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One year in – lessons learnt

Incredible though it may seem a year has passed since I left the comfort and security of a corporate job to set up my own business. During that time there have been highs and I would be lying if I did not confess that there have been lows too. For all those interested in starting their own business I thought it would be useful to share 5 reflections on lessons learnt.

Lesson 1

Business plan. I did not need to create a plan as I was not looking for financial support or have a business partner but felt it would be useful to have something to measure my progress against. I created a short, visual plan which I pull out from time to time to measure my progress against my projected targets and adjust as necessary. I have found it really useful to revisit this regularly and to keep me focused on the back-end of my business.

Lesson 2

Trust comes at a price. Coming from a compliance background I am always keen to comply with the various regulations. Registering with the ICO, secure, offline backups, VPN, robust anti-virus and complying with the GDPR regulations all come at a cost which can very easily for some, be batted away…at your peril! In addition to this is the trust that you are executing the clients’ budget correctly and for this a tool called Toggl comes in very useful to track the time spent.

Lesson 3

Make it personal. For my business I get the most interesting discussions, leads and clients through building personal relationships. Right at the start I invested in networking and it has really paid off. It is something I enjoy but for those that don’t, I would recommend you find the group(s) you are comfortable with, prepare well and try to learn from others.

Lesson 4

Make it work for YOU. On a few occasions I have been drawn into carrying out work that I am capable of doing, but just really hate doing (sounds like maybe I need a VA, LOL!). I have been relatively strong on this and invested in training to make me more confident, given additional effort in completing the task, but also knowing when it is not working and walking away.

Lesson 5

Lumpy workflow. I was lucky enough to be very successful at recruiting clients right from week one. However, there have been times when I have been down to a few hours of work a week, which is mainly down to me not being more disciplined at keeping the flow of marketing and networking steady in busy times as well as quiet times. Moving forward I am planning on more discipline on steady promotion to even out my lumpy cashflow.

Hopefully this will help some new starters or those standing on the edge of launching their own, new enterprise.

If you want a sounding board – you know where I am!

The power of praise and positivity

In this day and age, we often do not feedback our thanks and appreciation to those that may have helped us or gone the extra mile to provide a good service.

I believe that praise and positive feedback (where due) is highly valuable and do not see enough of it. I am not just talking about big gestures, but the small ones that can often lift a person’s spirits and make their day.

Associated with this is the Random Acts of Kindness movement which first came to my attention in 2014 when teenager Stephen Sutton went viral when dying from cancer but displayed an amazing positive attitude that went way beyond his years. He posted a double thumbs up and his mourners were then asked to perform Random Acts of Kindness in his memory.

So what I would ask is that in the next week, make a conscious effort to provide some positivity where due:

  • Post a great review on Google, LinkedIn or FaceBook for a product or service you have received
  • Give a personal ‘thank you’ by telling someone directly how you appreciated their effort. (Especially if they are often overlooked – how many of us make a point of thanking networking event organisers for all their time and efforts, for example!)
  • Let someone with a few items go before you in the queue at the supermarket
  • Offer the change if someone is struggling at the car park machine
  • Thank those that are regularly around us such as colleagues, friends or family who we forget help us every day

Just think of the difference it makes to you when you receive thanks or a surprise positive gesture. It feels great…and you are more likely to pass it on!

Let’s make the world a smilier place!

Work Smarter, not Harder!

Continuing my theme of Marginal Gains, in this post we will look at a few tools that will save you time which can then be put to better use. Some you may be using already but hopefully someone will benefit from these.

Finance

An obvious one is an accountancy app such as Xero or Quickbooks. These allow you to keep on top of your receipts, invoice payments and outstanding bills in a user-friendly and ‘instant’ fashion. With Making Tax Digital now in full flow they are also required for VAT returns.

There’s now no need to try and remember your car journeys or try to keep track of odd notes in the car. With MileIQ it automatically tracks your mileage and with a swipe you can classify each trip then send the monthly report directly into Xero, for example.

Communications

Two tools that come to mind (although I appreciate there are plenty more not covered here!) are Slack and Zoom. Slack is like a private Facebook platform for your organisation providing a single place for messaging, tools and files – helping everyone save time and collaborate together. Zoom is a video-calling platform which helps to build relationships without the hours in traffic.

Productivity

Working efficiently with a team on a project when the parties are in different locations can be a challenge. In today’s world where we expect next day mail deliveries and instant chatbot responses it is increasingly important to be slick with our workflows. Trello is an online collaborative Project Management tool which gives internal teams and clients access and visibility to progress on the job in hand without the headache of trying to schedule in regular update meetings.

Where documents are used collaboratively OneDrive which is part of MS 365 helps that eternal cycle of track changes and circulation of documents by email. Selected parties have access to and the rights to view and edit shared documents.

The above is only a tiny snapshots of how you can gain some valuable time by working in a different manner. That time over the days, weeks and months can then be used for more interesting and/or profitable use.

Little things add up to a big deal

We hear a lot about agility, innovation and disruption but what do they mean in real terms on the ground? I have a belief that collaboration, sharing and receptiveness are key to individuals who are working towards making their organisation progressive.

One element of this is knowledge sharing which might take the form of formal scheduled sessions where ideas are exchanged, explored and actions agreed. On the other hand, it might be more along the lines of what turned around our Olympic cycling performance.

Sir Dave Brailsford, a former professional cycler who holds an MBA, applied a theory of marginal gains—the team broke down everything they could think of that goes into competing on a bike, and then improved each element by 1%, anticipating it would achieve a significant aggregated increase in performance….and it worked!

This can be applied in the office too and if enough tiny improvements are made, surely your bottom line will also reflect the benefits?

My thoughts are that if everyone thinks about just 5 ways to improve everyday working and shares it with 5 people on condition that they too pass on 5 tips to 5 colleagues the workforce will become more productive and feel better about their achievements. How about extending the ‘5 to 5’ approach and making an effort to do it on a Friday – fifth day of the week?

Take some time this week to think about your tips and communicate the idea by sharing this article with colleagues.

Here are my 5 for to get you started:

1.       If you don’t use shortcut keys but rely on using a mouse to navigate it is worth exploring this. For example, shortcuts on a PC such as Ctrl+P for printing, Ctrl+Alt+E for the Euro symbol, etc

2.       When checking documents doing the review round, use Word’s Compare document feature in the Review tab just to be sure no one has sneaked in changes and not tracked them visually

3.       Keep your PC/laptop ‘Desktop’ free from clutter and large files to speed up the start-up process

4.       Format Painter in MS Office is a great way to replicate font type, size and colour from one part of a document to another. Highlight the chosen item, go to format painter on the Home toolbar at the top and then highlight the item to be changed.

5.       When using PowerPoint and creating graphical slides, switching on the Gridlines in the View tab can help with alignment and save time moving items around manually.

In themselves these are not earth shattering but to some people one or more of these over the course of a year could make that ‘Theory of Marginal Gains’ difference.

Let me know how you get on with these and with the spirit of sharing your top tips. We all have something to learn…me included!

Please see the resources area for a crib sheet – www.vivava.co.uk/resources/

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Tiny improvements add up to more than the sum of their parts

When reading lots of official and authoritative articles on business improvement you can all too easily be defeated or put off before you’ve digested the messaging because the information looks like it does not apply to you as an entrepreneur or small business. It’s fine if you have multi-million budgets and hoards of people to turn ideal methodologies into amazing new methods of working.

However, one theory I feel is worth looking at is Sir Dave Brailsford’s marginal gains approach. He was responsible for turning the fortunes (somewhat dramatically) of the British cycling team who won seven out of 10 gold medals at Beijing and again in London.

Sir Dave was interested in process improvement and the Kaizen methods but he realised that there was real traction in not thinking big but quite the opposite. By thinking small…very small, he gambled that if the team broke down everything they could think of that goes into competing on a bike, and then improved each element by 1%, they would achieve a significant aggregated increase in performance…and it worked!

But how can small businesses capitalise on this and ‘Go for Gold’? By taking time out and examining all the elements such as Marketing, Sales, Finance, team motivation/goals, premises, logistics, packaging suppliers and so on, break each of these areas down even further…and again, and again to get down to each tiny element to see how they can be improved in some small way.

For example, ask yourself….

  • Would your team benefit from an online typing course to speed up the processing of orders?
  • Could you go for cheaper plain cartons rather than 2 colour printed ones without any negative impact with customers? Does it even need a carton?
  • Do the sales team need Excel training to get more out of their analysis?
  • Is it more cost effective to outsource at times when you need those skills/manpower rather than employing someone full-time?
  • Would there be real benefits of sharing files on a G Drive or DropBox in the cloud to speed up access by SmartPhone to important ‘Just In Time’ information while with a customer?
  • By learning to use Word more effectively could you make ‘Wow’ proposals in a shorter length of time?

For the full benefit of this marginal gains approach (or 1 % rule) it needs to be embraced as a culture, not a quick fix, by the whole team from end to end which might take a while but as Sir Dave found out it can be the path to victory over your competitors.

Don’t make things harder than they need be

 

You are busy running your own enterprise, doing what you are best at but there comes a point when there’s not enough of you to go around but you cannot justify employing an FTE to help. Sound familiar?

That is where Viva VA! comes into play!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

We can help with a range of services such as sales enablement, sales operations, marketing and admin that will then leave you free to do what you are best at. And the good part…you don’t have to spend time recruiting an FTE. You can buy anything from half a day a month, a bank of hours to use over the year or just the resources for a project.

Feedback includes:

“…a safe pair of hands.”

“…continually thinking of innovative improvements…”

“…I would not hesitate to recommend Fiona…”

“Hard working, knowledgeable and enthusiastic…”

Contact me today to find out more…I am happy to talk through the best ways I can help you, without obligation.

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