If you want to get something done, in a world where there’s never enough time to get it all done, try delegating all that complicated, time-consuming teamwork to yourself. It’ll take a little time to get used to, but you’ll soon discover that you alone are all the help you need.
As twenty-something know-nothing in a big corporate, I envied friends who made the jump to work at small, brand-new companies. How much fun to do everything your way from scratch. How affirming. How empowering. With no Committee of Obstacles to dilute every creative fun campaign you conceived, you could really rock the dream job.
Fast forward 15 odd years, and finally it’s my turn, and my dream job. We’re a team of six, each with their own department consisting of one. So, there’s me: head of marketing for the food and beverage division of a capital development group. Well, my title is Head of Marketing, but really, there’s just little old me, doing everything I ever dreamed back in the day. Oh, the fun I would have, taking Dubai by storm!
Four months in, here’s what life, and those friends in tiny companies never told me: when you’re a one-man department, you do everything yourself. Every single thing.
Marketing plan? Check. Budget forecasts? Check. Competitor analysis. Check. Photography, design, branding, event planning, media buying and boosting, community management, PR? Check. Check. Check.
Where were my support teams? Where were my finance advisors, graphic designers, copywriters, brand managers, PR agencies and other coping mechanisms to help me, well, cope with everything on my plate? It was all too much! “Get me out of here!” became my early morning mantra.
But getting out of here was not an option. I left my old job because I wanted more challenges. I sold up everything back in SA, and arrived here with only a backpack, a Mac and a Kindle. Opting out and arriving back on Cape Town’s doorstep, hat in hand, saying “I made a mistake, please take me back!” – could I do that? No.
I took a deep breath. Several deep breaths. And then I took out my great big A3 pad of marvellous ideas, mind maps and miscellaneous meeting doodles and I started to make notes. Brand A was only launching in September, and the basic marketing and budget plans were done, artwork and digital plans were in progress – that could all go on the back burner for now.
Brand B was still in development, the product was barely defined, so until the F&B Director and Head Chef had delivered that, there was really nothing to do. So, all that was left was Brand C.
Skype meetings were held with Paris, filled with awkward silences while we Google Translated what each other was saying. Files were transferred. Suppliers were supplied, and samples were sampled. Business cards designed, ordered and a website layout designed (by me no less!) and under construction. Hoarding designs and menu apps and translations and packaging branding. Done, done and done.
Suddenly the overwhelming was merely whelming. Suddenly, the mountain of fear and Things To Do morphed back into that beautiful, crazy, mad fun and adventure of making my mark. I was back in control, back in a space of looking forward to each day and the great work I’d get to do. Oh, and the fantastic samples we got to try out every other day.
So, no, my new job is not all food festivals and exclusive parties and halva samples and wagyu slices and Instagram shots. But some days it is, and that makes all the admin-y bits in between doable. That, and the certain knowledge that if I just keep marching on, everything is going to work out just fine.
Please pass the salt, this wagyu could do with a touch.
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