Today is the birthday of John McEnroe, born February 16th 1959. Apart from his impressive title winning record, McEnroe was of course famous for his tennis court tantrums and his catch phrase – “you cannot be serious!”
Whilst the majority may disapprove of this bad behaviour on the tennis court they may nevertheless understand the frustration behind the catch phrase, especially in a modern world so full of frustrating man made obstacles.
What baffles this writer is the number of self inflicted obstacles that people do put in their own way and their continual refusal to do anything about them – even when made aware.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever received when starting out in business was from Business Link advisor who advised me to ‘get serious’. he just did not think I was serious enough in my approach because I was trying to do everything on the cheap including the production of my own publicity material. ‘Get a professional in’ he said, ‘be serious and look the part’. Good advice I think, but advice that time and again people refuse to take even when they know they ought to.
Being serious applies to all parts of the business not just sales and presentation, but also administration and management. It means stepping up and away from informal systems of control based on spreadsheets and note pads and towards professional tools such as ProQuin which is designed to assist with business management and remove redundant administrative activity.
Think about it, is it time to get serious about your business management?
Find out more about ProQuin at http://www.proquin.co.uk
