Admin is in my blood.
I've been a receptionist, copy room girl, secretary, legal assistant, trainer (as in training new employees to perform various tasks), executive assistant, bookkeeper, word processor, office manager, business manager and just about any other title that they slap on all manner of grind and grunt work you can imagine.
And I've loved it all right up until now.
Now, 8 years into running my Seattle studio, if my admin load was sitting in my lap it would be so heavy that I'd fall through the floor, if my admin load was luggage I'd be paying $300 overweight fees and if my admin load was in pennies I'd be a millionaire.
I'm being buried in admin, or at least it feels that way.
There have been months where I've finally caught up on accounting by balancing over 10 monthly bank statements in a single sitting. I've been trying to take the PilatesNun.com site to video for almost a year and am no closer to reality on it than I was when I began. I have video from my Mom's memorial service in December that I was supposed to send to my forever dear friend Neil who lives in LA (and is the director of Biggest Loser and a gifted writer and independent film maker) who not only shot the footage but is patiently waiting for me to send it to him so he can edit it into something brilliant. I've lived in my current house since February and still haven't set up my paint table in my art studio which of course means I haven't painted anything since I've been here and although this doesn't qualify as an administrative task, it's admin's first cousin because I can't justify working on getting my paint table set up when I'm hopelessly behind in actual work, in administrative tasks that there's nobody else to do. I have 2 especially dear projects waiting for me on my paint table, which as you know, is not set up but when it is I'll be behind by 2 espeiclly dear projects; wedding gifts for two adored friends - Sherri Betz and Molly Wizenberg. I told Sherri last time we talked that perhaps I'd get it to she and her husband in time for the 10th anniversary.
How lame is that?
When it comes to admin, I don't have a me to delegate to. I only have a me to do everything, or almost everything.
Heidi, my right hand man, is learning more administrative tasks and is a huge help to me but she's at about her limit of being able to accomplish, time-wise, the things that she currently is trained to do. She's going to massage school in the spring and she'll have even less time then to enter sales in Quickbooks, audit client accounts, manage the calendar and take care of me in every other way that she's so brilliant doing.
When I think about where all this admin comes from, I think it's because my business is fueled by 3 revenue streams that all require their own bizarre and detailed accounting, I've tried getting by with only 1 lawyer but apparently I absolutely must have 2. I have only 1 CPA and 1 commercial insurance agent but I have 2 tech consultants, one for video and in-studio systems and the other one is a graphics artist and my web developer.
My systems, the processes I use to keep me organized, are pretty refined and have worked for me for years and I really don't think my ineffectiveness is due to me being out of control with organization, determination or endurance. I think I just have too much to do and everything I do that keeps me away from teaching makes me feel farther from Joe & Clara. That makes me sad because all I ever want to do is move closer to them so I can understand this method more clearly and grow stronger in my own teaching.
If you're wondering why on Earth I don't just hire someone, it's because I absolutely cannot justify the expense of hiring an administrative person because I shudder at the thought of their salary (and I pay extremely well) coming 100% off my bottom line. And I'm not alone; most small studios - and Heidi and I are a 2 teacher shop - can't afford administrative help. Besides, I feel as if I should be able to keep up, I have the skills to do it and surely, I should be able to manage my time well enough to get it all done.
Would a non-paid internship work? I wonder. I should call some local colleges and see if there's the possibility of a good match. Surely, it would be a fascinating experience for a solid #2 mentality to learn to support my business and me, a solid #1 mentality. Or at least I think it would be. But then again, I'm me and looking at it from the inside of being me, I must say I think it looks interesting, challenging, super fun and exciting.
I read an article a long time ago in Harper's about air cargo pilots and there was a quote from one of them that went something like this: our jobs entail many hours of mind-numbing boredom that are punctuated by seconds of complete terror. In my life as an administrator, I can understand what that's like.
So, I'm off to bed where I will update my day list for tomorrow, mark off in grand stylish strokes the many things on my today list that I nailed, and will sleep like I'm dead for 7 or 8 or 9 hours and then, I'll get up tomorrow and teach and laugh and eat and drink and do it all again.
That's the way it's been for all these years and I guess that's the way it will be for a few more.
Want to move to Seattle and be my admin hero? Well, do you?