I write this the day before our thirty-eighth wedding anniversary.
Yes, it’s true Anny has somehow put up with me for thirty-eight years!
I know most of you can’t believe it either and frankly, neither can I be lucky enough to be married to my best friend.
Personal anniversaries (by the way for this one I spell it Annyversary…) in life are usually something to celebrate, I hope.
However, some unfortunately can be negative and in these instances with few exceptions, I deliberately try hard not to label a day. For instance, I don’t know the date of my mother's or father's passing as I prefer to remember them at any time relevant to me. This might seem harsh but it’s my personal way of dealing with things.
We also have lots of business anniversaries again both positive and negative.
April 6th, 2007 wasn’t the best of days for me (the day I lost the lot!) and is one of the few I do mention as its part of my business story and relevant to the work I do with clients.
However, in the main whilst I might mention a few negative business stories such as the day our office flooded in 2010, I don’t hold a specific date as I feel it isn’t that relevant.
When it comes to positive business anniversaries, we do look to celebrate them though.
This is the eighth year of the Family Business Practice. It’s the sixteenth year of our family business My Management Company and it is the twenty-sixth year of me being the Family Businessman!
These are not so much anniversaries as MILESTONES.
We all know that most businesses fail in the first handful of years, the statistics are truly daunting, so to pass these milestones is a very big achievement.
Something we can and should celebrate don’t you think?
What’s the point, Peter?
MILESTONES in our business should be celebrated and importantly promoted to our clients and prospects.
Frankly, if you have been trading for several years successfully it probably means you are doing a good job, you have clients that appreciate you and they will enjoy celebrating with you.
But how about this thought?
Why not encourage celebrating your client's MILESTONES?
Share with them in their success and where appropriate let others know of their achievement.
For no reason other than being helpful…
Last week we shared the success of Dave Bird at Small Biz Digital Media who has invested in his own studio for video marketing. Spending a couple of hours in a Family Business Practice HUDDLE seeing how he works with clients was a terrific success and a milestone for his business.
Letting people know through social media of his ability and success truly was a lovely thing to do, as it is now in this post.
So why not share MILESTONES – you will be glad you did!
The Family Business Practice is a vibrant learning and development community full of great people and businesses who in many cases give of their time and expertise to help others, PLUS do business together where appropriate!
CLICK HERE to see the latest events and book on soon – you will be glad you did.
Go on you know you want to!
Until the next time…
Peter
Peter Roper The Family Business Man
