As 2 of my daughters’ birthdays are only 6 weeks apart, we have a joint party in the middle of the 2 dates and make it a big family event – a proper garden party as we’ve got August and September babies 😊

At this years party, we were celebrating 2nd and 5th birthdays so there was going to be a big age range of children attending and I wanted to make sure that the little ones had some space of their own away from the big kids if they wanted. So I ordered a bouncy castle and some soft play equipment.

Together with our swings, slides and trampoline, there would definitely be something for everyone – as well as beer and prosecco for the adults!

But as the date was drawing closer, the weather forecast was looking very wet which wasn’t going to be a good fit for our garden party ☹ So 3 days before the big day, I contacted the local village hall to see if it was available to hire on the Sunday and luckily it was free so we booked it as a backup and I got the keys dropped round on the Saturday. We continued to get ready at home putting up gazebos keeping our fingers crossed the weather would be kind to us.

I had texted the bouncy castle and soft play people to keep them in the loop about a possible change of venue (luckily it’s only 300 metres up the road and you have to drive past the hall to get to our house) and they asked me to let them know by 8am on the party day.

I woke up on party day and it was already starting to rain so I made the decision to transfer to the village hall and this is where I learned some valuable business lessons.

ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP PLAN
Whether you are launching a new product or running an event, you always need to have backup plans in case anything goes wrong. You don’t want to be wasting any valuable time trying to come up with ideas, so having plans in place will make any necessary changes go more smoothly.

I had the keys for the hall so it was a pain to take everything up but it was easily done.

KEEP STAFF & SUPPLIERS INFORMED OF YOUR PLANS
If you are relying on other people in your business, you need to keep them up to date with your plans so they can come in and help where they can.

By letting the bouncy castle people know, they weren’t surprised and were at the hall as planned.

KEEP THINGS SIMPLE & DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Part way through the party, we set the fire alarm off which wouldn’t normally be a big deal, but there was no way to turn this annoying thing off. There wasn’t a fire and despite our best efforts to try to get this thing to stop shrilling its siren, it wouldn’t be silenced. We looked around the immediate area and there was nothing about the fire alarm system. We started trying lots of different things but nothing was working. In the end, we went on a hunt as it sounded like it was part of a system and not just a smoke alarm so we figured there had to be a control panel somewhere.

It wasn’t in the kitchen next to the main electrics board, we checked in obvious places and then resorted to not so obvious places.

In the end, we found it in the store room at the back of the hall, tucked behind a load of stacked furniture that is quite frankly, a miracle we found it.

For people who aren’t regular users of the hall, we didn’t know where to look and there was nothing obvious telling us what to do.

This is where the hall could have made things a lot easier by having signs in place of what to do in case of alarm etc as well as other common issues.

Going on holiday is a fantastic opportunity to take a step back from your business to recharge your batteries and if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up coming back with a bunch of new ideas and a renewed motivation for your business.

On our recent trip to Cyprus, I noticed a lot of great ideas and lessons from our holiday experience – from the Thomson flight to the First Choice Holiday Village hotel we stayed at. And they are simple things that we can ALL use to help our businesses.

Our Thomson Flight

Before we even got off the ground, I experienced the first lesson. I’ve been on many flights on all sorts of planes – from little propeller type planes for internal flights to the new Dreamliner (which is amazing by the way) – so I’m not going to pay much attention to the safety video or instructions as I think I’ve heard it all before!

But on this flight, I did take notice and it was because it was different to what I’d seen before! We flew with Thomson last year, in fact we went to the same hotel, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw, and heard, the safety video on this flight.

Why was it different?

It featured children. The kids were acting as the pilot, cabin crew and passengers going through all the details. It was really cute and it got most people’s attention which is a difficult thing on a flight – unless of course you offered a free flight, that would get a lot of attention quickly!

The children were acting as the adults and teddy bears were children, it was great to watch and I can honestly say, I watched it all. 9 year old Megan and 3 year old Kenzie even watched it as well as they thought it was fantastic and they even made the point of making sure they were ready to see the TV on the flight home ready for the video to come on.

Your turn …

• In a marketplace full of people offering the same products or services as you, how can you do things differently
• How can you stand out from the crowd
• Can you go against the ‘norm’ for your industry and really shake things up?

So, take a look at your business and see what you can do to stand out from the crowd. I’d love to hear what you’re doing, share in the comments below.

Following our most recent visit to this Turkish hotel, we’ve already booked for our 4th visit. So what has this hotel got that has got us going back for more?

Brand loyalty isn’t the same it is today as it was when I was a child (and yes, that was quite a few years ago)! Today, we don’t book our holidays based on the name of the tour operator alone, we take lots of other things into account which is something that we can all learn from.

Create What Your Customers Want

First Choice (or soon to be TUI), have created different concepts for their hotels and categorise them into what people are looking for whether family oriented or total luxury.

We go with their family orientated version which is a Holiday Village. These hotels all offer the same kind of setup just in different locations.

For example, the kids are the main focal point so there’s kids clubs up to age 15, creche facilities, loads of daytime activities all the family can join in, kid friendly buffet, great pools, water slides at some hotels, spaciolus rooms, all inclusive, kid friendly evening entertainment to name a few.

To put parents minds at ease, everything outside of the hotel side of things (cleaning, food and drinks), everything else is run by First Choice staff so everything is to UK standards when it comes to safety and standards.

Make It Easy For People to Join You

There is so much going on that you can get involved with as much or as little as you want. We tend to stay by the pool with our 3 kids but will join in if something takes our fancy (the older 2 did some water zorbing which was hilarious as 5 year old Kenzie kept slipping and it looked like she was in a washing machine).

Evenings we join in with the first part of the entertainment as all 3 girls can take part and mum and dad are always dragged on to the dance floor (thankfully not on stage this time).

Make Customers Feel Special

As we were only at the hotel earlier in the year in May, it was great that we were remembered by both the hotel and First Choice staff. When we went into the restaurant the first night, the waitor who served us in May was still there and before we’d even contemplated getting up to get food, he had come over with the drinks we have (all without asking). Our favourite waitresses were there and we were greeted with big hugs like we were family friends.

If you can build a crowd of raving fans, they will shout about their experience with you and become an unpaid member of your marketing team. Get it wrong and they’ll shout about you for the wrong reasons!

Can’t wait until we’re back!

Have you created a product or service that your customers want? Is it easy for people to buy? How can you make customers feel special so that they buy from you and not a competitor?

As busy mums, we’ve got so much to do in our role as mum that when it comes to running a business as well, it can feel like you’ve got a mountain to climb and in stilettos as well

We all go through moments when we feel like we’re banging our head against a brick wall, or feel like the Universe is out to get us (as well as lots of other silly things), but in reality, you’re doing an awesome job and you can take some inspiration from Taylor Swift.

“The fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake”
Once you step up and get serious about building a successful business, you will unfortunately attract competitors who think it’s fine to copy all your hard work (you know, that blood, sweat and tears you’ve poured into creating a great marketing message that works).

You can soon get angry and bitter (understandably so, check out this article I wrote about my own copying experience), but try to see it as a compliment that what you’re doing is right. But also use it as an opportunity to look at what you’re saying and putting out there – is the message as clear as it could be, has it got your authentic voice running through it so that it is totally obvious that it’s your voice?

“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”
For some people, the sight of success for others can bring up feelings of jealousy, bitterness and the “who do they think they are” mentality. The key is not to think this YOURSELF! Just remember that the issue isn’t actually about you – it’s ALWAYS going to be about their issues.

“And that’s what they don’t see”
I love this quote from Maya Angelou …

“The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story …”

It’s so true, nobody knows exactly what people are going through, how many hours work has been put into something, what things have gone wrong.

“I’m dancing on my own, I make the moves up as I go”
Whatever industry you’re in, there’s going to be some competition for you – if you don’t have any competition I would be a little concerned as it might be that people aren’t buying.

This is why it’s so important to think of ways that you can stand out from the crowd – is there anything you can do that isn’t the norm for your industry and shake things up a bit

“Shake it off, I shake it off”
Just remember that no life or business are perfect, mistakes happen, things don’t go to plan, just don’t go into a meltdown moment and instead “shake it off”

So, are you going to fake, fake, fake or hate, hate, hate – or are you going to shake it off?

When you start out in business, you soon realise that you have to perform many roles in order to get things done. These include: administration, marketing, IT helpdesk, finance, PR, website, technical help, etc.  It can soon feel very overwhelming with everything that you do need to do.

Doing everything yourself is fine to begin with, but if you really want to build your business and take it to the next level, you need to learn to let go of some of the routine tasks, to give you time to focus on more important ones.

One of the keys to building a family friendly business is to build an amazing support team

A lot of people don’t expect me to say this but a support team is your secret weapon.  It is amazing.  To be honest, it’s a smart way of working because you have to take care of the marketing and strategy for your business as well as the work that your customers pay you to do.

There’s loads of people you can have on your team (for your business AND home life), think about the following as the essential team members to bring on board first:

Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) is a self-employed professional providing administrative, secretarial and creative services on a remote basis.  Working from their own fully equipped offices, VA’s work with a variety of different clients helping them in their businesses on an ad hoc, regular or individual project basis.

Outsource your routine administration so that you can focus on product creation and marketing activities to build your business.

Cleaner
This doesn’t need much explanation!

As busy mums, we have so much ‘stuff’ to do for our family, never mind adding a business to the mix. Getting a cleaner may sound like a luxury but I say it is essential as it will free up a lot more time than you realise so you can get your business moving.

If you don’t want to get a cleaner, at least get somebody to do your ironing. I have a local lady come to collect and deliver mine every two weeks.  I know exactly when she is coming so that everything is ready for her.

Childcare
I always tell my clients that childcare must be the first type of support you need to bring on board as you need some dedicated no child zone time to work on your business.  Even if it is only a few hours a week, it is something that you need to look at quickly.

If you have children of any age, regardless of what their age is, you realise how distracting they can be and why it is difficult to run a business and look after them at the same time.  You can’t do it.  It’s simple.  This is why having good childcare is essential to your success.  Even if they go to nursery for a couple of days a week or a couple of afternoons or if you got somebody who can come in and look after them (even if it’s just one afternoon a week).  Whatever it is, you need some form of childcare to give you the dedicated time and energy you need to focus on your business.

My oldest daughter she goes to school five days a week and then my youngest daughter she goes to pre-school for three days a week from September.  They go to the same place so its only one drop-off and I’ve arranged for my youngest to go to after school care so I can pick her up the same time as my eldest after her after school club or homework sessions.  It’s good.  I know on those three days I have those set specifically that I can spend between 9.15am until 4pm doing what I need to do.  It might be phone calls.  It might be client work.  It might be training events or networking events.  Those days are really good.

Obviously, this is going to change when baby number 3 makes their appearance but at least I’m in a routine with the other 2!

Delegating Made Easy

When you are delegating anything, more so from a business point, you need to set clear deadlines and priorities.  When you’re delegating a task, set the deadlines and then prioritise the task for the person doing the work so that they are in no illusion what they need to do, when they need to do it and what is the order that they need to do them.  If they’ve got a big list of stuff to do, what are the must do items first.

Give them clear instructions and information.  If you’re not clear, then this leaves it open for basically anything to happen, misunderstandings, whatever it is, because they could go off on a different tangent to what you wanted.  Be clear and say, ‘this is what I want doing. This is the type of result I want and this is how I want it done.’  They can do it because you’ve given them clear instructions.  No misunderstandings and everybody is happy.  They get to do the work that you want.  You get it in the way that you want it.  Everybody is happy.  Job done.

When you’re working with freelance staff, you have to realise that they work with other clients, so they have other things already in their work load that they need to do.  If you show up and say, ‘I need this done now.’  That’s not fair on them.  It’s not fair on the other clients that they’re working with who have given them advanced notice and have been nice and clear.

Think about any deadlines and say, ‘I’ve got this product launch on X date, I need this, this, this, this. Do it in advance.’  Everything can be mapped out on what and when you need to do things, what and when they need to do things.  What do you need to sign up?  Is there anything you need to create for it?  Is there any social media stuff that needs to be sent out that the VA can do for example?  Give them advance notice.

To make any delegation easy, you need to remember that communication is key.  It really is the key to an effective relationship with those that you delegate work to.  It’s a two way process.  I suppose the golden rule is to treat people how you would like to be treated.  Give them respect.  Give them the recognition they deserve.  Tell them they’re doing a great job.  Tell them if they’ve made any mistakes.  You don’t have to be nasty about it.  Obviously, they can have that two way process with you.  Just make an effort.  Keep the lines of communication open.  Make it so that you’re easily approachable so if they’ve got any questions or concerns, they can easily approach you.

Your action plan
Who do you need on your support team? Who are you going to bring on board first and when?