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Time and Task Management – The Easy Way to Get More Done

We’re all looking for ways to get the most out of life. We work hard in our jobs to achieve different goals at different stages of our lives. Sometimes these goals are just for ourselves and sometimes our goals affect our families, our friends, staff, suppliers and colleagues.

Do you have a goal to earn a high salary? To take exotic holidays three times a year? To raise your children, pay off the mortgage, or perhaps you’d like a sports car or a yacht? These are all achievable goals as long as you put the right steps in place and the right actions in motion.

We all have the same twenty-four hours in the day, so how can it be that some people seem to have more time than you do? Why are they earning more, doing more, going on holiday more and achieving more?

The answer perhaps lies in how effective you are at prioritising your tasks and managing your time. If you find time is running away and you don’t have the time or the energy to do the things you want to do, then now is a good opportunity to look closely at the tasks you’re doing and see how they align with your goals.

Achieve More with Time & Task Management
Achieve More with Time & Task Management

Do you have a To Do List?

Writing things down is a great way to organise your tasks. It gives you a sense of purpose and by writing down the tasks you want to achieve in a list, it will help you to achieve them. Assigning a number to each task can also help if you need to decide which client to call first, or if you have accounts and administration tasks to complete by a certain date or deadline.

Remember, To Do Lists can be used in your personal life too. You might want to list house chores like hoovering, dusting, washing and food shopping. These are all tasks which take up time. You might want to list family activities such as walking the dog, playing sport, after-school activities and the times when you are seeing friends.

Prioritise Your Tasks

To Do Lists work best when you list items in priority order. They work even better when you assign a timeframe for each task, perhaps a task will take 10 minutes, or maybe it will take 2 hours. Knowing how long a task will take will help you work out how much you can do before lunch, before school pick-up time, or before any evening activities.

You can pick and choose items on your list but try to do the difficult tasks first to get them out of the way. If there is a monster task you’ve been putting off, think about how you can achieve it, or delegate it. If it is important or urgent, try and put these tasks at the top of your list.

There’s no problem having multiple lists and it can be helpful to have lists for daily tasks, weekly tasks and monthly tasks.

Electronic or Paper

Your list can be written electronically or in pen and paper, as long as you check it regularly and achieve items as they become due.

An electronic list can be helpful if you have repetitive tasks as you can type the task once and set a schedule for it to appear on list at regular intervals. A bonus with an electronic list is the ability to set an audible alarm to activate when the task should be started.

A paper list might seem old-school but the act of writing the words in pen or pencil can stick better in your mind. It’s up to you. The important part is to make a note of the tasks you need to complete and to know when each task needs to be done.

Know When to Outsource

There may come a time when you need to outsource some of your tasks. This can be a great way to achieve more tasks in less time. You can delegate house chores within your family, or an alternative is to employ someone to help with childcare or cleaning. At work, if there comes a point when you need staff, or more staff, having your tasks written down in a list will make it much easier to see where your time is going and where you may need some help.

Helping business owners manage their time and identify their tasks is an area I can offer advice and support. With a telephone call or face to face meeting I can chat with you about your tasks and goals and make recommendations.

How to stick to your new habits when the going gets tough

It’s supposed to take at least 21 days for something new to become a habit. So, it’s no surprise that so many of us fail to keep up a new habit, even if to an outsider it looks like the easiest thing in the world.

Know Your “Why”

Knowing the reason, or reasons, why you chose this new habit can be a great motivator. Perhaps you joined the gym to lose a stone in weight and get back into your favourite dress. Perhaps you need to make 30 phone calls a day to achieve your sales target and keep the boss happy.

Knowing your “Why” is key to sticking to your new habit. Write it down. Pin it to your noticeboard. Tell your friends and colleagues. Make sure you’re accountable to someone or something and this is one technique which will help you stick to your habit.

Accountability helps you build new practices
Accountability helps you build new practices

Allow For “Bad Days”

It’s ok to have a “bad day” when starting your new habit. Perhaps you stayed late at work one evening and there wasn’t time to do your new habit, or perhaps the habit you were trying to create was to leave work on time. Perhaps a friend called round unexpectedly and you forgot about your new habit. Maybe it was something beyond your control. Or maybe it was a moment of weakness. Did you doubt yourself? Did you think it was impossible?

The trick is to be kind to yourself, to allow room for an “off day” or a “bad day”, but to make sure you put a limit to it. If you need to “try again tomorrow”, or if you have to “put it off until next week”, that’s ok. But in the morning, make sure you try again. Accept the “bad day” for what it was, just a “bad day” nothing more, nothing less.

Ignore The Naysayers

There’s nothing worse than someone sabotaging your efforts to stick to your new habit. Whether it’s a well-intentioned comment, a bit of jealous sarcasm, or out and out mischief, you need to rise above it. If you have created a habit to stop smoking, then someone offering you a cigarette could happen, especially if it was a shared habit in business or social time. It will take time for other people to adapt to the “new you”.

It’s important to concentrate in the moment where you could be drawn back into your old habit and to recognise those moments and adapt accordingly. If you’ve allocated Friday afternoon for admin and accounts, you need to stick to it for this to become a habit. It might be hard if everyone else is having a “poets” day or you are invited for an after-lunch drink.

Focus On The Outcome

In my experience, focussing on the outcome is the best way to stick to a new habit. I try and remember why I have formed the new habit. I allow for bad days and do my best to ignore the naysayers. It can be hard, but when I review the month, I look at what I’ve achieved, how the new habits have helped not just grow my business, but have made significant differences to other people’s businesses. For me, this is the perfect outcome.

When I can help you create new habits or uncover why you’re not sticking to your habits, please get in touch. I will chat with you and identify where things can be improved.

Accountability is a brilliant way to set up new habits, I worked with Julie who says

I’ve learned

  • where I’m wasting time doing the things that aren’t going to get my closer to my goals

  • how to prioritise my self-care which means I have more energy to complete my tasks

  • taking time for mindfulness practices helps my motivation and keeps me engaged in my tasks

  • how to not give myself such a hard time when things don’t go to plan

  • how to break down tasks into easier steps to create momentum towards success”

If you would like to know more about how I can help you be more accountable for taking actions, then either check out my group accountability sessions or book a discovery call with me.

How Accountability Can Help You Achieve More

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about accountability and how it can help you achieve more in your personal and professional life. Being accountable is supposed to make you more disciplined and focussed towards setting ambitious goals, writing down the steps to achieve them and reporting back to confirm it has been done.

Accountability is a two-way process, where you discuss what you would like to achieve with someone who listens, supports and advises. That person then checks in with you regularly to enquire if you have met your target, make comments or suggestions, and to help keep you motivated and on track to achieve your goals.

It doesn’t have to be a mutual accountability, it can come from a parent, a friend or a boss. It is becoming increasingly popular to outsource your accountability to a third party who can offer impartial, non-judgemental and confidential advice on anything you might want to achieve.

The accountability check can be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the task you want to achieve, the target you have given yourself or the goal you have set. Accountability is also measured by how much assistance you require and how much the other person can offer.

I have been working with Adrian, helping him refine and improve his company’s processes and team accountability.

 

The Vision

Adrian’s vision is to help his clients get more leads, more customers and more business through automating marketing systems, processes and communications. However, with over ten employees and external contractors, the company’s internal processes weren’t being tracked effectively and consequently the team wasn’t working efficiently.

 

The Reality

“I was jumping from one task to another,” Adrian told me, “I ended up doing much of the work myself. There was just no time to manage the projects and tasks,” he added and showed me how his diary was consumed with work related tasks, leaving him little time for himself or to spend quality time with his family.

Through chatting with Adrian, he acknowledged the solution was to focus on better processes and team accountability. Despite having a large wage bill, he told me his company wasn’t fully realising the benefits of having a team of skilled people on board.

Accountability helps with Mental as well as physical tasks
Accountability helps with Mental as well as physical tasks

The Solution

After Adrian approached me asking for my help to assist him turning things around, we discussed the best strategy for this.

At first, Adrian asked me to monitor what his team were doing on a daily basis. Then he asked me to keep the team accountable for actioning the tasks he had assigned to each of them. Adrian wanted that external advice and opinion from me to get clarity on the processes and remove unnecessary steps and bottlenecks. Crucially, Adrian asked me to hold him accountable for his actions too. He was determined changes should start from the top and filter throughout his company to maximise everyone’s effectiveness.

When I began working with Adrian there were over 60 outstanding actions. Some actions were overdue by several months and there was no process in place to alert the team or record if an action had been taken. Although the outstanding actions weren’t threatening Adrian’s company, they were slowly holding him back and giving him a poor reputation among customers who had been left waiting. The pressure of the outstanding actions also had a negative impact on the team, causing added stress and undermining the team spirit and morale.

In Adrian’s Words:

Rachael is extremely organised and logical. She has a no-nonsense attitude to excuses and has motivated my team, improved my processes and achieved outstanding results. I would have no hesitation recommending Rachael to any business owner who needs accountability.” – Adrian Savage

If you would like to know more about how I can help you be more accountable for taking actions, then either check out my group accountability sessions or book a discovery call with me.

How to Make More Money in the Same Time

Does it sound too good to be true to think you can make more money in the same time? How can it be true? What’s the catch? If it’s true why isn’t everyone doing this?

The answer is it’s easy to become complacent. We can fall into the trap of thinking the way things are is the way things will always be. If we earn enough to keep our heads above water, isn’t that ok?

Perhaps in the short term it’s ok. However, life doesn’t stand still. The cost of living goes up. Unexpected and unpredictable things can happen. We may have larger expenses, or we may simply want bigger and better things. This all costs money.

It stands to reason that if we can’t make more time, then we need to make more money in the same time. We can take on extra shifts or work longer hours, but in the long run this isn’t sustainable and working harder and harder will eventually take its toll on our health, family, relationships, friendships and business.

It doesn’t have to be like that. In fact, I’ve helped several people exceed their expectation of how much they can earn in their lifetime. It can come as a big surprise when you realise you could be earning more money doing the same thing or by introducing small changes into your daily habits and routines.

Time Vs Money - accountability could be the answer
Time Vs Money – accountability could be the answer

One of the key questions I ask is “have you considered increasing your prices?”. This simple question often initially meets some resistance. It triggers a fear of losing customers and a fear of not being able to attract new customers.

The reality is that prices go up (and down) all the time. Customers are reasonably tolerant of price changes providing they can see the reason and a benefit to them.

 

Include No-Cost Extras

An easy way to make a price increase more palatable is to include no-cost extras. I can help you find these within your business and show you how to turn the no-cost extras into selling points in your online and offline marketing messages to customers and prospective customers.

Remember, if you mention prices in your contract, or if a customer has signed up with you to pay an agreed amount, you will need to give them notice of a price increase. Please get in touch if you would like me to check the small print within your contract and make recommendations if your current contract has clauses which need to change to accommodate any price changes.


Reduce Your Costs

Another easy way to make more money is simply to reduce your costs. If you can negotiate a better discount, or find a cheaper supplier, you can save tens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds. Just by shopping around, comparing prices and asking for discounts you may uncover hidden savings. I recommend reviewing your costs at least once a year. This applies to home purchases as well as business suppliers.

A good example is checking for the best petrol prices in the local area, not just stopping at the nearest garage. Another example is finding the most cost-effective supplier for office stationery as costs can vary, especially if you can afford to buy in bulk. Shopping around for quotes when buying machinery or technology can lead to considerable savings. Recently I bought a new laptop and saved money by checking the features offered by different vendors for the same product.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Have a think about how well you use your time, do you procrastinate? If you’re overwhelmed do you go to social media for a scroll?


Thought about having an accountability buddy?

Here’s what Julie from Relaxologies said about working with me:

“Rachael has been my accountability buddy for a few months now. I’ve not only taken responsibility for making the most of my time and energy but I’ve learned so much about myself.

I’ve learned
1. where I’m wasting time doing the things that aren’t going to get my closer to my goals
2. how to prioritise my self-care which means I have more energy to complete my tasks
3. taking time for mindfulness practices helps my motivation and keeps me engaged in my tasks
4. how to not give myself such a hard time when things don’t go to plan
5. how to break down tasks into easier steps to create momentum towards success

Rachael’s spreadsheet is now always open on my laptop and keeping my eye on and updating it gives me a little dopamine rush.

She has a great way of talking me out of energy slump and this helps me to think more laterally on how to boost my energy levels and motivation in a way that suits me.

Thank you Rachael :-)”

Want to know more, check out my group accountability package.

How To Use Time Management Effectively When Contacting Your Target Audience

Unless you’re a Time Lord, you’ll only have 24 hours in the day and 7 days in the week available to contact your target audience. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a time machine you could use to generate more hours in the day?

What would you do with all the extra hours?

I know I’d use the time for more dog walks with Leo and spend more time with my friends. Maybe spending more time with your friends is one of your goals too. Or perhaps your goals are to go on holiday, learn a new language or play competitive sport.

To achieve your goals within the constraints of our 24 hour day and 7 day week is when having effective time management is an essential skill. Using effective time management enables you to maximise your working hours and achieve more in less time. Having fixed deadlines certainly helps.

When coaching business owners through my Focus Guru Power Hours, I ask them the same question – what would you do with all the extra hours – and then share my proven, easy to implement, time management strategies using software and systems to reclaim lost minutes and hidden hours.

One tip I can share today is about using time management to contact your audience. If you’ve been to a networking meeting, or attended a speed networking event, you’ll probably have several people you want to follow up with. You might want to follow up with everyone. But this takes time. Sometimes it can be overwhelming thinking about starting, and that can be when procrastination sets in and it’s a lot easier to do something else instead.

A simple equation can help.

If you have one person to follow up with, you might allow five minutes to draft an email, or perhaps allow twenty minutes for a follow up phone call. On this basis, you might be able to send twelve emails per hour or have three follow up phone calls. That’s a “best case” scenario as you’ll probably want a comfort break or a fresh cup of tea. So you might achieve ten emails or two phones call per hour.

In comparison, you might spend an hour creating content for a mailshot to send to a thousand of your contacts (your target audience) and send it out. This is called following up “one to many” instead of “one to one” or “121”. Both methods are effective when contacting your target audience and you may choose to implement both methods into your marketing and sales strategy.

If you’d like to find out more, please book your Focus Guru Time Management Power Hour where you’ll discover how to use effective time management to contact your target audience in the best way for your business.

To book your Focus Guru Power Hour, please contact me on 07756 772950 and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way, www.getfocus.guru

How to get some balance back in your life

Wherever I go, everyone seems to be talking about a work/life balance. Some people say they want a work/life balance, or they wish they had a work/life balance. I’ve noticed these people tend to be the ones who are sometimes in a hurry, they are often late, and always rushed. You’ll hear them say they need more hours in the day, more days in the week, or simply that they have run out of time.

Always on the treadmill, they rarely stop to rest, relax and recover. There’s just no time! However, these are the same people who wish they had more time for family, friends and fun. They wish they had a work/life balance. Having personally met several people close to burnout from not taking the time to create a work/life balance, I am keen to help.

Is this you?

Would you like a work/life balance?

Or, would you like a better work/life balance?

There are always things which can be changed and refined at different stages of your life.

Work/Life balance isn’t always 50/50

For many people, the idea of a work/life balance equates to spending 50% of their time on work and 50% of their time on “other things”. They might want to spend more time with their family, or have time to meditate, to read, to go to the gym, or learn a new skill.

In reality, the balance is rarely 50/50. There will always be house chores, school runs, caring for family and many other non-work tasks which don’t automatically equal the fun time you want. Even though the tasks aren’t business-related or generating income, they still need doing and they take up your recreation time, the “life” part of the work/life balance.

How to get balance in your life
How to get balance in your life

Top Tips for creating balance

  1. Look after yourself.

Your first priority must be to look after yourself. Get enough sleep. Drink plenty of water. Be mindful of your food choices. Make time for exercise. Your body will thank you and consequently your productivity will increase. You’ll get more done in less time.

  1. Look after your finances.

One of the many stressful things in life is money. If you can spend time itemising and analysing your business income and outgoings, then it makes sense to do the same at home. Keeping track of how much things cost at home, everything from your TV licence, Internet, food shopping, presents, outings etc. and whether purchases are “wants” or “needs” will help you know how much you can spend on your personal life without it affecting your business.

  1. Look after your time.

How many times has someone asked you for “just a minute” or said, “it won’t take long” and before you know it, fifteen minutes has passed, or an hour, or a day. Creating a ToDo list and assigning each task with a priority, an estimated time, and a tick or strikethrough when it’s complete is not only satisfying, it can help deflect “time thieves”, the people or technological distractions like Facebook or the TV that absorb your time without you realising.

There are many more tips for creating a work/life balance and it is easy to make long-lasting, effective changes to help you focus on the things you want to achieve. There is time to do everything you want, but it may mean re-prioritising activities, changing your schedule, dropping redundant tasks, asking for help, or delegating. There are many, many possibilities.

If you would like to chat about creating a work/life balance for yourself, an employee, or a family member, please book a discovery call via this link.

Is it possible to keep your house and your business running smoothly?

Is it possible to keep your house and your business running smoothly?

With many people working from home, the line drawn between office hours and home hours is often very blurry. Sometimes it feels as though the hours overlap and it’s not obvious where work ends, and home begins.

It’s not uncommon for someone to be answering a business phone call while loading the dishwasher. Or booking a meeting to finish in time to make the school run. Or helping with homework while catching up on accounts and admin. How many times have you worked late into the night when your daytime hours have been spent caring for others?

This is where having a system in place at home, as well as for your business, can make sure everything gets done. I can show you how it’s possible to keep your home clean and tidy without it impacting on your business work or family life. Just as a tidy desk can symbolise a tidy mind, having an organised household routine can take the pressure off running your business.

Get Started

To get started is the top tip. Today can be the day you make the changes. This is the first step to turning things around. Instead of chasing your tail, you can take control of your tasks and your time.

Structure makes home & work life easier
Structure makes home & work life easier

Involve Others

If you have a partner or family members who can help, involve them. Make it known that it’s everyone’s job to help around the house. Create a rota for tasks. Even if you think it is easier to do something like the laundry yourself, add up how many hours this takes each week. If you can delegate the task to another family member, you can free up your time for something else. You can introduce incentives or rewards based on the type of task, the amount of time, or the complexity.

There may come a point when it becomes cost effective to outsource household chores like laundry, ironing, loading and unloading the dishwasher, hoovering, dusting, making the beds, walking the dog and washing the car. Perhaps investing in having a cleaner once a week could help. Is it worth the price of having extra hours for yourself and for family time?

Group Tasks

Just as you might tackle a business project by grouping tasks together you can do exactly the same at home. If you have a batch of invoices to send out, you might do them one at a time, or you might do them all on a Friday evening.

The same principle applies when keeping your home and your business running smoothly. You can group tasks and allocate them to mornings or afternoons or assign them to a particular day of the week. If you have free time on Tuesday mornings, can you make that the time when you blitz the cleaning? If you put a time limit on the task it can help keep you accountable and make sure the time doesn’t drift away.

Accept Imperfection

It can be extremely hard for many business owners to accept things can’t be perfect all the time. High performers, ambitious, driven, successful, there is an inbuilt expectation for perfection, from themselves and those around them. In reality, dust happens, washing needs to be done, children need to be dropped off and collected from school and these things don’t always go to plan.

It might rain just as you’re about to put the washing out. A child may be sick during the day and need collecting early. Dusting seems to be a never-ending chore, especially if you have cats and dogs.

This is where I help my clients restore order at home and in the workplace. I’ll work with you to create responsibility lists and achievable accountability action plans that work for everyone.

Click here for more information and a free discovery call, let’s get your house and your business running smoothly.

How creating systems and processes can simplify your business

Every business has various systems and processes in place. These are the tasks you do and the order in which they are done. Over time, you might review your systems and make refinements, tweaking your processes to cut out redundant steps, or adding layers to the system as your company grows.

You might have a system in place for taking orders with various processes to make sure the tasks are not just done, but they are done in the right sequence. Having a system for this means the tasks are carried out in the same sequence each time, using the processes which you create in advance.

Your order process might be to receive an order via email or telephone, then check items are in stock, then confirm the order to the customer, then take a payment, then dispatch the product and reorder the item if needed.

But each process can also be broken down into steps. Perhaps you have multiple sales staff with individual e-mailboxes to check for new orders. Perhaps checking if items are in stock involves someone driving to the warehouse or viewing a stock spreadsheet in the office. Perhaps payments are received in cash, which then needs to be taken to the bank by a certain time of the day.

From the customer’s point of view, they have placed an order with you, but in behind the scenes many steps may need to be taken to deliver what they have asked for.

I specialise in helping companies identify their processes, right down to the micro-steps and I help you get into the nitty-gritty detail of what happens, when, by whom and why. This is a process in itself and it often leads to uncovering timewasting activity, finding redundant steps, increases staff productivity and consequently helps you save time and money.

This is where spending a little time “working on your business”, rather than “working in your business”, really does help.

Having systems and processes in place means:

  • Work is carried out to a consistent standard.
  • If a member of staff is absent, another employee can carry out their tasks.
  • Training new staff or temporary workers is much easier.
  • You can measure performance and monitor changes.
  • Customers receive the same level of service every time they use your company.

Having an outside opinion can identify things which you take for granted, but in reality, they are things you no longer need to do. If you are waiting until 10am for a cheque to arrive in the post before making calls to chase clients for outstanding payments, you may find this is no longer required and you could skip this step and start chasing outstanding payments first thing. In fact, you might even choose to automate payment reminders by text or email, saving human hours on a recurring task.

Regularly reviewing your systems can highlight areas where you can make changes and identify better ways of doing things.

If you feel your business would benefit from a systems overhaul or a process review, please contact me by emailing rachael@rachaelchiverton.co.uk or by telephoning me on 07756 772950 and I will be happy to work with you to make sure your business is running at peak performance.

Celebrate your successes

I often tell my client to celebrate their successes.

Deep down we all love a bit of praise for a job well done. It might come from family, friends, colleagues, or clients, but just a simple “thank you,” “well done” or “that was great” can make us feel a whole lot better.

But sometimes it might feel as though compliments are in short supply. Maybe someone in your close family thinks “you should get a proper job” or “why are you bothering with that” and it can hurt.

Make sure when you do have a success you share it with people who will support and celebrate with you.

So will you help me celebrate?

This month has been absolutely amazing for me. Why?

1 –  I got given Member of the Week by Network Central.

This is from over 10,000 registered users, across 4 networking platforms, I was recognised for the effort I put into not only running 4Networking meetings, being part of 1Networking, engaging on the Network Central Social Media platform, but also for the support and time I give to other members and teams to help them understand how to get the most from networking.

Network Central's Member of the Week
Network Central’s Member of the Week

2 – I found out I was a finalist in Networker of the Year award at Business Success Recognition awards 2022.

From nearly 600 nominations, again I was recognised as being worthy enough for my nomination and supporting comments to be sent over to the judges  – Ian, Marine, Sarah, Abid and Emma, fo them to decide if I am good enough to win this prestigious award.

Good luck to everyone in all categories and I look forward to seeing you all at the awards dinner in June.

FINALIST - Networker of the Year 2022
FINALIST – Networker of the Year 2022

3 – Final throws of book collaboration

I’ve been writing my first book since Christmas and it’s going to be published next month. This was an idea which has come out of a friendship formed with Jenny Leggott from Transcend Zero, met through 4Networking,

So the first book in the Focus Guru Series, “Focus Guru – 52 ways to achieve your work life balance” was born!

We had a call between Christmas and New year, decided we could together come up with 52 tips on work / life balance and make a book. Less than 5 Months later, we have now added Jonathan Smythe to our collaboration. Here’s a sneaking peak at part of the back cover.

Sneak peak at part of the back cover
Sneak peak at part of the back cover

4 – Free marketing

I am passionate about making the most of everything a membership organisation offer to me. Part of my Network Central membership is the ability to go onto their social media platform and use it to raise awareness of myself and my business.

One of the best ways to do this is to get what is called “a full house”. This is where your name and picture is on every the front screen of every room. Just like this!

Full House - raising my profile
Full House – raising my profile

It means that everyone visiting the site has to see my name and my picture. The chances are if I track my profile views before getting the full house and after, there will be more visits to my profile after. This means more people will know about me, what I do and how I can help them than before I achieved the full house.

So remember, you should be celebrating every win.

What wins can you celebrate form this week?

Award Winning Network Launches Face to face events

Network Central wins Business Champion 2022 Award for Covid success against the odds

Champions in Crisis 2022 awarded for resilience and quick thinking in the pandemic.

Network Central, the new home of 4Networking, the national business networking organisation with Face to Face groups in Stockport, Astley and Didsbury after Easter, and Greater Manchester online founded by motivational speaker and entrepreneur Brad Burton back in 2006, has won the National Champions in Crisis 2022 Award at Canary Wharf’s East Wintergardens on Wednesday 23rd March. It won the award for its resilience and quick thinking when its core face to face operations were decimated by the Covid-19 outbreak.

History of the network

4Networking’s turnover went from £2m to £0 overnight as its 5,000 nationwide meetings each year 12 groups in Greater Manchester and Cheshire, 4 of were run by myself,  were immediately cancelled as a result of restrictions and lockdown. Moving fast, meetings were moved online, the first business networking organisation to do so, and a new platform, Network Central, was created, both for business appointments and community support.

Sockport Face to Face meetings launch
Sockport Face to Face meetings launch

In the early days I ran 7 online meetings, now I run 1 online and 2 Face to Face meetings, with more face to face meetings planned for the future.

4Networking was started in 2006 by entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker Brad Burton to provide friendly, informal networking for business people around the country. It grew to become the biggest business networking organisation in the UK, with over 5,000 weekly meetings. When these were cancelled overnight by lockdown the network moved online to Network Central and now operates both online and with its trademark face to face events.

Everything happens for a reason, and it doesn’t always make sense, until it’s in your rear-view mirror.  We’ve had to start from scratch in a way, but with the previous experience of building a business against the odds – people said 4Networking would never work when I started the organisation in 2006 whilst delivering pizzas at the weekend to keep it afloat. We were almost driven out of business by Covid and winning this award is testament to everyone who stuck with us and supported us to get through this most difficult period. It’s indicative of a new dawn for UK SMEs in general. Ironically, two years to the day that Boris Johnson first told us to stay home, we won this award. We really did get through it. Together! – Founder Brad Burton

Who we were up against

Network Central was nominated against brands such as Insignia and Mercedes’ AMG and DPD UK, and was presented with first place by BBC News at Ten presenter Huw Edwards. Ironically, Founder Brad Burton was unable to attend after testing positive for Covid the day before, but Directors Terry Cooper and Jen Hinds accepted the prize.

“Network Central was more crucial than ever for businesses in Greater Manchester and Cheshire as the pandemic struck as being able to network online and receive business and moral support was the only way to survive it for many. We’re so pleased that it has come out of the other side and now we’re able to meet face to face in venues including Bredbury Hall and The Point at Astley again. Well done to all involved for winning this award.” – Rachael Chiverton

The future

Who knows what the future holds for business networking, however I am super proud to be part of this award winning network and look forward to more business and social networking meetings, both on and offline launching in the near future.

A few weeks ago I ran the FIRST EVER 4Networking truly hybrid meeting, with the Founder Brad Burton presenting, called a 4Sight, from his home in Somerset due to Covid, to our attendees at Bredbury Hall.

The FIRST hybrid 4Networking meeting
The FIRST hybrid 4Networking meeting

If you would like to get involved in helping launch any meetings then please do get in contact with me.