get paid. If that wasn’t motivating for us, nothing was.
Staff Communications in writing were pretty rare in our business since we communicated verbally and through email, so that would also get priority.
Before the Magical Inboxes came into my life, all of these crucial items would get lost in a single inbox and were neglected which cause greater havoc due to missed deadlines or irate clients when they could’ve all been avoided with the right tools in place. It was so much easier to prioritize my agendas after this. And after we could afford to hire managers, having the Magical Inbox system in place was easy to teach and an invaluable tool for us all. We were able to communicate the urgency of tasks without even speaking to each other, so when we had time to speak, it was even more productive.
So to you all with inbox congestion, this will change your life and increase your productivity. Your addiction to an empty inbox and outbox will overcome any abhorrence to organization you might have…guaranteed:-)
[...] post on the magical inbox gave you a little explanation about the Scientology courses I took for a full year & the [...]