Celebrating Success In Your Small Business

Do you remember last summer when there was nothing but sunshine, heat and football?! We were in Greece for some of the World Cup but we still managed to watch the matches surrounded by so many nationalities all brought together unified by the enjoyment of sport.

Sports success rightly prompts admiration, but business success triggers jealousy and anger,” Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph (2012). In other words, those behaviours we celebrate in our sporting heroes such as determination, personal discipline and a fierce competitive streak those are often associated with negative connotations in a work environment.  How often do we shout about our successes? This is even more paramount in self-employed individuals as it’s not very British but if you don’t shout about yourself then you pretty much have no customers!

Freelancer Stickers Charlie Moos

What exactly can you do within your business to overcome this reluctance to ‘boast’ and encourage people to take pride in their achievements and those of their peers?

Create a Culture of Praise :

How often do you just tell someone they did well or you are proud of them? It’s crazy how we do this all the time with our children and yet omit the adults, work colleagues, networking friends in our life. Make a practice of praising people for the small steps as well as the big achievements.  Just think how you feel when someone praises you (or says thank you for something you did)? It’s empowering, praise and recognition it has a direct impact on levels engagement and productivity.

Shout About Your Success :

Spread the word about your achievements, both internally and externally.  Tell all your friends, family, networking group, team, employees your social media following, communication channels to let the whole business know when someone has put in an outstanding performance or achieved exceptional results. Keep your trade press up to speed with your success too. There’s nothing like in article in a leading industry publication to create a real buzz around the business.

Get on the Award Trail :

joanne dewberry award winning There are small business and industry-based awards schemes for just about everything. Start local and start asking around, see what awards your competition has won. Putting together an entry does take time but your effort will be more than repaid if you win. You also get to celebrate this with so many people, when I won Dorset Business Mother of the Year 2010 I took Daddy Moo and 2 small business friends who had been instrumental in my business and back in 2014 I took my mum to the What’s On 4 Me Awards.  Having people with me who have supported me along the way make award wins that little bit more special.  You also get to share (blow your own trumpet) on social media which provides everyone with the chance to join in with your success.

Build Team Spirit :

I’m all for building a team around you especially one that can be your cheer squad as working alone can be pretty boring! Outstanding success often comes about as a result of team effort, make sure you provide regular opportunities for your team to build and strengthen relationships with each other. Network regularly to meet other individuals with whom you can collaborate with. Social media tools also have an important role to play in making people feel they are part of a community. Think about using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to bring people together. Some of the latest HR software systems also have a wealth of features that will help you keep everyone up to date and in touch.

Reward Appropriately :

tomahawk throwing

When rewarding people you work with team members or employees make sure you are rewarding the kind of behaviour you want to encourage. Look carefully at the bonuses and incentives on offer ensure these to make sure that they are supporting your culture of praise rather than working against it. Being self-employed most of my business friends and I work alone we have found creative ways to acknowledge not only ourselves but other people within our networking groups efforts and celebrate success. We meet monthly to enjoy activities such as archery, horse riding, needle felting and many more. My monthly Self-employed Team Building Socials have become a way in which many of my small business friends/networking group reward themselves.

How do you reward your staff, clients, employees or even yourself?


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