Andy Snowden used the Inspiration Slot to remind us all that it is often faster and more cost efficient to do a job properly the first time. Rushing, cutting corners or using inferior materials often result in expensive and time-consuming efforts to put the problem right afterwards. It doesn’t cost any more to do a proper job!

However, we’re reminded of the wise words of John Ruskin, who said:
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you have enough to pay for something better.”

Last week, Tanya Simister gave us a new perspective on turning a negative comment into something positive during our weekly Inspiration Slot.
“Receiving a response of ‘No’ does not mean failure, in fact ‘No’ can be the most empowering word. It can mean that you’re busy and if you said ‘Yes’ then the service may not be up to your usual standard. People are often prepared to wait, if you are busy, as that can give an insight into your business and also the quality of your work.
When selling, people are searching for a response of ‘Yes’ but if you work out how many answers of ‘Yes’ you want, then turn it on its head and work out how many ‘No’ responses you expect to receive to achieve that desired number. Set your ‘No’ goal higher because this will increase your ‘Yes’ quota and thus your sales.
So never be afraid of failure as it can ultimately equal success – as Richard Fenton and Anita Waltz’s book “Go for No!” says “Yes is the destination, No is how you get there.”

Our weekly meetings always begin with one member sharing good advice with the rest of the group. Last week, Ian Stevenson told us about a training programme he’d recently attended which was aimed at building business leadership skills in small companies. He explained:

“Small groups were tasked with designing and building a device to carry an egg as quickly as possible over 10 metres, without it breaking. We were in an environment which had a plentiful supply of materials and machine tools, so the task was focused on coming up with the concept, evaluating the likely success and cost – then build and test it all within five hours.

It was a fantastic day and although my team achieved the fastest time, we sadly broke the egg in the process!

For me, what I took away from that day is that brainstorming ideas in an open and non-judgemental environment is a highly productive activity within a business, but also to stimulate ideas and positive interaction you don’t just say “yes but” – rather, you say “yes and”. I’ve already begun to do this with my own team and the results have been really great. You should try it for yourself and see what happens!”

One of our groups has been working together on an exciting new project that SMBA is developing in association with local schools – more of which to come in a few weeks! However, Tanya Simister gives us a taste of what they’ve been planning:

“The last two group meetings have been really exciting – moving beyond just what we can offer the pupils in terms of work experience but looking at schemes and ideas that would help them gain experience of real business challenges. SMBA has such a diverse membership, which means that we can be innovative in creating a bespoke education experience for each school. We’re really excited about what we can offer!”