Monday 30 April 2018 was the day ‘Bats’ doubled in size as I joined Lab to work full time in Bats. This was a joyous day as it had been in the pipeline for many years, however not without considerable thought about such things as generating revenue and cashflow. This is one of the key challenges of small business.
On the flip side one of the key benefits of being a small owner/operator company is we can really listen to each client and identify their needs, design totally bespoke concepts for them and embrace our agility and responsiveness to changing circumstances. After leading a large organisation, I believe our customers can truly benefit from leveraging off our individual and combined strengths. By expanding we have created synergy and increased the skill set. This means we can connect with a broader client base and offer a wider range of tools and expertise.
How do we ensure we keep this positive view daily as we navigate the rewrite of many systems and structures that worked for a one-man band? How do we make the time necessary to discuss these very important concepts? We are navigating these waters currently and are sure there are many lessons we will document on this journey.
Key learnings after two months:
- Be REALLY CLEAR what you are trying to deliver as a company and the key values and beliefs that you want to not only espouse, but LIVE as a company and individuals.
- In a small business there is a real trap in getting caught up in daily ‘busyness’ hopefully delivering growing revenue and cashflow. It is more important than ever to spend time working “on the business” otherwise each of you will do what you have always done and it may not work in this new context. We are making time to meet regularly (weekly) and have a collaborative agenda constructed a few days in advance so each person has time to think about their contribution to the conversation.
- Keeping current means also making time to learn together, then time to reflect on the learning afterwards which leads to making connections with your core business. This creates innovation and that is a key to business thriving in the 21st century
Over the coming months we will endeavour to document our learning so that we have a journal of it for future reference. We hope you also find it useful. Let us know if you have experienced some or all of this and what you learned along the way. We would love to create a social learning space for small business. Just imagine what we could create together. Welcome aboard our journey.
Thanks
Mary and Lab Wilson (the Bats Team)
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