First blog of the year

Michael Schumacher turned 50 last week and over the holidays, I had the opportunity to listen to a brilliant documentary about him and how he ended up in Formula One.

The underlying current of comments all said the same thing about how the seven times world champion became such a legend. Obviously supremely talented and passionate about what he did but also part of a massive team and time after time people commenting mentioned how he respected everybody's comments no matter how junior as he realised to be that good he could never have done it on his own.

Then reflecting on business none of our most successful business owners would not be there without the help of others and I think quite often in the small business community we think we have to do everything ourselves, primarily to save costs but also we all have a little bit of control freak in ourselves.

I have mentioned this in numerous blogs that we start a business to do something we feel passionate about, whether it is opening a cafe or manufacturing nuts and bolts that's  what we want to do. However, who really enjoys the bookkeeping, the ordering of essentials or placing adverts and dealing with bodies such as HMRC?

Unless you are an accountant/bookkeeper or have too much time you should be concentrating on doing what you set out to do.

When I look back at what we do at EPS I can see how we let business owners do what they do best. Take for example the work we do with Premium Collections. 

If a business owner is spending too much time collecting outstanding debts, why not pass it over to us to collect, yes it will cost a percentage of the amount collected but put that in the perspective of your hourly rate or the possibility of receiving bank charges all of a sudden it is looking great value for money.

Then there is our energy and telecom's brokers who can save you money on your essential expenditure, have you got the time to call suppliers? Probably not and now we have a waste removal company we can put you in contact with.

Would I have entered into business without the support from the Federation of Small Businesses? Well, of course not! The FSB offers all business owners valuable and essential advice, support and representation that the majority of us need, hopefully not on a daily basis but just having the peace of mind to know it is there when required means you can do your work with a clear head knowing you are doing everything properly.

Michael Schumacher took a gym with him to all the race circuits, Lewis Hamilton has a physio with him at all time and most golfers will have a coach who will prepare them mentally. Therefore, there is no reason why all business owners should not have a coach whether it is someone like Mark Dyble or being part of The Alternative Board, we all need help in fields we are not experts in.

So are you the driving force in your business and do you realise we all need a degree of help?

Would love to have a chat, please feel free to give me a call to sort out a one to one for a coffee.