Tag: Self-employed

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

It’s all about a camel and a piece of straw.

Posted on March 20, 2023 by - Future dreams, Networking

Recently I was talking to a new business contact, let’s call him Gilbert, about his business which he had started a days before. I remembered how excited and frightened I had been in equal measure. I remembered lying awake making plans and feeling excited about this new adventure and, at the same time, overwhelmed by what I had to do and what I knew I didn’t know with a side issue of realising that there was probably stuff I didn’t know I didn’t know! Thankfully I found networking.

We began talking about how long we had stayed safe in paid employment, with a feeling of restriction, before we made the decision to make the leap into self-employment. What do I mean by restriction? Well, as my beloved summed it up when he said: “You’ve never done bosses well”. This is true: I love being the decision-maker in my business, and I’m not saying that all my decisions have been good ones, but they have all been mine.

Gilbert and I agreed that, at some level, this move to self-employment had been made more difficult because we were paid well and there is no guaranteed income when you are paying yourself. Added to this both of us had support teams, who did stuff and knew stuff so we didn’t have to be involved. So, in the main our jobs were more interesting and rewarding than other jobs we had done. Then he asked “When did you know you had to leave?”

No one who knows me will be surprised that a holiday was involved. Because we have always liked to travel we would always hit the annual issue of having “no leave left till the end of March”. And we like long holidays. The moment I knew I had to leave was, having returned from a month’s holiday when we had completed a circle of the earth, I parked my car in my personal parking space in London, walked back into my lovely office, saying hello to my fabulous team and thought “well this is no fun”. That’s when I started to plan my exit and less than six month’s later I was self-employed with no real idea of what I was going to do. I just knew that, whatever I did my number one rule was it had to be fun.

That was my “moment” and I asked Gilbert what his “moment” was. To be honest I was expecting some story like mine. He said he had been thinking about it for years and he knew what he would do and how. His final-straw/camel moment was he said when he started to think about what he liked about the work he was doing, the employment package he had and the people he worked with. He knew that he definitely had to start his own business when he realised that the best bit was that…he had a chair that swivels! The next day he started to negotiate his way out.

From my swivelling chair I would like to help you with your networking, so 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

What can you expect from networking?

Posted on January 16, 2023 by - Business relationships, Marketing, Networking

Recently I have been talking to people who are new to networking and some of them are not sure if networking is worth doing. In case you fall into this category let me explain why I think networking is a vital part of any marketing strategy. It is true that I have always networked, both before and when I worked in the corporate world and certainly when I became self-employed. The only difference was that when I became self-employed, I realised that what I did had a name…networking.

People often seem to think that they network to get work and, while this is certainly one result of networking, it is not the only result. When you network you build relationships, people get to know what you do, and they learn to trust that you know what you are doing. If you build strong relationships your contacts will feel confident that their reputation is safe when they recommend you to one of their contacts. So when you network you meet people who almost become your salesforce. For some people this is all they think you get from networking and—certainly if they don’t immediately get work—they say that networking doesn’t work. Yes, it does, but you need to work at it.

There are other things you will get from networking. One is that you meet people who do other things that you may need in your business: accounts, IT, recruitment etc. They can supply their services to you which means you can concentrate on what you do, servicing your customers, developing new products or services etc. Networking enables you to grow your business because you are not being distracted by sorting your tax return, sorting out a bug on your computer or ensuring you have robust contracts for your staff.

You also get people around you who will support you on those days when things are not going as planned and you just need someone to talk to about it, and this may just be someone who you can use to rant to about life, challenges or whatever. I certainly have a few people who fill that category. (I usually find that the phrase “Is it me” gets said at some point! They can share some of their energy when you have none, but don’t forget that, at some point, the roles may be reversed and they may need you when their day is going the way they planned.

One final thing you may get is opportunities that come from networking. I’ve networked in a high security prison, a cinema with a tour included, been given access to parts of Stansted airport that I would not have had if I had not networked. I hope that you have been persuaded that networking is not just about getting work, it is so much more.

If you want some help with your 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

I’m in charge…help!

Posted on May 2, 2022 by - Networking

Recently I was talking to a contact about what it was like becoming self-employed. She said she hadn’t realised that growing her business was not going to be quick and how lonely self-employment can be. This got me thinking.

I became self-employed after years in the corporate world. There I had become quite senior and had people around me who did things: IT, finance, recruitment, admin etc and, more importantly, work was generated by the internal processes, I never had to get work, work came to me. Then I became self-employed. I can remember the first day, sitting at my desk, waiting for the work to arrive. I suddenly realised that not only did I have to go and get work (I sort of knew that) but I also had to be all the support for my business—IT, finance, recruitment, admin etc. I tried to generate work by moving my phone around but that didn’t work and I made lists of who might want my service and what “other stuff” I needed to do to run my business. I also drank a lot of coffee and cleaned a lot of cupboards! I was overwhelmed.

I was extremely fortunate because some of my friends had said they would use my service so I contacted them and that got me started. It also meant that I could practise and fine-tune my business processes and practices within a supportive environment. More importantly, they introduced me to their contacts and so the business grew. What also happened was that a contact I had made introduced me to networking. I soon realised that I had always networked, had always worked at building business relationships. So, I was comfortable with networking and realised that the people I met were able to provide the services that would support my business. This meant I could focus absolutely on doing the jobs I got and getting more jobs.

I’ve just written the last two sentences in a few minutes but the growth of my business, despite all the network of support, took a couple of years to feel stable and that feeling is always there at some level. On March 23rd, 2020 the announcement of lockdown meant that on paper I didn’t have a business. It really proved to me that as a business owner I must always be vigilant and not take things for granted.

25 years after starting my first business I’m still self-employed, still living by my three rules (have fun, never do anything I don’t want to do with anybody I don’t want to do it with, never work full-time or permanently for anybody again) and I am still staying vigilant. The difference from when I started is now I have people who know me and support me, sometimes by providing services to my business, people who are fans of my business and who introduce business people to me. But I still remain vigilant because none of us know what the future holds.

Thank you for reading, 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

What are your work rules?

Posted on April 18, 2022 by - Networking

Recently I was talking to a new contact who said his diary was available “24/7” to his customers, and I asked him when he had time for himself. He said he didn’t have much time to himself, but he wanted new customers and he wanted to provide a great service to his existing customers.  This got me thinking, why didn’t I work 24/7?

I think at one level any business owner works on their business 24/7 because they have ideas about their business whether they are working or not.  I find that ideas, solutions, plans often drop into my brain when I am exercising. Now that could be because I’m focussing on something other than work, usually that focus is of the “I must be doing it right ‘cos that hurts” type. Suddenly I’ll see how something could be done or have an idea for something new or a new way of doing something. That is normal apparently.

My work thinking can happen at any time, but I do not work 24/7. Why is this? I think there are three reasons:

My age. I am now thinking about retiring and having some other new adventures. When I was younger, I had more energy, that is a reality. I can still get excited by a new project and use lots of energy implementing it. When I compare my now self with my younger self I can see the difference. I can see the difference between my now self and younger contacts, as I say they are “young and thrusting” and it is fantastic to watch but I just don’t have that level of energy anymore.

My business history. I have been self-employed for over 25 years. I’ve had different businesses throughout that time, sometimes they overlapped but mainly they were the only business I had. The business I had for the longest was a catering business, which I had for 18 years. We had snack bars, units that were on building sites, we did outside catering, and I did some consultancy. I was busy. I had a good team, but I seemed to spend lots of my time firefighting: staff not turning up, regular customers booking at the last moment, and we had lots of customers, so the firefighting was against a backdrop of 24/7 work. Our shops opened at 7 am so staff started at 6.30, and we often had events in the afternoon and others that went on till the early hours. I had lots of teams to manage and lots of projects on the go at any one time. It was fantastic, but eventually, as I got older, I began to realise it was time to sell, which I did.

My type of businesses. As I developed my current business, I vowed that, whatever happened and however I developed it, I would not work 24/7 again. I would work Monday to Friday, no evenings, and no weekends. It is true that I have a business now that rarely requires firefighting. This is partly because of the nature of my business: it is almost unknown that anyone contacts me and says, “I need to network now!” in the same way customers would ring me and say “I forgot to order lunch for today! Can you help please?”  In addition, I have an amazing team of Group Directors who run their meetings and arrange all the admin relating to their meetings. I’m not involved. My job is to build the business, implement strategy, support Group Directors and members.  

I am very protective of my personal time. I worry about people who say they work 24/7 because we all need down time, time to spend time with our beloveds, time to relax and rejuvenate. So, if you do work 24/7 my questions are: “How long can you keep going and what will happen when you reach your breaking point?”

Thank you for reading, 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

Brave self-employed people

Posted on February 14, 2022 by - Business relationships, Networking

Recently I was talking to a contact about being self-employed and she said that she hadn’t realised how brave you need to be when you are self-employed. This got me thinking. When I decided to leave the corporate world 25 years ago I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, just that I was having no fun, despite all the trappings of success: secretary, large office, and a parking space in London. (This latter benefit was the one that people used to get very excited about!) When talking to my beloved about leaving and setting up a business my beloved said, “Well, you’ve never done bosses well” and he was right. I always wanted to have an input, even just a tweak, of any project. Often this didn’t happen, which was frustrating. I also seemed to be spending more time keeping the politics of the organisation away from my teams so they could get on with their work, which was draining. So I decided to leave.

I was lucky in that we could afford for me to not make money, but I found it difficult not to have money coming in as I set up my first venture, an interior design business. I went from having a role I understood, with money every month, with bonus and pay rise every year to complete uncertainty about what to do, when to do it, how to do it and not worry about income. Slowly I learnt, with a lot of help from people I met, people I already knew, and a government organisation called Business Link (now sadly no more) which provided help and advice. Brilliant… and free! In fact, I was helped by people I networked with. There were nights when I didn’t sleep, sometimes because I was excited and sometimes because I was frightened, and sometimes because I was excited and frightened.

But brave? No, I never felt that.  The uncertainty suits my nature and I realised that I liked the uncertainty, the challenge of developing a business, finding opportunities and changing business, but this does not make me brave, it makes me happy. Some self-employed people might be brave, those that have to make enough to pay the bills, those that invest their redundancy money or savings to start a business. It does also not mean that those who are employed are not brave, because some provide stability for those, like me, who are having an adventure.

Whatever way you define yourself 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