There was an article last week saying that we have reached the point where bots and automated AI processes are now generating more traffic than humans - hardly surprising given that an AI transaction takes microseconds. While bots and automation certainly have a valuable contribution to make to small businesses (if only to allow for scaling without excessive costs before necessary), it looks to me like it is also changing the type of businesses that people are starting to build. While many embrace the AI revolution, many other businesses are creating what I call non-digital businesses. These are businesses whose offering is either to deliberately disconnect from the online world, or that they are creating something that has an essentially human element to it. The arts have been struggling to accommodate AI generated material but alongside this, people are starting to seek out human generated work, giving a value to the effort required and the fact that the idea was inspired through someone's lived experience. As technology seeks to build up material and content, quality is becoming more valuable than quantity. Humans are seeking out humans, and this is a beautiful thing.

Many of my conversations with founders start with the line "I know I have to ... " and then give me a list of things they have been told by social media and - depressingly - other advisers are the ONLY way for them to run their business. I can tell you now, that's just not true. Something that works for someone else, may not for you and your business. Equally there will be things that work for you that don't work for others. The point isn't to take the advice as gospel and a list of mandatory actions. Look at them as things you could possibly try - but if you don't want to, that's totally fine. Think about effort versus potential reward - there are of course some things that, if they work, could help you grow your business. But the effort of having to do them may still make it unnecessary for you - and we find other ways to achieve the same result. Your business means YOUR business - it should feel good running it, just as much as about making money.

It's one of the most common situations I am ever discussing with founders. They started the business, and they have customers who took the chance on them early on - but as they have got busier, these clients have become the most problematic. It is hard to raise their prices, it is difficult to get information from them, there seems to be a weird balance in the dynamic between them and the person. On one level, you know that you have outgrown them as a customer - what you can and want to offer is now beyond what they need. But, they took the chance when nobody else would - so surely you should make allowances for them? I understand that logic for sure - but where does it stop? How much should you continue to work with them if all you get back are complaints about your pricing, the service - everything? In the end, just as much as customers can outgrow us, so we can outgrow them - and that's okay. Having customers who last a period of time but then move on to others is far better - and healthier for everyone - than staying connected, only for the once good relationship to suffer.

Many business owners find July and August tricky - many of their leads or existing clients go on holiday and are uncontactable, or the decisions that they were trying to get over the line before the holidays are now put on pause until September. Often, businesses fear these two months as it feels like you lose momentum that will then take a while to get back into. But for some it is the perfect opportunity to take time to look at your business from the inside out and prepare for when the world goes back to work in the autumn. Maybe it is reviewing your product offerings, assessing your pricing, checking which leads to try to re engage with or which customers to target next. It can be a really useful time to not be busy with customers, so you can focus on yourself. My summer is always super busy because of businesses doing just that and wanting to get ahead and ready for the q3 push. How are you planning on spending your summer?

Just a friendly reminder that if you are based in the UK, the time to find some witty meme that links your business and the heat together is not now - everyone just yearns for the autumn and being able to sleep without slowly melting away :-) Keep cool, everyone!