Beware ‘The New Normal’

As you may have noticed, the world is changing. The monarchy is apparently crumbling, political correctness is spreading faster than a Brazilian variant. On top of all that, we have the consequences of a pandemic year. Impacting offices, live meetings and business travel. It’s the ‘new normal’ apparently. But is it? Be very wary of ‘the new normal.’

"Life as a business owner is a daily battle against the forces trying to mess up all of your hard work."

They’re rarely the forces of cunning enemies. They’re nearly always the forces of incompetence and laziness.

The new normal being foisted on businesses by the media and others is as close as you can get to a 24/7 party for the incompetent and lazy. So be careful!

So, a quick look at 3 elements of the new normal that directly affect you as an Entrepreneur. But first, 2 quick points:

First, while no one can predict the future, it’s highly likely that the whole ‘new normal’ thing will turn out to be 80% B.S. Human beings are very habitual animals drawn to habitual behaviour. After 9/11 everyone in the USA was terrified to fly. Travel was never going to be the same again. A few months later, all was back to normal.

Second, even when some of this does happen, just because ‘everyone’ is doing it, doesn’t mean that you have to do it. It’s your business. You decide. You’re not under the pressures that the big companies are under to keep the millennial masses happy and look good in the media. They can afford some of the very costly mistakes they’re about to make. You probably can’t. So, a quick review of ‘The New Normal’:

Offices

Next time you’re bored, put one of the business TV channels on and watch them interview the CEO of a large corporation and ask about the future of their employees working from home.

As the CEO gives the politically correct answer about 3 day weeks etc, you will see the terror in their eyes.

What they know but dare not say is that at the best of times, most employees of large corporations are incompetent or close to it (think of the last corporation you dealt with.) And that’s when they’re trapped in an office with someone leaning over them, watching their every move.

"The thought of everyone being allowed to let rip from home is terrifying. "

But that CEO is under pressure to keep with the new normal so they’ll compromise at a 3-day office week. The employees are happy with that because they like the social side of their work and 3 days should be just enough to catch up on the Kardashian gossip.

Of course, the whole thing is daft. If working from home can be made to work (which it can, with enforcement), go the whole way and set up an amazing virtual business. A few will do this, but not many.

So yes, working patterns will change, to an extent. But you need to be VERY careful with this. A small business that has one or 2 or a few key people can’t afford to mess with productivity. So if you want staff in your office 5 days per week because that works for you, don’t feel guilty about insisting on it. Your business is not a democracy. It should be a benign dictatorship. Plus there are many advantages for working for an Entrepreneurial business, as your team will be well aware. It may just be that working from home isn’t one of them.

Virtual businesses can work not least because you can hire the best people in the world for your customers regardless of where they’re located. But you need to be very clear on boundaries, and on enforcement. Track and monitor everyone’s working time not because of lack of trust, just if you’re going to be virtual, you have no choice.

Travel

Business travel will eventually revert to normal or close to it. It’s a big perk of the job for many in boring corporations. If you’re in a business that is linked to, or dependent in some way on business travel, hang in there and again, be sceptical of predictions of its demise.

Meetings

This is another potential minefield for business owners. In our business, historically, most of sales take place at seminars and live events or in one-to-one meetings. In 2020, all of that was replaced with virtual events, phone calls and online meetings, but that does not equate to those methods replacing what used to work.

First, the business world has no idea yet to what extent Zoom meetings etc worked because you and your customers were forced into them and had no choice. A lot of people are fed up with Zoom and if you continue to depend on it because it’s cheaper or easier than face-to-face meetings, you could be in for a nasty surprise.

Second, they probably worked because everyone got a lot better at making them work. That’s great but it doesn’t mean that live face-to-face meetings won’t have a higher close rate. If you choose to carry on using these new methods do it alongside live events and face-to-face interactions with customers.

For the last 100 years, in every test undertaken, the best place to sell with the highest conversions has been in front of another human being. Ignore that at your peril.

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