4.50AM
I hate 4.50AM.
I loathe it.
Normally, it passes me by and leaves me be.
Today, I had to stand up to it in all its horror. I wasn’t really prepared for the fight after two days in Dublin, during which I walked a marathon, and barely five hours’ sleep having arrived back in Cork late last night.
But people were depending on me, so I rose from my bed with the elegance of a zombie from its grave, and ventured out to this year’s BNI Big Breakfast.
It was worth it.
Three measures determine the success of my business day:
- Did I take a worthwhile photograph?
- Did I learn something valuable?
- Did I strengthen my business relationships or start a new one?
Simply attending BNI’s annual Big Breakfast pretty much guarantees that 2. and 3. are taken care of.
As far as item 1. goes, I was asked to take documentary photographs of the event. In particular pictures of Rob Brown, the keynote speaker, in action. One of those is already one of my favourites for the year.
I got lucky. Sure, I recognized an opportunity when it presented itself and planned the shot when I saw the potential, but luck did play a part.
One of Rob’s final presentation slides showed a lighthouse.
I knew immediately what I wanted to do, but I needed him to move towards me into a band of ceiling light.
Rob’s a walker-talker, so the odds were in my favour. As he stepped forward, he raised his hand as he spoke.
Rob Brown, an expert in reputation, speaks at the Maryborough House Hotel in Cork on 3rd February 2010 during BNI's Big Breakfast event. (c) Roger Overall 2010
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3 Feb 10 at 9:27 pm
I’ve been reading Rob Brown’s biography (short one). I now see the brilliance of this photo. Brown on the road to Damascus, Brown on the road from Jerusalem to Jerico, Brown arising… Brown reincarnated…
Paul O'Mahony (Cork)
3 Feb 10 at 10:57 pm
Roger, what a phenomenal photograph! To have not just the vision to see that shot ‘in your head’ before it happened, but to execute while I was moving was one of the most breathtaking pieces of skill I’ve ever seen!
Rob Brown
4 Feb 10 at 7:24 pm
I attended the BNI Big Breakfast in New Ross this morning. Rob’s presentation was fantastic and as this excellent shot captured by Roger shows ‘we definitely saw the light’.
Excellent presentation and excellent photograph.
Well done to you both.
Mary Gethings
4 Feb 10 at 9:39 pm
A fantastic shot Roger! We got to listen to Rob on Tuesday in Limerick and it was an excellent presentation.
Also, your 3 criteria for judging a successful business day are a really great and simple idea.
Ger Loughrey
5 Feb 10 at 1:33 am
Thanks Ger.
There is of course a fourth: Did I make any money?
Roger Overall
5 Feb 10 at 12:27 pm
Hello, I came across your blog while doing research and read your thoughtful post on assessing the success of your business day. I hope you don’t mind, but I wrote a post on our blog about this idea. Here’s a link to it and the full text: http://blog.eatlocalfood.com/2010/02/for-2010-metrics-measures-and-assessing.html
Today I was doing research on farm photography and came across Roger Overall’s blog. He is a photographer based in Cork, Ireland. In a recent blog post, Mr. Overall noted that he applied three measures to determine the success of his business day:
1. Did I take a worthwhile photograph?
2. Did I learn something valuable?
3. Did I strengthen my business relationships or start a new one?
How do you determine the success of your business day? Are there 3 measures you could use to assess your day? Perhaps there are more than 3, or only one. This question gave me pause for thought.
As a small business owner, it’s important to have metrics and measures to evaluate your operations. Annual sales goals, number of returning customers, bottom line profits are all periodic measures of the health of your business. But as small business owner – whether you are a farmer, retailer or restaurateur – you often perform many tasks yourself and a business day can pass quickly without assessment. Days turn into weeks and weeks into months, then years. Perhaps taking 5 minutes to evaluate the success of each business day will bring to light some small task, some opportunity, which will make your life easier or your business healthier.
In 2010, I vow to follow Roger Overall’s philosophy and apply measures to determine the success of my business day. After much thought, here are my final 4 measures:
1) Did I make a sale?
2) Did I strengthen my business relationships or start a new one?
3) Did I write something?
4) Did I complete my office tasks? (accounting, tracking marketing efforts, updating our business plan, developing new product)
Joan Tobin
6 Feb 10 at 5:24 am
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