Keeping your business eye on the ball has to be the highest priority by using resources to the best advantage.
With Summer just around the corner, holidays about to begin, or already underway, it is easy to lose sight of keeping ‘your eye on the ball’. I believe it is one of the truer sayings that we can all readily apply.
It’s one of the vagaries of the life of a businessman, (there must have been a case study written on the subject), that keeping your business on track has to be your highest priority. With the conflicting pressures that affect all of us, it is a salutatory lesson that can have disastrous results.
At our AGM, a member came up to me and said that he finds keeping all the plates spinning needs his full attention. It was a perfect summary. He had resolved his issues by avoiding unimportant, low-priority distractions.
He was also keen to point out that having solid roots for your business, and its continuing development, provided essential stability. Using your available resources to their best advantage was part of the palette he uses for managing his business. It all rang an important bell with me.
I discovered at our Let’s Do Business Expo just how much importance our growing membership place on the solid foundations that this Chamber provides through its connections in and across Great Birmingham.
Being part of the larger group provides access to the advantages of larger grants and funding. We have recently scored some notable successes that will contribute to our business community moving further ahead. There are major investments taking place in our region with important ones centred on HS2; and the new Enterprise Zone in Solihull being masterminded under the auspices of GBSLEP.
I was recently reminded not to overlook the spin-offs and advantages that these significant investments and infrastructure developments will bring to our industry and commerce.
Those members in logistics, distribution and warehousing know all about the supply chain. For many businesses, it is easy to overlook the role of the constantly improving supply chain that benefits each and every business.
Many of us will use Amazon, and other similar large-scale online suppliers, without stopping to think just how important a role in our thriving businesses that they now play; and how they fulfil our expectations.
We will all have a view on their use of drones, or other alternative methods of delivery, to meet the increasingly short timescales that are demanded. But, we quickly forget how reliant we have become on these services.
The drones however may come later, perhaps not that much later. We are all time-short with increasing pressures on our busy work lives and we overlook how many vital services have changed in the past 10, even five years.
That’s why having firm foundations for your business and being able to ride the cycles in our economy, and trade, remain so critical to our success.
Taking some time out to consider these issues should remain a high priority for every business-owner. An away-day, or weekend, with your team combining confidential discussions, even team-building exercises, can be a fruitful investment in time, money and resources.
You will be making a solid investment for the future, for your business, and for your staff. And who can or should argue with that?
As your President, I welcome your views and thoughts on this and my earlier Columns. If you have particular issues you would like to raise, then please contact me.
Would you be interested in your Chamber arranging a dedicated workshop of a topic of mutual interest across our membership?
If so then, do get in touch with your proposals. We can all use our Chamber to our advantage and build a growing fund of knowledge and expertise.
And if you are about to go holiday, please make it a relaxing time.
Simon Chapman
President of Burton and District Chamber of Commerce
Managing Director, Yee Group Limited
