Pathfinder – Business update – Business question of the month (January)

Tim Levey, Partner and Head of Business Advisory, runs two groups of business leaders in Kent. In recent discussions he posed the question: “Business resolutions – how can we make them reality?”

A lot of business owners that I know spent the break after Christmas thinking about what they were going to do differently in the New Year.

All of them were thinking hard about the future and some were thinking big. One that I know summed up the goal as “Global domination”. They have massive markets around the world that they could target if only their time wasn’t taken up with the double-digit growth that they were already experiencing. Premises and equipment were not going to be the problem with growing – finding labour was.

For many of the others that I spoke to, staff also featured strongly. This covered rebuilding a team that has been reduced with EU workers returning home, trying to find good sales staff, spending more time with staff or addressing issues with long term loyal staff who seemed to have lost some motivation.

At the other end of the business lifecycle there are owners who are planning how to wind down the business and move onto the next phase of their lives.

One commented that they feared that having had those positive thoughts over the break, it might not be long before those are forgotten and “the grind” takes over.

My own way of getting over that is to make sure that any resolutions that I have are not typed, but are written down in my own handwriting. Apparently there is a direct link from your dominant hand to your brain. Psychologically what you are doing is focussing your brain on what you want. I then put that sheet in my folder, which then gets carried everywhere, and have a look at it every so often. It works for me…

It’s now the end of January and the year is hurtling by already. If you have forgotten your resolutions already then give the handwritten sheet a go.

If you would like to join one of the Intelligo Business Leader groups that discuss these types of issues then please contact Tim Levey here or on +44 (0)330 124 1399.

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