4. The Most Expensive Dog Bed In Yorkshire

A little story about Meggie and her favourite spot in the office… and why she refuses to stay there when something better comes along. 

It got me thinking about how often we stick to the plan in our businesses, even when there’s something else right in front of us that’s working better. 

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing what you “should” be doing, but there might be an easier way… this one’s for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Welcome to the Girls Mean Business Podcast, where we share business and marketing tips, advice and great secrets to help you raise your game and build your brilliant business. Get more clarity, more customers, and more sales. Here to show you how your host, Claire Mitchell.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Hello, it's Claire from the Girls Me Business, and today I want to talk to you about my little dog, Meggie. Because we've got a running joke about Meggie in our office. Every morning she comes in with us, has a look around, inspects everything, sniffs everything, and then jumps straight onto the sofa. And it's not just any sofa, by the way, this is my very expensive, very gorgeous blue velvet sofa with beautiful cushions with hydrangeas on and a gorgeous matching pink throw. It looks lovely, but it's also the most expensive dog bed in Yorkshire. Because once she's jumped up, she makes herself a little den out of the pink throw and the cushions, and for a good chunk of the day she doesn't move, she just curls up there, snoring away like a happy little snoring clam. But then some days it's a bit different because if it's sunny, the sun at some point in the day starts to come through the office window and it lands in this one patch on the carpet, and it's lovely and warm and cozy. And when that happens, somehow with her doggy sixth sense, Megg knows this and she stops snoring, and a nose pokes out of the den and she jumps down and plumps herself into the patch of sunlight on the carpet. And obviously, because we are who we are, we then pick up our actual dog bed and move it into the sunshine for her. Because Princess Maggie can't just lie on the carpet like a normal dog. So we move the bed, then she settles and starts snoring, then a little bit later the sun moves again, so she gets up again and we move the bed again. And this goes on all day until the sun's finally stopped coming through the window. And uh, I was watching her and us do this the other day, and I thought, do you know what? There is a business lesson here because I love to find business lessons everywhere I look. And in this case, the business lesson is lots of us stay on our metaphorical sofa and we don't take advantage of the sunshine. What are you talking about, Claire? Well, I think that you can either stay on the sofa and stick to your plan in your business because that's what you have always done, that's what you know, and you just keep doing what you've always done. You just sit on the sofa. And when things happen over here, like a patch of unexpected sunlight appearing, you just look at it and go, No, I'm sticking to my plan. Whereas Meggie jumps down and takes advantage of it. So, what does that look like in business? Well, let me explain. So, the patch of sunlight in your business might be that something comes up in the news and it makes your business really relevant, or there's a conversation that keeps coming up with your customers, or you notice something that people are talking about in the Facebook group, or you notice a TikTok trend, something happens and there is an opportunity, a patch of sunlight over here, and you have a choice. You can either take advantage of the patch of sunlight or you can stay snoring on the sofa. And that might be new legislation, it could be something that's happened on TV, it could be some kind of seasonal thing, anything, something that creates a little patch of sunlight over here, and you can either stay where you are because that's what you planned, or you can get up and move into it. Let me give you two examples. So, the first one it made me think of was years ago, back in the early days of Love Island, which I've never watched by the way, so I'm taking this on what other people tell me, but at some point in the early days, there was a girl on there and she had an infinity ankle bracelet. And one of my clients was a jeweller, and she decided that this was an opportunity, a patch of sunlight, and she decided to stop doing what she was doing because she knew that Love Island, even back then, was massively popular, and she knew this would become a thing, a trend. So she designed her own version, she didn't copy it, but she designed her own version of an Infinity Ankle bracelet, and she had it on sale the next day, and she started talking about it on social media, and it went bonkers. She sold loads of them because she was the only person who'd clocked that on Love Island the night before, got straight onto it, created something that she could photograph and sell, and went out there with it. None of the other businesses had moved as quickly as she had, so she really capitalized on it and she didn't change the whole direction of her business, she just took advantage of that thing, that trend, while it was happening. I imagine after a few weeks, lots of other people caught on, and there were lots of people selling them, but for that short time she was the only person selling those Infinity Ankle bracelets, so she took advantage of the patch of sunlight. She didn't just stay on the sofa because that's what she had planned. Another example is one of my clients very recently, who is an accountant and bookkeeper, and she knew there was some new legislation coming in around making tax digital. She said it's changing, you have to submit these things four times a year now, where you used to only have to do it once a year. And she said it's actually scaring a lot of people because it's very different to what they've been doing, it feels like a very big job for them. And she said, I've just realized that I can help them. So it might only last for a little while until everybody gets used to it, but I can help these people. I have what they need, and I can help them understand what to do and when and support them while they do it because that's my skill set. And so she decided actually during one of our group calls that she was going to set up a membership around helping those small business owners with submitting their tax and making sure they weren't unsupported. And she set it up really fast. Literally, within days, she had a very light touch, very basic membership, didn't need any content, it was just about her supporting, just like regular calls in a Facebook group, I think it was. But she did the same thing as the jeweller. She saw an opportunity, realized she could help, and jumped on it and made it happen. That is what it looks like to move from the sofa into that patch of sunlight and take advantage of it while it's there. So neither of these ladies overthought it, neither of them tested out different things. They just thought, you know what? I can do that. I'm not going to overcomplicate it, I'm not going to wait until I've got a full plan. I'm not going to wait until it feels strategic enough. I'm just going to do something about it. So it's just about noticing and responding. That's all, which is all that Meg does. She notices that all of a sudden it gets a bit warmer, sticks her nose out of the den and jumps down into the sunlight. That's all she does. So noticing and responding and taking advantage of a situation and trusting that you can do it again anytime if you need to, because you're not stuck, you're allowed to adjust, you're allowed to follow what's working, you're allowed to change your mind. Doesn't make you flaky. It just means that you are responsive, and responsive businesses are the healthiest businesses, they're the ones that can take advantage of an opportunity when it arises. So your job after today is to just be aware of what's going on around you. So look at what people are paying attention to, look at the TikTok trends, see what's big on social media, see what's happening on any of the TV programmes that you watch if you watch any of the popular ones. And when you see your version of that patch of sunlight, jump and plonk yourself down in there and make the most of it while it's there. You don't need to overhaul everything or make huge changes, just shift your dog bed a few inches and see what happens. It's that simple. So that's it. Food for thought. I'll see you next time. Bye for now. That's it from the Girls Mean Business Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

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