Fit for the Future?

I've taken a long look in the mirror to see if I like the reflection of my business. Is my vision the same, are we getting it right, do my employees get it, want it and more importantly are we attracting new business to our doorstep.

These last few weeks I have taken the time to think hard about the future of my business, asking myself "How can we improve our company profile, I mean, I really believe in our product and service. How can we offer our clients more, how do we expose ourselves to more clients, and what do we need to do to hit the ground running when we are the other side of this current crisis?

Downtime in business

I decided I could use this time positively and modernise how we look. I will be honest here and say I haven't paid much attention to our brand and image over the years. Like every company owner, my head was buried deep in running the business and addressing customers needs; this was my priority.

If I'm really honest, it was probably because the task was too daunting, where do I start, with what, how….forget it….telephone rings….hello sir how can I help!

Marketing development is one of those things I was trying to get to, but it was something I just thought was a bit fluffy and not as important as new products or getting our invoices paid.

Now with a clear in-tray and a new lust for development I've just been focusing on this very one element of my business, and it feels good to concentrate, and with no distractions, or reasons to drop it and head for something else more pressing. I'm in the zone, that's right…. I have been thoroughly marketing whipped (metaphorically speaking).

I started the development process, and not with the logo where I thought I'd be starting, but with a discussion about direction, how I see the business developing and my vision. I mean what has all this to do with fannying around with a logo right? Err wrong

I didn't know at the time, but I needed someone to challenge my thoughts. Anyone who knows me will know, I move fast, I've got great energy, I love people, speak quickly and want to get the job done gogogo.

I needed someone not to get caught up in my fast approach to life. Yes man…. I needed challenging on my thoughts and ideas about marketing and help me with the path to complete my business vision.…you know the saying do the same get the same, yeh I didn't want this, and this is what I knew I'd get if I did it on my own.

Phase 2 Battling with my ego! I know everything about my company, who are you, an outsider to tell me how this all works?

No pain no gain, someone said about exercise, they didn't use when talking about Strategic marketing but they should have.

My education about marketing, positioning, how branding works, target audience development, internal communications the lot, came together over several vision meetings that I had with Shelly Barratt from Coya Marketing & PR.

We hit it off as soon as we met, she got me and wasn't offended by my 70's man style jokes (I think she actually liked them, my son doesn't seem to think so... anyhow I digress back to the story).

Together we have planned the whole shooting match. I must say it's not been easy. I'm challenged on my thinking every time we meet. Being challenged, when you're the boss, and you know your business inside out made me feel uncomfortable that I didn't have the answer's.

I'm the "breadwinner", I hustle, battle and have survived, supported my family, still do, but to be 'told' how to do things by some 'marketing person' was difficult for me to swallow.

Shelly takes no prisoners in her approach, (probably because she didn't need me as a client, and so had no filter telling me her thoughts) I felt out of my comfort zone at every meeting. I'm uncomfortable writing this, I mean I'm the boss of a big company, trading 20 years, I should know everything right, and who exactly is she to tell me how to do something, she doesn't know, she's not been in my shoes in this business. 

I was soon to realise that this type of attitude comes to you when you're out of your comfort zone, it's a defence mechanism; it makes you feel better about your inadequacies. Shelly didn't seem put off by it though, luckily for me; I came to realise quickly, at the end of every uncomfortable challenge we came out with some extraordinary plans. Plans, that yes I wanted, I directed, but maybe now, looking back I didn't have the road map clear in my head to get there.

Now I do. I have the structure, I took on that uncomfortable process of learning, and I'm so pleased with the outcome.

The marketing stuff like the new logo, website and flyers, adverts, videos, graphics that everyone sees is the easy part. The best part was the planning, the research, the development, the discussions around one's thoughts…. I found the whole process so insightful and fascinating, and I wished I'd told my younger self to do it earlier.

While I am not sure of all the answers, I do have a picture in my head of the future of the business, what it looks like, the feeling it gives people and how we relate to both new and existing clients.

I am doing all I can to make sure that we are fully prepared after lockdown, to give every client the best service, product, technical spec, knowledge and aftersales care that sets us apart from our competitors and we will be the go-to company that people will want to be associated with.

And this myself friends is my personal goal weaved into business goals, that I thought I would share with you this one beautiful sunny lockdown day in my office.

If you've got this far down the page, thanks for reading, if you're at a similar stage in business maybe we should talk, I could probably help now I'm full of wisdom…. Stay safe out there.