Speaker 1no matter what happens within the business keeping my business i think we touched on this my business separate to me yeah because it can you know it can be so turbulent it's not always happy glory everything's going just fine there are times when you think what have i done or you know it's it's not working out how i want it to be but you can't let that get into your personal life either so there's got to be coping what do i do what you know you've got to find a coping mechanism and again that's a strategy because it's going to help you to succeed anything that's going to help you to succeed i think um it's a strategy hello and
Speaker 2welcome back to all you leaders and strategy i'm mike harris and i'm joined today on today's podcast by businesswoman award-winning entrepreneur jeevan punch so thank you for joining us jeevan it's a pleasure mike yeah looking forward to this it should be should be a good episode lots of fun yeah um i like to start with with an icebreaker and the reason i do the icebreakers is because it's a good way not just to get us into the the right thinking for the podcast but when people are listening to this they might be out for a walk or listening to it on the train and their minds aren't necessarily thinking about business and leadership etc i find this is a good way to get people in you know the listeners and the viewers back into the right frame of mind to think about leadership and strategy so we've selected a icebreaker that we've used before on the show but but new for yourself obviously so today's icebreaker is what proverb or mantra do you live your life by and why um
Speaker 1one of the best ones for me really is um comparison is the thief of joy okay elaborate
Speaker 2and i think originally
Speaker 1i think that was theodore roosevelt that um that said that i think but when you look at life generally we're constantly comparing ourselves and in the world we are constantly comparing ourselves to either competitors or this person's in this or this person's in that but that mantra helps me just to be me yeah i focus on what i need to do so comparison is the thief of joy and if i just keep comparing myself i'm never going to get to that point of happiness or joyfulness if i just be and just concentrate what i need to do i get to where i want to be yeah excellent so it it helps me anyway in my business life
Speaker 2i think it's really good and it's funny really because i spend a lot of time with businesses and we look at the competition and we look at competitive advantage and therefore you do if you're not careful spend your whole focus on what are others doing and how do i compare with that so taking a step back and thinking differently like that and actually focusing just more on yourself really and not what others are doing is oh
Speaker 1absolutely if you stop looking at the competition you can start to collaborate and i think that's what helps me it really does help
Speaker 2me so yeah yeah and we we did a show with somebody recently and they had a philosophy that that you should actually um try not to be competing with people because if you stop thinking about them as competition you can start thinking as them as partners and how do you share the market differently and work together yeah competing so yeah kind of ties in with that really yeah excellent so the one i'm going to pick for today um and i think i've used it before on the podcast is that um i have a great belief that we are need to succeed despite the problems and not fail because of them in other words lots of people look look at what's ahead of them and they look at the issues and they kind of use that as the excuse to you know not to achieve things and not to succeed and and certainly i think in business and particularly if if you're employed in a in a large company you're being paid to to deliver and succeed despite those not to allow them to to fail so you've got to think about how do i would succeed despite the problems so that's kind of my my one of my key philosophies i think that's
Speaker 1very good yeah yeah you have to because otherwise everybody would just stop there would be no business because the one
Speaker 2thing that's guaranteed is there's going to be issues and problems every day so you've got to find ways of overcoming them so
Speaker 1that's life isn't it it is
Speaker 2exactly particularly in the world that we're in what we're trying to do so i always let my guests do what i call a podcast pitch so this is like an elevator pitch really but but to a wider audience you've got a bit longer so just tell us about yourself talk about your business we've got some show and tell and some product placement that we can talk about so over to you just to let us know a little bit about yourself and a little bit about elite
Speaker 1hampers so yes so i'm jeevan um i'm the founder of elite hampers elite hampers was founded in 2021 and it's a corporate gifting business uh we make all sorts of products we do wicker baskets so i've got a wicker basket behind me here box hampers and we like to make them to who we're going to give them to so we bespoke our hampers so if you've got somebody that you employ and you know they've got dietary requirements or they just love chocolate or you know they they like something in particular we create it to that because when we want to create an experience when that person opens that box for example if it's me and i've just received this lovely hamper it's chocolate i'd love it yeah it's just great and it makes me feel like i've got to feel really like somebody's really thought about me because they know me and jeevan likes chocolate so it's a chocolate hamper so it's it's all about creating a feeling and appreciating people so when i set up the business it was to really appreciate people and people in business in particular um so that people get noticed so employees clients enhanced relationships it's going to help the business long term anyway but and it's such a simple concept um i i when i create a business i'm going to create a business and i'm going to create a business and i'm going it's it's just giving it's just being kind and giving something and making it personal um but it has such a big effect uh in business so yeah um a little bit about me i'm also an optician i've been in health care a very long time and giving is just part of my family we've always liked to give i've liked to give um even at work or when i was at uni school if i saw somebody that needed something or easter we used to do easter eggs you know when we used to do easter eggs we used to love doing that um i just like to give um so it just made sense to to create when i wanted to do something different with my life a gifting company just made sense and what
Speaker 2brought you from being an optician to doing what you're doing today because it's quite different
Speaker 1yeah a bit crazy right bit
Speaker 2of a big step i would have thought yeah just
Speaker 1be honest it's crazy right um so yeah i i mean i i'm still an optician i loved being an optician when i was practicing more and um it's a career that i've been doing for a long time and i've been doing it for a long time and i wanted to be in because i could help people um a lot of us struggled during covid and i did as well so in 2000 it was 2020 sorry we lost a lot of work um and i wasn't in a great place because my health care environment changed as well the way we could look after patients or how i felt in work changed um and i wasn't happy i've always been quite a happy person and it's just part of me i'm always smiling and it's it you should have seen me smile and it's just part of me i'm always smiling and it's just part of me i'm always smiling and it's just part of me at that stage i was not happy at all and i thought what else could i do in my life because i never tried anything different and i tell my son i tell myself he's six now i tell him you know i mean if you don't try you don't know that was i was being a hypocrite i was not trying anything and i'd never done anything different i just worked myself up you know you you get a job and you work your way up and that's what i did um so me and my husband were chatting one night and i know people that business and it you know it's it's it's something similar and i thought what could i do could i do it could i do a business i wasn't thinking gifting or anything like that and me and my husband were just thinking about ideas what could it be could it be an optician you know so many things i thought you know what i want to do something that really means something to me and i i really want to help people like me that struggled in work at times and my husband just said well what what what gifting company makes sense why would i want to sell gifts you give because you want to give something not because you want to sell it let's just think about it you're still going to be giving but you're going to be doing it you're still going to be helping people and that same night went on company's house registered a name we did a bit of research what kind of name do we want and i knew i wanted to do quality stuff so elite just came into my head and i wanted to make a name that i needed to do worked from there yeah it was just literally there was no plan um it was just a name and that's what i wanted to do and uh yeah i just worked my way to to kind of uh build a company
Speaker 2have you found that skills that you had as an optician have been really useful for this or have you had to forget totally what you did before and start from scratch
Speaker 1well i've had to put my thermoscope down and you know my equipment i can't use but the personal skills you know i dealt with people all day long um and it's an environment that's very different you know you're enclosed in a little room with another person that you don't know you build certain skills you get to know people so it has helped me to an extent um we don't do social media well i didn't anyway and marketing and you know you sell stuff and your networking is a bit different in healthcare so those skills have had to kind of really work on but i think the basic stuff because we're all people in business and that's how anything works that's really helped me.
Speaker 2reason i ask is is we first met at a expo didn't we we had stands opposite each other and what came across forget forget your product for a moment but what came across is that you're natural in talking to people and being able to explain things and engaging maybe in a way i'm not actually i don't think i am a natural in it so i wondered if that had come from what you'd done before and you know because as an optician you have to be able to talk to people and get on with people and and have a particular um i suppose manner about things and put people at ease and i've just wondered if that if you'd found that helpful
Speaker 1really i i suppose it has yeah absolutely i mean there's certain things you know sometimes we have to deliver certain news that we don't want to and we've got to do in a certain way so you you have to look at who you're talking to yes um and empathy and compassion comes a part of a health care kind of um yeah if you really want to be in health care you have to be that way um so i think it came part of it
Speaker 2yeah yeah absolutely um i have to say i'm going to say this now in case i forget later i've actually um bought hampers from yourself for customers and so a quick quick plug i suppose for the product i mean the feedback i got was fantastic and and all three of those customers have been really probably my biggest customers for this year so far and i think that's a really good thing and i think that's a really good thing so you know so it made sense from a a personable point of view giving them a hamper but it's actually paid off from a business sense as well so you know double double benefit though but they're great i mean the fee i mean the feedback's been really good so thanks for you know thanks for the and um and it doesn't make a difference doesn't it i mean people it's easy to forget how important people are you know whether it's employees staff partners you work or or clients you know i think probably we don't say thank you enough do we
Speaker 1yeah yeah i mean business gets transactional doesn't it it's our daily life and then we go home but we're dealing with people and people have feelings yeah absolutely um so you want to leave an impression either you want to leave an impression on your clients your employees you're going to treat people right treat people right they want to come back to you not because of your products you know it's not always about the product it's about how you've made them feel yeah um and it's just about
Speaker 2being nice funny really we filmed an episode this morning and i'm not sure whether this is going to come out before that episode or after but the episode um is called people or what's it people are not your most important asset and the reason for it and i'm giving the answer to the episode away but have a watch of it anyway is that people aren't assets because assets start to make you know sort of you know if you think that way dehumanizes what people do in a business almost turn you know it's an it's kind of an accounting term it if you're not careful it starts to turn people into thinking about people as numbers and actually much more important that you know we should be sat above the balance sheet and sat above being thought of as assets so i think what you're it's funny really what you just said because that kind of tied back into what we we covered in that episode really which is you know it's really important to to sort of think about people's feelings and and tie into that in business rather than you know it's easy to forget
Speaker 1i mean i used to i have still got a number i in health care i have my own health care number as an optician and it's easy to just become that number and you know you sign off with that number you're not signing your name it's just that number so you want to be you know you want you to feel like you're human and you just want a bit of kindness and i think a lot of people assume um in business as you progress or if you're if you're an employee you know you're doing a job because you're getting a lot of money and you're getting a lot of money and you're getting paid or you're going to get a bigger salary it's not it's about the culture around the business and how they're treating you how you feel at work um because why would people otherwise leave you know you've got people leaving big pay you know salary paid jobs and you think why would they leave that it's how you treat people it's a very simple concept very simple but very powerful and often
Speaker 2forgotten yeah yeah i mentioned at the start that you're award winning so do you want to just tell us a little bit about yourself
Speaker 1because it's quite interesting yeah um so elite hampers has won a few awards and myself um so last year i won a woman who achieves award um and we are also part of theopofetus's small business sunday initiative which we won at the end of 2023 we've been finalists for a few awards as well um so uh yeah we've we've we've just worked hard and i think it's our recognition ourselves what comes
Speaker 2around goes around really yeah and do you find it helps you in business having these
Speaker 1awards or yeah i think as a small business starting up yeah um it it shows other people what you're capable of doing and what you are doing as well because people aren't just going to award you something for nothing you've done something for it um when i won i was so happy when i got the woman who achieves award um because you know when you're writing about yourself you kind of it doesn't feel real it's but when somebody tells you that this is what you've done and it's like okay yeah felt like i was at school
Speaker 2yeah absolutely well i i um do workshops with clients and we look at the business and we put together the business plan for the future um and i have two slides that i use for this and one is people sort of find a climb up a hill and and head down and really struggling and and what i say to them this is this probably is how it feels day to day a bit of a grind hard work you know you always feel like you're trying to climb to the top of the hill but the second slide i show is this this view of the lake district looking out over the lakes and the hills and what i say is this the first slide is like it feels day to day but every now and then you need to stop turn around and look at the lake and look back and see how far you've come and actually people don't do that enough they don't think about what they've achieved and and and just you know don't have to spend a lot of time but sometimes just think about what you've achieved and pat yourself on the back and then yeah yeah
Speaker 1absolutely yeah it's the little things as well yeah you know when you first start off you think how am i going to do this social media that's a big one i i could not use social media i didn't know what linkedin was you know the whole business i i didn't know and why would i need to be on it i didn't need to be and now when i look back when i do a post i think when i did my first post i don't know how many hours it took me to try and work we even get an account so yeah you look back and you think you know what yeah and now
Speaker 2you're an expert in it i mean you're like the link you think yeah linkedin queen i would suggest yeah absolutely far better than i am i'd look at yours and and i think blimey i've got something still to do on my linkedin there's me just posting i've i've got this client or this has happened and then you've got these these well fantastic images of your products i think
Speaker 1that's what it is i've got
Speaker 2i've got the product yeah it's probably just the fact they've got a photo of chocolate really the drawers is all in so um on your on your um on your website you've got a page which is the elite story which i i thought was really interesting i just thought you might want to kind of share that and explain it to people so yeah i think that's what it is i think that's really interesting so yeah i think that's what it is i think that's really interesting so yeah i think that's what it is i think that's really interesting so yeah i think i'll explain that a little bit more
Speaker 1i'll explain that a little bit more i'll explain that a little bit more yeah so uh the elite story on on the yeah so uh the elite story on on the yeah so uh the elite story on on the website uh neat hampers.co.uk is website uh neat hampers.co.uk is website uh neat hampers.co.uk is really um a little bit about myself and i really um a little bit about myself and i really um a little bit about myself and i wanted to humanize the website wanted to humanize the website wanted to humanize the website so when people would go on it they would so when people would go on it they would so when people would go on it they would see a little bit about why i set up a see a little bit about why i set up a see a little bit about why i set up a hamper business hamper business hamper business and it just explains um a little bit and it just explains um a little bit and it just explains um a little bit about about about my background in terms of as a family my background in terms of as a family my background in terms of as a family how you know how you know how you know seeing people give when you're younger it seeing people give when you're younger it seeing people give when you're younger it influences you influences you influences you um and i've always liked to give as well um and i've always liked to give as well um and i've always liked to give as well and it makes you feel good and it makes you feel good
Speaker 2this because you have a passion for it and and and that it it's you're doing it because it's real and it's and it's authentic to you and what you want to do as opposed to it's just a business and and it's a product kind of thing that's that yeah that's what jumped out for me oh thank you yeah
Speaker 1well otherwise there's i'm an optician right so i would have been opening an opticians or something healthcare related or you know there could have been so much more i could have been doing something different but this really i i was really passionate about it and i've been an employee i've worked in different workplaces i've worked in big businesses and i see how sometimes you can start to feel a bit what am i doing here you know what why am i here or nobody even knows i'm here so i wanted to really go into those places and just say how do you make people feel you know when they're working for you how do they day in day out do they like being here yeah or you know how do you recognize them do you know it's different birthday so we created this service which i love um we do birthday diaries for businesses we keep a diary for all the employees in a business and we remind people the business um normally seven to ten days beforehand such and such as birthdays coming up um what would you like to send it's just so nobody gets forgotten because you know it might seem like a little thing when you got let's say 200 employees 300 employees but for that one person in the business it's very important
Speaker 2it's a big deal yeah absolutely before we um started filming and recording the podcast um you you mentioned the fact that uh all we spoke about is probably a better way of putting that the sort of comfort zone and how you find yourself constantly having to sort of um you're working outside of your company then just thought it might be worth revisiting that and just allowing you to sort of elaborate that a little bit more because i found that interesting what you said
Speaker 1yeah so um i think everything that i've done in the business has been kind of out of my comfort zone um so networking social media things like this it's it's it's it's out of my it's
Speaker 2episode 25 or whatever it's still out so you're a pro you're a pro but it's just but
Speaker 1you've got that's the way you're going to grow though so if i just did what i can do and that's it i stopped myself i wouldn't be growing so everything that i do it might not look like it and linkedin might look great but it's i don't like posting about myself i it's i don't feel comfortable but i do it because i have to um i network because i have to um and things do get easier to the house of
Speaker 2laws because you have to mentioned earlier that she was at the house of laws when was that last week uh friday yeah name dropping as you do as you do
Speaker 1yeah but yeah yeah you
Speaker 2have to you have to use the tube that
Speaker 1was scary but it's yeah we um so yeah being at the house of laws was you know it's a big deal yeah absolutely um but it was um again i did it because you you getting out of the comfort zone there's so many things that i've done and if you don't um i think we stop ourselves it's our thought i think we touched on that earlier we stop ourselves from doing things that we doing things because we tell ourselves well i'm not good enough or i haven't got the experience
Speaker 2exactly our experiences you know
Speaker 1it yeah we stop ourselves but if we just clear those thoughts and just look at what it is okay i've got to travel to london okay i'll get a train that's okay that's fine i'm going to turn up there's going to be people i'm just going to talk it doesn't matter if i don't know anybody you know you just cut things up into smaller chunks yeah and it's not as bad as you think yeah um but in in the moment sometimes we just tell ourselves i can't do that but yeah comfort zones are things that we do fall into but breaking those barriers and coming out of those comfort zones really lets
Speaker 2you excel i find um and i've always found this that the more i don't want to do something the more i force myself to do it because for that exact reason that um particularly when i i mean i i worked in large organizations and uh i'd have a big team work for me and there's days i just want to go in the office hide behind my laptop and not speak to anybody but they were the days when i didn't sit behind my laptop and hide away there were the days i went out and spoke to people engaged with people because you got kind of got to force yourself to do things that you don't you know on that particular day you don't want to do you want to do something different and i think that's what makes partly makes it enjoyable because it's actually taking us somewhere different but also it's the difference i think between a leader i'll talk about leadership in a moment but in some ways it's between a leader and a manager a leader you've got to be out there you've got to be seen to people people can't follow you if they don't actually see you and you don't they don't know what you're doing so i think it's really important for being a leader so um yeah so your your comfort zone and and doing things differently i think they're really important um because it does restrict us i think as people most of the time yeah you know and and some people are very i mean i've been told i've got a very broad comfort zone you know not much there's well the perception is there's not much that phases me the reality is there's loads but it doesn't really matter if you've got a wide comfort zone or a narrow comfort zone we're all the same and we need you know to be challenged and and to develop we've got to do some things that we're not we don't think we're going to be comfortable with absolutely and we
Speaker 1all have different challenges yeah so for one person it might seem like an easy thing but for the other it's it's it's quite difficult because we're all
Speaker 2different yeah and often once you've done it actually it's not as that bad is it yeah it's not as bad like we're doing this now it's all right well and maybe even enjoyable who knows so we talked about leadership a bit earlier i mean i just wonder what what's your thoughts about leadership i mean what what does
Speaker 1leadership mean to you for me um as a leader it's getting people to a stage where they feel they've got the right support um they've got the right guidance to achieve a common goal yeah a shared goal either in a business or whatever situation but you're you're really giving them the initiative to be able to excel and be better people um um but at the end you're going to achieve something they're going to want to achieve the same as you and they're going to want to work with you as well because you're setting a good example
Speaker 2and i think for you i mean i mean that there's um a leadership within a business but but your leadership is i think is is is different and and um certainly for me i think it's more powerful is you're such a great model model for people i mean i don't know if you see it like that but but there's so many people in business i'm sure look at what you do and what you're achieving you know you're talking about the the um the women industry awards and that kind of stuff i mean it's such a great role model i think it's fantastic
Speaker 1thank you that's i mean do you
Speaker 2feel that in yourself or i just do
Speaker 1what i do i just i just do it i thought you were going to say that yeah you know um some months ago is is quite i had a bit of a cry as well actually um i i just received a text message from somebody that i knew in business lovely lady because i i just do what i do and just she sent me such a lovely message to say jeevan you inspire me because of exactly yeah and i thought i didn't even think of it i didn't even you know and it it does it it it does make you kind of it's um so humbling humbling yeah that's the word yeah yeah i don't see it i don't see it myself i just do what i need to do and you know but it uh to inspire yeah i mean it's great and and and if i do inspire anybody i'm i'm grateful and you know it's it's it's nice
Speaker 2thing and it's probably worth mentioning um in case because of the timing of this going out but last week was international women's week wasn't
Speaker 1it and international women's day yeah
Speaker 2yeah so so the timing you know kind of stays in your mind those sort of things
Speaker 1so yeah no absolutely yeah
Speaker 2excellent really good um bearing in mind what you said about your um your sort of your philosophy in life i'm not sure the next question is actually the right question to ask but it's on my list i'm going to ask it anyway so what do you think makes elite hampers your competitions i mean so we're not going to think about competing but i'm going to ask the
Speaker 1question anyway well how we try to be different and i think we are in a sense the reason as to why the business was set up it's the harmful business it's it's a gifting business but why is it different it's the power that we have of creating a feeling um so elite hampers is there for people it's there for employees it's there for clients it's there for businesses it's there for people just to be appreciated um so we every hamper that we make is hand-picked we bespoke it to the person that we're going to send it to so it's like we said earlier you know give me a chocolate hamper that'd be great so we we really want to create a feeling and not just give a gift for the sake of giving a gift and a lot of our clients care about their clients it's so nice to actually have this it's um so what we attract it's people that really want to give because they want to really appreciate somebody they want to value that relationship um i think that's where our kind of unique point is um but the competition side i mean i don't know what i don't know where the competition is but it's you've got to look beyond that um otherwise nobody else would be setting up another gifting business if we don't focus on the competition
Speaker 2and and you said something again before we started recording which which i think ties back into this that um you've kind of got these these values that the the reason you started the business and you get ideas or people make suggestions to you and you look at them and you think it's a good idea to start with but then when you analyze it back to that principle those values are why you started the business maybe maybe it doesn't really fit in to that so um did you have an example of that of something that that maybe has been suggested you thought was a good idea until you started the business i think it's it's a good idea
Speaker 1you analyzed it um i think adding different products right into so so we we at elite hampers we choose products that are going to they've got to taste good yeah they've got to be quality um and we try and use some um you know businesses that are b corp registered as well as much as possible and ethically sourced and things like that yeah and i do get lots of requests from lots of suppliers can we add this can we add this kind of this and and prices went up um quite a few times chocolate prices have gone up ridiculously wicker basket prices since brexit happened it's just been crazy and that's when i set up my business perfect time to start business right um but it's and then you think oh actually that would work out better or if i if i just swapped that cost wise that would work out better but if i constantly did that i'd be changing my product it'd be no it'd be no different to anything else exactly so you've got to step back and you you have to think why am i doing what why am i making these decisions you can get inundated with so many different things but you've got to those core values honesty quality service that we have in our business have to remain priority um it's difficult sometimes to you know so many things come in and you think i should do that yeah no No back to your values it doesn't fit that's not your value so don't do it don't compromise
Speaker 2and that's why i asked really because um you've got you've got a really clear business plan i think in in vision of what you want to achieve so it was interesting hearing this morning that even though outside looking in it's well defined you're constantly being challenged around it and having to think is it right should i be doing that and but but holding i think it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it and i think a lot of it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it and it's important to hold on to it but but it's does it get you keep you on track for what you're trying to achieve or does it take you
Speaker 1off track absolutely i think that's correct mike you've you've got to be flexible and fluid in a business because things do change um your environment changes politics change you know costs change so you've you've got to be constantly looking at things but those core things while you're doing what you're doing and what your values are should we be doing what we're doing remain intact because they they change your business changes yes um people will view the business differently as well it you know i'd have to change the name of it it's got to it's got to represent what it says on
Speaker 2the tin exactly on the box on the box yeah exactly um i'm sure there's people watching today who who are thinking about making a change maybe setting their own business doing what you did which which was moved from being an optician into into this sort of entrepreneur and gifting what piece of advice would you give to somebody who's thinking about making that change
Speaker 1um firstly just do it um i mean i've just told you it was one night i set up a business on the company's house and i had no idea what i was going to do with it um so don't stop yourself um from doing it um if you're going to set up a business just say i'm okay i'm going to do it then get the right people around you it's very it's a very different world um you want to start right so get the right people around you get the right advice and then make it happen yeah don't think oh okay i'm gonna i'm not going to take that advice because it's going to cost me too much or that there are professionals there to help you in business because they know what they're doing yeah so and in a sense i wish i changed a little bit of what i did when i started because it is difficult product business i invested so much in it so i can't pay for that i can't pay for that you know it's so hard but right from the beginning start right um get the right advice get the right people around you and be visible because you've got people need to see who you are because nobody you've got to be knocking the doors yeah you're not going to be found on social media you're not going to be found in the shops you've you've got to really start to be um visible get yourself very important i
Speaker 2mean i it's a phrase i use regularly with my customers i come in and they've got great products they've got great business great service and they're struggling to grow and and i say it's because you're the best kept secret nobody knows you exist why will people buy from you if they don't know you're there once they know you're there i think you'll be fine but you've got to get out there you've got to got to sell the business you've got to sell what you do because at the moment you're just a secret
Speaker 1and i think people i understand why people do it and that's what i was doing it's hard to put yourself out there because you feel almost like you're on show you're on the stage and you don't want to be in the spotlight but you've got it's your business you decided to create a business so if you want it to work you've just got it you've got it outside the comfort zone you're just going to put yourself there but the
Speaker 2other aspect of it that i find time and time again is i talk to businesses and they've got something and they're doing something that's really exciting and different and i tell them you know you're doing this it's really good and they go yeah but that's just what we do they don't they don't see themselves or the in their business the special stuff that they do and because they don't think it's special they're not telling everybody else but the reality is most companies have some really good stuff that they do that it's just
Speaker 1putting it out it's getting it
Speaker 2out and getting people to see it and then people want it if they can see it but if they don't know it exists they don't want it they don't know they want one of your special hangers if they don't know they're there do that so so yeah i think that's really important so yeah good advice and as i say hopefully um it will help people who are because it is it's frightening isn't it when you're doing making such a big change like that i remember when i set up strategists that you know it's it's really you know sort of got a jump with both feet but it's it's daunting you don't
Speaker 1know where it's going to take you well even when you're in it you don't know where it's going to take you but if you don't try you don't know yeah it's again you if you if you just going to get out of that comfort zone and just try it and i think it you've really got to be that kind of person that will just say okay if it doesn't work at least i tried
Speaker 2yeah exactly yeah absolutely and and the chances are if if you put the effort into it it will work that's the truth of the matter so um yeah so there you go if you if you're thinking of doing it here's here's a good example of what to do and how to do it so excellent um i talk a lot on the on the podcast about strategy and strategic thinking have you got any thoughts around how strategy has has worked thoroughly tampers and yourself
Speaker 1yeah so um strategy really having the right processes and whatever behaviors whatever it is you know to succeed um so in terms of the business um marketing strategy has helped me yeah um then there's a social strategy that helps then you've got your sales strategy yeah your overall business plan strategy yes most so that it might not very flu fluid and they change and sometimes i haven't looked at them i've just made a decision yeah but i think that's how business well you know when people say that's my business plan i don't know how that works because there's a plan and then there's a plan yeah i use my plan it's because things are constantly evolving but they are you you they keep you on track um and it makes you accountable as well so if you know that you know this is what i've got to do do it yeah i'm accountable what are the results that i've received so having those plans in place helps me to be helpful um and in terms of behavior i have a strategy as well staying positive um no matter what happens within the business keeping my business i think we touched on this my business separate to me yeah um because it can you know it can be so turbulent it's not always happy glory everything's going just fine there are times when you think what have i done or you know it's it's not working out how i want it to be but you can't let that go so i think it's a good thing to do that get into your personal life either so there's got to be coping what do i do what you know you've got to find a um a coping mechanism and again that's a strategy because it's going to help you to succeed anything that's going to help you to succeed i think um it's a strategy a coping
Speaker 2mechanism isn't it and something you've just you said a minute ago which i think is really important is that um you have a plan and then you kind of have to plan what comes up day to day but but actually if you know where you want to get to and you have that overarching strategy much easier to make day-to-day decisions in my way because you know what where you're trying to do if you don't know where you're trying to get to is that you know door turn right door turn left but if you know where you've got to get to you kind of know which is probably the better route so it's easier to make those day-to-day yeah
Speaker 1yeah it's like a road closure isn't it yeah you've got you've got a guide you know where you want to get you but that road is closed so how else can i get there exactly try something
Speaker 2else right analogy yeah exactly right yeah um and particularly with my needs to be aware of the alternatives so um okay just to finish then and maybe we've spoken about this a little bit about advice but is there any actionable tips that that you would like to give to our you know viewers and listeners um around sort of you know starting a business and being an entrepreneur yeah um
Speaker 1i suppose we touched on it a little bit um don't compromise your values be visible um write things down yeah because we get so many ideas as business owners and you know you might be walking and you're thinking oh i've just had that idea and you forget it by the time you get home always write an idea down there's so many that i've kind of left because i didn't
Speaker 2write them down i i had a boss who always used to use the phrase thinking ink in other words if you're thinking something through write it either on a good way to yeah but thinking ink because it helps it to stay in the mind so thinking ink was his front switch which I think works
Speaker 1it does no absolutely but yeah that's um very important um and surround yourself with the right people yeah I think that's so important um it made a big difference in in my business um life so yeah and the people you're
Speaker 2surrounded with so do you have a big team that sort of supports you in in the business
Speaker 1no no so in the business so I say it's as a team because elite hampers there's so many people that help us so it in elite hampers it's just me but we have so many other people that come in and support us so we are the team and they are my supporters and you know um but getting the right team like that behind you you've got to you've got to try what works for you and learn early on what doesn't work for you because it's easy to say I'll carry on I'll carry on oh it's okay it's okay but you've got to say no at one point if it's not working for you just learn early on and just say for that guy that I
Speaker 2mentioned about the thinking ink he was very good with these phrases another one he had was if you're gonna fail fail fast in other words yeah yeah you know admit to yourself it's not working and move on to something else don't just keep persevering because your ego won't let you give up on something because it's a bad idea or whatever so yeah so if you're gonna fail fail fast was another one of his yeah
Speaker 1exactly but like when I first set up the business all my hampers were almost chocolate hampers and I didn't want to change but I had to yeah and I did it quick
Speaker 2yeah exactly yeah excellent okay well one of the things I like to do to finish the the podcast is is set some homework for the for the listeners and viewers something that they can take away and think about and put into practice themselves so as you're with us today I thought I'd give you the opportunity to to set
Speaker 1today's homework okay yes so um if you're a new business or looking to set up a business I would like to give you the opportunity I would urge you to go and look on your local council website see what business support is available because there's a lot out there and that'll give you a good starting point go and have a look what's there and do contact somebody so that's number one number two get yourself on social media even if you don't like it and you don't want to be there you've got to do it because that's that's that's the way forward and a lot of businesses all businesses have to be on it yeah um so those are two big things actually because your your local council your growth hub or whatever it is locally to you can support and help you but a lot of people don't know about it no and I guess
Speaker 2in in both of those contexts whether you're a new business or an existing business it's just as important if you're an existing business both of those isn't it absolutely yeah get that support locally and and maximize social media absolutely
Speaker 1grants and there's so many different types of business and financial support that you can get even if you're a big business absolutely yeah
Speaker 2excellent okay well thanks for having me and I'll see you in the next podcast very much for joining us today it's been a great great fun um I'm gonna go off and nick some of your chocolate that's gonna be gone you're not gonna take that home as I say thanks for joining us hopefully you've enjoyed it as
Speaker 1well yeah thank you so much for having
Speaker 2me that's great and there you go so today's episode looking at um entrepreneurism starting a new business hopefully you've enjoyed it and if you have you'll come back and join me next time not until I'm sure what the episode next time I'll see you then bye bye because I'm not quite sure how this is going to slot into the into the diary but you'll come back and join us anyway and we'll be talking about something related to leadership and strategy
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