variegated

I consider myself very lucky, every day is very different, I have a diverse range of clients, and a diverse group of friends. Although I may have a general idea of what tomorrow or next week may hold, it can change in an instant - such is the way of working solo and freelance. I do love the variety. I never get bored even when I may spend large stretches of time in my own company. There are always the unexpected twists in turns, the diversions and sometimes I realise that I have simply been looking at the map upside down!

We are all familiar with the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none." There is the long held belief that specialisation can bring career and business success. There is the call "to find your niche". Biologically and through evolution we see specialisation at work. Recently I had this long discussion with a client about whether is was better to specialist or generalist. My argument is that if you are a generalist it does not necessary mean that you are incompetent or less proficient but believe there are quite a lot of advantages to be a generalist.

One of the key advantages of have a broad range of general skills across different fields is that you can draw on seeming unrelated knowledge to approach a problem in a different ways. You are less restricted by the tried-and-true methods. Although it may not be always efficient or successful it is through experimentation and discovery that even greater learning can take place. I think that being a generalist develops a comfort level with change and an ability to quickly adapt as circumstances change. Evolution has also provided numerous cases of now extinct species that were so specialised that when the context changed they were unable to adapt quick enough to survive. I suspect that competent generalists have a high level of curiosity and interest in possibilities without requiring assumed knowledge. Generalists are more "drought resistant" and are more likely to "survive" during the tough times. Specialists on the the hand have an inbuilt redundancy, with success dependent on a specific set of circumstances.

Back in 2008, two scientist from the Ohio University challenged the view that in the division of labor that individual members of a group gravitate to specialization to perform specific tasks toward a common goal. According to this new model, which tweaks two assumptions of the existing theory, there is a place in small groups for generalists to exist and possibly even to thrive. More recently, Forbes published an article which suggested that specialists generate content but that the nature of generalists is that they can provide the meaning and context to apply that content. Art Mackman says "If you develop an appetite for learning and openness, you're more likely to be able to draw ideas from multiple disciplines - and be more creative."

When I think across my entire working life, there is one thing that I have specialised in - creative problem solving ... but much of that has only been possible because of my variegated life and a natural curiosity to learn and understand.

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Flying Solo Tip 061365 : Be curious to learn and understand.

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... vintage brain ...

It has been a reasonably long but satisfying day behind the camera, and this vintage brain is feeling lazy tonight. So here is another one of the vintage poems I wrote way back when.

This one was highly commended in a poetry competition and was subsequently published in a collection of poetry ... sadly I no longer have a copy of the published book, nor can I remember what was the title of the book ... vintage brain at work!

At the time, I had painted a large oil painting to accompany the verse. Unlike most of my writing, either back then or even now, it is very minimalistic - which I am sure my readers will appreciate!

Sacrifice

I came

butterfly took

sun rose

river sang

I came

tortoise heard

sun walked

waterfall cried.

I came

prawn thought

sun slept

mountain blue.

I came

bamboo danced

stars played

stream laughed.

I came

monkey forgot

moon turned

today died.

I came

tiger killed

religion lost

love answered.

eye saw

ear heard

mouth spoke

heart felt.

I came

lips red

breasts blue

thighs green.

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Flying Solo Tip 060365 : Look back on the past with fresh eyes. Look to the future with wiser eyes. Look at the present with open eyes.

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clone me

Cloning is no longer the fantasies of science fiction as it was in my youth, and I am sure there are times when all sole traders which they could clone themselves.

As a sole trader, especially in the early years while you are establishing yourself, building a reputation while operating within the boundaries of limited financial backing, you are the CEO, accountant, marketing manager, cleaner, receptionist, salesman, admin assistant and all other roles in between doing the actual projects for your clients.

However no matter how small or large the business, to grow the business, the operations of the business does depend on good systems and processes. The more the business grows, the greater the need to find efficiencies both in use of time and in productivity.

Systems are nothing more than organised knowledge. The more organised the knowledge, the easier it is to share that knowledge in a way that others can then support you in delivering results to customers and to grow your business. In my early corporate days, Total Quality Management - TQM was the rage. In several jobs, I worked on many business process re-engineering projects. Today, technology gives us so many options is enable us to work smarter that were not possible then, although sometimes it is frustrating dealing with organisations that are so automated that the "personality and personal interaction" seems to have been lost. Businesses that can still engender a personal customised approach while being extremely efficient are rare. It is finding that balance.

To be honest, one of the things I have struggled with, strangely enough in spite of my corporate background and knowledge of systems, has been applying all that knowledge to my own business and business processes. It is something I have been working on throughout this year as I am extremely conscious that the downside of being a sole trader is that what I can achieve within the business is more than anything else constrained by time, and in order to outsource the workload while maintaining the standard I want to deliver to customers means that I have to convert my knowledge and what is in my head into some form of organised system. I think it would be fairly common for those in a creative space, or those that want to deliver a "customised service" would struggle with the concept that their work can be captured into a system. The biggest hurdle is the feeling that putting it down into a system takes away the personalisation, the individual stamp that marks our work as our own.

However, I am at the stage in my business where one of my primary focuses is on building relationships with customers for repeat business - and repeat business means delivering a consistent quality time and time again. In the early days, I tended to treat each assignment as a one-off and although I hoped that customers would want to work with me again, I did not count on it. This was a short sighted approach though and says more about my personal lack of confidence than anything else. The problem was that a vast majority of my product photography clients have come back for more to do more work, and because my early business systems were more reactive rather than proactive, I would then have to spend considerable time revisiting the early work to work out what the hell I did to deliver that result the first time. Not an efficient or smart use of time. I started to become more organised, and started writing down the "editing recipe" I used for a particular client - because each client has particular requirements. This was an improvement in being smarter but still not an efficient use of time.

Today I had one of those lightbulb moments - so simple that I almost kicked myself for not having thought of it earlier, but that is the process of continuous innovation and business improvement. Solutions can be simple and sometimes the inspiration comes from the most unexpected and unrelated sources. I have been trying to explain a technical process to a friend. Unfortunately, the process for me comes almost unconsciously and I knew that no matter how many words I used in different ways that I was not able to sufficiently explain it to them in a way that matched their knowledge. I ended up doing a video of the process.

It was only later in the day when reflecting on this, that I realised I had solved my own problem with how I was going to be more effective and efficient in capturing my clients' editing recipes. Simple, when I work on a client's set of product images all I need to do is record the process through video screening to capture the steps and through audio record the certain parameters I use for that client, for their particular product images. I will then always have a reference if I need it for the future; or even better as the business grows and when I start to outsource the work, I can simply share the knowledge through video, with an easy to follow recipe of what needs to take place for that particular client. I can then be more confident that I am delivering consistent outcomes to my client whether or not I have physically done the work or relied on others to do it for me.

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Flying Solo Tip 059365 : Organised knowledge is a cornerstone to business success, consistency in product delivery, and building quality relationships with customers.

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