How small changes make a big difference in business

One of the most important lessons I’ve learnt in business over the years is never to become complacent. However successful you may be, keep challenging yourself and your colleagues. Never assume that you’ve nailed it because there’s always something else to learn; a better way of doing things. There’s always some new competitor snapping at your heels with a new product. You see it time and time again; businesses caught napping because they have grown too comfortable doing what they’ve always done, in the way they’ve always done it. This applies as much to the small things in your business as the big things. You don’t necessarily have to overhaul your entire business strategy, but there may be many small things you can change for the better that will make a big difference over time. Take for example our newsletter, now rechristened In the Loop. We’d produced the same sort of thing with the same sort of content for years. We were getting reasonable readership rates. But we noticed they were declining slowly over time. We challenged ourselves to refresh what we did and to produce something people really wanted to read. We looked hard at the content, the style, the layout… we analysed every element of what we did. And guess what? Since the relaunch in January, our readership has gone up by more than 10%, hitting record levels. When you have a distribution list of around 30,000 readers, that’s a significant shift. It means we’re consistently reaching more people with the information that matters to them, keeping them involved in our community of members; part of the Peninsula mission. We’ve reduced the number of articles but made them more readable, with a broader business focus as well as our traditional areas of employment law and business safety. Today, for example, there’s a great article on credit control for small businesses, essential reading to keep your cashflow strong. We also have a video from our legal eagle, Mark Owen, explaining everything you need to know about April’s statutory rate increases. And some people still prefer a good old paper version to read at their leisure, so we offer not only a ‘print out yourself’ option, but we’ll post you a hard copy if you like. My point is that, in business, don’t take anything for granted. Even a small change can have a big impact. Why not look at some of those ‘the way you’ve always done it’ things in your business? See if there’s a small change you can make today. Over to you. And finally, we’d love to hear your feedback on In the Loop. Please email me at peterdone@peninsula-uk.com.