De-stress Your Business

What would you do if you lost most of your clients over a period of a few weeks?   The stress would be unbearable for many business owners.    However, expert copywriter Arfa Saira Iqbal responded by developing and using an approach that delivered a record-breaking quarter and now gives her a steady stream of new clients — completely taking the stress out of where her next project will come from....

In small businesses, most line managers have had zero training of how to manage.   This is not a good situation.   We all know that bad line managers are:   A huge source of stress A major hindrance to team productivity A common reason for leaving a job.   So… it’s not enough to hope that someone can be a good manager simply because they’ve previously been managed.   As with any other role in your...

When we work with new customers, we often help them to answer this question:   What’s your life changing goal?   In business, we’re often too focused on the revenue and growth, and forget the impact it’s having on our actual lives.   Rather than focusing on increasing profit 10%, what would it mean for you if:   You could take 4 week holidays every summer? You could spend much less time on the tas...

One of the biggest sources of stress in the workplace?   Key person dependencies.   A key person dependency is simply when your team or business is dependent on a specific person to do certain tasks.   If your business only has one person who knows how to send invoices, or do payroll, or set-up the equipment for new joiners… you have a key person dependency.   You’ll experience the stress most acu...

There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing the same mistakes happening again and again.   And it hurts in so many ways…   Team members end up:   Wasting countless hours repeating the same work Getting anxious about not delivering Feeling like they’re not growing Feeling under-supported and frustrated with management   And managers:   Lose countless hours providing support and fixing issues Get f...

Many small business owners describe themselves as being “not very process oriented”.   Not true!   As a business owner, you inevitably end up:   Talking to customers Seeing what works and makes them smile Seeing what doesn’t work and makes them frown Repeating the steps that make them smile Removing the steps that make them frown   You do the same in every other area of your business. You ask for...

Do you find it easy to summarize what your business does?   And can you do this with a simple message that really connects with your audience?   When you can’t do this, everything else suffers:   Marketing is ineffective The sales team are frustrated And customers are just confused!   It sounds like a simple thing to fix… but while it’s simple, it’s not easy.   And as founder of multiple businesse...

Most businesses wait too long before they really put a spotlight on sorting out their processes.   The result?   Failed hires Lots of mistakes Leaders spending all their time supporting their team And a ton of stress   So when is the right time to start working on your processes?   Really, it’s at the point where you realize that you have some processes that work, and that you need to hire employe...

One of the biggest sources of stress for business leaders is simply time.   There’s never enough of it     So, what if I told you that sorting your processes could help you free up 15 hours every week (!!)   To be honest, you’ll hear that number and simply disregard it…     It sounds nice… but you suspect it’ll take a lot of work, and you probably won’t find 15 hours to save, right?   This is norm...

What to do you do when you have a great job candidate, but can’t hire them right now?   If you’re like most businesses, the answer is nothing.   Here’s a better option: Don’t do nothing.   Explain to the candidate that you wanted to hire them, but can’t right now. Stay in touch — a short call once a quarter to give them an update on where you’re at, and find out what’s changed for them. When a pos...

At AirManual, we get over 1000 applicants for some job roles, which is awesome!   But how do we manage the process?   Here are 3 things we don’t do:   Spend a fortune on an Application Tracking System (ATS) Spend a fortune on recruitment consultants Completely derail our own team   Instead, we:   Use our favorite tool for documenting any type of process (AirManual!) Break the process down into sta...

Have you ever hired someone, and then discovered that their skill level is way below what you imagined?   This happens… a lot.   The culprit is not effectively reviewing their capability do to the job.   To do this effectively, you’ll need to:   Get really clear the key skills and experience they need to bring to the team   Set the objective of only hiring someone when you are confident that they...

When it comes to interviewing job candidates, we’re looking to answer 2 questions:   Does this candidate have the right skills for the job? Are they good fit for our culture?   But… how you interview someone for culture fit?   The answer is to use your core values.   If you have core values that everyone in your company firmly believes in, then you can create questions that help you to assess if a...

How do you go about defining core values?   Here’s a simple 4 step process:   List out the people in your organization that really shine. Don’t forget leaders!   List out the characteristics that they exhibit that really shine through. The ones that make a real difference to your customers. The ones that make it a place you’re proud to work in.   Take your long list, and iterate until you have 4–7...

When used correctly, company core values are an absolute game changer.   Some great examples:   Amazon: Customer obsession; Hire the best; … Meta: Move fast; Focus on long-term impact; … Our own: Focus on impact; Enjoy the journey; …   By making “Customer obsession” a core value for Amazon, Jeff Bezos didn’t need to be in every meeting. His leaders and teams would understand to always prioritize t...

Before we interview a job applicant, we want to test 2 things:   Are they a good fit for our organization? Do they have the key skills we need in this role?   Looking at CVs is a terrible way of finding this out.    CVs and resumes:   Don’t give us the information we need Don’t allow us fairly compare candidates Take too long to review!   So we start the process by asking our candidates simple que...

At AirManual, we often receive over 1000 applications for one job opening.   So we need an efficient way to filter this list down and make a great hire!   The first step is important. We don’t start with CVs.   Instead we ask 3 simple questions that start to show if this candidate’s right for us: What’s your proudest achievement, and why? What’s your favorite non-fiction book, and why? Which of ou...

AirManual, we get over 1000 applicants for each job.   It’s not because we’re a household name (we’re not — yet!)   And it’s not because we pay twice the going rate (we don’t!)   It is because:   We get clear on one specific role we’re hiring for We hire remotely (and avoid any location constraints) We identify the things that make us special We provide a compensation package that’s generous for p...

When it comes to recruitment, we love to throw around the term “A-player”.   We want to hire A-players! We need more A-players! We only hire A-players!   But… what exactly is an A-player. And can your business really afford one?   Put simply, an A-player is someone who outperforms most other people in a similar position and level.   When you have A-players, you’ get incredible bang for your buck!...

Within an organization, it’s common for one person to have more than one role.   We sometimes call this wearing more than one hat. And in a really small business, it’s not uncommon for one person to balance 3, 5, or even 10 more hats precariously on their head!     But it’s not just a small business problem.    As you scale up, you’ll always be introducing new teams. New teams will start off with...

There are a lot of different people involved when getting ready for a new joiner!   How do we make this easy to manage?   First, work out exactly who needs to be involved and why:   HR will need to support the new joiner before they join, and during company onboarding Finance will need to set up payroll IT will need to set up system access The manager will need to handle role onboarding An assigne...

Our top tip for employee onboarding? Put the new joiner in the driving seat!   With self-service onboarding:   New joiners can move at their own pace Teams and managers save hundreds of hours Managers can focus on coaching rather than lecturing New joiners get up to speed quicker, and then make fewer mistakes as they have resources to refer back to   We often see total onboarding time cut by 80% (...

When should employee onboarding start?   A common mistake is to kick it off when the new joiner walks in the door for the first time.   At this point, we’ve already missed an opportunity   Before day one, we can:   Get contracts and policies reviewed Explain our vision and values Describe how we work together Let the joiner know we’ll support their growth Give the new joiner clarity on how their f...

When you plan employee onboarding for a specific role, you need to consider both the short and long term goals.   On day one, the new joiner will be excited, but also anxious…   … Will they be able to deliver the value the team needs?  … Will they be welcomed? … Will they be well supported?   We want to address these concerns as quickly as possible.   So look for a task that the new joiner can get...

What are the essential steps for a company onboarding process?   The 5 key areas to include are:   1️⃣ Meet the team 2️⃣ Set up tools 3️⃣ Learn about vision, values and goals 4️⃣ Learn how to work together and get support: accountabilities, processes, performance 5️⃣ Learn how the business works: Target market, products, services, competitors, customer stories   This doesn’t need to take long… but...