Mums had heart failure (again), my dads just been diagnosed with cancer, the kids are on school holidays, my 5 year old is seeing double and business is as usual.  If this had happened a year ago I think that the business would have suffered quite badly, its not easy being a small business owner especially when you are also doing the role of a full time mum, with no childcare to a toddler and a child in reception.  So when your time is stretched to the limit with personal matters day to day business matters go by the wayside. 

Why am I not worried?  Well I am concerned of course about my family but the business will be fine.  A business advisor told me a long time ago that I should be working on the business and not in the business.  Although I do know what goes on from day to day my main concerns are the long term strategies for marketing, PR and expansion which I work on every day, so taking a few days to sort out personal matters will not effect the day to day running.

Why would this have been a different story a year ago?  Then I could not leave the business for a day and the one time I went on holiday, not only was I on the internet more than I was with my family, but on my return I had to gently loose a member of staff as it became apparent, in my absence, that she had been neglecting her work for a good number of months.  The saying - you are only as strong as your weakest link, struck home to me at this point as the neglect had repercussions throughout the company, and it took us many months to recover.  I now have a strong team who know exactly what they are doing and I like to think they enjoy it too.  There is flair within the company and we are all moving forward together. 

This has not happened by chance.   I can’t deny that staff have come and gone and at the beginning it was difficult to get the right staff for the job.  I discovered quite early on, that experience was far less important than fitting the personality to the position and once I had discovered this employing staff who are enthusiastic about their role was relatively easy. 

Moving forward my main criteria for future employment will not be experience, but enthusiasm and personality.  I can’t do sales but there are personalities that thrive on it.  I like the IT, organisational and management side of business, but I know that half of my staff would be happy to steer clear from these (whether experienced or not).  I believe that having the right personality for the job not only makes staff happy with their role but also can create creativity and contagious enthusiasm within the company.  This in turn will keep the company fresh and at the forefront of development, hopefully sustaining growth, development and profit for all within the business