Set Your Business Up For Success With the Right Systems

Set Your Business Up For Success With the Right Systems

Set Your Business Up For Success With the Right Systems

At Bx, we are huge fans of systems, both for our own businesses and for our clients. Systems allow your business to run more smoothly and provide the foundations for growth. They improve the experience of working in your business for employees and provide the best conditions for outstanding customer service. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of systems, what can and should be systemised, and how to create systems for your business.

The benefits of systems

Systems enable businesses to grow beyond the owner or founder of the business. The right systems create an environment that is better for the business, its employees and its customers. Having clearly communicated systems can:

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– Improve employee performance
– Help employees feel that they are contributing more within the organisation
– Reduce mistakes
– Prevent tasks from being forgotten
– Help convert a higher percentage of leads to paying customers
– Increase average spend per customer
– Increase the number of services customers use

What to systemise

Essentially, if a process, task or undertaking is completed more than once in a business, it should be systemised. This allows the process to be carried out by anyone within the organisation. It helps to speed up the induction process for new team members and can help team members to operate effectively if other team members are absent or busy.
Here are just a few examples of repeated processes that you can and should systemise:

– Answering the phone
– Greeting a customer
– Filling a drinks fridge
– Collecting the post from a PO box
– Setting up your company email signature
– Locking up the office or shop at the end of the day
– Using EFTPOS/credit card facilities
– Using CRM systems
– Inducting a new employee
– Using the photocopier
– Company email procedures/etiquette

How to set up and implement systems

It is no use having systems if no-one knows where to find the information. That’s why in my businesses, we use Google Sites to create our Operations Manual and I highly recommend this option to the businesses we work with. Google Sites gives you the ability to control access to the overall manual and to specific procedures. It has the functionality to add users, collaborators and team members to the site. As it is online, it can be easily shared internally with staff, as well as with outside parties, like your bookkeeper or outsourcing partners for example.

As well as making sure information about systems is easily accessible and shareable, it is important to have a process in place for creating new systems and procedures. Most businesses are constantly evolving and needing new or updated systems as a result. This is another reason why an online repository such as Google Sites is fantastic, as it allows the Operations Manual for your business to be a regularly updated living document.

Of course, it isn’t just enough to point your team in the direction of the Operations Manual and leave them to it. Take the time to train your team on the systems and processes that are critical to their role. And don’t forget to encourage your team members to provide feedback if they feel any systems aren’t working well and could be improved.

Do you use systems in your business? What benefits have you experienced as a result? If you haven’t got clearly communicated systems, what is the biggest roadblock to developing these processes?

We’d love to speak about how we could help your business to improve its performance. Contact Bx – info@b-x.com.au

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What Kind Of Influence Do You Have?

In business, as in the wider world, there are two main groups of people: those who are positive influencers and those who are negative. It’s often easy to assign those labels to people we know – there are probably faces swimming in front of your eyes right now as you think about all the different influencers within your business – however, it’s just as important to be considering which category you fall into.

Top 5 characteristics of a negative influencer:

  1. Has a passive aggressive attitude
  2. Only does what is required, never going above and beyond expectations
  3. Focuses on the negative aspects of any/every situation
  4. Is easily (and vocally) jealous of the opportunities others receive
  5. Is looking to bring others down or pick holes in their achievements

Negative influences in your business – whether the attitude is coming from you or someone else – can greatly decrease the productivity of your team. Negative attitudes are almost contagious, and by letting them inside your business you’re inviting crankiness, unhappiness and discontentedness to run riot. Everyone has their bad days, but when those bad days turn into weeks or months, it might be time to get to the core of the issue, re-evaluate and work towards turning the attitude around.

Top 5 characteristics of a positive influencer:

  1. Is looking to inspire and enable others to reach their goals
  2. Supports people through the exciting times as well as the difficult times
  3. Helps others to correct mistakes and has encouraging words
  4. Comes in with a positive attitude and a smile
  5. Goes the extra mile whenever they can

Much like negative attitudes, positive attitudes can also be contagious. We all feed off each others’ energy in business, so it’s important to have an energy that is conducive to getting work done. A positive attitude can lead us to have better strategies when facing challenges and making effective decisions.

If you’re a positive influencer – good news! You get to keep doing what you’re doing. If you’ve discovered some hater characteristics within yourself, it might be time to get to the root of the issue and work towards becoming a positive influence within your business.

In business, attitude is everything. Through our Business for Life program, we help business owners from across Australia build a toolbox of skills that they can use to grow their success. We’d love to chat about how we could help you. Call Bx on 1300 068 229 or find out about our Business for Life Program.

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Getting Organised Amongst Business Chaos

Getting Organised Amongst Business Chaos

Everyone is time poor – how often, when you ask someone how they’re doing, do they respond with a simple “busy”? Sometimes, it’s with a smile – after all, being busy in business usually means money is coming in. Other times, their expression is more akin to utter exhaustion – being busy can leave us feeling drained and weary.  How do we get organised amongst all the business chaos?Getting organised in small business

We all have the same 24 hours each day, so how do we make the most of that time, feel organised and avoid becoming depleted of energy along the way?

Of course, there are simple things we can be doing every day to make sure we stay productive, have a great mindset and stay sane amongst all the chaos. Eating healthily, exercising throughout the day, taking scheduled breaks, maintaining a great filing system and using technology to your advantage are all great ways to get the most out of every day and stay organised.

Here at Bx, we strive to be implementing every single one of the above but we are huge fans of using apps and other bits of technology to our advantage.

Why apps to get organised?

Technology is everywhere – there’s no denying it, but instead of treating the influx of technology as a negative, we’ve chosen to treat it as a great opportunity. Apps can integrate with our phones as well as our desktop and keep us organised and productive throughout our days, no matter where we are. Which apps do we swear by?

Asana

Free for up to 15 users, Asana is a project management tool that keeps all your employees on the same page and across every detail of every project. It’s like a to-do list on steroids. It has changed the way we work at Bx in the last few years and turning back won’t be an option.

Life Cycle and Sleep Cycle

Using both these apps together lets you track your days and nights so that you know exactly how you’re using your time and what you need to do to improve your productivity. Life Cycle tracks your days, taking note of where you go and how long you spend doing certain activities. This is great for those workaholics amongst us who don’t even realise they spent 90 hours working this week. Meanwhile, Sleep Cycle tracks how long you sleep as well as the cycles within your sleep and wakes you up when you’re in the lightest stage of sleep.  

Evernote

If you’re carrying around your laptop, phone or tablet anyway, it doesn’t make sense to decide to add a notepad to your luggage so using Evernote is a great way to have the convenience of a notepad combined with the convenience of technology. Evernote allows you to take notes any time just like any other notebook app, but you can pull other documents into the app, videos, photos and snippets from the web to compile a notebook that fully encompasses your vision for whatever you happen to be working on.  Keep it all in the one place so you’re not wasting time searching for that great idea you had last week!

Have you found some great ways to use technology in your business? We’d love to know more about what works for you and your business and help you out by sharing our successes too. Call Bx on 1300 068 229, or find out more about what we do here http://www.businessforlife.com.au/ProgramFindOutMore

 

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Do people skills matter in business?

Do people skills matter in business?

In days gone by, technological expertise was more highly regarded than people skills. It was all about what you could do, not necessarily how you interacted with others while you did it. Now, that attitude has shifted quite dramatically. With technological advances, more and more jobs that involve manual labour are being replaced by automation and machines. People skills are more important than ever!

What are people skills?

Whether they’re referred to as social skills, people skills and interpersonal skills, they are essentially all the same; someone’s ability to communicate and interact with others in a positive way.

Those with people skills often exhibit:

  • Behaviour that builds trust easily
  • A reluctance to involve themselves in drama, power grabbing schemes or gossip
  • Respectful behaviour towards the people around them.
  • Great communication skills when it comes to explaining what they want
  • Tact when it comes to delivering bad or inconvenient news
  • Fantastic listening skills
  • A willingness to participate

Fortunately, artificial intelligence hasn’t grasped the concept of emotional intelligence just yet, so now is the chance to be developing our people skills in our businesses and making our businesses known for their exceptional interpersonal skills.

Not only do social skills really improve the relationship between owners and employees or amongst the employees themselves, these skills can also help when it comes to customer interactions or networking with fellow business owners.

How can we develop people skills?

Consciously considering what you’re good at when it comes to interacting with others in your day-to-day business life can be a great place to start developing those people skills. Awareness might be the first step but there is a multitude of different practical ways to be better at interacting with people:

  • Stand out! Are you prone to lurking in the corners at networking events or letting all your customers deal with an online feedback form rather than being accessible? Get out there and make yourself known to other people – just by taking the step towards being accessible is an improvement.
  • Ask personal questions. These shouldn’t be so personal that they make the other person feel uncomfortable. Simply asking what they’re passionate about or what they would do if they won the lottery could open them up and build trust between you.
  • Accept offers. Have you ever been at someone’s house or office when they’ve offered you a glass of water or a snack? How often do you say yes? Saying yes puts your host at ease, makes them feel like they’re being useful and it breaks the ice ever so slightly – if you’re not already in the habit of saying yes, now is the time to start.
  • Listen. It seems simple enough, but it’s one of the hardest things to do. Next time you’re in conversation with someone, listen intently, make eye contact, don’t interrupt and think about what has been said to you before you speak.
  • Ask for feedback. Not only does this give the other person a chance to talk, it shows that you’re willing to improve and it’s another way to build trust in business relationships – you care about what they have to say, and they’ll care about what you’re providing.

People skills are more important than ever – challenge yourself to start trying some of these ways to improve your own interpersonal skills and see how your business benefits from the stronger relationships you form.

Are you harnessing and developing your existing people skills to take your business to the next level? We’d love to speak with you about how we could help your business to improve its performance. Call Bx on 1300 068 229, or find out more about what we do here http://www.businessforlife.com.au/ProgramFindOutMore

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How To Make 2017 Your Best Year In Business

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The New Year is well and truly underway now and those resolutions we made on the brink of 2017 are still fresh in our minds. Whether we’re feeling the sting after failing three days in or we’re still going strong, there’s no doubt that a new year is a time to be thinking about how we can be better versions of ourselves in the coming year. It doesn’t just apply to our personal lives – have you considered making resolutions to better your business this year? It’s not too late! Here are three easy steps to make your business the best that it can be.

Get a Vision

What does the best year in business look like to you? This is a time to let your imagination run wild. What do you dream for your business, where would you like to be at the end of the year, what do you wish you could do with unlimited resources? Dream big! No two visions are the same, but by thinking radically about your business, you’re pin-pointing all the possibilities and laying them on the table.

Daring to imagine all those possibilities might seem a little wishy-washy to you, but gather all those possibilities and shape them into a sentence or two that sum up your hopes for your business this year. Now, you have a clear statement of where you want to go, you can lead your business forward.

Set Goals

Those few sentences that hold your business vision might seem a little daunting but there’s no reason to feel overwhelmed!

Your vision is very closely linked to your goals but your goals are allowed to be a little more specific – in fact, it often helps when your goals are as small as they can be. Your vision is never going to be fulfilled overnight; it’s those small, specific goals that will keep your business moving towards the vision throughout the year.

Take apart your vision until you get it down to bit-sized pieces that can be ticked off during the year. Think about what you can be doing every day, week, month, quarter and year to be moving closer to your vision. The best way to make sure you’re doing this is by setting aside time to plan, create, manage and adjust these goals during the year.

Take apart your vision until you get it down into bite-sized pieces that can be ticked off throughout the year. What can you be doing every day, week, month, quarter and year to be moving closer to that goal? The best way to make sure you’re doing this is by setting aside time to plan, make, manage and adjust these goals throughout the year. Here’s a handy guide for you – make it your own and start smashing through your goals:

Seize Every Opportunity

You might have dreamed up the best year possible for your business, but what will you do when little unexpected things pop up throughout the year? We can plan all we like but unfortunately; we can never plan for the unexpected.

Whether it’s a setback or a wonderful opportunity, you need to be ready for anything. Be ready to see the best in a bad situation and use it to your advantage. When it comes to amazing opportunities, you might be in the right place at the right time, but if you haven’t prepared yourself, you could find yourself watching the opportunity sail right past you.

Success is when preparation and opportunity collide – don’t miss out on success for lack of preparation.
With these three easy steps, you’re on track for the best year in business you’ve ever had. Here’s to a new year of business!

In business, it’s important to start the year strong. Through our Business for Life program, we help business owners from across Australia build a toolbox of skills that they can use to grow their success. We’d love to chat about how we could help you. Call Bx on 1300 068 229 or find out about our Business for Life Program here.

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Why Are So Many Small Businesses Failing?

Getting Ready to Change Starts with the Decision to do so

 

If you’ve ever ventured out on your own in the business world, it’s likely you’ve heard a myriad of statistics when it comes to the rate of small businesses failing within their first year of operation.  As it stands, the current figures in Australia are sitting lower than 2%. This is still cause for concern but many are adamant that it’s no longer the first year of business that small businesses need to survive, the danger point is now further down the track with more and more businesses bowing out in their third or fourth years.

So, what is it that small business owners seem to be missing when it comes to the business game?

Problem: Forgetting to work on the business.

Solution:  The first thing you need is a business plan, but many business owners often overlook this. How do you plan to reach your clients? What do you want to achieve through your business? Other questions like this should arise while you create your business plan so that you can have a clear vision of the future. Don’t forget to be flexible and willing to update your business plan throughout the life in your business life.

Problem: Overlooking personal and employee training.

Solution:  A lot of business owners take a business idea and run with it without thinking it through, but before they know it, they’re knee-deep in a business that they’re not properly trained for. As a result, they often have a ‘learn as you go’ approach to training which is not always a positive approach. Encouraging employees to learn more, defining their role clearly and making sure they’re on-board with the business vision will give them a natural desire to learn and receive formal training to be able to contribute at full capacity.

Problem: Ignoring the need for marketing.

Solution:  The digital age has brought a whole new world of marketing to the forefront of our minds. It’s now easier to get your business out there through the Internet and it’s easier to be overlooked in the oversaturation of advertisements.  Harnessing your social media and using it to advertise and connect could be the best starting point for your small business – it’s only on to bigger and better things from there.

Problem: Having no analysis strategies.

Solution: The first step to fixing this problem, is recognising it. Already you’re on your way to analysing your business! To make things easy for yourself, start with the most simple and widely loved analysis strategy – SWOT analysis.

–       Strengths

–       Weaknesses

–       Opportunities

–       Threats

By looking at your business through all four of these lenses you can start to work out where you need to improve and where you need to start taking action as well as the areas in which you can be encouraged by your performance. It’s a great way to think deeply about your business without getting overwhelmed by the bad points or distracted by the good.

If you can recognise any of these problems in your small business, it might be time to start implementing some solutions, one at a time, to get your business on the road to success.

 

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Keys to Unlocking a Productive Day

Keys to Unlocking a Productive Day Bx Matt Alderton

Keys to Unlocking a Productive Day

Regardless of how many businesses you own, projects you’re starting or events you have on, each of us has exactly the same amount of hours in a day. This fact can either be inspiring or disheartening, depending on the way you approach it. The following four points should be your key to unlocking a powerful, productive day worthy of an entrepreneur.

Setting Goals

Some think that it’s better to just glide through life and see what happens, without setting any goals. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic and it’s not something that entrepreneurs do. When it comes to creating these goals, the S.M.A.R.T method has become extremely popular and for good reason – it works!

  • Specific – be clear and direct, there’s no use being vague.
  • Measurable – Measure your goals so you know when to celebrate success.
  • Attainable – aim high but be prepared to adjust your goals as you go.
  • Relevant – create goals which match your vision for your business.
  • Timely – set deadlines.

Create Systems

Have you ever done anything more than once? If there’s some task that you find yourself doing over and over again, systemise it. You can’t afford to be spending that time repeating a process over and over again when you could be making headway on a less menial task.

Do you ever feel like you can’t go on holiday or get sick? If you feel like your business will fall apart without you, it might be time to think about implementing some systems. Without systemising, delegating and automating, you start to become the business. It means you’re just making more work for yourself when you could be utilising the resources at your fingertips.

If you leave it too long, you could find that you are the only person who knows how to do a particular task and, when you hit a crisis, the burden will be on your shoulders. Instead, share the load – whether that’s with technology or with your employees – and don’t wait until you hit that crisis, create systems and process now so that they can steer you smoothly through the dangerous waters later.

Time Management

Funnily enough, being productive is not actually a talent, it’s simply a result of being organised. Time management comes under the organisation umbrella and it’s something that very few manage to master.

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”

– H. Jackson Brown Jr.

There are hundreds of tips out there and, if we’re honest with ourselves, not one of those is going to be the magical solution to all your time management problems. Everybody’s days look different but you need to know what yours looks like to work out how you can improve. Using Google calendars or a similar app can mean that you can see your week at a glance.

Knowing your limits when it comes to your time can also be crucial. If you know when to say ‘no’ to opportunities (great as they may be), it gives your ‘yes’ a value boost.

Support Network

Networking for your business is invaluable, but it will never beat the network you already have. Scheduling time to spend with your family and friends means that you get a great balance in your day and a safe haven away from the uncertain business world.

These four key points are all crucial to creating a week that maximises productivity, moves your business forward and gives you a great work/life balance. Carving out time to put these points into practice could be the jump start you need to create a productive working week.

www.businessforlife.com.au/b41-program/

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Business for Life: Meet the Experts- Scott Gellatly, Bollo Empire

Business for Life: Meet the Experts- Scott Gellatly, Bollo Empire

During our Business For Life 12 month program, it’s all about connecting, learning and growing – which is why I’m so passionate about aligning the right experts and delivering world-class education to help support our community.

 

Throughout the year, participants connect with like-minded people in an x-ceptional networking environment, enabling a community of support  and collaboration. Our experts cover every element of business: HR, IT, Finance, Sales, Marketing, Communications, Mindset, Leadership and Productivity.

 

This blog, meet one of our experts – to not only understand their area of expertise but to understand what it is about their mindset that makes them ‘x-ponential’.

 

Experts- Systems: Scott Gellatly, Bollo Empire.

 

Scott Gellatly grew up in a family of small to medium-sized business founders and what he observed became the motivation to create his own business, Bollo Empire.

Scott Gellatly

“I watched the struggle to break the growth ceiling and create successful, scalable businesses. As is true for many small business owners, they created jobs for themselves and it became frustrating. I watched it impact our family with the accompanying disappointment of never achieving dreams – which can be soul-destroying when you are pouring so much time and effort into a venture.”

 

This is the WHY that gets him up each day in Bollo Empire.  “I realised that the missing key to success was systemisation. Systems empower a team to deliver for you, so you are free to focus on the strategy and growth of your business. If you think a system is too hard to build, it’s worth remembering that well-designed systems set you free. You build them once, and then watch them repeat what they are designed to do, over and over. That’s our passion at Bollo Empire. Designing systems for small business owners so they are free to scale and grow easily.”

 

It is this passion that has seen Bollo Empire recognised as the leading Podio partner globally.

Podio is a platform that enables founders of small to medium enterprises to underpin their processes, tieing together CRM, Project Management, HR and Operations together in one place. The result is complete visibility over business data, enabling more informed decision making, operational efficiency and the ability to easily delegate processes to your team.

 

We asked Scott a couple of non-systems type questions, so you get to know the person behind the skills.

 

What 4 things does a small business owner need to do to be Exponential?

  1. It’s vital to get “off the tools” and focus on strategic growth. You cannot see the wood through the trees. You cannot build a successful business if you are stuck facing customers and solving tactical issues every day.
  2. Put systems in place – turn everything you do from sales to product/service delivery into a standardised repeatable process that can be delegated easily.
  3. Use software automation to reduce time spent on menial tasks and create an efficient operation.
  4. Create balance in your life. If business comes at the cost of life (whatever that means for you) then why are you doing it in the first place?

 

What piece of advice you would offer to yourself in your first year of business, knowing what you do now?

Think scalable from the beginning. Don’t invest in anything that won’t produce a scalable business at the end.

 

Who would you like to be sat on a 24 hr flight next to, and why?

Barack Obama. He is an inspiring leader who has faced what appeared to be insurmountable challenges – yet he overcame them. I’d be fascinated to sit next to him and discover how he did it.

 

Where would you like to be in your own business in 5 years time?

I would be practicing what I preach: so in a purely director’s role, focusing on strategy and direction of business. I would also spend my time studying and creating my next business!
Scott can be reached via https://bolloempire.com.au/book and, of course, you can benefit from his expertise as a member of our 12 month Business for Life program. Learn more here.

There’s loads of tools to get your website working harder and your marketing to get results. Bx coaching can help you find the right tools for your business and pave the way for your success. Call Bx on 1300 068 229 or find out about our Business for Life Program.

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Making the Most Out Of Education Events

Making the Most Out Of Education Events

If you are attending any self-development or business education events such as the upcoming B-xponential, the key to success is making sure you take responsibility for getting value from the experience.

At education events, the ‘a-ha’ moments can surprise you.  The most interesting, informative and educational moments may not be spent in the sessions themselves: sometimes it’s in informal interactions with other attendees.

The lectures, talks, and panels might providevent heroe some new ideas, but can be one-directional, and you can get the slides or books by the speakers later.

Yet the unique, personal, and insightful conversations you have can only take place with other people and can only happen at the event, which means you need to invest time in connecting with other people.

Also, ensure you contribute and participate. Ask questions from the  floor of the speakers or panel if you have the opportunity. Make notes of any ‘lightbulb’ moments in your event guide or – for maximum efficiency – use a tool like Evernote to set up digital notebooks, snap screenshots of the speakers’ presentations, and import direct into the application. It means all your lessons and ideas are in one place and you’re not scrambling around with loose notes. You can also snap business cards into Evernote too, so you can track who you connect with at the event.

Some events, like B-xponential, offer follow-up sessions with experts. You typically have to pay extra to attend these but it can take your learning to whole new level, as well as keeping you surrounded, motivated and inspired by a like-minded cohort.

 

Plan ahead.

A day before the event, sit down with the proceedings and the small guidebook or agenda that they often provide you with. Go through with a pen, and mark anything that looks interesting. If you find things that sound cool but vague, flip open the proceedings and check them out. Circle all of the sessions that look interesting, and if two or more occur at the same time, flag the one you want to go to first.

 

Plan to be social.

Even if you are an introvert, it’s worth stretching yourself. By making  initial connections, you’ll be able to jump in on some conversations and meet more people. If you can get into the right mindset, you can have a lot of fun socialising and sharing between different groups.

 

Relax.

You will learn much better by having fun and enjoying the people I’m with. You can’t do that if you are fixated on getting to every session on time, or not staying out too late, or trying to achieve any specific objective.

By  relaxing and enjoying your time away from the office, you will be more open to new ideas and approaches for what to do when you  get back.
The primary reason to attend such events is to learn. It’s your job to figure out what kind of environment and state of mind you need to be in to best facilitate that objective.

 

There’s loads of tools to get your website working harder and your marketing to get results. Bx coaching can help you find the right tools for your business and pave the way for your success. Call Bx on 1300 068 229 or find out about our Business for Life Program.

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Strategies to Solve Stress in Small Business

Strategies to Solve Stress in Small Business

When you become a business owner, you no longer have one single job description. Instead, especially in the early days, you can be working lots of roles. With them come unforeseen challenges, often out of your control. As a result, stress can creep in – for the sake of your health, your business and your loved ones –

One way is identifying the common stressors so you can address them proactively – like the miners who relied upon the canaries to alert them of methane or carbon monoxide in the mines. The canary would die before the levels of the gas reached those hazardous to humans. In the same way (but not risking any of our feathered-friends) you need to identify your stress hazards in advance, be self-aware and manage them.

 

Stress for Business Owners Can Include:

A lack of control

We deal with customers, suppliers, late payers, government red tape, paperwork, team members, cash flow…the list goes on, and often it can feel as if you have little to no say. To help manage this, consider accepting that not all decisions will go your way and aim to have a positive outlook when they don’t. Appreciating your wins and accepting what you can’t control can help calm frustrating situations.

Reacting too soon

Often people react to situations without actually taking actions to better support them. Reactions are often emotionally driven and do not effectively support business decisions. To help ease the urge to react to something, take time to listen, analyse the situation, consider multiple responses to it and breathe. If it’s a good decision today, it will be a good decision tomorrow.

No time to do it all

Firstly, define what “doing it all” means. In all likelihood, what you want to get done couldn’t be achieved working 24/7 anyhow. So be kind to yourself. Acknowledge you can only do so much in one day. Accept that your health – including sleep, exercise and eating habits – contributes to your overall professional performance, allowing you to better manage your day-to-day stresses. Budgeting time to work out, allocating certain hours for family and / or friends only and choosing not to check emails during certain hours of the day are all proven ways to help manage a busy workload and eliminate stress.

Cash Flow

The largest small business stressor is cash flow uncertainty: what sales are coming in, knowing that bills and employees need to be paid. The first step is to look at improving systems and structures so you can feel more confident in your cash flow: shorten your receivables period; identify payment disputes fast; maintain great customer relations to minimise such disputes; look at ways to take payments up front; and watch your accounts payables closely.

Other small business stressors include

  • isolation and lack of social supportmatt Alderton, Bx, Business fr Life
  • presenteeism where you continue to work even if you aren’t well, because if you are away the business doesn’t happen
  • long hours which may be even a bigger problem than in the corporate world
  • blurring of boundaries between home and work
  • business failure, which also carries a suicide risk

Systems and support go a long way to easing the stress burden on a small business. I recommend joining a business group where you can meet other owners and discover they are battling their share of stresses too. Often it is the ‘business success’ mask we assume when things are tough that can cause the greatest damage. That’s why at Bx we are so passionate about building a community of business owners who can learn and grow together through their shared experiences.  

There’s loads of tools to get your website working harder and your marketing to get results. Bx coaching can help you find the right tools for your business and pave the way for your success. Call Bx on 1300 068 229 or find out about our Business for Life Program..

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