Green shoots… and growth

Here we are in April, at the start of a new tax year. I’ve now been trading for six months and I’m delighted to say I turned a (very small) profit! Ok, I was helped by a start-up business loan and my redundancy payment, but I have invested in coaching and mentoring and in my website and, even after paying myself regularly, I’ve turned a very small profit… I’m excited for 2021/22 and it all starts this month.

On a side note, it strikes me there are three moments in the calendar year when you can effectively ‘start again’ and start planning for a great new future. Of course, you can start planning at any time but, specifically, there’s January and all the New Year resolution prompts we get at the start of the calendar year. Then there’s April and the start of a new tax year. And finally, there’s September when the summer break is officially over and we all have a hugely in-built sense of a new term and a new academic year starting.

New Business

Next on my agenda is securing some retainer clients where I can act as an organisation’s PR team, as an independent practitioner, and work over a longer period of time to give them a greater return on investment. So, the client retains someone with almost 30 years of experience in communications who brings boundless energy and enthusiasm to the work – something that people who are ‘on staff’ can struggle with! Not because they are lacking in energy and enthusiasm by any means, but because of the natural dysfunctions of organisations and all the internal communication and meetings that can get in the way of actual ‘work’.

At the same time, the client will save on sick pay, holiday pay, National Insurance and pension contributions and a whole host of other employee-related costs. If you’d like to explore this with me, book a call via the Calendly widget on my website.

Burnout

It feels like the right moment to reflect on burnout, and the Financial Times has been doing just this on its website – collating a series of articles about the issue of burnout in companies and on the future of work more generally.

You’ll have read about complaints this month from some young Goldman Sachs analysts about long hours and a lack of respect. I’ve personally witnessed overload at two organisations I’ve worked with recently, where staff are working from home and spending all their time ‘collaborating’ with other team members who are also working remotely; then having to do their day jobs, the actual work, in the evenings and at weekends. This isn’t sustainable, surely? And all because organisations have restructured and downsized during the pandemic. It’s the workload that needs to be downsized.

Lockdown lifting

So, we’ve had a year of various forms of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and, as I write, restrictions are lifting. We’re able to meet outside in small groups and non-essential shops and businesses are reopening. I was excited to have my first haircut in nine months on 12 April.

I can already feel the year running away with me – late June and all of July are already busy with weekend social plans, assuming all restrictions are lifted on 21 June as expected. I’ve already made notes for a blog post in October when I’ll have been trading a year.

Spring pursuits

Gardening traditionally starts at Easter – garden centres were obviously deemed ‘essential’ retail this time around, and our local centres were busy over the Easter weekend, despite the cold weather. In a rush of enthusiasm, I bought strawberry plants, sweet peas, bedding and herbs, which all sheltered in the garage for a week or so until I was brave enough to plant them out. They’re now taking their chances with our up and down spring temperatures.

It’s a great time for niche businesses; we’re turning down the boiler and resetting the central heating for fewer hours a day, so plumbers could be busy marketing an annual boiler service before the rush of autumn. One plumber I know wants to hear from people who need outdoor taps installed to clean bikes and boots after muddy escapades.

Many people appear to have major home upgrades in train, meaning it’s a great time for suppliers of new kitchens and interiors.

Book recommendation

In the last month I’ve read The E Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber, as recommended by Jo Middleton who has started several businesses, most recently the Wizziwoos Kids Clubs. The E Myth re-energised me for running my own business and for being not just a Technician, someone who knows about PR, but also my own Manager and an Entrepreneur…

The Entrepreneur in me is already planning to flesh out some of the services I provide, firstly training. I delivered a workshop on the importance of PR to a group of Business Women in Wiltshire, some very impressive business owners, at the beginning of the month and I’m keen to do more. Watch this space and, for the time being and perhaps forever, these will be delivered online to reach as broad an audience as possible.

Media News

One of the biggest media stories of the past few weeks has been the way the BBC, in particular, reacted to the death of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on Friday 9 April. BBC One and Two switched to rolling news then pre-planned documentary programming. Radios 1, 2, 4 and 6 Music (I didn’t tune into Radio 3 or Five Live) simulcast the news on Friday afternoon and then played sombre music all weekend that, I’m afraid, had me reaching for Spotify by Friday night… Needless to say, the BBC was inundated with complaints.

The poor old BBC; damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t. As a public service broadcaster, funded by a universal licence fee, it had to react to news of the death of a very senior member of the royal family with a large dose of respect and diligence. The corporation was already smarting from accusations in 2002 that it wasn’t sufficiently deferential following the death of the Queen Mother.

It’s such a tough call. Reactions vary, from generation to generation, from traditionalists to modernisers, and the BBC is already under pressure from Boris Johnson’s government insisting it isn’t patriotic enough. It all left me wondering, what will happen when The Queen dies?

The period of mourning is likely to be a full 7 days and the day of her funeral will be a public bank holiday. The BBC is likely to suspend all comedy programming during that time. Arts organisations can choose whether to make an announcement mid-performance and whether to open during a period of mourning (not something they had to worry about this month, during lockdown). The BBC cannot suspend its services but the advice for the arts sector helps explain why the BBC broadcast ‘different’ programming over the weekend following the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.

You can be sure, plans already exist for key media and arts services in the event of the death of the monarch, and these will be revised following Prince Philip’s death.

That’s quite enough for this month. Thanks for reading – if I can help in any way, to raise your organisation’s profile, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.