I was in Covent Garden in London on Sunday. Business meeting (busy, busy), and meeting some friends for dinner afterwards. If you’re not familiar with Covent Garden, it is on the edge of the theatre district, and is also home to the Royal Opera Company. Not that we are concerned with that, because it is also famous for its fancy shops and collection of restaurants (check out Sophie’s – the closest you’ll get to a proper decent steak in this gastronomically-deprived country).

Anyway, as well as the boutiques and the eateries, there is almost always an odd miscellany of street performers. ‘Odd’ being the operative word most of the time. I stopped by to watch one for a few moments while waiting for friends to arrive..

The guy who caught my attention had a good rock track accompaniment (note: not some gentle harmony). And yet he was enthralling the assembled crowd by dancing – quite energetically – with a 2 meter ladder balancing on his head!! And if that was not enough, he proceeded to gyrate (more smoothly this time) on one foot on a bar stool with a full size heavy mountain bike balancing on his head by the tip of the saddle!

Can you picture it? Not easy!

That certainly warranted a contribution from me to his hat full of coins. And then it struck me.

He was choosing to perform his act with these massive complications, which were potentially catastrophic, at the very least in terms of his act, and probably also in terms of his health too. In his case, he derived a specific reward for that. But how many of us also choose to fill our lives with unnecessary complications and obstructions, which don’t actually serve us, which don’t bring us a specific reward, and which bring potential disaster to our performance and to our health?

In our business, we actually see this quite a lot. Ambitious companies, looking to expand and grow, struggling to keep existing customers and contracts properly serviced and often without the necessary resources. All this when in fact just about the only thing that they can realistically bring to the table over and above their competitors is that elusive attribute – a well-resourced and passionate support team who are there for the customer, not just when pitching for the order, but in the weeks and months afterwards too, when
the slick salesman has moved on to other victims.

If you’ve had enough of juggling too many issues with insufficient resource, if you’re fed up of doing the business equivalent of dancing with a ladder on your head, then do yourself a favour. Consider what you’re going to do differently in 2010.

I hope you’ll forgive the hint of a blatant pitch – well, it’s Christmas, a time for goodwill and inappropriate behaviour, as well as unmitigated and uninvited selling. If you need a talented support partner who can turn 2010 into the start of a wonderful decade for you, why not at least pop in to www.fo-tech.co.uk for a mince pie and some mulled wine. Virtual or real! You’re very welcome, and we promise not to sell to you. Or make you dance with a ladder on your head.