The announcement of lockdown on Monday 23rd March was like someone pulling the rug from underneath us. At 9am the very next morning we were due to have members and guests sitting around a table at the Jury’s Inn in Oxford. One of our business mentors Phil Walsh was due to present, in addition to the usual continuation of support and encouragement of each other’s growth and development. We pride ourselves in offering regular face to face meetings, where business owners build relationships, develop personally and professionally, and offer accountability for quarterly goals and actions. We know each other well and we love meeting up and working together, the thought of this grinding to a halt had us in a bit of a flat spin.

However, moaning and being negative is not our style at The Business Spa so, after a swift virtual slap around the face from Phil, he set about teaching us how to use Zoom and a few of its functions. He assured us this would work and for the rest of the evening gave a crash course on Zoom so that the show could go on.

The Business Spa is founded on a SMILE (Support – Motivation – Inspiration – Learning – Expertise) and smile we did and still do. We continue to support one another, develop relationships, and learn from our business mentors. Other than some very missed hugs and Danish pastries nothing much had changed, we just needed Phil to show us a new way to deliver it. 

We were worried about other sole traders and small business owners. So, with the agreement of our amazing members, we offered a three-month complimentary period to anyone who needed the strength of our community around them. Giving them the opportunity to offload, be supported and motivated.

We have now reached the end of that period and are delighted to have been there when it mattered for others. Our vision is to keep our members in the 4% minority of businesses that will make it to their 10th anniversary and supporting businesses through these challenging times is one small way that we hope helped.

For now, our entire business model is still online but we are chomping at the bit for the time to come when we are face-to-face again. We have learnt a lot through these times and a few things that stand out are:

• We are able and confident to adapt quickly and effectively when we need to.
• Our mentors are totally committed to supporting us and our members and are worth their weight in gold.
• Zoom is hard work at times but there are lot of ways to make it more engaging and fun and more importantly there is definitely a place for it in our future. 
• If you or your clients are struggling to make Zoom meetings work well then you need Phil https://www.businessspa.co.uk/meet-the-experts/phil-walsh
• A strong and supportive network is more important than ever right now.
• Old dogs can learn new tricks…you should see me on Zoom nowadays?

If you are interested in coming along to one of our virtual guest events please Click here

– and book yourself on we’d love to see you!