Category: Uncategorized

It’s Christmas Eve here in the UK (at the time of writing) and we’ve been blessed with mild weather, which disappoints the kids, who all want snow. Grown ups who need to travel prefer clear, safe roads and trains that run on time. 

Everyone has their own perspective on the weather and the same goes for the festive season.

We are a multi cultural, multi faith society, connected through the internet and by the magic of smartphones. We live our lives at speed and spend our lives working hard and doing what we need to survive and put food on the table.

We can remember that everyone has their own take on Christmas (or not, as the case may be) and that some people find this season challenging.

My own challenge is that we have one empty place at the dinner table now as my dear nephew William passed away suddenly back in 2015, two weeks before his 15th birthday. 

Death is part of life and yet it’s never easy to entirely reconcile the High Street festive happiness with our own sadness. 

I think we can do two things.

We can miss those people who have left us and we can light a candle for them, or take a few minutes to remember them. 

And we can also take time to think about ourselves. We can enjoy being with the people we still have around us and we can be happy at all we have achieved this year, in work and in life.

Whatever our situation and wherever we are in the world we can do these two things.

We can find our way to be happy being festive, whilst allowing sadness and happiness to both exist inside us.

Have a peaceful festive season and thank you for being part of my Better Business blog, which is a labour of love for me.

Good wishes to you,

Richard

Next week: 25,000 Words Later! 

Remember records? Lovely round things with grooves in (for our younger readers) and, although they could be scratched, the sound could be clear and bright and their covers were often works of art.

Records are making a come back, with sales continuing to rise each year.

Downloads are convenient, but lack the romance of cleaning a disc and placing it gently on the turntable. Maybe in 50 years time people will feel nostalgic for downloads, once music is beamed directly into our brain from an app implant. Or maybe records will have edged out new tech. You decide!

Browsing in a record shop two weeks ago I was surprised how busy it was. A constant stream of people flowed in and surfed the racks, cooing when they found an old favourite. Rather a plesant shopping experience really.

However, what most impressed me was the attitude of the owner. Every question was answered in a cheery and positive way. Orders were taken and advice offered and the atmosphere was warm and cordial. Genuine warmth, not an Apple type hipster smiling at the thought of you spending £500 on the lastest iPodPadTabTub.

What inspired me to share this story was that for every purchase made the owner thanked the customer with a big smile. 

‘Thank you so much for choosing Off The Beaten Tracks’ he said, with a happy twinkle in his eye.

Real affection for his shop and appreciation for the people using it. Eye contact and a smile …great customer service!

It made a pleasant change from the robo-thanks that we so often get and it was lovely to hear and see. 

So this week we can take a moment to think how often and how genuine our thanks are towards our customers. Are we ‘robotic’ or ‘relishing’ towards our customers?

Lacking a record player myself I did invest in a CD and maybe I will return to vinyl one day. It seems a friendly club worth joining!

Next week: Happy Being Festive