99 small things to improve your business - episode 5

Uh, I think we've started. Have we started?

I don't know. Let's just do another quick one just in case we haven't. Boom. There we go.

Oh, good. Hi.

Hi everybody. Well, has it been a while? We don't know. Maybe it has. Maybe it hasn't.

I think it has.

But we're back now with our box of goodness and happiness to make your business maybe slightly better.

Yeah.

Maybe improve your team.

100 ideas.

Come on, let's have it. This is idea number... this is a real microphone.

Thank you. Uh, 36.

Yes.

Install a good kitchen.

Ooh, well size permitting, I suppose.

Yeah. But you, if you have a kitchen in any workspace, then people can make meals and, um, make meals for other people and have a bit more community. Yeah. I think it's really, it's been really good for us.

Yeah. I think, uh, just focusing on those little touchpoints that bring happiness to your team will help, right? It's gotta be good. Looking after your team will look after your business, won't it. No matter what you are.

Yes.

Retail or whatever.

Yeah.

Have a good space for your team.

Yes. And encourage them to cook, people to cook together.

Yeah. Get a good coffee machine.

Oh yes.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

But you can drink too many though, can't you, Matthew?

No, you can't. It's all completely fine. Never. You can never have too much coffee. Quick, let's have another one. Uh, we have got... what's your favorite number, Chris?

Four.

No, it's 25.

Oh, so close .

Stop. People working more than 40 hours a week.

That is aimed at you, Matthew.

Is it?

Yeah.

I don't make people work more than 40 hours a week.

No, but you should, you should stop working more than 40 hours a week.

When you love it as much as I do. I think it's a really good point though. We're striving to get down to a, a four day week if we can. We've got goals around how to do that. Um, there's loads of cool evidence out there as well. You can check online about what that four day week looks like. But I think, uh, the start should be try and try not to have people doing overtime and working really hard unless they really want to. But if they are, I think there's a, there's a duty of care that we should all have to look after people who are maybe doing more than they should.

Yeah, I mean, if people are working more than 40 hours a week, then that's a sign that you need to employ more people or just be more efficient.

Yeah, I think so too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Keep those work hours down. Right.

Work-life balance people.

Exactly. Um, get a software password manager. Number 93.

Number 93. Yes. Yes. This is secretly aimed at some of our customers, isn't it?

But it's, I see it everywhere. Like I have a personal software password manager at home, and my wife doesn't, and she's going, what was that password that I did for this? I've got no idea.

Yeah.

And I now have strong passwords on pretty much everything, which are completely random, which you could never remember.

Yeah, some of the technology that's coming out is helping now. Apple do a pretty good job with you on a personal level, just to record and remember all of your passwords for you, even in Safari, it can do that. I feel like this is a generational thing. I think this video, this thing will date, I hope this will date. And people will be like, what do you mean you'd remember your own passwords? Why aren't you using a password manager? But there are still organizations out there that aren't using password managers. Sometimes we get sent passwords via email. Not good. Don't do it. Naughty.

Yeah. Especially if someone leaves your company.

Mm-hmm.

And their passwords are written on a scrap of paper that they've now destroyed. What are you supposed to do then? It's pretty tricky. So yeah, just get a software password manager.

Yeah. There's another little side bonus one here as well.

Oh yeah?

Because, organizations when they set up things like, oh, we're gonna set up a social media channel, or we're gonna set up Google Analytics, or we're gonna set up something or other, oh, we're gonna set up a MailChimp, uh, account. Often one person will go and do it. Could be your IT manager, it could be the head of marketing, it could be you personally, if you are the business owner. Uh, it could be just someone who's doing it. Uh, it could be an agency that's doing it on your behalf. It's so important you hold the keys to those, to those, that castle if you like. We've worked with pretty big organizations that have multiple accounts set up, multiple YouTube channels set up, and, and you can't recover them because sometimes it's sent to a, an email address, then that goes somewhere else and you have to get IT involved. So, the password manager is tied into who holds and creates these accounts. There you go. Bonus.

Oh, lovely bonus.

Did you enjoy it?

I did.

I knew you would.

It was my favorite.

I woke up this morning thinking he's gonna love this bonus. I hope that comes out the box today. Ah, here we go. Last one.

Yes. Number...

55.

55. Man Alive.

Uh, know where you're headed, and tell everyone. Everyone?

Yeah.

Even my mum?

Well, she could benefit from your vision. Isn't it a good thing to share your vision with the rest of the team?

Yes. I think it's really important. Uh, it's something we help companies try and do to, first off, determine what their vision is, where they're trying to get to, what's the north star? And how do you share it with everybody, with your customers, with your team, and make it not, uh, dictatorial as well, because you need to take people on that journey and take people on that mission. So knowing how you're gonna get there and how everyone can help you get there, I think it's really, um, valuable.

Yeah, I think it's really valuable because you are also, people aren't just working for money. They're working to bring that vision closer. And um, a lot of companies I worked with, uh, when I was at university didn't seem to have a vision. They were just like, you just worked for money and we'll exchange what you do for this much an hour and clear off. That's not very fulfilling, is it?

We care about meaningful stuff, I suppose.

Yeah.

You and I in particular. Here's a nice- do you want a little sub story?

Oh yes. Is this a bonus sub story?

Bonus sub story.

Go on then.

Well, I was at, um, an event recently and there was a speaker there and they were in a similar industry to us and I'm gonna go into a bit more detail actually, and a company came to, a company, came to them and said, we've got some dog jumpers, jumpers for dogs.

Okay...

We've got some dog jumpers. We've got 40 of them left in our stock and we need someone to help us sell them. And credit to the, the speaker. It was fascinating how she worked and created a demand for these jumpers and used, um, influencers to help drive this demand. It was fascinating how she approached it and I was really interested in it, but in a totally different reason because I know that if someone had come to me and said, I've got some dog jumpers to sell, I would be like, why?

Yeah.

Why are you selling dog jumpers? Who's that helping? What's your purpose, what's the point in these dog jumpers?

Yeah.

I didn't understand the reason behind, uh, these products existing. Maybe, maybe she did ask those questions, but I think in the end, the company that, uh, she helped do very well with dog jumpers in, I think, uh, it went into administration in the end.

Well, they must have been really expensive dog jumpers to say they've got money to put behind influencer marketing to sell 40 dog jumpers.

Well, they ended up building a whole range of dog jumpers afterwards because they created all this demand and they, they went into the dog jumper market for a while, but, uh, I think I can't, I can't say, but perhaps their lack of purpose doing that kind of thing may have contributed to them going into administration, but I don't really know. But I thought, there you go. There's a nice little sub story. Bonus sub story.

Yeah.

I've had too much coffee.

Well, uh, I think that's enough for today. I'd like to apologize to all the dog jumper companies out there watching.

Well, maybe there's a really good reason. Maybe they're cold. Cold dogs. If you were saving, if they were saving dogs from being cold, I'd be behind it.

And then there'd be hot dogs.

Hot dogs for sale!

Where? Bye.