Sorted. Taking control of your small business (and your life)
Clare Fountain
This book is dedicated to Antoinette Danaher, who lived by her motto: “Leave everything better than you found it.� A best friend, and a small business mentor to many.
Sorted. Taking control of your small business (and your life)
Clare Fountain Illustrations by Tania Ryan
Copyright Š 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be made to the Publisher. Every effort has been made to ensure that this book is free from error or omissions. However, the Publisher, the Author, the Editor or their respective employees or agents, shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or damage occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of material in this book whether or not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission, breach of duty or default on the part of the Publisher, the Author, the Editor, or their respective employees or agents. The Author, the Publisher, the Editor and their respective employees or agents do not accept any responsibility for the actions of any person - actions which are related in any way to information containted in this book. The moral right of the author has been asserted. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Fountain, Clare Title: Sorted. Taking Control Of Your Small Business (& Your Life) ISBN: 9780995442559 Subject: Business & Economics, Small Business & Entrepreneurship, New Business Enterprises Dewey Number: 658.022 All illustrations by Tania Ryan. The Publisher has done its utmost to attribute the copyright holders of all the visual materials used. If you nevertheless think that a copyright has been infringed, please contact the Publisher. Published by: Fiosracht Press (an imprint of Of The World Publishing) PO Box 8070 BENDIGO SOUTH LPO VIC 3550 www.oftheworldbooks.com
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Contents Chapter 1 Let’s get sorted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Chapter 2 Your life on a page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 3 Success without stress . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Chapter 4 Setting budgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Chapter 5 Spread the word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Chapter 6 Sealing the deal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Chapter 7 Make it happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Chapter 8 Growing your team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Chapter 9 Finding balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Chapter 10 Task management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Chapter 11 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118
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Let’s get sorted
(tools for building business success)
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“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
Why are you here? I am going to make a few assumptions about you, so I hope you don’t mind. You might have a small business of your own, or perhaps you are looking to set up a business. Either way, you want to be in control and make sure you’re on top of things. You also have a home life that is important to you, and finding a balance between a successful business AND a successful personal life sometimes seems a little impossible. You’d like to be in charge of the amount of money your business makes, and the amount of time your business takes up. More than anything, you’d like to make more money, achieve more and stress less. This is me: Clare! I might pop up every now and then through the book to remind you of something important...or give you an extra nudge. Just like I do with my clients in everyday life.
You want to know if you’ve got what it takes to run a business, and if it’s right for you. Sound about right? There’s no question that small business has its own unique challenges. As a small business owner, you have to wear many hats and you often have to take on tasks that are totally out of your ability and comfort zone. This is where I come in.
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How can I help you? I want you to live a full life AND have a successful business. I want you to have success without the stress. I want you to have confidence and I want you to be kind to yourself. I promise you this is all possible, because over the years I’ve had hundreds of clients who have worked with me to make it happen. You ARE able to run a successful business and still have time and headspace for life outside of work. I wanted to create this book because if I could teach each person who reads it how to spend more time with their family, put themselves first, give back to their community and make their business thrive, I’d be very happy. I was born and raised in the UK and like many of us, I worked lots of different jobs through school and university. Each one of them gave me an insight into business and I loved getting my head around a concept by applying it to the real world and adapting it to the people involved. In 1992, I left England and worked in event management in Hong Kong and then in Australia. My first ever event to manage was George Bush Senior speaking at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, so you can imagine there was a fair bit of pressure to get it all right! I was surrounded by people who were veterans in event management and I quickly learnt to soak up their experience and translate that into results. I’ve done this throughout my work life and, possibly without even knowing it, you have too. It’s amazing what we learn from those we work alongside. I always treated the business I worked for as if it were my own and then, in 2000, I started consulting for a few small businesses alongside the event marketing role I had at the time. Soon after, my daughter was born. She’s a fighting fit teenager taking on the world now, but she was
One important thing I’ve learnt through my travels is that no matter where in the world you are doing business, the same challenges apply!
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born with a heart condition and the first two years were tough. Juggling my own business along with the unpredictable nature of my daughter’s health created a steep learning curve for me.
Putting self-care first is an ongoing struggle! Life is full of surprises so, more than anything, just be kind to yourself.
I learnt how important self-care is in a scenario where both parents are sucked dry of energy looking after a sick little person. We needed to ensure we took turns in relaxing and recharging, or else we’d never have survived. We had a very clear 50/50 split of parenting responsibilities – it was down to the best person for the job and there was no room for gender stereotypes! In fact, I was taught how to bath a baby by my husband. By the time our daughter turned two, we’d moved to central Victoria. My husband had followed my work around the globe and securing him a job in Bendigo was great – we’d visited friends there many times and loved it. I continued to service my Melbourne clients and expand my networks into central and regional Victoria. My business grew and evolved from physical office sorting, to business systems work and into consulting, facilitation and project management; something that takes me all over the country today. I’ve learnt many, many tips and tricks along the way and being able to share them with you was one of the reasons I wanted to create this book. Also, I want you to know that my life isn’t all about work – as much as I love my business. I have a real commitment to supporting and growing my community and for as many years as I’ve been working, I’ve also supported causes that I am passionate about. From raising money and awareness for people living with HIV and AIDS in Brighton, Hong Kong and Melbourne; through to my involvement – thanks to my daughter – with HeartKids Australia; and
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more recently into the social justice space. I was on the school council for eight years at my daughter’s primary, then secondary schools and spoken at events about the importance of consumer engagement in health care system design and reform. These days I’ve reduced my community roles down to five (you can pop over to my website: www.clarefountain.com. au if you’re interested in knowing more about those). I take my own advice about working out what and how much you can fit in to your life (but more about that in the next few chapters). Many of my clients tell me they’d love to give back and do more, but they don’t have the time, or the energy, or the money. I want you to know that by implementing a few simple systems, it is possible to do so much of what you want to do (and not just what you think you have to do!)
What can this book do for you?
This is me giving you permission to scribble all over this book! It’s all yours and I want you to really make it your own (not to mention it’s lovely to write on...)
If you’re still here, then it sounds like we might just be perfect for each other! What I wanted to create with Sorted. was a book that worked a little bit like a small business manual; and a little like a life plan; and a little like a workbook so that you could really nut out exactly what steps you need to take in order to get yourself, well, sorted! Each chapter is going to tackle a different element of small business and easy ways you can get your head on straight to be sure that running a small business is easier and more simple than you sometimes think. I will cover some time management tips and tricks that will help you out with that elusive work/life balance, and I will offer some simple strategies to help you feel as though you are in control with all the areas of business life. 11
There are extra copies of the worksheets online, and make use of these wide margins to scribble reminders, highlight points or make extra notes.
One of my favourite quotes is from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
There are some worksheets in each chapter that I encourage you to tackle…I promise you they all serve an incredibly helpful purpose. Finally, there are a few case studies. Over the years I’ve worked with many clients and often it’s sharing their experiences that provide you with a little insight into ways that you can have your own business working a whole lot better. Learn from their challenges!
Are you ready? Painting a picture of the space you want to move into, and then actually moving into it, can take time. We all know that change is hard. All too easily we give up and revert back to our old patterns. Creating new patterns and ‘new norms’ takes energy. It’s almost as though our minds like those old patterns so much, they want to pull us back to what we’ve always done (even when those old ways are no longer serving us). So, if you are considering creating ‘new norms’ that require a new way of doing things… start slowly! Tackle them one by one so the brain sees them as part of the normal pattern. Consider a ‘health kick’ versus a ‘healthy lifestyle’. A health kick will never last if you go too hard, too fast. Staying in bed is much easier than getting up to exercise. Eating what is in front of you is much easier than saying no. In fact, the energy and willpower it takes to say no is often so huge that ‘everything in moderation’ is often an easier path to take. Saying no all the time can result in a binge. Similarly, if you plan to lose a heap of weight quickly, the statistics are stacked against you. Making small, lasting changes are more likely to work for you (even if it doesn’t always feel like it in the short term).
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Just like with our health, a healthy business life is all about being realistic and being kind to yourself. Taking on a whole list of changes all at once won’t work. Do one at a time and ensure you’ve got the energy to bed it down into a pattern. Then pick another one. Choose the easy ones that give you energy to start with – just like a walk at lunchtime or two extra glasses of water a day. Start small, and celebrate all the wins along the way.
End of chapter check in: What are some ‘new norms’ you’d like in your life to make it better? It can be anything: business, family, health, money…
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These lines here? They’re just for you. So find a pen or pencil that makes you happy and start scribbling because there’s more of these as you move through the book!
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