Twenty things I have learned in business in 2020 - part two...

Last week I promised to share 20 things I'd learned in business in 2020 and here is the second part of that promise.

I shared ten negative things, the not so nice things which have happened both to me, around me and generally and now for the positive things - I do believe in every negative situation you have to look for the positives. After all, there's always a choice, to respond to something positively or the opposite. I see little point in the opposite.

When I put my mind to it, there are loads of positive things to be fair, here are just ten.

1. Discovering that most small business owners are caring, compassionate and collaborative in their approach and will work with you when the chips are down.
2. The sheer determination, innovation and ingenuity of the small business person to change and adapt in the most stressful of circumstances. To those who have 'pivoted' and survived or thrived, I salute you.
3. The joy of unexpected collaborations which have emerged out of adversity in so many places. For myself I single out The Cotswold Challenge of which I was such a small part but a very proud part, The Swindon & Cotswold Business Focus later in the year to provide a low cost, not for profit networking opportunity online.
4. The blessing of knowing that the majority of your clients and suppliers are as ethical and wonderful as you thought they were as they picked up the phone to say 'how are you?', "I'm having some difficulties what can we do?' and the way we've been able to meet each other half way to keep us all surviving. I will never forget what you have all meant to me this year.
5. The way in which some companies - who have been shut down for months because of their service or product - have just started giving back. They have made and delivered meals to those who are struggling, provided drivers, provided feet on the ground in terms of volunteering. This is on top of NHS staff and emergency services workers, the delivery drivers and public transport providers. To those who couldn't operate in business, suffered as a result yet still went out of their way to help others - I salute you and urge everyone to buy from you when they can.
6. The way in which some small business owners have come forward to help people because they know what they offer is suddenly in the spotlight as being needed - so they've helped at much lower cost than normal or even free. I think particularly of IT companies, companies like mine and many others who have set aside profit motive and just shown caring for their fellow business owner at the worst of times. To all of those who kept saying 'don't discount' 'don't cut your prices' - shut up! - if people want to chose to help let them!
7. The business owners who have put off working with someone like me - or who have nibbled at the edges but not committed - who have gone ahead and trusted me to help them. They have gone for it in the worst of years. Thank you.
8. Those business owners who have given to me freely and unexpectedly without being asked, they've just done it. I could name many here from the man who asked me to help a particular organisation and just put money into my account, to the man who said he wanted to work with me several times through my power hours and paid me the regular price even though I'd discounted during lockdown, to the man who always has my back in business every day - though not in the office much this year - Paul Eagles of Midwinter Web Design who has kept me sane on the telephone. Then there was the woman who works with me regularly who halved her bills to me unexpectedly because she felt she needed to support me. In fact two of my female suppliers have done that at different times this year. Thank you.
9. The online, digital world has saved me and my business in 2020 and so much has come from that and I'm so grateful. Using Zoom, Spaces, Teams, HopIn and other online tools to meet, to talk to share, to do business has been brilliant. I do believe this will become a permanent part of my business going forward and I'll be far more open to virtual interaction (and I'm pretty open to it anyway). I was pretty savvy with social media, indeed I'm paid do manage some clients' social media, yet this year has proven how vital all of this is for us all in business. It's a world which has saved many of us from going under or going down and down. I will be back face to face, yet I'll be online more than ever. I'm deeply deeply grateful that this awful pandemic happened at a time when a digital space is available to us all. It may not always be a good space yet 2020 has shown us how vital that space is.
10. Family, friends and wellbeing. This year has really shown how important family and friends are for all of us. We all know it and now we feel it in a deeper way and business owners and corporates will, I believe, be more savvy about this and no longer treat it is 'woo woo'. Being work flexible, considering the well-being and mental health of teams will now be a much bigger thing. Allowing people to be with their friends and family and not working all of the time, should increase productivity and enhance loyalty. It can be done and maybe it should be done in a re-balancing of the way we work in our society. This year has made me embrace my spiritual side - the universe, God, Buddha, the law of attraction, happiness - whatever words you want to use, in a way I never thought possible. Journalists like me eat facts, we pour over figures (sometimes) and we tend to scoff at the more 'airy fairy' things in life. More fool us. Those things have been the light in the darkness, the articulation of art in all of its forms, the motivation for getting out in nature, the push we need to look at and do something about poor mental health or dipping mental health and the Secret Commonwealth which surrounds us and which we do our best to ignore or deny. Nature is re-asserting itself in our psyche as never before and that's something we sorely need. We do need to be a positive part of this planet from now on.