Part 4 – When cleaning under the fridge is more important than business operations

I remember the days all too well – cleaning under the fridge was more important than facing my office at home to try and work out my next step! This business stuff I compared to, what I would imagine, having bipolar! When I had (a very small) win I was chuffed, happy for another step forward, but when I had (a very small) setback I went to the bottom as it felt like two giant steps back. This is where the bumfluff and dropped peas that festered under the fridge was more important to battle than what was happening in the Antz Office. Those jobs that you wouldn’t even think about in a pink fit – those ones when you have a 5000-word essay to write or a phone call that you have been avoiding making – we find ourselves achieving ludicrous tasks to avoid the pain. Watering your potplant then sitting there watching, waiting for it to grow, playing Candy Crush as level 431 might be a different puzzle than the previous 430, researching how they make vegemite, what’s involved in becoming a helicopter pilot and how much will it cost me….

At this point I was working for Antz in the morning and doing my temp job in the afternoon from home most days which was ok, but I found the most productive was when I was having 1-on-1 networking meetings with other business owners and I would work out what my next step would be. Having a database of people from District32 to have coffee and a chat with was leading me with ideas on what to do next.

Step 1: Get rid of the outlook.com.au email address – no one takes a free domain seriously when it comes to business. Fair call and I understand, so I need to find someone who can do this for me. I sat down with Adam Cox of Perth IT Group and we had a great conversation about what I need. Sometimes smoke and mirrors is a great way to get people to suspect you are bigger business that what you are. I had admin, info and accounts email addresses to portray I had at least 3 departments but in reality all these email addresses where coming to my laptop – speaking to the one person employed in the whole entity! I loved this concept – I’m sorry but I will have to speak to the accounts department on setting up an account for you…. I will liaise with my admin girls and get them to send you an email with those details…. This took the pressure off me a bit as I could metaphorically handball issues to a different hat wearing personas that kept me from getting overwhelmed and bought myself time to think about my responses.

Step 2: You don’t have to but it is great to get your brand and logo done at the start as it can and does cost a lot of money to rebadge your business with your marketing materials and you need to retrain your customers to adapt to the new changes – and we are familiar with many people that are uncomfortable with change! So, who do I go to do design a logo and how much is this going to cost me? Will all this marketing cleverness blow my budget out of the water…. And why do I have to hand over my money first before I find out if they are a branding genius and design a logo that I love?