Sadly, at the beginning of January, I had a very silly but spectacular fall backflipping up and over out of the bath head first. This left me with a mild concussion. This is a very minor brain injury, but does leave you completely and utterly floored.
Luckily, I had VA to step in and handle the admin, and amazing members in my networking groups to step in and handle the meetings while I took sick leave to recuperate. Knowing I had people that I could trust in my network of connections truly made me relax and focus on getting better.
That in itself is a testament to networking and how a business community can bring together a group of people that will be there to support us when we need it.
In business we are so busy running our business day to day, we don’t stop to think about what may happen when we can’t be there. For example, what would happen if you were suddenly unable to work? Have you got your processes in place? Do you have someone who can access client information?
Accepting help is the opposite to failing, it is the only way to succeed.
Have you thought about re-evaluating your processes, or even better still, how the best way of working is within your business?
This incident has really made me think about the best way of arranging my VA’s work and what the best solution could be there.
Share your data with others!
Our family are really into photography, and my six year old son has also showed a real talent for it. So, for Christmas, my brother got him signed up a 30 day photography challenge which included polaroids! For those who are old enough, you will remember the excitement of when a new film was announced which enabled us to develop our photos within 3-5 minutes.
However, Edwin Land, who created the revolutionary technology passed away suddenly and took the formula with him to the grave. This is why when you now still use polaroids they take such a long time to develop, as no one has yet been able to replicate the formula he devised and kept secret.
Diversify of your business
What would happen if your business was suddenly affected, would you still have cashflow coming in? During the pandemic, many businesses were abruptly awoken by the fact that having all their eggs in one basket could mean serious problems for them financially.
The successful businesses realised they had to quickly diversify.
My local car wash that I have been using for many years, for example, during the pandemic had to add new services to their hand car washing service. They had to quickly upgrade their systems and equipment.
One of the things they have always offered is an excellent personal service – they always had several seating areas for customers to comfortably wait while their car was washed – sadly, during the pandemic they could no longer offer the inside space. They quickly added a pagoda outside with heaters, a lounge area with sofas, a hut for kids to play in, and an outside stalls area for drinks.
They even took it one step further and have teamed up with Enterprise car hire next door to offer even more to their customers! They used their local network to encourage more foot traffic and create an even better customer service for those that were visiting their businesses.
They have built a relationship with a beauty salon so you can get your nails done or get a tan while you wait. They connected with a 24 hour restaurant in the area, so those that are using the car wash can go and grab a coffee. This also helped them attract more customers to their car washing services, as they are attracting the patrons of those businesses to perhaps want to get their car washed too.
I thought this was a clever example of how businesses can think about new ways of using their network of businesses around them to get more customers, provide more customer satisfaction, and diversify their businesses.
1) How have you diversified your products to create a better offering, and ensure you don’t stick all your eggs in one basket?
2) Who have you got in your network that you can ask for help if you fall out of the bath?
3) What tools or tips can you share with each other about organising your business processes?