February 12, 2024
The fifth thing, Tight and Loose
The fifth thing for my Manifesto for Small Business Growth and Productivity would be this pair: Keep your Promise Tight. … Read More “The fifth thing, Tight and Loose”
Category: Productivity
February 9, 2024
The fourth thing on my Manifesto
for small business growth and productivity would be: As soon as you have worked out how to attract and delight … Read More “The fourth thing on my Manifesto”
February 7, 2024
The third thing on my manifesto
for small business growth and productivity would be: Structure your business around the thing that matters most for it’s thriving: … Read More “The third thing on my manifesto”
The next thing on my manifesto
would be: Automate Drudgery. Not just physical drudgery, but mental drudgery too. Don’t use people to transfer data between systems. … Read More “The next thing on my manifesto”
February 5, 2024
A manifesto for small business growth and productivity
If you were going to write “A manifesto for small business growth and productivity”, what would you include? I’d love … Read More “A manifesto for small business growth and productivity”
December 6, 2022
Hoarding
Around 2,000 years ago, someone buried their cash. Did it do them any good that way? Almost certainly not. Could … Read More “Hoarding”
August 22, 2019
Autonomy
Autonomy. It’s why you started your business. To be able to do the job you want to do, the way … Read More “Autonomy”
May 14, 2019
Productivity
Books updated per labour hour. VAT Returns filed per labour hour. Annual Accounts filed per labour hour. Client profit margin … Read More “Productivity”
May 10, 2019
Metrics
If a business is a system for making and keeping promises, how do you measure its performance?
Some metrics:
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How many promises you make, and how many you keep.
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How much someone pays you to keep your promise to them.
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How much it costs you to make a promise, and how much to keep it.
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How much it costs you to resource, monitor and improve the way you make and keep your promises.
You could add:
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How much it costs the planet for you to run this system.
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How much you increase these things for yourself, your team and your clients:
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Agency
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Mastery
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Autonomy
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Purpose
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Community
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Simple.
April 18, 2019
Rest
For at least the last 189 years, we’ve known that overburdening people, equipment and systems leads to mistakes, wasted effort and sometimes, tragedy. We know that people, systems and even equipment need rest. Time out to repair, recharge and recalibrate.
In the past, days off work were imposed by law – admittedly not so people could rest, but so they could observe religious holy days, but at least they were guaranteed non-working days for almost everyone.
That is no longer the case. Now that consumerism is the national religion and online shopping never stops, we are individually responsible for making sure we take rest days. And the vestiges of our national holidays make that a bit easier to achieve.
So, this is my reminder to have a break. From work, from shopping, from the day-to-day.
Enjoy the long weekend.
See you Tuesday.