Focus on What You're Good At

Peter Done, Founder and Managing Director of the Peninsula Group, shares his thoughts on keeping things simple and focusing what you're good at. Quotations are always a good way to get you thinking. Here’s one from Steve Jobs. “That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” Jobs was the master of simplicity. You only have to think about the pared down design of the Apple phone or the instinctive functionality of the products, meaning a four-year-old can, quite literally, work an iPad. There’s a lot we, as business owners, can take from his message. It doesn’t matter if you’re running an SME or a multi-national. The key is to keep it simple, which is, as Jobs points out, often a damned sight harder than adding layers of complexity. At Peninsula, we came up with a simple solution to a real business problem. Thirty years ago, I had an employment law issue when running another business. Long story short, we were taken to a tribunal and the day before, having followed the lawyer’s advice to the letter, we were advised to settle the case. Cost me a fortune in fees and the settlement. And a considerable amount of my time was spent away from what I wanted to be doing; running my business. There had to be a better way. And there was. That’s how Peninsula came into being. 24-hour advice on tap, 365 days a year for SMEs, whenever they need it for all their employment law problems. No clock is ticking when the advice starts. A clear focus on preventing problems by implementing the right systems and processes. A clear focus on resolving issues in the workplace before they escalate. A clear focus on ensuring the employer gets the very best advice from the best in the industry. In short, your own HR department at the end of the phone, with the added guarantee of our indemnity package to protect employers from potential fees and costs. It was a simple solution to a sometimes complex problem. And the fact we’ve now got over 75,000 clients with offices in not only the UK and Ireland but also in Australia, New Zealand and Canada shows that the need and the demand is there. As Jobs says, it’s important when running a business to keep your thinking clean, focused and simple. Here’s a suggestion: if you’ve got an employment law issue—however small—call us. Use us. Don’t think anything is too small for us. It isn’t. Don’t let it escalate. Get it sorted. Focus on what you know best, which is running your business. Spend your time doing what you enjoy most, which is running your business. Keep it simple; put your employment law problems in our hands so you can crack on with what you want to be doing. That’s what we’re here for. If there’s anything on your mind, then call our employment law advice line on 01 855 50 50, and we’ll move our own mountains, to use Jobs’ phrase, to resolve it as quickly and simply as possible