Changing the focus to create a new balance

Work Smart Not Hard Tip No. 34 in a series written for Indie Cambs.

Working smart, not hard is about balancing time and money, and whether we’re in a growing economy, a recession, or navigating Covid, the basic principles are the same: Use your time well to make money as efficiently as possible and you’ll have more time to spend on whatever you choose.

– Identify your most profitable activities
– Automate or outsource as much as possible
– Pay attention to the most important, not the most urgent tasks
– Set things up to run without you

The decisions about how we automate and outsource have always been influenced by our values. Do we go for the cheapest option – which can mean employing someone from a country where the living wage is much less than the UK, or buying supplies from a less than ethical provider, or do we pay what we consider to be a “fair” rate?

These ethical decisions have always been very personal, but ethics in business seem to have taken a different turn in recent times. Our use of social media, A.I., the earth’s resources, and where we choose to spend our money, all have several different aspects to consider. No-one has any straightforward answers and everyone is more anxious about what is happening in the world.

So, as small, independent businesses, what do we focus on? I suggest the best bet is on the one unchangeable aspect of doing business: people – and in particular, our customers.

There is an epidemic of loneliness in many places in the world and trusted human connection is becoming more and more important. We all know that running a small business can be very isolating and we do what we can to counter that with networking opportunities and community building events, but have you thought about how human connection is becoming more and more important to your customers?

What could you do to foster closer relationships between you and your customers, or between different individuals or groups of customers? When people have one thing in common (you), they may be interested in finding out what else they have in common.

All the work smart, not hard principles still apply, but the world is likely to become more threatening – mostly because that’s the way the media chooses to portray it – and so, when we talk about focusing on what’s important and not urgent, more than ever we can make “people” the most important element.

(I say this as a highly unsociable introvert, and if I can make this work, so can anyone!)