Business Monitor
for losers. It’s the glue that binds the losers together.” In East of Eden the writer John Steinbeck said: “Nothing was ever created by two men. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything.” Both those comments come from individualists, but you can see the point that they are making. It matters because the millennials – those born between 1985 and 2000 – are much keener on working independently than as part of a team. So the concept of team-working is, as a minimum, changing and even, perhaps, becoming outdated.
Confront what you are avoiding This can come in a wide variety of forms. In extreme cases, business owners stop opening the mail for fear of what it may include and it’s instantly apparent how destructive that can be. Usually, this is fear of the unknown taking control, a fear that is invariably far worse than the reality.
Give the brain a
rest. Between complex tasks, take some time out, if only for 10 minutes. It’s like switching off a computer – it always works better after you switch it back on. So too the human brain. Multi-tasking interferes with or prevents that time out.
Assuming things haven’t reached the
extreme, you could probably use some help. If the issue is financial, start with your bank and/or accountant. There may well be simple, or at least manageable solutions. If it’s a staff member you may well have to bite the bullet and get rid. I have seen a number of businesses go through this and each time that P45 has been beneficial because it turns out that the individual in question had been irking everybody.
Do you need a mentor? It’s lonely at the top. In a recent Times
survey a third of CEOs in the top 350 companies admitted to loneliness and they are surrounded by other directors, non-executives and consultants. Having someone who has arm’s length perspective and a lot of experience can be hugely beneficial when you are struggling to decide on a course. I confess that I don’t know how to find a
| 22 | February 2016
mentor. A web search either gave me nothing or vastly too much. You might already know someone recently retired from this or an allied sector who has the expertise that will help.
How well are you? The press is full of those diet and detox regimes as I write. Perhaps you need one. If you are visibly, significantly overweight that can be having a negative effect on the business. You’re in marketing’s clothing sector – it is desirable that the product looks at least decent on you. Much the same applies to fitness. If you struggle with stairs it’s sending a negative message. That message is this person doesn’t look after himself/herself. It leads customers to question how well you will look after them. Fatism has become the acceptable, if unspoken, prejudice. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and other books, as well as being a highly paid business consultant, says that teethism is set to be next acceptable prejudice. Visibly poor dentition sends that same message of not looking after yourself.
Switch off the technology I don’t mean permanently and go and
live in a cave, I mean for a time every week or every day. Switch off that mobile phone so nobody can get through to you for an agreed part of a day. They can email instead, but it’s my quiet thinking time is a totally valid reason. That includes family, incidentally. Equally, don’t be a slave to social media. It may be one of your key business generation tools, but you don’t need to be on top of it all the time – you
are not a needy teenager. The same applies to email. Try this: for the next few days, mentally divide your new inbox into must, maybe and delete. I predict the proportion will be roughly 1:2:5, which demonstrates how much trash you’re downloading.
Aim to improve the effectiveness of meetings Start by keeping them short – 20 minutes is good, because after 25 minutes our attention drifts and falls away seriously after 30 minutes. Ban food and drink; anyone who can’t last 20 minutes without has a problem other than meetings. Outlaw technology: it is a distraction and old fashioned hand written notes embed the information in our brains far better. Do meetings standing up: when people sit down they become verbose and upright is our mental cue for action, which ought to be the key purpose of a meeting.
Can you give yourself a pay rise? In other words can you increase your prices? A lot of businesses were forced to cut prices during the recession and haven’t really got them back to previous levels yet. Have a good look at recent invoices and
hunt for any areas where you are undercharging the market rate. Is there anything you provide free that others charge for? Can you focus more on premium products which generate higher margins? Are there any additional sales you are missing? In America, in particular, hats and caps form a much bigger part of this market than in Britain. Look for those add-on sales. If you don’t ask, you won’t get.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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