Episode 162: Who do you want to be in your crew in 2022?
In this episode, Fiona throws 2 important questions that can help you identify and how to improve the opportunities in your business. She will also talk about how you can create a relationship with your new crew members who will support your business to be the best that it can be this 2022. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Identifying what could be improved in your business
Who can help you address the opportunities in your business
How to create a relationship rather than a one off transaction
Mental health links to help this holiday season
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Hello, and welcome to episode 162 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you're listening to this in real time, it is the 23rd of December, early a week, literally one week until the end of 2021. Oh my goodness, how are you feeling about that? For me? I guess I'm cautiously excited about next year. I really hope it is a lot less stressful than the last two years, particularly here in Melbourne. And globally. Really, I mean, yes, Melbourne was in the longest lockdown city in the world. But we also got away with a lot less deaths and a lot less heartache than lots of other countries. So yeah, I am excited about next year. I'm looking forward to where it goes. And today's coaching episode is actually about next year. So it's not necessarily setting your goals, nothing like that. But it is about what you actually want out of it and who is going to help you. So stick around for that.
Just a reminder, if you are interested in our group coaching program that is launching earlier than expected next year, we usually launch a bit towards the middle of the year. We've decided that we're going to push that forward, just based on demand and people contacting us. So we already have a bunch of people on the waitlist and we will be contacting you shortly. If you want to get your name on there and be the first to know when we open what the offer is. All of that you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com/group-coaching-waitlist. So group coaching waitlist, just with hyphens between each word, and we'll link that in the show notes. Before I get started into today's coaching episode. I do want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on this beautiful, beautiful land that I am lucky enough to be literally looking at right now. The wandering people of the Kulin nation and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated. And I also pay my respects to anyone else from any other indigenous communities that might be listening in to today's episode. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.
Alright, so today's episode is a coaching one, like I said, and if you are in a position where you can grab a pen and paper or a note, you know, digital note taker or something else, you might want to do that. So just while we play this lovely music, thanks Scott my editor from Sound Mind Editing, go and grab something because you'll want to take notes today.
So today's episode, “Today” I feel like I sound like Cat and Kim. But the episode today is a coaching one, like I said, and if you're new around here, I offer three different types of episodes. Quick tip episodes, they come out every single week on a Tuesday, Australian time, and longer coaching episodes like today where I dive into one particular area of business. And then every other Thursday, you'll have a longer episode which is a small business interview. So welcome if this is your first time and if it is not if you're a regular listener, thank you so much for sticking with me and tuning into the My daily business coach podcast.
Alright, so today I really want you to think about what is wrong with your business and not wrong in some kind of judgmental way like, “Oh, I'm still not here or I'm such a loser or bla bla bla”, but just really thinking about what could be improved in your business. Maybe that's a better way of looking at it. “What could be improved in your business? And if you have some ability at the moment to take notes, you're not driving, you're not running somewhere. And if you are well done, but keep going, keep going. But if you are in a space where you can take notes, then I would literally just invite you to kind of just jot down things that come to mind. Maybe you're like, oh, inbox is a joke, or customer service, maybe you shouldn't speak that badly. Actually, you could just say, our inbox is quite full. Maybe your customer service, you feel like there's a bit of a delay between people contacting you and new people getting back to them. Maybe you don't feel like you are fully utilizing the social media channels that you know your audience is on. Maybe an analytics or an understanding of analytics is kind of not there. Maybe you feel that you've been thinking, “Oh, God, I really need to think about my contracts”, “We need to get better contracts with our suppliers and manufacturers”. Maybe because of COVID, you need to update contracts that are already in place, because of, you know, just shifts to so many parts of the supply chain, or the way people work or working from home or flexibility or all sorts of things. You might be like, “You know I really need to tap into that part of the business”. Maybe it's your systems, the overall systems we have. Maybe for your business you're like, Oh, we have things in email, we have things in text messages, we have things, you know, all over the shop. Maybe you have a store, and the inventory management needs to be sorted out.
So just sort of list whatever comes to mind. And don't judge yourself on it. We all have things in our business, there is no business out there that just has everything perfectly running all the time. It just doesn't exist. Businesses are just like a relationship. There is no perfect relationship that is perfect all the time.
So just give yourself a minute, sort of list down what you can. And then what I'd love you to think about is if you already have somebody in the business who can help with them.
So say you've kind of I'm a big one for kind of mind maps and circles and squiggles. I know other people, I've got this great client, and he likes to put things in a much more structured, neat sort of approach with you know, bullet points a list at the top. So you might have systems and then kind of a list at the top. Or you might be messy and kind of visual like me where I'm scribbling things. And I might have a bubble that says systems on a piece of paper. One is not better than the other. But whatever way you've kind of put these out, I would ask you to then think about is there someone in the business who has the skills, the experience, the interest, or at least two out of those three, to help us with this? And if there isn't, you would just put like a question mark, or you can put whatever symbol that you want to put. Or you could highlight it if you're using a Word doc, or whatever. But you want to have a think about, okay, what needs to be improved. And then second to that, who might help us improve that?
And I guess that's really on to today's episode, which is really, who do you want in your crew in 2022? I did not try to rhyme, it just did, you know, mad skills. But you know, because so often when it comes to this time of year, and thinking about 2022, and goal setting, and all of that, and I'm huge on that, that's a huge part of I love that stuff. And if you are really interested in goals, definitely check out my previous episode recently with Adam Jelic of MiGoals, the stationary brand. That's episode 154. After this, we go deep into some kind of goal setting. And Adam has so many great tips. But a lot of the time at this, you know, people at this time of year really start setting their goals like I want to do this, I want to do that I want to do this. And what we forget sometimes is to consider who is going to help us get there. And I often say you know no businesses in Ireland, we all need help. Even if you're a solo operator, you're a freelancer, there will be people around you, they may not be working in the business in a full time capacity, or maybe even part time capacity. But there are people around you that are going to help you get through, you know, all of the challenges that come up, and not just the challenges but help you celebrate. And, so say for instance, one of those things that came up for you when you maybe pause this podcast to write down what you need to work on or what could be improved is maybe your policies, maybe your contracts, that kind of legal side of things. And so you may have looked and thought well, “I don't have anyone that could help me with it.”, “I don't have somebody that has the skills in that area”. And so it could be you know, I really need to talk to a lawyer next year and I know that lawyers goodness, even just that word can sound very expensive, like charging because all my money, but there are so many lawyers now out there who will charge a flat fee for things like nondisclosure agreements, employee contracts, terms and conditions for your website, including especially if you're an E commerce and things like shipping, returns, refunds. You know, there are so many companies out there that really specialize in small businesses, and they understand that you are not potentially able to go and see a lawyer, you know, for $699, and every 10 minutes. And so they have flat fee contracts, flat fee kind of policies that they can help you create, that are legally sound that you can use. And they're not as expensive as you may think. If you're in Melbourne, I often recommend Nicholas Burch and Burch + Co is his company. You can just Google them. They specialize in small business. I know in New South Wales there is Baron legal, I mean, there's so many out there that are lawyers who really operate for small businesses. They understand the small business mentality, they understand that every dollar counts. And so you might just think, okay, a lawyer, that's who I need to, you know, that's part of my crew next year. I really need a lawyer. Maybe you've had issues with staff, maybe you've had issues, you know, with suppliers, maybe you just want to understand what is my legal standpoint on where I am right now. And especially with COVID, with a whole bunch of things that that throws up. You might want to have a look at what we need help with “We really need a lawyer”. And so you're gonna write down a lawyer. That's one of the parts of your crew that you need in 2022.
Other things that you might want in there might be an accountant, maybe you have listened to some of these episodes. And you've thought, you know, I don't have a really transparent view of my money, maybe that's something I need to work on. And so it could be an accountant, it could be a financial advisor, it could be both, if you have the funds to support both. It could be you know, somebody who's who's in that space, it could be a bookkeeper, it could be somebody that's going to help you just even set up your Xero correctly. I know a lot of bookkeeping and accounting agencies now have Xero classes. Xero is an accounting software, if you're familiar with that term. My OB is another one. QuickBooks is another one. And maybe you're using them, but you don't feel like you're utilizing them that well. Often, your accountant will know someone or your bookkeeper, they may run their own classes on that. So I know Jodie Dean from AccountArts runs classes on Xero and helps you set up your Xero. And all of that also does bookkeeping and a whole bunch of other things. And we'll link to Jodie and company AccountArts in the show notes.
But you really want to be thinking about, you know, who do I need in my crew in 2022. It could be photographers, maybe with COVID, you have just found it really difficult to plan any photoshoots. I was just literally talking to a client about this yesterday, maybe you're coming to a point where you actually want to do a lot more photography for your business. So especially in say interior design, or E commerce or other places where you're thinking or even service based, of course, in you know, things like what I do you want to be thinking about, okay, like, not just the campaign photography, but could I find a photographer, that almost becomes part of the team. So yes, they do, you know, the campaigns for us. But in between that they're also helping us create original content for social media, original content for our emails, our website, maybe even a photographer that also does videography, or a videographer that does photography, or, you know, an agency that does both of them in specialized services? And thinking about, Okay, what would that look like, and it could just be, maybe the problem that you originally wrote down is, I'm not showing up enough, I don't know not marketing my business. And part of that maybe, I don't feel like we have good quality images, I don't feel like we have the images that reflect the type of work that we're doing. And so one of the people that you want to be in your crew in 2022, is a photographer. And you've got to also remember sometimes that photographers are small business owners themselves. They are not shooting campaigns every single week, you know, especially with COVID happening. And so it might be a situation where you can talk to them and say, “Hey, we want to book you for these campaigns. But we also want to book you for these smaller sorts of jobs, in terms of timelines, and what's expected and reshooting, and retouching and all of that”. And so thinking about what could it look like if that person becomes a part of our team, not a full time member of your team, necessarily, but a go to part of the business that understands where you're trying to go, that understands your brand terminology that understands what's the direction and you're not starting with somebody new every single time. So a photographer might be one of the people that you put into your crew.
Another one may be a website developer. And again, I think sometimes when we think about these people, we think, especially if you're newer in business, “oh my goodness, it's gonna cost me so much”. We look at the cost rather than the outcome of having that. So with a web developer, I mean, I'm speaking from my own experience. So I've built many websites and I've always used Squarespace. I love Squarespace. I have used WordPress a long time ago. But I love Squarespace. I think they just do really easy drag and drop. Everything looks good. It's very easy to make things look good, form set up, everything is just it's just, I love it. So if anyone's listening from Squarespace and wants to do any kind of brand collaboration, get in touch, please. So, yeah, I think Squarespace is great. I use them all the time. I would consider myself like a very beginner kind of website designer. I'm not a website designer. That's not my job. But I can build websites, and I have various businesses, friends, family, and my own. And when I was doing my own way back I, which we're actually updating at the moment, hopefully, that'll come out early 2022. But when I was doing that, I spent weeks kind of doing it wherever I could bits and pieces here and there, just you know, 20 minutes here, half an hour here. And then I got to a point where there were all these things I didn't like. There was too much padding, there was a font issue there was you don't like just stuff that was really kind of irritating me. But I just couldn't figure it out now spending hours googling things. And then I found this great business, which actually unfortunately doesn't exist anymore. But they used to exist called U60. And you could book in with a web developer who specialized in Squarespace. And you could put in all the problems that you had, and you could prepay for their time. So I prepaid for an hour. And then I got on this video call with this guy from Canada. He was really great, Sam. And he was able to fix everything in 15 minutes and on video.
So he was actually teaching me how he was doing it at the same time. And I was like, “Oh, and he said, Well, you've booked and paid for me for an hour. So, what else do you need help with?” And what was great was that I was actually able to then ask him to kind of go through page by page on the website, what he would change, what was different, show me the back end of everything. And it just really reminded me that you pay for expert help, like you pay for people who do this every single day, because they are the people that are constantly upskilling upgrading, understanding what's happening in the market, what's happening in trends or websites, what's happening with like algorithms and and it was just brilliant. And it made me think, and I actually said to him at the time, “How much would you have charged to build my whole website from scratch?”. And the price he gave me was really affordable, of course it was in Canadian dollars would just be different to Australian. But I was like, wow, well, that could have saved me so much time. I like understanding how things work.
So I liked that I built it and I understand how to fix it myself. But it really brought it home that wow, having somebody like him on some kind of retainer, once a month or even once a quarter could be a really great thing for our business. Now, my new OBM is amazing at Squarespace. And so she is able to update a whole bunch of things and do things and help with this new web build. But things like this, when you're thinking about who I want in my crew in 2022. Sometimes you can think, oh, web developer, well, that's gonna be expensive, because I'm going to have to, you know, make sure I'm giving them this much work or, or you might think I don't actually have that much work for a web developer. But again, it could just be a quarterly thing, you create a list of things that need to be done, and then you're paying them for X amount of hours or X amount of a package every quarter. And then you know, you've got that peace of mind that once a quarter, all these things will be fixed. Or maybe it's even more frequent than that depending on your resource and what you can afford and all of that. But I think when we think about you know, the financial person, or the bookkeeper or the legal or the or the web developer, or the photographer, we can often automatically think, oh, my gosh, I need to have a whole job for this person, as opposed to what would it feel like if I kind of had this crew of people I could tap into when I need them? And I know some people don't work like that as in some service providers. But there are plenty that do.
There are plenty that will be like, Yep, let's check in quarterly. It's this much. Likewise, graphic designers, I work with many graphic designers. And I often sort of say to them, well, what's the kind of post purchase advocacy stage look like? How are you keeping them retained in your business? And what often happens with a lot of service providers, not just graphic designers or web developers, is that people pay upfront for what I need. I need a website. Okay, cool. I've done your website. Isn't it great? Oh, it's great. I love it. And then they part ways, instead of thinking, could I keep helping that business with a quarterly retainer? Could I keep helping that business with some sort of checking, maybe you're a graphic designer and you did a whole logo style guide all of that. And then you kind of think Oh, instead of having this package, which just covers that initial work, I could have this other package, which means that every season, I update your graphics, and I give you a whole suite of new social media things or, Hey, we look at any events that you've got coming up any other kind of marketing collateral that you'll need, and we freshened it all up, especially if you're, say a graphic designer that works with beauty industry, or skincare products, or an E commerce brand that is like a fashion apparel, anything that is impacted by the seasons. So if you think about skincare, and you think about, you know, winter skin is dull, and needs more blah, blah, blah, and summer skin is this, and you've got to be, you know, scared of getting too dry, or burnt, especially if you live in Australia. But that is kind of coming up with that idea of that person. You know, if you have a graphic designer that needs to be on the crew, what could that look like long term because they're actually you want to be thinking of them as part of your crew, not a standalone once off person.
So I mean, this is exactly why group coaching works so well, because people have me and the whole rest of the people in group coaching for an entire year. And so it's not the same as saying a one off ad hoc coaching session, which is great. But with group coaching, you've got a business coach in your corner for a whole year. And often you are no longer than that as well. It's not like I'm like, oh, you can't contact me once we finish group coaching. I am actually going out for dinner next week with some group coaching members.
So I guess coming back to the kind of cracks of today's coaching episode is to really think about who do I need in my crew in 2022? And what could that relationship look like? And really sort of steering that and thinking, you know, it doesn't have to be once off? Oh, could it be something regular? Even with the lawyer, you might say, Yep, okay, we need some, we need some help with our policies and our employment contracts and NDAs. And we're going to go and do that work upfront. But I'd really love to just have a check in every six months with you just like a dentist really, and sort of saying, hey, these things have come up or this other thing has come up. I mean, lawyers, they are just so useful for so much stuff. And it could be you’re maybe you're hiring somebody else, maybe you are moving into a new territory, and you want to be looking at things like tax and some other stuff. Again, where an accountant might come in. And it's just really about creating a relationship rather than a one off transaction with these people in your crew or with these businesses that are going to then support your business to be the best that it can be in 2022.
So that is it for today's coaching session a little earlier than normal. And I guess those because look at the week that we're in, if you're listening in real time, it is a week to be spending with family with loved ones with everyone that you think is amazing in your life.
And if you're in the retail sector, it is a week to I guess just give your energy as much as possible. Knowing there is an end in sight people there is an end in sight. It will not be this chaotic all the time. I'm sending you guys so much strength.
And if you find this time of year really hard if you are looking down the barrel of the 25th of December and thinking, I don't know who I'm going to celebrate with or even celebrate, maybe it's not in your culture or your way of life to celebrate the 25th of December. But if that is you just know that there are people available, there may be somebody in your contacts list that you just haven't reached out to for a while. Maybe it is somebody on Instagram that you just want to connect with. Maybe it is you know, if you need it, you know, a service like lifeline or safe steps or, or anywhere else. There are so many counseling services available. There are so many places to get help. And often even, It might sound twitchy, but volunteering, you know, there are so many other people that need help at this time of year. And sometimes by doing that you get a bit of perspective on your own situation, and can be so thankful for everything that you do have. But I know it can be a hard time. Yeah, I totally get that I am without my parents for the second year this year and Christmas was a huge part of my upbringing. So yes, I'm sending you a giant hug but know that there is help available so don't be worried about reaching out and asking for that at this time of year. We will link to a few of those resources in the show notes if you're in Australia. And if you're in New Zealand you could look https://www.likeminds.org.nz/. If you are in the UK, I think it is also https://www.mind.org.uk/ or look at the NHS services that are available at this time. And if you're in the US, 7 cups is a good place to start. But there are so many and just know that you're not alone. A lot of people find this time of year difficult. So just reach out and ask for help if you can. That is it for today's coaching episode. As always, the show notes will be available over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/162. As this is episode 162 Thank you so much for listening.
If you found this useful, please share it with a friend. And if you have five seconds, two seconds, please leave a review. It just helps so many other small business owners around the globe find this podcast and hopefully they find it useful and are able to map out who they want in their crew in 2022. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye!