Through the HR Voices podcast we at HR Independents get to speak to many subject matter experts in the HR and People Management profession, but also experts in topics that help and support independent practitioners to run their businesses.

Let’s face it, running a business and trying to find time to work on your business rather than in your business doing the client delivery is tough. More so when it really isn’t something you are familiar with or that comfortable doing.  This is true not just for HR and people practitioners but any founder or owner of a small business.

Through our recent HR Voices podcast mini-series we looked at ways to build personal resilience and business resilience to help create a sustainable business and pipeline.  So what have we learnt?  Well, quite a lot actually, all of the experts we spoke to were kind enough to share their secret sauce and top tips and we think we now have a blueprint to work from. We want to share these insights with you.

Business Resilience and Personal Resilience

Both Pinky Jangra and Dr Linda Folan talked about how resilience means different things to different people. We all have different boundaries and thresholds. But whatever happens in life and business, you simply can’t pour from an empty cup. Personal and business resilience are intertwined. If you are not looking after yourself, then you will struggle to look after your business. Our resilience experts suggested the following:

• Develop a clear vision and purpose for your own development and the direction of your business.
• Allocate time to look after you and also allow time for constructive thinking.
• Separate yourself from your business in relation to its successes and failures. You are not the business, we loved the cake baking example Pinky shared with us, who doesn’t like cake right! If you bake a cake and it is a baking disaster, you are not the cake, you are not a disaster. It just means something went wrong in the recipe or method somewhere, and you learn from it and fix it for next time. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
• Accept that there will be challenges along the way – it won’t be plain sailing all the time. Embrace the challenges. Some of them will be good challenges. It may change your thinking or mindset and maybe even shift your business up a gear. Keep an open mind, who knows where it will take you.
• Growth will happen but it will happen more quickly and in a more controlled and consistent way if you build momentum and take baby steps each day. There is much written around taking each day as it comes, fitting in time to do something for your business every day.
• Don’t sweat the stuff outside of your control.

If you develop resilience personally and professionally you become an effective leader that understands the locus of control. It allows you to prioritise your own wellbeing and the performance of your business, and not sweat the small stuff.

Business Structure

Business structure is incredibly important and follows on from knowing your purpose and vision. If you know what you are looking to achieve from your business you will be able to objectively look at how you structure your business to create resilience and effectiveness. This foundation allows for flexibility to adjust your structure as your vision evolves. Mark Lumley suggested:

• You can build resilience and an element of flexibility into your business by putting systems and processes in place to automate where possible. Streamline the way you do things and protect your and your business value.
• Think about copyright and intellectual property and how you protect and maybe even trademark the content you create and rely upon to deliver your products and services.
• Consider how you manage risks and put disaster recovery and mitigation plans in place, should something happen. What if your laptop was stolen, or you lose power at your home office, or you were the subject of a virus or ransom ware attack. Have you protected and backed up your resources and data that you need to run your business? Needless to say having these things in place drastically improve your business and personal resilience and gives peace of mind.
• Aways make sure you put contracts and agreements in place with suppliers, customers and contractors to remove any ambiguity. Specifically ensure schedules of work and deliverables are clearly defined.
• Ensure you purchase the appropriate insurances and liability cover.
• Create and maintain regular and meaningful client engagement. Communication and relationship building will serve you well. Much work can come from referrals and from actively engaging with clients and delivering great account management.

Pricing and Value

Our pricing and value expert Ben Rendle had some great advice on getting to grips with your pricing and creating value, but standing by your value, he suggested:

• Having different pricing options and a clear value pathway.
• Build a case for your pricing and value and create messaging to support that and showcase it.
• Adopt a money mindset, when you first start a business, especially if moving from corporate to micro or small business you might still think like an employee. You have to switch your mindset to that of an employer or an entrepreneur.

Marketing

Anneve Hutchinson of the Marketing Matrix shared how you can build resilience through your marketing approach, plan and activities. One of the reasons for the name of her business is that a matrix has lots of different elements. It is how you slot them together that makes the difference. She suggested:

• You need to have a marketing plan that underpins your long-term purpose, goals and vision.
• If you niche or specialise you will be able to become a thought leader and consult and advise on deeper issues.
• Try and network in the right places, don’t network if it doesn’t serve you well. Although sometimes you just don’t know where your business is going to come from, so all connections are good. Perhaps consider return on investment where you are paying to network. Also, try and make the most of free sessions and membership trial sessions.

With these things considered or in place, you will be able to develop a strong pipeline which will give you resilience in your business and breathing space and time. If you can focus on your personal resilience and working on your business you may be able to live the small business dream of riding the ebbs and flows more effectively. HRi members tells us the feast or famine of work is one of the most stressful parts of running a small business.

So there we have the summary of the tops tips from our amazing experts and a great blueprint to work through to give you resilience in your business and for yourself.

Stay tuned for expert insights and practical advice in business and HR and People knowledge. Subscribe to HR Voices podcast on your preferred platform.

Author: Charlotte Allfrey | HRi