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THE DISSATISFIED BANKER "You've done it again, DeLois!" the customer said to the young owner of the Centennial Mortgage Company. "Every year you guys put on the finest Holiday celebration in the city. I always look forward to attending." Bob Crandle was a valued Centennial customer, so his comments made DeLois Stafford smile. "Thank you so much, Bob. This is simply our way of saying thanks to customers like you who have supported us throughout the year. You are very important to us, and I'm grateful for the relationship we have established." DeLois always had the appropriate, warm response. In reality, however, the Christmas party was the furthest thing from her mind. Her mortgage business had made strides during the year, but DeLois felt her company could have prospered more had she done things differently. Although her partners felt she was being too hard on herself, she took personal responsibility for what she regarded as her own lackluster performance. No matter how she scrutinized the past years, she always concluded that she was not operating at her best. After extending warm Holidays wishes to the last customer to arrive at the gathering, she tipped the caterer and thanked him for his outstanding service, jumped into her silver BMW, and began the long ride home. DeLois could not smile anymore. LONG DAYS, LONGER NIGHTS. At the outset, DeLois had understood that the mortgage business was highly competitive. Consequently, she had to be at the top of her game every single day in order to survive. She applied her homegrown discipline to the challenge. Her day routinely started at 5:30 a.m. when she checked the new mortgage rates and tried to position her clients to take advantage of any new developments in the industry. By 7:30 she was normally hitting her stride, deeply immersed in critical business activities. As each day progressed, she began to notice so many other business issues that required her attention but that added little value to the firm -- and even less to the bottom line. She was continually sidetracked. Office operations, material ordering, furniture selection, and vendor payments began to consumer more of her time. By the end of the day, she was exasperated and fatigued. To compensate, she routinely brought her work home in the evenings. The arrangement seemed logical. She could spend time with her family, then use any extra time to develop her business. But by the time she finished making dinner for her husband and two little boys, the time between dinner and putting the children to bed was spent helping the children with their homework, after which she collapsed in front of the television set. She had no time to spend on herself as a person, as a woman, as an entrepreneur. She could see how so many men without her household responsibilities had done better throughout the years. She was burned out. Having so much responsibility at home and at work meant she couldn't really focus on either. It was a never-ending circle; something had to change. The new year would be different. LEARN TO DELEGATE. When January 1 rolled around, DeLois sought the advice of a close friend who specialized in time management. This expert's first advice was that DeLois inventory how she spent her time during a typical day. She immediately began documenting in detail all of the meetings, planning, phone calls, emergencies and staff management that occupied most of her day. She was mortified to find that she was spending nearly 80 percent to of her time "putting out fires" and performing tasks that were not adding any value to the business. Realizing these inefficiencies, DeLois made some changes. First, she became more aggressive at delegating administrative and routine tasks to her assistants and business partners. For every request she received, she would ask herself, "Who in my organization is qualified to handle this matter?" She would immediately pass it on to that person and ask her assistant to follow up on the activity and report to her the status or completion date. DeLois also took action at home. She hired a part-time housekeeper to meet her children at the bus stop, help them with their homework before DeLois returned home, and prepare dinner for her family. These new arrangements enabled DeLois and her husband to spend quality time with each other and with their children. Improved efficiency also gave DeLois more time in the evenings to concentrate on strategic items that directly impacted her business. Ideas generated under these conditions seemed more thought-out and focused. She was amazed at how productive she was. Her discipline paid off the way it had so many times before. PARTY TIME! As the year progressed, DeLois saw her effectiveness reflected in business results: they exceeded everyone's expectations. To celebrate the year's performance, the company moved its annual Christmas party to a big hotel downtown and expanded the invitation list. As she and her business partners greeted their customers, her favorite customer made his way to the front of the line. "Hello, Bob. Welcome back again to our party. It's so nice to see you." "Nice to see you again, DeLois. I trust you had an outstanding year." DeLois smiled. "We had a marvelous year, thanks to customers like you and my ability to recapture the dead zones of my day. Filling in those dead zones with productive activity has made a difference in my business and in my life." DeLois kept many of her male customers busy on the dance floor most of the night. WISDOM TO TAKE AWAY * The "dead zone" is that block of time in an entrepreneur's day that is completely unproductive. It can occur at any time of day or night. * Entrepreneurs who are attempting to move their business to the next level may find it necessary to recapture this dead zone and turn it into a productive period. Don't stress. Allow your thinking to evolve naturally. * The first step in recapturing the dead zone is to monitor your tasks over a few days. Track to see at what part of the day you are most and least productive. After isolating the unproductive patterns, develop strategies that will allow you to make this time more productive. Concurrently, try to accomplish all critical tasks during the period you are most productive.  Excerpted from the book, Soul Food, Fifty-two Principles for Black Entrepreneurial Success. Copyright August 2000 by Robert L. Wallace. Reprinted with permission of Perseus Publishing. All rights reserved." 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