A month ago, I agreed to call a contractor and ask him if he was available to do some work in our house. I made the call. That week, I asked someone at work to do something. Also during that week, I called three landscapers to see if any of them would like to do some landscaping work on our property. (Two of them never responded, one responded and said he would get back to me, but hasn’t). All three situations resulted in no action at all. I made a request, I assumed that something would happen, and then nothing happened.

The reason I know that all three requests resulted in no action is that I keep a spreadsheet of all of my requests. I used to be surprised when I asked someone to do something and then I received no response. I expect it now. (By the way-I was looking for a company to snow plow my driveway during the wintertime. I found three local landscaping companies online that advertise that they do snow plowing in my area, and provide estimates. I called all three companies, and I still do not have an estimate).

There is something about this that shocks me. If you owned a small business, and I called you and asked you about doing several hundred, (or several thousand) dollars worth of work, would you reply? I know that I would. If my livelihood depended on being responsive, I would be very responsive. But that isn’t what I experience, and I don’t know why. What I do know is that I expect to not receive a response when I contact someone. I expect it so much that I have a spreadsheet that tracks this, so that I don’t forget it, and I can follow up on my contact multiple times. Maybe I should start a landscaping business…..

Hal