“Lessons I’ve learnt in business, running a business and working with other businesses in 2021.”

Welcome to the catchily named series of:

“Lessons I’ve learnt in business, running a business

and working with other businesses in 2021.”

I thought about an advent calendar of goodies, I thought about a carefully constructed plan of offers and launches and then BOOM, all of a sudden it was December and here we are – no advent calendar. (I did win at parenting though and remembered to buy them for the 15 and 19 year old.)

 So; what’s a girl to do other than gift you the lessons I have learnt in business over the last 12 months.

 Advent means coming – and 2022 is coming at us. And what better way to prepare for it than learning lessons from someone else’s journey. (Well that’s my thinking anyway).

This month there will be a lesson a day (well maybe most days depending on when I find the Baileys). Something I’ve picked up from the schizzle I’ve been doing or the schizzle I’ve been doing with other businesses and hopefully said schizzle may help you in your planning and processing for 2022.

Lesson 1: Ask and you shall receive (sometimes)

 This time last year I lost shit loads of business (like so many of us).

Like so many of us I had to look at a new business model and like so many of us I thought about rocking in a corner drinking Baileys straight from the bottle.

 I’d not long launched Mind The Gap Academy focussing on my passion and purpose to help people thrive – not just survive. Courses for businesses, programmes for individuals, leadership and development training for organisations centring on those all-important and often ignored human skills with wellbeing at the heart of everything.

Well passion and purpose is all well and good but where the feck was the business.

And I sat there, and I sat there and magically no business came in. So I thought I’d best heave my heavy arse (lockdown weight) out of the corner of the room and do something about it.

I picked up the phone and actually called people. And spoke to people. And told people what I was doing and what I wanted and I asked them if they could help – or could put me in touch with someone who might help or know someone who knows someone.

It only feckin worked. I had so many lovely calls with people I hadn’t spoken to for a long time, and people who were interested in what I was doing and, frankly, hadn’t realised what I was doing and definitely didn’t think I needed business.

I got business in, I worked with some fabulous people, I was recommended to more fabulous people and I could pay the mortgage.  

So today’s lesson is a simple one. Pick up the phone and talk. Talk to your community, to your network, to Doris who you’ve not spoken to for years but always had a brilliant relationship with – and you never know what might happen.

Don’t rely on just putting a shiny post on social, pick up the phone, old school stylie and have a good old chinwag. It’s also good for the soul – and you never know you might also be able to help someone else while you’re at it.

 In this silly season of madness, gift yourself some time to talk to your people and gift your people, your tribe some of your time to see how you can help them. And then we all win.

 And if in doubt, pour a Baileys in your coffee and have a little rock in the corner while you work out how to actually use that thing called a phone,