“For some business owners, myself included, the festive period is a time to take stock of the previous year, reflect on the highs & target any lows & a time to look forward to a brighter new year.
I have to say, 2022 was not the easiest year for us as small business owners & we have had to really dig deep to remain motivated through what was a challenging year.
Off the back of two years of Covid interruption & financial uncertainty, 2022 was still relatively unsettled. Coupled with the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, political uncertainty in the UK & the cost of living ‘crisis’ & for us particularly we have a customer base who have to make tough decisions about what is their financial priorities are for themselves & their families.
However, my partner & I believe in our product & we believe in each other, which is important in a copreneur based business. Having taken some time over the festive period to be objective, we realised that although we are entering our 6th full year of trading, in realistic terms two years of that time has not reflected ‘normal’ trading years with a global situation completely out of our control.
Therefore, how do we move forward, how do we stare 2023 in the eyes & let it know we are ready?
Well, for us it involves having a concrete set of actions to focus on. Every year I am asked if I have any New Year resolutions & I just don’t believe that in an ever-changing world they are feasibly possible to stick to.
Whereas a set of actions linked to in our case our business goals & objectives, are a much more tangible way for us to stay on target & focus on our goals.
However, how you create your action plan is up to you. Below I have listed a couple of simple ways to keep on top of action plan targets.
Note: These ideas are born from my own experiences as a small business owner & are here for consideration only.
Monday.com
The Virtually Smart Ltd team are all connected to Monday.com. Monday.com is a cloud-based project management & workflow platform which allows users to create their own applications, actions, projects & assists with prioritising targets.
Each one of the Virtually Smart Ltd team have their individual names allocated to different actions & projects. Monday.com allows the team to see these actions in real time, gather valuable information about individual projects, communicate directly with other team members & keep’s the Virtually smart Ltd workflow all in one place for all team members to access.
Colour coding & allocating a priority status to each action or project in the Virtually Smart Ltd Monday.com workflow, enables the team to prioritise actions at a glance. This in turn helps the team create action plans to ensure the tasks required are completed in a timely manner.
Old school paper lists
I believe my love of paper lists stems from my time at University. When I studied my Degree, I didn’t have a mobile phone, or my own PC/laptop & I certainly did not have access to the likes of Monday.com or the vast internet as we know it now.
When I completed my Degree in 1995, my bedroom wall would be full of notes, actions, lecture notes, essay ideas & quotations. I would also have multiple notebooks on the go for different subjects’ lectures & study notes.
Although this seems an archaic & somewhat chaotic way to keep on top of a lot of information, I am a very ordered person & I knew exactly where each text, each notebook & each set of lecture notes was at any given time.
With this mindset still a huge part of my daily life & despite me now having access to a mobile phone, laptop, the vast expanse of the internet & of course such applications as Monday.com; I still prefer the ability to glance up from my desk at work or home & see my action list right there under my nose.
Again, this is a personal reflection & although I am completely engaged in using Monday.com through my work with Virtually Smart Ltd; in my daily job running my small business, an old school paper list is a personal preference.
Keep your diary/calendar up to date
Some of the businesses we work with are based on very traditional engineering works & some don’t necessarily have the most organised booking systems.
In the small business I run with my partner, we use Google calendar as a simple way to ensure bookings are secured & time is allocated for each job effectively & efficiently. I am aware that CRM packages are available to support this kind of booking system, but as we are such a small business, they do not make sense for our business modal.
However, for SME’s, having a CRM (customer relationship management) system which also allows for booking jobs, time allocation, parts allocation, etc; these systems keep all those who have access up to speed with what work is coming in, what parts are needed, who has been allocated the work, etc.
I also keep a physical diary, because again I like to be able to access it in the now & not have to search through digital lists. The company diary keeps additional & daily action tasks in check & if my partner requires something in the middle of the day, it is so easy to write a note & create those in the now action points.”
Written by Katy-Jane Mason for & on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd.
