Priorities

Where must the line be drawn, our list of jobs to be completed is almost endless (even more so than the DIY jobs around the house!!), but what must come first?

Revising Company Policies, Maintaining the Company Website, On-Going Marketing Campagin, Networking, Existing Jobs to be issue, reviewing software and making technical amendments, CPD, professional applications..... the list goes on and that is just from a business perspective.

We all naturally revert to type and complete the jobs we enjoy doing before tackling those less 'interesting tasks'. In some cases the answer is fairly clear cut, if you have a deadline to meet for issuing drawings then you must concentrate your efforts there. In an ideal world we'd have an army of staff all enjoying a certain aspect of the work whom we could delegate to - and yes completing a blog is probably not the highest priority, but it's straight forward with children running around.

Luckily I have a week away working coming up so I think I"ll be knocking off a few of the jobs on the list, but another possibly alternative is information sharing with similar companies - each concentrate on a different element of the 'business' side of operations and share the results??

Policies & Paperwork

Everyone wants something be it an Environmental Policy, Health & Safety Policy, QA Policy, Insurance Policy!

Does the one cap fits all really work, or do we need a rising scale depending on the nature of your work and the level at which you work at. From my stand point our environmental impact whilst present is fairly insignificant - fuel to travel between office & site, energy to run the office, and paper to produce plots, then any environmental impact caused by our suppliers. It may be me being blind to the obvious but there is very little to be done to improve this or mention in an Environmental Policy!

Health & Safety - paper work gone mad. Yes it is critical to all businesses, but please let common sense prevail. I'll happily follow site rules laid down by others but I'm not wearing a hard hat on every site I attended especially when the owner of the house is in shorts & t-shirts gardening not ten metres from me!! In this instance even hi-vis seems a little OTT but there has to be a line somewhere. I once covered a job where is was a requirement to wear hard hat, gloves, goggles, hi vis top & trousers at all times when on site - that included at 2am driving down the road laser scanning whilst the road remained open to everyone - they did relent on the end and allowed us to put the hat, goggles & gloves on only as we left the vehicle, but only after a heated argument.

QA - Enough said, we all live a die by this and it's one of the few policies which I believe can be constant no matter what the level of the company.

You may have noted I'm not a fan of paperwork unless it is necessary in the line of the job. However I must embrace the trend now and set to on revise and developing all of our company policies in line with continued growth into more mainline industry.

More details of the services we offer, and examples of our work can be found at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or you can keep in touch with us on LinkedIn, Facebook (www.facebook.com/rlsurveys) & Twitter (@RLSurveys).

Benefits of Social Media & Networking

As a new start business it's not as simple as it used to be - before the age of the internet (a time I am aware of but never experienced in business ;0p) it was a case of picking up the yellow pages and start dialing - or better still travelling door to door. Now it's all change, whilst the old methods still remain and are by far the easiest and most direct methods they are not necessarily the most effective, consider these new methods:-

1) Networking - BNI, Tweet Up, Chamber of Commerce, Business Events,

2) Social Media - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger

3) Internet - Website, E-mail & Social Media

But which method is the best, and does the same ring true for all businesses - or even the people behind the business. From a personal stand point I hate networking or active marketing of any sort, it is not something I am comfortable doing but I know it is a means to an end, and if there was one element of my business I could farm out this would be it. However this is the one element of the business that I need to commit to to achieve the long term business goals.

So which is best - all of them - sorry but each has its place and you need at least a presence in all of these places. The internet is not the future it's the now so get on board, you don't need to pay out large sums of money to get yourself high in the Google listing you just need to do your home work and spend a lot of time - but it will pay dividends eventually. Facebook/Twitter etc.. again you need a presence but don't go mad people don't want pointless comments it's better to say nothing than say something stupid people will start ignoring you and stop following you which is the last thing you want! I'm guessing if you're reading this you've thought about Blogging, o idea if it works but it is a forum to get ideas out there, and release your frustrations - clears the head to concentrate on business.

Finally active networking, my only suggestion is try before you buy! Everyone will find their niche, but until you try you'll never know. I think the nature of the networking will depend on the level your business is at, and confidence you have in that situation, and cost. If you are interested in more I'll be happy to take you along to a few of the networking events I attend as a taster.

Hope that little bit of info helps, certainly concentrate my mind - not everyone is a nature in the marketing environment, those that are are lucky, the rest of us can get their in the end.

More details of the services we offer, and examples of our work can be found at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or you can keep in touch with us on LinkedIn, Facebook (www.facebook.com/rlsurveys) & Twitter (@RLSurveys).