This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
I read an article by Sir Richard Branson in Canadian Business Magazine recently, on running a big company like a small one. Check it out here:
I was telling Leo recently that aside from the odd high school and college jobs, I’ve only ever had one REAL job… after University I’d been a contractor in all my job roles, until my sister sold her company to a big corporation and I became a part-time employee there while building up my own business.
Working there was drastically different from working at my sister’s small company, where one suggested change could be made that same day. Now, a document that took me less than half a day to revise took about a year to get approved by the Marketing headquarters at the new company. I’m not saying one method is worse than another, because things are the way they are because of size and the nature of it. And the company is great to its employees – there are several social outings throughout the year and one lady on the floor I worked on who will never give up hope on winning the Lotto 649 as a team.
I can’t really duplicate the sense of community that you get in a company since I am still the only employee in mine, but where I get to make up for the lack of being able to chat with a neighbour in the cubicle next to me is by going out to meet clients, going to events (especially hard-to-get ones during the day), and being active on social media. I’ve recently implemented “Coffee shop Fridays” (thanks, Baljit!) so I can get out and enjoy the sun and Vancouver air on a day like today, while still getting work done.
Working on myself – getting exercise, making my own meals in my kitchen instead of going out for lunch – also allows me to be at my best during office hours. And while I still have to work on trying to shut my email down at 5pm, I do try and have a personal life weekday evenings and on weekends to rejuvenate and remember why I do what I do for a living.
Stuff like this keeps me sane, and hopefully it shows in my work. Do you own or work for a big business? How good is it at feeling like a small company?
