Issue 34 - On coming unstuck

First of all, an apology.

For not writing as frequently as I promised. For not writing at all actually, over the last couple of months.

You see, I've been a bit stuck. With the book.

Wondering whether it was too technical, too abstract, too much for overloaded small business owners. Who are too busy to take a holiday or go networking, never mind reading some lengthy instructions on how to disappear.

It took a really useful prompt from a good friend to get me going. "What's the least they could do?" she asked.

And that unlocked it for me.

I realised that in order to fully disappear from your business, you have to be able to take a long break first. And in order to take a long break from your business, you first need to be able to take a short break.

So I've re-titled the book:

"The Disappearing Boss: How to take a break from your business without breaking your business."

and reorganised it into 3 sections:

1) Take a short break

2) Take a long break

3) Leave it altogether

The first draft of the first section is written and going through beta-reading as I write.

The aim of beta-reading is to make this book the most useful book it can be, for small business employers, who want to be able to take a break from their business, knowing that their clients will be well looked-after while they are away, and that the business will still be thriving when they come back.

That means that the sooner I get feedback from potential 'users' of the book the better, because that way I can re-write it so that it really does work. So this first draft is very much a first draft, sketchy, full of mistakes and nowhere near as clear or useful as it needs to be. Which is a long-winded way of saying - I'm not attached to it, I want to make it better, so I will very much appreciate all feedback on whether it delivers on its promise.

So, if you'd like to help with that, or you know another small business employer who fits the bill, email me at book@thedisappearingboss.com and I'll send over a link.

Apart from the book, I've also been busy with something that is beginning to look really exciting.

Over the last 10 years I've been working on software to capture the work I do with clients. It's called OurScore, and it's where everything about how a business works is captured as Processes, Activities, Roles, and Props. You've seen some of the outputs from that software in this newsletter.

OurScore holds the online 'Operations Manual' for the business - what I prefer to call the 'Customer Experience Score' in the cloud, accessible from anywhere with internet access. It makes the job of documenting much easier, and it makes accessing the completed manual much easier too.

But I've known from the beginning that it isn't enough.

It isn't good enough just to have everything documented. to be really useful, processes need to be being followed on a day-to-day basis. Not just for consistency, but also so that they stay relevant.

And to stay relevant, they need to be useful as more than a 'Manual'. They need to be part of how people do their work.

So I don't just want the processes we define together to guide your people in their work, I want those processes to be gathering data about how things are running. Automatically, as a side-effect, without diverting anyone from the important job of Sharing and Keeping your Promise to customers.

Not to monitor the people, to monitor the business. So you can spot trends, exceptions, potential improvements. So you can predict the need for capacity, or the need for new business, long before those needs become pressing.

In other words, so that you and your team can manage the business effectively without having to add the overhead of managers.

My dream has always been that we can capture a business's unique way of working in OurScore and from that, generate a bespoke business management system that completely reflects that businesses way of working. Starting with something sketchy if necessary, and by using it, learning where we need to focus our design efforts next.

I'm getting close to realising that dream.

And like the book, I want this software to be as practically useful as it can be. So the sooner I hear from potential users, the better I can make it.

I'd love to hear from you on what you want from a business management system.

What would your dream system look like?

What would you want to measure for your business?

How would you want that data presented?

What else would it need to interact with? No re-inventing wheels here.

If you're up for letting me know, book a quick chat with me.

And watch this space.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Thanks for reading,