20-21_GF.qxp_Grid 13/05/2021 11:55 Page 2
OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
Under
Pressure
‘Um boom ba bay...um boom ba bay...ba ba boom ba be be... Pressure, pushing down on me…Pressing down on you…’ If you are like me, this little riff from the Queen and Bowie song sticks in your head as a tenacious earworm. These last few months have seen us all feel pressure like never before and now we are all open again, there are new pressures with which to contend. We have all become worry experts. We have worried about how long we would be closed. We have worried about opening again. We have fought to get the help we deserved. We have tried to find ways to work and trade that keep to the rules but allow us a sense of normality. We thought that we had faced the ultimate pressure, but far from it. Pressure now comes as we are all fully open. The pressure now comes as we have to build the most difficult thing - customer confidence. Pressure is listening to others and worrying that what is happening with our respective businesses is not enough. Pressure is looking forward and believing that things will work out. Pressure is dealing with the reality and truth of the situation. This could be money, the staff, the PAYE, the rent and everything else that being your own boss means. It is easy to give what I call ‘the shop answer’ where you give a bit of truth, a bit of positivity and enough generalisation so that everyone feels OK…including yourself. This ‘shop answer’ however doesn’t really cut to the heart of where we are right now and I think the first step to really dealing with pressure is being honest with yourself and others. We are all big boys and girls and the truth, while sometimes not the popular or pleasant answer, is the right thing to deal in. 20
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
This last month I have seen so many examples of people finding it difficult to be honest with me. I felt that by sharing this you might feel just a little bit better about where you are, and if you are lucky enough to be doing well then that’s fantastic. My first real bugbear is when people speak in percentages. “How’s your week been?” “Oh, we were 30% up each day”. Without the context of the actual numbers that means absolutely nothing. It could be £30, £300 or £3,000. If I trust someone and they are in business I will tell them my numbers. Business is a lonely place to be and if you find like-minded people you can have a really truthful discussion with, it can be a powerful thing. The truth can lift the pressure, as you see others are experiencing the same day to day challenges as you are. I see this in the two main business What’s App groups of which I am a part. The support and honesty shines Top left: The Queen and Bowie Under Pressure song resonates with David Robertson and many others right now. Above right: A Kiss Me Kwik classic design. Left: David Robertson at the last PG Live.
through. We offer each other advice, but sometimes just laugh at the absurdity of it all, from socks being returned by customers to a gift shop to staff members sadly helping themselves from the till. The sanctity of these groups work well because we don’t let anyone and everyone join and we all have a shared experience. It is a bit like a self-help group…”I am David Robertson and I have been a businessaholic for 20 plus years”. If you can find a group like this cherish it, but be prepared to invest yourself in it. As with everything in life if you don’t commit, you won’t get anything from it. You need honesty in these groups and I am delighted to say that is what I get from them. The next instance of honesty was within our newspaper operation where we managed to get all the parties publishers/distributors/retailers around the same table. I could clearly see what was happening with the guys in the middle, blaming the guys we could never speak to and the whole thing was a mess. By cutting to the heart of the problem we have made huge strides with the distributors admitting that they had to improve their communication and language. This whole instance again reminded me of the positivity of a direct conversation and while we are still struggling to meet everyone physically, through Zoom and all the other