Founder's Thoughts: One of the most beneficial skills that you can add to your toolkit is the ability to network.

MAY 2018

As an entrepreneur, you’re always learning. And one of the most beneficial skills that you can add to your toolkit is the ability to network. Networking will help you market your business, raise your profile and build relationships within entrepreneurial communities. If you build trust within networking circles and nail your 1-min pitch, your business will benefit in more ways that you can possibly imagine.

I recently told my LinkedIn network that walking into a room full of strangers makes me cringe and asked them for their top tips to deal with this situation. This question caused quite a reaction! I’ve received over 70 comments on my post and I could not believe how helpful and generous my network has been in terms of sharing tips, tools and strategies to overcome the awkward moment of having to walk up to people I don’t know and start a conversation.

My favourite advice comes from Philippa Constable who is in fact a networking expert and a founder of a networking organisation called Women Mean Biz. Here is what she said:

You will not believe how common this is. Apart from standing up in front of a room full of people, the 2nd most common fear with networking is walking into a room of strangers and approaching people. I think the best advice I can give you is to appreciate that many others feel this way too, and we are all there for the same reason, to make connections and build relationships. I do breathing exercises (I know … and I run a network!!) — take a big deep breath and ask my top 5 questions which gives me confidence. Focus your mind on how you can help others in the room to deflect your nerves — it makes it much easier if you are thinking “How can I help you?” — and then why would they not want to talk to you! Hope this helps and looking forward to chatting with you next week.

The reason why I like Philippa’s advice is because she flips the situation on its head to come from a place of service. #1 reason why people avoid networking is because they don’t want to be sold to. If only everyone took Philippa’s advice to heart, networking clubs could become a really fun and helpful place to hang out!

If you would like to read all of the advice I’ve received, here is the link.

Time Management

April was cut short for me this year as I’ve spent half of it in Cyprus (more on that later). The two weeks that I was here after returning to the UK were pretty intense as all the meetings and projects piled up. In the first week alone, I’ve delivered 21 client appointments and the diary craziness continued until the end of the month.

This highly intense period of appointments made me rethink my diary and project management approach. I used to just go with the flow and book appointments and projects as they came along and fit my life and travels in between my work life, but I’ve now realised that I have to put some boundaries in place and pace myself during my working time as going like this is not sustainable in the long run. So I’ve revamped my schedule and project management rulebook and going forward I’ll do the following:

Only book one photo-shoot per week and maximum of three per month.
Block dedicated time slots each week for business and team development.
No appointments on Mon AM and Fri PM to catch-up and plan ahead.
Have at least one day a week with no meetings to allow for project work.
Book a maximum of two meetings per day to allow for admin in between.

So this is how my dream schedule looks like. In reality, I would be happy to be able to implement it 80% of the time — it’s just how it is in the business when you’re trying to grow in every direction.

My diary for next month is still looking pretty full, but I think I’ll be able to implement the changes from June onwards.

In the meantime, I’ve researched time management techniques that I aim to use in the future to get the most of my working week:

STUDIO INSIGHTS

This month, we’ve worked with some awesome clients and I could not be happier with the actions they are taking to move their business forward! Below, I am sharing insights into some of those projects.

Our client Nadine just finished our Brand Design and Photos Package and will soon be launching her awesome new business as a healer and coach.
Our client Ismene just started our all-in Brand, Photos and Squarespace Web Design process. During our Brand Clarity consultation, we’ve defined her brand foundation and designed a full new service range so that she can let go of her old business, reposition her brand and re-launch in a new category (more on this project next month).
Our clients HMO Heaven just launched their new beautiful website. They came to us asking to create a website that would reflect their personality — let us know what you think!
Our new client Victoria is just starting a new business as a healer. She’s booked our all-in Brand, Photos and Squarespace Web Design process and we’ve helped her to get clear on her ideal clients, brand identity (the narrative that surrounds her brand) and designed her service range. We’re now helping her to plan for her brand photos and a website to follow.
We’re currently working on this super stylish Squarespace website redesign for a dressage rider. I really cannot wait to reveal this one, it’s so beautiful! Launching soon!
We’re currently working with a really cool new-age recruitment consultancy called .Works thats uses artificial intelligence algorithm to match candidates with their perfect jobs, and employees with the right people for the job. Being a forward-thinking company, .Works didn’t want to look like a traditional recruitment company. Instead, they asked us to make their brand resemble a tech start-up. Visuable team came up with a colour palette and brand concept that is contemporary, minimalistic and edgy. We used shapes from real-results data that candidates receive after taking their AI test to create the logo and on-brand experience within their new website. We stripped the text and design to an absolute minimum and we let the brand concept to do all the talking.

Mediterranean Lifestyle

As some of your know, I am living a partially Mediterranean life. Each quarter, I spend 3–4 weeks in the Sunny Cyprus whilst running my business remotely. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been working very hard on building a team around me, that would allow me to make it happen. In December 2017 the Mediterranean dream has finally become a reality.

Mediterranean lifestyle is all about family, food and life.

Family — Cypriots love their family gatherings. Especially the Easter time is spent going from house to house visiting family members, having garden parties, eating and having conversations (usually in Greek).

Food — the mediterranean diet is known across the world for being healthy, tasty and all-round amazing. Honestly, the food in Cyprus is sooo good that you could spend 2 weeks non-stop doing just that — eating.

Life — life for Cypriots means sitting in the garden enjoying their morning cafe frappe and home made spinach pie (SPANAKOPITA). Going for a run in sun filled neighbourhood. Going for a dinner with friends enjoying fresh, tasty, flavoursome meals. Drinking wine from the local winery. Going to the beach and enjoying cold halloumi and watermelon salad. Just driving around and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. It’s the simple things in life that matter.

For me Mediterranean life is also about balance. What I really love about my time in Cyprus is that I can get up in the morning, go for a run, do my exercise routine in the garden or go horseriding, have my coffee and then resume working.

Few facts about Cyprus

300 days of sunshine per year!!!
Second best climate in the world.
Beach and Mountains within 30min drive.
Lowest crime rate in the world.
12.5% corporation Tax.
A growing business hub.
Greek, English, and Turkish are the three main languages.
Culture, History, Archeology, Theatre, Arts, Museums, Outdoor Sports.

Lidia
Founder & Brand Expert | Visuable