Are You Available?

Building on last week’s theme of scheduling, this week we address a question often poised to sole proprietors - ‘are you available?’. Since a sole business owner does not have other staff to take meetings for them, being available is not a commodity, it is really a gift.

When your team schedules a meeting or needs the expertise of a sole proprietor, think attorney, accountant, insurance agent, etc, are you asking them first when they are available or giving them a particular date and time with the question? This seems to be the common practice. Also, alarmingly common, is the follow-up that does not occur with an official calendar invite. This inevitably leads to the frustration and possibly panic when that time comes and the professional is not available for the call or meeting.

Common business courtesy dictates if a person’s time is requested, if their expertise is needed, if their contribution to a meeting is critical, make sure they are sent a formal email invite and that they respond by accepting such invite. If you do not follow-up with the formal invite and you do not confirm they have accepted it, do not be surprised if they are not on the call. Likely, they are attending another call which someone inquired about after you and sent an email invite to officially book the time.

We see this behavior of not following up with an official email calendar invite most prevalent on larger jobs and with bigger companies. It may mean they just assume you book your own appointment. However, the logic does not support that as the person asking if you are available needs to provide the Video Conference link or the telephone meeting call-in number. Sending either at the time of the meeting is not acceptable, especially if you requested the conversation days or weeks ago.

Unlike large corporations where their employees are expected to attend meetings immediately, if necessary, that is not the case of a sole proprietor. Unfortunately, they are not at your beck and call. Logistics of being a person business simply do not permit it.

The next time you find yourself texting or emailing a consultant ‘Are You Available?’ stop and remind yourself to send an official calendar invite to actually book that person’s calendar time. If you do not have the login link available yet, simply include a TBD. This will avoid frustration on everyone’s part. And the follow-up reflects the respect and professionalism you have for that consultant.

Be well.