If things are bad, make them better

20/03/2012 by 1 Comment

Recently, I have been very IMpressed by the North Devon business community.

I’m impressed by a number of businesses I’ve seen investing in and improving their operations. I’m impressed by young people who are eager to find jobs and who are doing impressive work in schools. I’m impressed by people I see working very hard to improve the economy.

Yet when I look at the many things that are wrong, I could easily become DEpressed.

Like everywhere else, the problems are big: unemployment, disconnected young people, empty shops, red tape and more.

I see a choice: moan about how bad things are – so they’ll stay bad – or work to improve them.

I choose the latter, even though I know any action taken now is likely to take several years or more to have a visible effect. Is that a reason not to do anything?

And who is going to do it? It’s not going to happen by itself.

I guess it’s up to us.

Many of us are already working hard to develop our businesses, but we need to improve the business environment in which we operate.

If we want to have up-to-date infrastructure such as superfast broadband, it’s up to us to demonstrate the market need. If we find council planning departments are obstructing economic development and deterring investment, we need to let councils know. If we find bureaucracy is stifling enterprise, we need to let our MPs know.

The voice of one business is unlikely to change anything. The voices of a hundred businesses won’t necessarily change anything either. Perhaps hundreds or thousands of vocal businesses can start to create a stir and continued lobbying by these hundreds or thousands of businesses over weeks or months will start to be heard.

Is it worth it?

Today I have been so impressed by the work of school students that it has inspired me to write this blog. These talented young people will soon be making career choices and the North Devon economy needs them to regenerate the local workforce. But it takes a lot of effort to create job opportunities and fund training. I think that these young people deserve the best chance possible and that we need it to achieve prosperity in years ahead.

I am impressed with the potential for the future in North Devon . . . even if it requires a lot of very hard work.

What do you think we can do to make things better?

 

 

Filed Under: North Devon Business Tagged With: , , , , ,

Get value from business networking

05/03/2012 by Leave a Comment

With so many networking events being held, I could breakfast every day, lunch several times a week and drink away many evenings, but would this help my business or me?

Recently, I have been reminded of the real value of networking from conversations and meetings I have had.

Some people view networking as just a means of getting more business, but I see it more as a means of development for both my business and me. A big part of running a business should be enjoyment and, for me, a big part of networking is enjoying meeting and conversing with people.

In the past two weeks I have been fortunate enough to have conversations with people I like and respect that are helping to drive my business forwards. These people are from across the country and in North Devon, but I have met all of them through networking.

Being able to discuss your business in confidence with someone you trust has three main benefits:

  • It often enables you to remember what you already know but have forgotten: it can set you back on the path towards your goals if you’ve lost your focus.
  • It offers views from a different perspective, a new take on your business, which you may not have seen before. The ideas and advice this can offer are invaluable.
  • It can motivate you to actually put plans into action. So often we think about doing something when we get some spare time, but never get round to it. When we talk about our goals to someone, we start to set our plans in action, especially when we mention deadlines. Once a deadline it set and mentioned to someone else, it is a very good incentive to meet it.

I’ve set . . . and met . . . a number of deadlines recently and am progressing towards others. I see my business moving forward and can tell from client enquiries I am getting that this is achieving results.

Thank you to all who have helped with this.

Of course, the other side to networking is helping other people in return. If I can do the same for others, I will be only too glad.

What value do you see in business networking?

Filed Under: All Blogs, Networking, North Devon Business Tagged With: , , , , ,

Are UK businesses investing? Complete this poll

13/02/2012 by Leave a Comment

Are UK businesses investing? According to some politicians, they’re not. According to some business surveys, they’re not. But in my various guises I’ve spoken to a lot of businesses who are investing.

Now investment does not only include equipment or physical things. In our current economy, investment in knowledge and skills is often just as important, but these can be investments of time. This form of investment does not not necessarily show up in surveys only recognising investments of money.

I believe businesses in the UK are investing millions of hours of time in development. When you consider that there are 4.5 million small businesses in the UK, that would be 4.5 million hours alone if each invests just one hour. Of course, some will invest nothing, while others will invest hundreds or thousands of hours.

What is the value of this investment if time is charged at £10, £25, £50, £100 or more per hour? What is the real picture?

As a start I thought it would be interesting to do a quick poll and see how UK businesses are investing. Please take part and pass on to your connections.

From my own perspective, my business is investing in equipment, in software and in personal and skills development. I am sure many more are doing the same.

Filed Under: General Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Of course I know that. It’s obvious. The reason for disorganisation

16/11/2011 by Leave a Comment

I’m reading a book on business planning at the moment to brush up on a few things. I’m finding The Definitive Business Plan very useful and keep thinking “yes, I know that” and “yes, I do that”. What I don’t do is update these in my own business plan.

Like many business owners, I keep an eye on developments – the economy, marketplace, industries, technology, development, trends – and am in the process of reviewing a lot in my business. Most of this is in my head as I haven’t had the time to sit down and formalise it. Although so much of what is in the book is obvious, putting it down on paper or in a document is what is really important.

One of the dangers of running a business is complacency: doing something again and again because it works. This isn’t always good enough, especially if we have ambitious goals we’d like to achieve.

So I have started making time and getting these thoughts out of my head and into a document.

It’s reminded me not to fall into the trap of thinking I know everything and that getting the basics right is important however long I’ve been in business.

Lesson learned!

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Real benefits from networking

05/11/2011 by Leave a Comment

There are so many networking breakfasts, lunches and evening events we could go to, but what value are they to us? Is our time better spent doing something that will achieve tangible results rather than chatting to people who we are unlikely to use us as suppliers or have no interest in our business as potential customers?

To me, two of the biggest benefits of networking are ideas and advice. That’s why I tend to focus my real-world networking time on NDBA events and COMBEbusiness events, which cover my local territory of Ilfracombe, Woolacombe and Combe Martin, because I favour an open approach over a sales-based approach, which I don’t believe is always appropriate.

Last Wednesday, our COMBEbusiness event looked at the business training and development strategy we are developing at our immediate local level. We did something that often gets forgotten: we asked businesses what they need to achieve their development plans?

What was amazing is that instantly we saw people connecting as one business owner expressed a need and another one revealed how they could help with that need. This would not have happened if those people had not attended the event.

This demonstrated to me the power of networking. Yes, we are all looking for new clients and business, but I think that the opportunity to develop my business significantly is more important in the long term than winning one piece of work which won’t necessarily lead to more. In the longer term, being a better business will attract the higher value clients we want to target.

With formal business support from the public sector receding, this is a reminder of what a huge reservoir of experience and expertise exists within businesses in North Devon. I think networking can help the many of the area’s businesses develop and prosper.

Filed Under: All Blogs, Networking, North Devon Business Tagged With: , , ,