Business Growth

Greetings

Welcome to the new look newsletter from Catch Bigger Fish, we have made the conscious decision to make this new format more like a magazine rather than a newsletter. More on that later.?

Who would believe we are now in March, the days are starting to get longer and sun is finally appearing in our skies and warming our skin. Just yesterday morning I was driving to meet a client when I pulled up at the traffic lights with the window down enjoying the fresh air when a young professional lady pulled up next to me in her convertible with the roof down and said, “morning”. I glanced over and replied, “morning”. I turned back to the traffic lights as I heard, “Nice weather for a change!”. I again looked at her and replied. “It does make a change to see the sun.” She looked directly at me and mouthed, “I’m on the phone!” which brought a huge smile of irony to my face. As I chuckled at the unexpected twist, I couldn't help but think, "Well, I guess the sun isn't the only thing catching people's attention these days!"

I hope you enjoy the new look and format to our newsletter which is a mixture of business articles and humour. We aim to help you grow your business interests, stay informed with new technology and enjoy the odd funny story.?

Enjoy our new newsletter

Entrepreneur, author, coach and speaker

Content of Today’s Newsletter

Main Article -Planning to fail?

Cool Tech -Otter more than just a fluffy mammal

Guest Article -Why everyone should write a book

Support Article -Do you have a Plan for Total IT failure?

Recommendation and round up/ book reviews?

Planning to Fail?

The Importance of Reviewing Goals and Plans at the End of the First Quarter

As we reach the end of the first quarter of the year, it's a perfect time to pause and reflect on the goals and plans you set for your business at the beginning of the year. While it may seem like just yesterday when you were mapping out your strategies, taking a moment to review and reassess your direction can be crucial for maintaining momentum and achieving success throughout the rest of the year. Here are a few reasons why reviewing your goals and plans is essential:

Evaluate Progress: By reviewing your goals, you can assess how far you've come since the beginning of the year. Celebrate the achievements and milestones reached, but also identify any areas where you may have fallen short. Understanding what has worked well and what needs improvement is key to making informed decisions moving forward.

Adjust Priorities: As the business landscape evolves, so too may your priorities. Reviewing your goals allows you to reassess what is most important for your business at this moment. You may find that certain objectives are no longer relevant or that new opportunities have emerged that warrant your attention. Being flexible and willing to adapt is essential for staying competitive in today's dynamic market.

Identify Challenges: Reflecting on your goals and plans can help you identify any obstacles or challenges that may be hindering your progress. Whether it's resource constraints, market fluctuations, or internal inefficiencies, acknowledging these challenges early on allows you to develop strategies to overcome them and keep your business on track.

Set Clear Direction: By revisiting your goals, you can reaffirm your vision and purpose for your business. Clarifying your objectives and setting actionable steps for achieving them provides you and your team with a clear direction to follow. This clarity of purpose fosters alignment and motivation, driving greater productivity and success.

Improve Accountability: Regularly reviewing your goals holds you and your team accountable for your actions and outcomes. It ensures that everyone is aligned with the overarching objectives of the business and encourages a culture of responsibility and ownership. When individuals understand how their contributions Add to the larger goals of the organisation, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to achieving success.

In conclusion, the end of the first quarter presents a valuable opportunity for business owners to pause, reflect, and recalibrate their goals and plans for the remainder of the year. By evaluating progress, adjusting priorities, identifying challenges, setting clear direction, and improving accountability, you can position your business for continued growth and success in the months ahead.

Should you need help reflecting on your plans or even creating those plans please get in touch and we will be happy to help you.

Entrepreneur, author, coach and speaker

Cool Tech?

Otter More Than Just a Fluffy Mammal

The main reason we started using Otter was to enable us to record a transcript on any mobile device and then access those notes from a PC. This enabled us to record notes from our impromptu team meetings which automatically gave us a list of shareable action points and a summary rather than having to wade ?through the transcript.?

As a team we found it useful to record reflections of our targets and progress rather than just typing up a few notes. What it has allowed us to capture is the emotion of an event which is hard to reflect in written text. Once again this can be a full transcript, summary, action points or even a full MP3 recording. Our next challenge is to use it to record calls with possible clients to help us identify their individual goals and ambitions. There is a free version to start you off and with an option to upgrade if you need to.?

Why Everyone Should Write a Book

Can Writing a Book Help you to Grow your Business?

Welcome to the thrilling journey of transforming your wealth of knowledge into tangible rewards! In today's digital era, the opportunity to monetise your expertise isn't just an option; it's a gateway to achieving your dreams and sharing your unique insights with the world.?

Imagine turning your years of learning, experimenting, and mastering skills into a source of income that not only benefits you but also enriches the lives of others. This is the essence of knowledge monetisation—a process where your expertise becomes the product that's in high demand across the globe.

Why is this so important now? We live in an age where information is abundant, but wisdom is scarce. Your ability to distil complex concepts into understandable, actionable advice positions you as a beacon of knowledge in a sea of information.?

Leveraging your expertise in today's digital market means tapping into an ever-growing audience eager to learn, grow, and transform their lives. Whether you're a fitness guru, a tech wizard, or a marketing maestro, your knowledge has the power to create impact and build leads for your business by developing trust and by becoming an authority.?

Building authority is like planting a garden. It requires patience, nurturing, and genuine care. But as your garden grows, so does the trust and respect of those who find shelter in its shade. You’re not just sharing knowledge; you’re building a legacy of trust, one that turns followers into advocates and content into conversations.

Jennifer?

Author and Publisher

Do you have a Plan for Total IT failure?

We have all heard of the many reasons as to why we have a different password for every application that we use and why we should change our computer login details every six weeks or so. But what do you have in place in case of total IT failure?? My attention to this matter totally changed after the events of 9-11. The reason being that the IT services for the majority of twin towers was located on one dedicated floor of the tower block. Which was probably a good idea when planning for the towers to provide a full suite of services to its clients. However I can recall how a company that was located in the towers and was lucky enough to have the manpower to continue trading post 9-11 but could not because their whole infrastructure had been lost and that included all the backups of their data and all of their systems.?

Fast Forward a couple of decades and cloud storage is dirt cheap. I know there are security risks with having all of your data in the cloud, but that will be discussed on a different day. Experience has shown me that I will work from a secure laptop whenever I can but rather than having all that data solely in the cloud I have it cloned to my laptop which I work with and then sync it to the cloud when I need to. It gives me the advantage of local working with cloud access and back up as when I need it. That way if i do lose the laptop or get locked out of my data by some malicious person/event I can still work.?

To reduce the risk of data loss we use the 3-2-1 approach to data storage. Three copies of our data in two different formats and one set of data stored off site.?

For an archive we have been using NAS drives (Network Additional Storage) for over ten years with great success. We use this for all the records that we need to keep for compliance with HMRC and other agencies. But the key to its success is not the storage itself, but how they are set up and managed. We use a RAID setup, it sounds complex but anyone with reasonable computer skills can set it up. In short we have two drives that are mirrored. (the data is stored to both drives in case one fails).? But what allows me to sleep at night is the system runs a self diagnostic test every Sunday regarding the health of those drives and the results are emailed to the system administrator to action if anything is not as it should be.?

Freddy?

The Keeper of Secrets at Catch Bigger Fish

Closing statement?

As usual, if there is anything discussed in these pages that you need further assistance with or would like to have a conversation about please click the link here.?

I hope you have enjoyed this new format to the Catch Bigger Fish Newsletter, and I’m sure it will continue to evolve over the coming months as the contributing team continues to grow. But for this new format of the Business Growth to work and continue to be an interesting read to our followers we are asking for you to give us some feedback on its content and tell us what you would actually like to read about or what challenges you are facing as a business owner.?

Next month we will have a featured article on how Richard Branson's April fools joke inspired another business owner to develop a new product that made him millions.?

Wishing you all a successful month.