IT AIN’T (JUST) WHAT YOU DO, IT’S THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT
In case you have been on holiday to the moon, or living in a cave for the last couple of months, please let me mention again that I have been shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2017 Kingston Business Excellence Awards.
I know, right? This is heady stuff. I’ve been engaging with the local business community for about five minutes. Yet there I was, at a Kingston hotel this morning, trying to convince a panel of three that I should be the one collecting the gong at next month’s ceremony.
Preparing for the interview made me reflect on the extraordinary number of things that I have learned in the short time since I started seeking out customers to whom I can offer copywriting and other content management services.
As I said to the panel this morning, I am so fresh off the boat that I don’t have financial figures showing stunning progress over 12 months or more which can be attributed to my entrepreneurial acumen.
And yet here I am on the shortlist. So there must be something in the way I come across to the people I meet and the customers I bring on board that is working well.
I’m going to suggest – and I did suggest today – that the impression I am making is rooted in a certain set of attitudes which lead to behaviours which are compelling in a business context.
It’s not always easy. I was asked what my biggest weakness is and I answered that I worry too much. Which puts me in a minority of small business owners of about 100 per cent.
But, I added, I always look myself in the mirror and say, in all seriousness: “You’ve got this.”
I’d like to think the ideal approach can be summed up in four key words, the sort of words that should appear in big inspirational letters on the wall of any office:
BOLD: It takes guts to run your own business, to go out and bring customers on board. Have them.
INNOVATIVE: Don’t do the same thing as everybody else. Try new stuff, try brilliant ideas that make you stand out from the crowd.
DYNAMIC: Be busy, be committed, be active. Go that extra yard, put in that extra hour. And smile while you do it, because you should always be…
POSITIVE: I mean it about the smiling. It sends a great message if you look like you are loving what you are doing and where you are.
If you and I exhibit behaviours driven by those words, surely we must be on the right track?
There are loads more. Not least a readiness to be self-critical and ensure that when you make mistakes – and boy oh boy, have I made some ricks this year – you make them only once.
But that is another story for another day.