A balancing act

Posted on November 26, 2010 by admin

My recent work within the Tourism Industry in New Zealand has highlighted to me just how hard it can be for small businesses to achieve any kind of work/life balance. Tourism, and particularly the activity sector, is a classic example of an industry that is dominated by small businesses. Often the founders of the business want to live and work in a beautiful location that enables them to pursue their own hobbies and passions.

I'm not a worker cartoon These individuals use their personal savings and collateral to establish their business and rarely factor in the value of their own time when developing a business plan. Tourists want to enjoy their holidays 7 days per week so that’s when these small businesses have to be open and operating – evenings too. Paperwork gets done in the wee small hours and a change to health and safety legislation or taxes can be a nightmare lasting months.

Many of these individuals wake up, several years after embarking on their brave enterprise, to wonder where their life went and what happened to the ‘lifestyle job’ they thought they were creating for themselves.

In this kind of situation, when faced with a business challenge, the tendancy is to duck inside the shell, turtle-like, and think frantically about what costs you can cut. Once again, the value of your own time somehow gets lost in the equation and you ‘save’ your business at the expense of what little time you still had left to yourself.

Of course, sometimes, the business and the ideal are simply not viable and maybe it is still worth it to you to be able to look out of the window at the scenery or guide visitors doing a simple version of the pastime you used to be passionate about. But perhaps there is a way of acheiving all of your goals for your business and for your life.

Whatever you do, don’t withdraw back into your shell to focus on the purely defensive ideas. That is one sure way of missing the possibilities available in the world around you. Discuss the situation with your partner and friends. Look for a business mentor to help you work through your options. Be creative about engaging with your competition, your suppliers and your distribution channels – opportunities for mutually productive collaboration can often be the biggest surprise once you start to look around.

After all, you won’t be the only one who wants to find a work/life balance.

Beyond sole trader

Posted on December 7, 2009 by admin

There can be a huge chasm between the world of the sole trader and that of the small business owner. It’s certainly a gap that many trip over, while a few disappear into the depths forever.

Where does the time go?

The biggest challenge for people going through this transition is time. It’s likely that a major reason for the change is that you’re really busy and have more work coming in the door than you can handle by yourself.

Unfortunately, avoiding mistakes that will haunt you for a long time requires spending some time thinking about what you’re doing. Considering alternatives and planning your courses of action. Having a regular scheduled session with a coach or mentor or an experienced friend will help to ensure that you do take the time to consider how you want your business to grow.

I tend to divide these discussions up into categories:

Transition factors for small businesses

People includes

thinking about what you do and how much you’ll be willing to let go of
defining roles and the characteristics of the people you want to work with
leadership and delegation skills

ICT includes

how you’ll communicate with each other and with clients
how you’ll share and record data

Process includes

how you’ll control what happens when and avoid duplication
how you’ll share tasks
how you’ll manage time-scales
how you’ll keep consistent messages to all your staff and to customers

Market includes

where you’ll find the additional business to keep extra staff going
evaluating marketing and PR options
planning your marketing campaign

Each session is focused on one of these categories but often items come up with are much larger in scope and I pull these together into a discussion about where you want to take your business in the medium and long term.

Strategy includes

Defining your vision
Developing a strategic plan

Often the strategic plan will result in some tweaking of the earlier categories but I’v found that it really helps to keep your thinking focused to start with rather than trying to define a strategy from a blank sheet of paper. The discussions on the how, what and where help to give you a sense of perspective. This leads to a much more realistic strategic plan and achievable business growth.

If you’d like me to help you succeed at leaping the gap between sole trader and small business just call me on 03 442 3645 or fill out my contact form.

Frameworks for Innovation

Posted on September 23, 2009 by admin

click for full course outline

Innovation plays a crucial role in the ability of every business to effectively respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by both local and global economies and the environment we operate within. This training course provides the critical skills and tools for developing and sustaining innovation and creating new and improved products, services and processes.

Course objectives

This course will allow participants to:

Solve problems and spot opportunities creatively
Improve existing products and services
Create new products, services and strategies
Become an innovation leader
Ensure that innovation activity is sustainable