Shoulder surgery and Staff Expansion
Blogging, and really all typing, and a host of other things, are being delayed or outright cancelled due to a shoulder surgery I underwent on August 22, nearly 4 weeks ago. I seem to be turning the first corner into recovery here in the last day or two, but prior to that, typing, shaving, brushing my teeth, putting on my seatbelt, strapping on a belt, getting into and out of bed, and a 100 other things were 1 of three things - impossible, nearly impossible, almost impossible.
A slightly torn rotator cuff muscle is literally microscopic, and prevents only 5-20% of motion, and faced with a 3 or 4 month recovery, I can why it should be weighed seriously the pros and cons. It seems like I’m going to be on the ‘getting off easy’ end of the recovery, with only medium pain, no real complications to speak of, and the first sign of improvement as quick as 4 weeks in.
But in terms of running a business, driving around, walking my dog, and responding to the hundreds of emails I get a week, that’s been tough. But judging from the comfy position I’m in right now with my right arm nestled in a strategic pillow at a good typing angle, things are looking up.
Then school started and my 14 yr old brought home a cold for me within a few days, and a cold and a slinged arm, and 24/7 dull pain, and a full workload, - now, that’s getting a little extreme.
But, you wake up, shake off the voices suggesting that the daunting calendar for the day is a bit overloaded (typically the 5-7am emotion), and start the day’s journey with a single step. Same thing for 20 years. When you do a lot of things that suck each week, the degree to which they suck diminishes just because you are used to suck-ass priorities that need to get done. Duck and dodge, procrastinate and kick the can, and those things that suck that you need to do can easily weigh you down.
We put a house in Narrowsburg under contract, and we are looking at our 3rd deal at our Ashokan Acres project, we have a client-owned land going in Copake NY, and 2 in Forestburgh. We just finished our last home at the Crest. We have high hopes of starting another client-owned land project in Olivebridge, and we have leads coming in everyday.
2023 will definitely be remembered as the year of transition in the office. We always have a fair amount of comings and goings out in the field, but now that aspect has been really solid. In the office, however, since Amanda left in January, we’ve kept it rolling without any serious mistakes or delays, but it’s been largely because of my minute to minute effort across every aspect, which 1, is not what I’m here for, 2, tests and at times exceeds my skill set, 3, wears me out. Breanna has been right there with me as we have seen 4 people come and get ushered out, and another 2 or 3 hires that had some complication shortly before they were supposed to start.
But with the hiring of Kathy, my full time executive advisor, we’ve been able to go down a much more methodical hiring path, and lord behold, a professional path leads to professional candidates. HR takes time, and small businesses never have time to spare. So we have 4 new people starting with a month of the first, and this will be the first time in the company’s history we’ve been appropriately staffed with appropriate skill sets in position. The goal of redundancy and cross-department information sharing is almost at hand, and if done right, will position us for an entirely different level of service for our clients.
Now the question will be can we stay busy enough to support the new overhead, and a similar question, how much business have I been letting slip through my fingers because I/we just didn’t have the capacity.