Ben’s July Newsletter: On Connection, Clarity, and Courage

I have spent the last month chatting to business owners and asking how it feels out there. And the answer - weird, weird, weird…?

There are plenty of reasons why but when I dig a bit deeper several things are showing up.

Connection

A few weeks ago, I caught up with an old mate who is a partner in a decent sized law firm. He said that he spent 2022 getting his staff back into the office and reconnected to colleagues and clients post COVID.

He thought he had done an ok job and then he noticed that a few of his clients were ‘spreading work around’ more than they used to… to other firms.?Being old school, he immediately got out into the market to see what was going on.

The feedback was frightening. For the last three and half years his junior partners and senior lawyers have been ‘missing in the market’. They have not been out building on relationships with clients, they have not been going to client events when invited, and they have not been out at industry events and conferences.

And while his team was missing in action smart mid-sized players have been building relationships and trust, and in 2023 these players have started to win business his partners thought would just come to them.

I pointed out that those of us who have been around a while have two things that drive our businesses, strong networks we have invested heavily in, and an understanding of what is required to both develop and maintain these networks.

I sent him our ‘Connector Swim Lanes’ -a list of over 130 specialties in advice and services that growing companies might use and suggested he get his key staff to see how many people they knew offering those services.

He reported back to me in equal parts horror and fascination. He was horrified to find that his younger partners and senior lawyers were lucky to name over 5 companies each. And he was fascinated that his older partners could name over 20 other experts but most hadn’t actually met up with them in the last four years!

In his words we are experts in the practise of law, but we are no longer experts in the business of law. They had forgotten the power (and requirement for) connection.

Give that exercise ago with your team - and see what shows up? And if you want to get connected let me know and we can have you along as a guest to Connector.

Clarity

At Connector North Harbour last week, we had one of those workshop that makes people look at their business completely differently. I know that because it scored 4.9 out of 5, and Christie and I had been getting calls about it all last week.

Most of us know that ‘intangible assets’ make up a big part of the value of our businesses. But if they account for over 90% of our company worth what is the magic 1% that really determines what makes us valuable, sets us apart from our competition and helps us grow sustainably?

Michael Masterson ran us through a set of concepts and frameworks that opened a window to look at our businesses completely differently.

What people like Michael, and another master of the craft Debbie Humphrey do is provide the lens to get to clarity. In the noise of life and a disrupted market we often do not see clearly what the handful of things are that we can focus on to drive consistent long-term growth, or the market entry strategies to speed it up.

It feels to me for many people I am talking to now is time to pause, take time and get clarity.

In an effort to help we have Michael at Connector Auckland in August and at Connector Wellington in September and Debbie will be at North Harbour in August.

Courage

For those of you who know me well know that the Covid lockdown period of 2020-2021 was a disaster for my old business community. I was extremely lucky to have some members of the community I was running stay committed financially, but many simply could not – so my wife and I made the decision to commit fully to supporting the community and our broader business network and see how things ended up.

At the same time two businesses we had shareholdings in that supplied hospitality in Auckland and Melbourne needed a lot of financial support.

During the last Auckland lockdown that started in August 2021 – which we cheerfully now call the ‘Jacinta-gration’ we realised we had to exit two of our businesses. We then spent 2022 trying to get Connector communities up and going. It is only in the last three months we have seen business owners and experts really starting to get out and about.

It has been a tough time.

So I was saddened to see in Stuff that almost half the small business owners surveyed by Xero, and 60% of sole traders, were not paying themselves, so they could keep their businesses running.

My view is it takes a mixture of insanity and courage to start a business. And once you have the business it requires a reasonable amount of resilience to keep it going.

I have always struggled for a definition of ‘resilience’, but on reflection its actually pretty simple – it is courage repeated every day. It feels to me that for many business owners it is time to draw on that courage!

Coming Up at Connector communities in August

We are keen to grow our communities and keen to have new guests along. We have a great line up in August with -

Auckland – Tuesday 2 August: Michael Masterson (Intrinsika) - Every once and while we have a workshop that makes people look at their business completely differently. Last week at Connector North Harbour we had a workshop that scored 4.9 out of 5, and Christie and I have been getting calls about it all week. So, we are bringing the workshop to Connector Auckland on Tuesday 1 August at 3.00 pm.

Most of us know that ‘intangible assets’ make up a big part of the value of our businesses. But if they account for over 90% of our company worth what is the magic 1% that really determines what makes us valuable, sets us apart from our competition and helps us grow sustainably? Intrinsika works with companies to highlight those critical intrinsic assets that distinguish you from the competition and drive growth and value for your company.?

This will be an interactive, challenging (and fun) look at your business from a completely different perspective.

North Harbour – Tuesday 15 August: Debbie Humphrey (D/srupt) – If you want step change growth it requires clarity and change. Doubling down on what you have been doing will not get you there - or you would be there already! In this workshop we look at how you secure the deals that allows for rapid growth, what that means for your business model and what you need to do next to make it happen.

D/srupt are growth navigators who help businesses outpace the new tide of change. They use strategies and design principles to transform businesses based on deep market analysis for faster, more sustainable growth. Debbie is always one of our top rating workshops – you will leave with a different view of your business!

Wellington – Tuesday 15 August:?Brien Keegan (Sprout)– Growing businesses face several challenging stages for a simple reason – they are the ones that are growing!

These stages are clustered around the small (10 people) to mid-market (50+ people) end of business size. How many people do we know who have got to around 20 staff and then decided to shrink in size?

The Sprout Growth Model is the best summary of the stages of growth, why they occur and what it means that I have seen anywhere. And Sprout are the experts at helping you navigate the stages as you grow your team and your own role as a business owner. Understanding this will remove a lot of pain from your growth journey!

Invitations

We are seeing a lot more people looking for a business community of growing businesses and/or the experts who support them. ?If you or a friend are keen to explore Connector communities and would like to be invited as a guest please feel free to touch base with the community leaders (details below in my signature) or drop me a line.?

Until next time –have fun out there!?

Cheers

Ben

Mobile: 027 4799 950

Website Link: Connector Communities

?About The Author: Ben Marris runs Connector communities for the owners and leaders of emerging ($1m to $10m turnover) growth companies and the advisors and suppliers who support them. He believes that these companies are vital for the prosperity of our communities in a fast-changing world. He loves red wine and a good story. He is also dyslexic, so if there are any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors blame his spell check, he does!?

Connector North Harbour 2023 Dates: Usually the Second Tuesday of every month – Wednesday 15 February, Tuesday 14 March, Tuesday 4 April, Tuesday 23 May, Tuesday 13 June, Tuesday 18 July, Tuesday 15 August, Tuesday 12 September, Tuesday 10 October, Tuesday 14 November.

Contact Christie on [email protected]

Connector Auckland 2023 Dates: Usually the first Tuesday of the month. Tuesday 7 February, Tuesday 7 March, Tuesday 4 April, Tuesday 2 May, Tuesday 6 June, Tuesday 4 July, Tuesday 2 August, Tuesday 5 September, Tuesday 3 October, Tuesday 7 November.

Contact Debra on [email protected]

Connector Wellington 2023 Dates: Usually the Third Tuesday of every month. Tuesday, 21 February 2023, Tuesday, 21 March 2023, Tuesday, 18 April 2023, Tuesday, 16 May 2023, Tuesday, 20 June 2023, Tuesday, 18 July 2023, Tuesday, 15 August 2023, Tuesday, 19 September 2023, Tuesday, 17 October 2023, Tuesday, 21 November 2023.

Contact Mary on [email protected]