A window into the world of the eternal Supa Thinker

Small business – it’s very own sort of crazy

Small business is a unique little microcosm of the adult world. A place where grand ideas are hatched, nursed – day and night – ready for release on tottering legs into the real world. Some of those ideas ignite and grow and others either crash and burn or simply wither into non-existence.

Once a little business is up and running with it’s thought-leaders poised at the helm, anxiously scoping out the financial and opportunistic waters, worriedly watching the sales/sails (oh, what an unintentional but funny pun) for any sign of a breeze picking up  – then it’s time to move on to sculpting the face of the business. This including a presence in the digital world – website, social media engagement, emails and online connections.

The wonderful website world

Our first website has been up and running for a couple of years. This and that needed to be changed, updated, modernised but amidst all the hurry and scurry of the gazillion other tasks, sometimes that got neglected. With an incredible period of growth we made the decision to modernise – to have the website rebuilt from scratch. Gulp. Enter our ever-patient and highly talented website designers at Scruffy Monkey – Chris and Lindsay.

Firstly, there was finding the time to do the research into what we liked and what we didn’t like. Then, what functionality did we need. And then there were all those conversations about branding. Colour, font, message. Does this slightly rounded font scream well-being or shall we use a more modern yet less bespoke font? OK, I may have just randomly added in stuff there but it all seemed to be so important to the wonderful people helping us with the design, the vision and the building of the end product.

As with all these things, what’s meant to be done and dusted gets put on the back burner whilst another small business fire is put out, however, with one or two dedicated pairs of eyes, slowly, slowly the job gets done.

Website, well-being – are they compatible?

Helen and I – well, we’re running workshops, building a media presence, attending conferences, writing programs, training trainers and somewhere in the limited hours left – trying to have a little bit of a life. So, squeezing in conversations about font did lead to some head shaking and then leaving it to those bods who seemed to have very strong opinions about what colour screamed what and which font, in combination with which page position gave us our very best advantage.

Dawn the day of new Australian website unveiling – the going live of our beautiful new baby. Excitedly, I took to social media to alert anyone with even a passing interest of THE event. And then I checked said new website to find that pricing was a little out, wording that I thought was smashing it was… well, not. Hurried phone call to our ever-patient Business Manager Mike who arrived, calm, cool and ready for action. Ahhh. We worked, we talked, we identified keywords and metadata (yep, still have no idea about that – my thrill was getting just the right number of words to get the green bar. A personal challenge of which I was unsure of what the achievement was going to be).

Supa Thinkin saves the day

And what was it exactly that fuelled this entire process? Supa Thinkin! Yes, that humble pre-frontal cortex, that helpful self-regulation tool right above my nose. It was my Supa Thinkin that stopped the torrent of abuse at a disappointingly unresponsive screen. That positive and helpful internal dialogue that said, “You’ve got this. One step in front of the other. Hide that glowing Facebook post and then get on with it. Now!”

In the world of adulting, Supa Thinkin – an optimistic internal dialogue is often the most important thing that stands between an enormous tantrum, and a calm and considered ability to flexibility and resiliently cope with the moment to moment happenings.

So, that’s a little insight into my world – just a snapshot. I know that my resources – in this case, my Supa Thinkin, my amazing business partner Helen, our smashing Business Manager Mike, my ever-patient husband Doug and our website building team at Scruffy Monkey (thanks Chris and Lindsay) were my buoyancy device that helped me to stay afloat amidst the stress. We all need those resources – I hope you have many and surround yourself with them.

Of course, teaching children how to be Supa Thinkers for one day when they’re running their own small businesses starts early and our Little Highway Heroes early years resources and Highway Heroes primary resources teach children these essential skills for life.

Now, on to the next task… Cape adjusted – check. Supa Thinkin engaged – check. Coffee on tap – check.