2020, please leave by the nearest exit. Take all your baggage with you.

Ah, 2020. You promised so much, with your pleasing numerical repetition, box fresh decade and perfect vision. And yet… what the actual fresh hell was that all about? So as we stand, teetering on the far edge of the most challenging 366 days (because this year was really crying out for another 24 hours to be piled on top) any of us have ever seen, it feels appropriate, and a little brave, and probably mostly foolish, to take a glance back and see what we have learned as business owners from this year.

So first up in this non-exhaustive, slightly arbitrary list of learning, is:

There’s a reason strategic plans should be written on Post-Its

Here in the Allotment, we have always been big fans of the Post-It note when it comes to strategic planning. Because no matter how much you intend to do something in your business, other factors can bump you off course  and so to pick up part of your plan on a small square of low-tack paper and place it back down somewhere else is pretty par for the course. And this year, many businesses were less bumped and more catapulted from their plan. It is not just about contingency planning – something that a lot of small business owners don’t get too concerned with – it is about recognising the time to ditch the plan and get creative about building a new one. Guy, from Origins of Beaty, one of our Business Shed members agrees: “2020 has taught me how important it is to be versatile.”

This year more than ever, business owners have created strategy on the fly in response to the shifting landscape around them and the changes can be positive. Shed member Kristy from Ray Lowe Studios agrees. “the lockdown period made us realise that we were sometimes a little complacent and not pushing our business in the direction it needed to go …we needed this to adapt to new challenges.” Those that have navigated this well are those that think creatively, with an agile approach, and always have a pack of Post-Its in their back pocket.

‘Be Kind’ is not just a slogan on an organic cotton sweatshirt

Blimey, this year has really brought the kindness agenda to the fore. Not everyone got the memo, of course, but as some business owners juggled uncertainty, ever-changing plans, family, home education and the contingency planning around what to sacrifice should the toilet paper actually run out, other reached out. Wellbeing was talked about in business networking, business groups like the Business Shed were as much about support and kindness as about strategic planning and it was actually okay to not be okay.

And many business owners were reminded that the single most important person they needed to be kind to was themselves. One of our Shed members, Liz from Olivine Consulting, summarised it succinctly: “Don’t beat myself up! S**t happens to knock us off track. Get help.”

Business owners tend to try to be superheroes. Many of us have been running a business alongside several other full time occupations this year: teacher, parent, carer and so on. Don’t try to be superhuman, it’s exhausting enough to be human. After all, a cape is just another bloody surface you have to wipe down with anti-bacterial spray.

Take some eggs out of that basket…no wait, put some back in

So here is a tale of two halves. I have spent a lot of 2020 talking to business owners and two themes seem to emerge when discussing how this year has shaped their businesses. First lesson: diversification. Some business owners have been forced to diversify their offering to create income. Sally Beckford, owners of Solutions HR and Shed member, said: “Ensure you have an offering that is diverse… take time to reflect, review and adapt when you need to.”

Yet there are a whole raft of other businesses whose lesson has been around simplification. As lockdown two happened, the Business Shed talk was all about businesses getting back their focus on their core expertise. With perhaps reduced staff and a stern eye on the finances, stripping back to what a business was really all about was an effective way to survive the year. Without the pandemic, many business owners would not have looked at their business with such a critical eye, but in fact, chipping off those ‘business barnacles’ – those offerings or products that have been added on as a business evolves, perhaps without as much strategic intent as was needed – helping to create a more efficient, agile business that really knew what its super power was.

Side hustle, step forward

Small business owners are a talented and multi-skilled bunch, this much we know. By default, when you start your business, you are at the mercy of the 89 hats principle: you have your expert’s hat, be it business strategy, cake baking or furniture making. But as a small business owner, it quickly dawns on you that you have to at some point also wear the other 88 hats. This is an unattractive range of headwear including IT support, FD, social media manager, office manager, receptionist, sales and marketing manager and tea maker. None of these hats fit you very well, some of them actually make your head hurt a lot, and others just make you look a tad ridiculous. But until you can outsource or skill up, wear them you must. This attitude of turning your hand to whatever necessity dictates has this year, reinforced the importance of the side hustle.

Business owners who for whatever pandemic-shaped reason cannot maintain income levels have turned to their side hustle, or created one, to help bridge the income gap. I know people who have turned to tutoring, freelance writing, and several craft ventures. Some may frown and mutter about losing focus or business momentum. Let’s instead talk about how one hustle can help another, and not only financially. Side hustles are not on the side any more, and they should never be considered a hustle. In this year of multi tasking, where business owners also home educated, volunteered, cared, and so on, we should rename the side hustle. What is the collective name for several businesses? A jostle? An acreage? A hat shop?

The 2020 lexicon

No look back at the year is complete without a quick run down of the obligatory breathless entrants into the Word of the Year competition. And this year, we have a packed field.

First up, ‘Zoom’. It quickly joined the elite band of brands that superceded its intended usage and became not only a proper noun, but a verb too. A decade ago you may have heard someone proclaim: “I am going to hoover the bedroom.” This year, it’s all about ‘I’m off to zoom with my team.”

It also spawned some subsidiary phraseology, such as the Zoom tidy, where you have to tidy the slice of your room that will be seen by your webcam, usually in a flat panic. Personally, the zoom tidy got very wearing very quickly, so I built a foldable screen to sit in front of. Thus creating the lesser known phrase: zoom smug.

Zoom became so ubiquitous in 2020 that you could, in fact, just chuck in front of any other word and feel the satisfaction of riding the linguistic zeitgeist: yes, I’m talking about you, Zoom fatigue. 2020 was the year of zoom. Fat Larry’s band have never had it so good.

‘Pivot’. Ugh. If one more person tells me they have pivoted their business, I will… not say or do anything as I am being Kind. But inside, I shall be quietly but firmly telling them to go pivot.

‘Stay safe’. A 2020 sign off phrase that is given with the best of intentions but quickly started to sound like an empty mantra of nation who lip syncs to happy birthday as they wash their hands again because they touched their own front door. As advice goes, it’s a little like reminding people not to jump in front of a speeding lorry or go and lick the face of your neighbour.

‘Mute’. Oh lord, please help us. We are over ten months into this, and still, on most video calls: “YOU’RE ON MUTE, BOB. UNMUTE YOURSELF BOB.” Forget the charity swear box. Start a mute box and watch the cash come rolling in.

So there you have it. 2020, inexpertly and slightly randomly reviewed. From the Allotment, we wish you the best Christmas you can have ‘what with one thing and another’. As years go 2020 set the bar pretty damn low, so all I can say is: here’s to a shinier, new and improved 2021.

Wait. Am I on mute?