Category: Business strategy

I am that department

Posted on October 16, 2023 by - Business strategy, Networking, Networkingstrategy, Relationships

Recently I had to ring a small company with a couple of queries. The lovely woman I spoke to (let’s call her Lucy, because that’s her name), helped and resolved my first query. I then said I had another query, which might be another department and Lucy chuckled. She said “I am that department too”. Then she summed up, in one sentence, the challenge that faces many small businesses, she said “In fact, really, I am all the departments”.

I can remember when I started my first business. The shock of realising that I was responsible for everything: marketing, toilet paper, doing work that had been secured, accounts (particularly getting money in) and paying staff and bills, plus contracts and HR. The list went on and I had been used to have departments for each thing, in my lovely corporate office looking over London. I had my private parking space and if I needed anything then the relevant department did whatever it was and actually, I was often even separated from asking, since my secretary managed my office.

I can remember the first few months of self-employment, as I got used to doing it all and always feeling I was missing something (often I was right!). I was sometimes overwhelmed by, as some people say, having many hats to wear.

As my business grew, five things happened:

  1. I developed and fine-tuned systems and processes so they, and I, became more efficient.
  2. The business grew.
  3. I discovered networking and met other small business owners.
  4. Some of these small business owners took on some of the non-work requirements, so my list reduced to looking after customers and adding new ones.
  5. My business really grew!

Lucy made me remember how I had got to where I am and how learning I didn’t have to be all departments had helped me to focus on what I was really good at and which I loved doing. I stopped feeling overwhelmed on a regular basis and started to enjoy being a business owner with the responsibilities that involves.

If you are feeling that you are tired of saying “I am that department” in your business, then let me help you with your networking, here’s a gift to you: my Top 20 networking tips. Just follow this link: ebn.uk.com and complete the form to receive your copy.

Have fun,

Glenys

Having a frog session

Posted on August 28, 2023 by - Business opinions, Business strategy, Networking, Networkingstrategy

Recently I’ve had a lot of paperwork and research to do. Now, of course, almost any job has some element of admin and small business owners can sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed by the admin side of their company. Admin relating to

  • keeping the business going, accounts, keeping up to date with things like policies, legal requirements,
  • staff, pay, training, development, welfare
  • personal development and personal welfare
  • getting work
  • work being carried out
  • payments, customer interaction
  • the other 101 jobs that are there.

No wonder we can get to the exhausted and overwhelmed stage!

After nearly 30 years of running my own business, and with the help of a business coach who worked with me for nearly two years and helped me get organised. To be completely honest I don’t like admin, it seems so boring, except issuing invoices, I love issuing invoices, when I spend some time wondering how I’m going to spend the profit!

One of the things I was taught was to spend quality time on admin. The great Mark Twain said “If you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.” !  Since admin is my “live frog”, every morning I set my timer for 30 minutes  and do admin. If I need to set the timer again and again then that’s Ok but admin get’s done first before I really start the day. My live frog gets eaten. Then I focus on what I am doing, knowing that the admin for the day has been done. And, of course, occasionally something “urgent” pops up but often even these urgent things can wait till the frog eating session the next morning.

So, I wonder, what’s your “live frog”?

While you are thinking about that here’s a gift to you: my Top 20 networking tips. Just follow this link: ebn.uk.com and complete the form to receive your copy.

Have fun,

Glenys

Sometimes advice is free, services are not.

Posted on August 12, 2023 by - Business opinions, Business relationships, Business strategy, Networking

Recently I was talking to a contact about people “picking his brain”. He, let’s call him Fred, worked in social media and said he was often asked for advice. Another contact was saying he was always wary about sharing his knowledge because he thought it would enable people to do things themselves rather than paying for his services. I told the story about the advice I got from a very successful business owner when I was first starting out. He said, “Some people will spend money and some people won’t and you can’t tell from looking at them which one they are”.

From that I realised that some people would keep trying to pick your brain, but they would never pay for your services. This can be for several reasons. They may think:

  1. they can do it themselves, or
  2. they can’t spend the money, or
  3. why pay for something you can get for free.

I would say:

  1. no-one can do and know everything.
  2. This is a false economy because, while they are struggling with this, they could be getting and doing work.
  3. This is disrespectful.

Anyway, back to Fred.

Fred and I agreed that we were happy to give advice and information, but there came a time when people crossed a line and they had to be charged. The challenge was twofold:

  • where was that line, and
  • was everyone clear what each side of that line look like?

It is important to get those issues sorted at the beginning, before it becomes a problem. We also agreed that with some contacts the line may be more flexible, because we know them and know they won’t take advantage, or there might be an element of barter.

Coincidentally, later that week I was talking to a contact who is a very talented hairdresser. Let’s call her Freda. She was venting, because she had recently been contacted by someone through social media and asked for advice. The person had had her hair coloured by someone else and didn’t like the result, but didn’t want to tell the hairdresser who had done it (!). She had decided to do it herself, so contacted someone she used for advice.

Freda needed to vent because:

  • The woman told her she had no intension of booking her.
  • She had told her at the beginning, and several times during the conversation, that she would not give advice on products she had not used and for hair she had not tested.
  • It was late Sunday night!

My suggestion was not to reply till she was in work, but she is young and seemed to be horrified by the idea of ignoring something she got via social media.

I realised that where the line was drawn was possibly different for different trades or professions. So, my question is where is your line? Mine is now quite fluid so here’s a start.

Here’s a free gift to you: my Top 20 networking tips. Just follow this link: ebn.uk.com and complete the form to receive your copy.

Have fun,

Glenys

Definitely not a vanity move!

Posted on March 6, 2023 by - Business strategy, Future dreams, Networking

Recently I was talking to a business contact about his move into a business unit. I have known this particular contact for over 20 years after meeting him at a networking event (where else!). At the time he was working from his front room, with his lovely mum as his only member of staff. Over the years his business has grown and yet he has remained in his home office, now an actual office rather than his front room, staff have changed and he and his business have survived even the devastating loss of his mother at an early age. He has worked hard, been amazing at marketing and seen the resultant success.

While talking, I said that no-one could say he was making a vanity decision and we began to talk about how tempting these vanity decisions are. What are ‘vanity’ decisions, often involving vanity purchases? They are using money either from your business (or investing it from your own money) to buy ‘things’ and these ‘things’ are often not needed but give the business owner’s vanity a stroke. The nice new desk to replace a perfectly good desk. (Of course, always get a great chair to sit in, or stand at, because you may spend a lot of time at your desk and you don’t want to undermine your spine etc.) You see people with large shiny offices, staff, every piece of equipment you can imagine…and no customers!

Now the conversation I was having with my contact was definitely, from my part at least, not based on a history of “Well I’ve never done that” because I have stroked my vanity many times by buying stuff that was lovely and shiny and I didn’t need! When I set up my first business, I bought lots of stuff that I had occasionally used when I had worked in the corporate world but didn’t actually need for my small office at home, or, if I did, I didn’t need the super deluxe version. The same was true when I started my catering business. I had a storage unit which was full of stuff, and, unsurprisingly, because I am sometimes a slow learner, the unit got larger as I bought more stuff, and then reduced in size as I learnt that I didn’t need to own all the stuff I had. In the process I wasted a lot of money. But I did learn.

Obviously, my contact, being wiser than I, didn’t need to be taught this. He has seemed to know instinctively to only spend money you must spend. Save the money, don’t buy, buy the less shiny one, buy second hand, you get the picture. This last part is what I have learnt. I also realised that by saving money in this way I had more money, at the end of the year, to have more money to spend on shiny things for my home, for holidays and as soon as I realised this the vanity decisions became less and easier.

So I wish my contact all the success he deserves as he moves into his lovely shiny, and absolutely necessary, new business unit.

If you are not sure about spending money on networking let me help with a gift to you: my Top 20 networking tips. Just follow this link: ebn.uk.com and complete the form to receive your copy.

Have fun,

Glenys

Thanks for your opinion

Posted on March 21, 2022 by - Business opinions, Business strategy, Networking

Recently I was on a Zoom meeting with people I’d never met before. We had a lovely conversation about business and life and we laughed a lot. I said that I was spending some time that day reviewing my business strategy and immediately one of the people told me what my strategy should be. Not might include or, in their opinion, might be, but this is what my strategy should be.

I was surprised because:

  • they were very certain how I should grow my business, and  
  • they seemed to think I would just do what I had been told

This got me thinking.

I think it is true to say that any strategy needs to include certain things: a goal, a plan of implementation (this can be fluid), a timescale and a review process. This is my opinion. My business strategy follows that scheme and in my case, the fluid part needs to be very fluid as opportunities come my way. The issue is that whilst business strategies may be similar, we as business owners are all different. What works for you may not work for me for various reasons, our business may be at different stages of development, we may have been in business for different times, our background, and our experiences will almost certainly be different. We may have difference in the amount of risk we find acceptable and our personal business needs, and our work/life balance may be different. Which brings me to my next point.

Doing what other people tell us to do.

When I became self-employed, I didn’t know what I was going to do, so I set myself three rules. The second was “I never do anything I don’t want to do, with anyone I don’t want to do it with” or to put it another way and to quote my beloved “You don’t do bosses well” I like that all my business decisions are mine, be they good, bad or indifferent I own them. So I listen to opinions and then I decide what I take from them, and, when I give my opinion, I expect others to do the same. If they want my further input they’ll ask, and sometimes they do.

So thank you for your opinion, I may consider it further. As a thank you, here is my gift to you: my Top 20 networking tips just follow this link: ebn.uk.com and complete the form to receive your copy.

Have fun,

Glenys