Small Acorns

Words: 423
Reading time: 1 min 25 secs

The small business that begins with one individual using a particular technical skill, be it plumbing, printing, legal, web design, or any one of a host of other talents will eventually reach a sales and profit plateau unless something changes.

What may not be obvious is that if potential new customers are not signing up they are telling you they are unhappy and it means that the business needs to do something about it. That’s a valuable lesson, because it will probably apply equally to your existing customers who have refrained from complaining with typical British reticence. You, as the astute small business owner, need to pick up on the language of silence.

Before launching into an expensive (and possibly fruitless) campaign to find fresh fields to harvest, have a look at the ground you are already ploughing.

Your current customers provide your current revenue and they need to be cared for first. And your best customers should receive most of your attention. If you want your customers to stay with you then they are deserving of some special treatment even if it results in being slightly unfair to newer, smaller customers.

This may seem obvious but many businesses just take their present customers for granted. A moment’s reflection will probably reveal that your relationship with your customers is the often only thing stopping them switching to another firm. Such relationships need worked to keep them fresh and constantly renewed. That need not be particularly expensive, or time consuming – but it is invaluable.

Being a great plumber is only part of making a living in a plumbing business. Marketing and sales skills are also needed, as are finance and self-motivation. Without those skills being appropriately exercised customers will neither be recruited, nor will they stay and the technical skill, whatever it is, will be destined to waste away from lack of use.

If you have had the nerve and the self-belief to set out in business for yourself the need to learn more about how that is done successfully will come as no surprise. These are not natural, instinctive skills and few of us have the time or the money to make all the mistakes required to learn by trial and error.
It is demonstrably easier and cheaper to learn from those who already have the proven skills and are willing to share them through seminars, like those provided by H&H Business, to add the missing ingredients of success. They are a shortcut to early success and save an awful lot of time.

Who else is feeling isolated?

Words: 762 Reading time: 2 minutes 32 seconds

Are you feeling isolated? It’s a common emotion. It’s even more common among those of us who take responsibility, or have responsibility thrust upon us.

What is it?
Isolation: it’s a sense of being marooned, of having nobody else you can turn to. The origin of the word – island – gives that same sense of being surrounded by a cold, uncaring and vast expanse of sea.

That’s not to say that we only feel isolated when we are alone; far from it. Feeling isolated on some issues in an otherwise close marriage will be familiar to some of my readers. The same sorts of feelings can arise among the partners or directors in a business. In such situations there’s a strong, shared bond while at the same, at some deeper level, there’s a ‘but’. The ‘but’ is not about the whole relationship, just one particular issue, or one particular area of concern.

If we can feel like this in a close relationship, how much more likely are such feelings when the relationships are not so close – such as a small businessman with a few employees, or a sole practitioner?

Feeling Isolated Is Not Feeling Lonely
Anyone familiar with these feelings will recognize that feeling isolated and feeling lonely are two different things. Feeling lonely is much more generalized. It’s a feeling that spreads through all the areas of our life. Being isolated, in contrast, is confined to one specific aspect, topic or area. To be isolated – by this definition – is not to be universally lonely, although it can be a part of that wider feeling.

What does it feel like?
People who feel isolated will sometimes describe a high wall, built by them, which they cannot see over. It surrounds their area of isolation. There’s a door. Only they can go through. When they feel isolated it means they have gone through, closed it behind them and are left sitting, helpless, surrounded by a featureless plain.

At other times isolation is just a small room, again, it’s featureless. It’s just us and our feelings of nagging uncertainty, disquiet and irresolution.

That nagging uncertainty, disquiet and irresolution is certainly part of feeling isolated, so too is privacy. When going through the wall, or into the room, we close the door. Nobody else can come in – obviously, otherwise it wouldn’t be isolation.

Even when we hold the feeling of isolation internally, we have an empty space within. None of the other areas where we have capacity (ability to do things) can come in. Being isolated is something we guard very closely.

Isolation has sole ownership, an exclusivity. Whatever issue or situation the isolation is built around, the individual feels sole responsibility. Others may be aware of the matter; they may even be addressing it. There could even be a whole team of folk involved. Yet isolated people feel that only they are affected in some special way and the solution – or at least the key part – must come from them.

If I’m Feeling Isolated, Can You Tell?
Spotting the people who are feeling isolated is never easy. There may be signs of strain around the eyes, or at the corners of the mouth, or in a phrase or a gesture. But such faint indicators may have other causes. And until the individual feels ready any question touching on that area is likely to be denied. The privacy condition will kick in, along with the conviction that “it’s up to me; no-one else can help.”

At best theses feelings erode self-confidence and our willingness to decide and our persistence is carrying things through. At worst such feelings can degenerate into depression. As with most things, just recognizing and acknowledging that such feelings exist is half the battle. Knowing that such feelings are so common also makes it much easier to say “me too!”

What Role Can Coaches Play?
Of course, for me to be involved with a client who tells me that they feel isolated will mean I have been invited through their door, or into their room. Already there are cracks appearing in those painfully constructed and lovingly maintained walls. The barriers are already crumbling. Even so, there’s often much work to be done by the client, although their isolated feelings are dissipating already.

Engaging with a Coach, or an NLP Practitioner, who is sensitive to these issues will help immensely, because the Coach is familiar with similar conditions, is not party to the issues and leaves you in charge of the final resolution – which is just what you wanted all along.