Running a business comes with significant challenges and rewards, and it is important the wider community understands the role that small to medium businesses play in this community's well-being.
We don't give enough credit to our local businesses - and we shouldn't wait until the next awards night to do it.
For the local business owner, the working week can be a rollercoaster ride of thrills, spills and lessons learned.
In business, the lessons you learn provide the foundation for growth. Paula Fore, founder of the Local and Loyal mobile marketing app and winner of best emerging business, said in her acceptance speech she had learned lessons along the way and refined her business model.
I am learning all the time; it is a staple of business life for me. So, in an effort to pass on some of my own lessons, here are this week's highlights:
1Trust your gut.
It is amazing how often your intuition and insight into situations will reflect reality, especially where rational thinking might say otherwise.
2 Growth is not always good. It has to be the right growth and due diligence often bears these things out. If an opportunity, over time, begins to cost more than the benefits it brings, walk quickly away.
3 Eliminate distractions; refine your focus.
4 Wisdom and knowledge reside everywhere.
In the case of the fourth point, I refer to a workshop I ran with a group. So clear was their thinking and approach to their work and the value they create for the community that I was retaught lesson number 5 (also reflected in the business awards): "You do not need to look far to find inspiration."
■Balance Consulting is a Whanganui consultancy specialising in business strategy, process excellence and leadership mentoring - contact Russell on 021 2442421 or John Taylor on 027 4995872.
