A small matter of business - with Alan Devereux

For a new company, time really is money...

My company - 120Talk - is now one month and one week old, and I am fortunate and thankful to have clients that pay on time. Payments have not been a problem. The most difficult thing to manage however has been meetings

and business development. I managed to generate a lot of interest before I started and have seen the rewards of that in the first 30 days.

The problem has been doing the work I am paid to do! Last month I mentioned I now wake up later due to my morning commute no longer existing. I still wake up later, but I now work 6 days a week and late into the

evenings to compensate for time spent driving to and from meetings (although I do switch off between 5.30pm and 8pm to play with my sons).

Gladly I have not had to waste too much time on people who are just curious about what I can do. All but one of

my meetings have been with people and companies who are genuinely interested in how I can help them. The one

company that wasn’t, appeared to schedule the meeting with the aim of having me sell to them the idea of

using social media websites.

Something that has been put to one side however is the online presence of my own company. I have had little time to fully customise my LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

This situation bothers me. As a company teaching other

companies how to use social media sites my own company should be an example of best practice. The reality is that there is work involved, work consumes time, and I have clients that pay for my time. Time is important, time is irreplaceable.

During the past month I have agonised over how best to invest in machines, what kind of devices to buy. I need to be mobile and I need to be connected to the internet almost all the time. I spent a long time looking at

different combinations of phones and tablets, considering cost and depreciation and all manner of

things that have never mattered before.

I have also sought advice from every possible source, and the resounding message from friends and strangers alike is to ‘manage my cash flow’. I hope what they say about summer is true; that companies seek to train

employees due to the slowdown in regular work. If it is, business could be about to heat up. Bring it on.

For more information from Alan,

contact info@120talk.com.