The ups and downs of running a business

When I first started my business, I had a mentor who used to say to me "show me an entrepreneur and I'll show you a manic-depressant" because sometimes you're on top of the world and other times you're on rock bottom. And how quickly this switch can happen - one minute you're bouncing along full of the joys of spring and the next you come crashing back to earth with something as simple as a phone call. Can you resonate with this?

I was just reminded of this today after having a great day with lots of things going right and then arrived back to the office to a letter informing me that we hadn't won a major contract.

So, how do you cope with the ups and downs? My favorite way is to exercise - this always makes me feel happier. What about you? Let me know your top tips to getting yourself back up when everything feels like its going wrong?

What is a SME?

The more I run my business, the more I get irritated with the term SME (Small to Medium Sized Enterprises). Why? Well, a SME can be any business between no staff members right up to 249 members of staff. There's a world of difference between the two. Someone with no members of staff (the vast majority of SMEs) will have completely different issues and concerns that someone with 1 member of staff, let alone 249.

I was with a group the other day that was being led by a guy who clearly did not understand small businesses. The only problem is, the group he was addressing were all small business owners. He thought that the sole problem the business owners faced was dealing with members of staff and forgot about all the other areas of running a business - i.e. marketing, time management, strategy, finance and actually running the business.

And that's the problem when I hear small business owners say that their customers are SMEs too - who do they really mean? Usually when I dig down, they're trying to attract medium sized companies and certainly not one man bands.

So, my challenge for this week is, if you've been using the term SME, try to really narrow down who you're talking about. Do you mean one-man bands or a business that is much larger than that? What issues, motivations and frustrations might the company you're trying to target have? And if you really mean SMALL businesses, make an effort to get to know about them...they do not have the same issues as medium sized companies and the way they think is completly different too.

I'm very happy to help people get to know about small business owners - just contact me and ask!

Work / Life Balance

Happy New Year to everyone!

I'm sure like me, you've been setting your New Year's Resolutions over the last week and a bit and (hopefully) trying to stick with them.

Quite a lot of my resolutions this year are about me - what I want to do personally and have very little to do with the business. It got me thinking - can you truely run a business successfully and have a life?

Over Christmas, I read Gordon Ramsay's New Book "Playing with Fire" which was a good read and highly recommended. But, it's clear from the book that he throws everything he has into his work and lives the personal life to Tara (his wife). He asks a question later on in the book about whether or not you want to really be rich and successful and implies that if you do, you will need to make some sacrifices.

My take on this is that yes, I want the business to be successful and want to make money, but I'm not sure I'm prepared to do that at the expense of other things - because at the end of the day I want to have something more to talk about than the business on my death bed!

But, I'm also aware that the more you focus on other things aside from the business, the more difficult it is to thoroughly devote yourself.

So, I ask the question again - is it possible to truely run a successful business and have a life? I'd certainly be intersted in your thoughts!

Helen