Juggling – a skill not to be underestimated

By Stuart Jolley, founder of Wingman

One of the first things that hits you when starting a business is the sheer quantity of work that you need to organise. Nothing, not university, not even the most vaunted work experience placement can quite prepare you for what lies ahead.

Not only are there all the usual ways in which you imagine a business can sap your time, such as client relations, investment scouting and enough tax related paperwork to keep your average accountant busy until he evolves an extra typing finger, but there are the hidden potholes that can finish your aspirations quicker...

...than you can say VAT filing.

Added to the in-tray is the entertaining, but time consuming, race to keep up with the ever-changing world of technology and social networking. In some fields not tweeting makes you a twit. You have to keep your profile up, boost it and nurture it, until it reaches the point at which people talk about it without your constant attention. Even then you have to keep going, reaching out to more and more potential clients and investors.

Some aspects really can be like raising a small, unpredictable child. You cannot neglect to pay attention to the language and typography on your website, neglect to monitor how markets are developing, how perceptions of your product may change (even seasonally). You have to juggle these opportunities and potential problems, because the alternative is failure.

Even when you get home at the end of the day your phone is there on the arm of your chair; it is your eyes and your ears, it is your link whether you want to be connected, or, as is often the case, not. There are the 9pm calls that fracture evenings, the make or break emails that arrive in the candlelight of... continued on page two >

 

 

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