Physician Heal Thyself

This morning I received an email; not an unusual or particularly exciting event in itself: I do receive a lot of emails!  

However, this one got my attention, for all the wrong reasons!

Had I not known the sender I would have deleted the message based on the subject line which started ‘Please Guys (& Gals) _sic.

Which I consider to be at best patronising, at worse downright offensive!  By the way my partner, a female, was very offended at being

a) not one of the guys,

and

b) being an afterthought in brackets.

The body of the message continued in the same vein.  

Here are some of the words from the body of the email:-

Embarrassing, unprofessional, selfish, stupid, irresponsible

These words were being directed at me, the reader, to convince me that I should do business with this group as they are the experts and true professionals in their sphere of activity.

I know and understand what these guys do; it’s something in the finance sector.

 I can only assume they are panicking and are desperate for business if they believe that being rude, offensive and patronising is the way to get my business!

There could, of course, be another issue here. The author of the email may well indeed be ‘red hot’ at whatever he and his colleagues do in the financial sector; but I do wonder about their marketing, communication and selling skills; perhaps they should take their own advice and consult a (professional ) expert to  avoid....

Embarrassing, unprofessional, selfish, stupid and irresponsible

....interaction with potential clients!

Just a thought.

Phil E

By the way if you need help from a professional why not visit the Business Adviser Forum

Chewing Gum and Wedding Rings

OR

Carelessness and Commitment

I’ve had a fall; I slipped on some discarded chewing gum on the stairs at the station and I broke my finger.

Not that big a deal but because of the injury I had to have my wedding ring cut off. For me, that was a big deal.

You see, when we made our vows, my husband placed that ring on my finger and I’ve not taken it off since – not once. Now, because of a careless, thoughtless act, that ring is broken and lying in a drawer.

This is a Business Advisers Forum, so why am I telling you about this minor domestic issue? Well, it got me thinking about relationships, why they work, or not.

It occurred to me that a business relationship should be a bit like a successful marriage; it requires a commitment from both parties, it requires honesty, give and take and seeing out the good and bad times together.

This forum – The Business Advisers Forum – is about banding together for mutual benefit. It is to promote professional, ethical business people and to share knowledge and experience. Let’s work together to grow it, to nail our colours to the mast of professionalism and ethical business practices.

And the chewing gum? All our actions have consequences, intended or not. If we don’t think about what we’re doing we can do damage and not necessarily to ourselves. Conversely, with thought and care we can be a power for good in the world and that has never been more important.

My call to action is that each of us will encourage at least one contact during the next week to join the Forum. We should be honouring our ambassador status and broadcasting the message long and loud.

In this case bigger is better!

Ps. Is your business in the Showcase yet? Mine is – ShoeBox Admin. If you need someone to design your advertisement for you, click on mine and contact me; that’s shelagh@shoeboxadmin.com

Lonely at the helm isn't it?

What do most SME business owners and entrepreneurs talk about when together?

There are many consistent themes - regardless of their age, experience, business activity, etc.

Disregarding sport, I find the most topical currently is still about funding/banks/economic conditions, etc.

The most consistent, however - when they feel comfortable to display some honest emotion - is just how lonely it is when you are the one that everybody - & I mean everybody (inside & outside the business) - look to for answers, direction, etc.

Let's be honest here - we all know that we don't & can't have all the answers. In a lot of cases we don't even know the questions! So, what do these people do about that sense of isolation & loneliness?

Well, an awful lot of them don't own up to it - they think it's some sign of weakness & so they typically adopt a quite "macho" & sometimes abrasive style of management (& yes, I'm afraid this is predominantly a male trait!). These rarely turn out to be happy or successful businesses over the long term.

The more enlightened look around for some kind of support mechanism. They use either coaches/mentors that typically work on a 1-to-1 basis with the business owner or membership organisations - such as ACE/Vistage/Entrepreneurs World - that enable peers to meet and facilitate their sharing of experiences, ideas and contacts.

If you are finding it lonely up there at the front - what are you going to do about it?

If you have found a satisfactory answer, please share it with us.

Anything Goes!

‘Write a blog entry’, the man said.

‘What about?’ I asked.

‘Anything’, he said.

So here goes.

When it comes to business though, ‘anything goes’ is not a good idea.

You start your own business because you’re fed up with seeing someone else benefit from your labours, or after redundancy there are few other options. You’re good at something, building, beauty therapy, dog training, cooking for example; or you’re a professional; accountant, lawyer, or a medico and you decide to give it a go. You are not necessarily good at, or professionally qualified in running a business.

Very few are like me when I set out on my own. My business IS business administration.

Whatever the reason you start, being your own boss does not mean that anything goes.

You learn pretty quickly that the Taxman has other ideas, so do the bankers. Suppliers, customers, staff, accountants, they all have their demands and you find yourself, at best, juggling too many balls for comfort. The happy dream of being your own boss and doing things your way becomes a distant memory.

It’s not too late to fix things, to call in help from someone who knows about the business of doing business. If your car goes wrong you think it wise to get an experienced mechanic in; if your business is not functioning at its best then call in an expert. It makes sense.

Even better, get it right from day one. The SOFA programme from www.shoeboxadmin.com gives you the HOW to get the business side of your business set up efficiently when everyone else has told you WHAT you must do. Like the best of machinery, what goes on beneath the hood should make the primary function smoother, more efficient, not interfere with it. Your back office procedures should be geared to helping, not hindering your progress to success.

When it comes to running a business, get the business side of it right, call in an expert and leave ‘anything goes’ for the beach!

www.shoeboxadmin.com

A new Centre of Excellence

This is the inaugural post from the Business Adviser Forum.

Why not visit our website to see how The Business Adviser Forum can help you and your business.