Joining Mark in this Modus Business Spotlight is You HR Consultancy, Co-founder and CEO Jonna Mundy. Over the course of the session both Jonna and Mark shared their experience of starting and running a business, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

You can watch the full video here, but to give you a bit of taster, please read Jonna’s response to the question; What is the most important piece of advice you would you give to a start-up business?

Whilst it is impossible for anyone to predict how severe and prolonged the downturn will be, my advice, based on my experience, would be:

1. Plan

Have a plan that realistically maps out your continuity pathway sustainably. This may require a critical review and tough decisions to be made

2. Stretch and challenge yourself positively, but most importantly, value yourself

We are all only human, and it is all too easy to; work just one more hour, to miss lunch, to try and deal with everything yourself. Look after you and set an indicator for when your positive mindset is being compromised.

3. Develop your support network

Have a really trusted network around you (trust is vital) and as part of this, a great accountant is essential. A massive positive for us during these difficult times, is having the right sound financial advice and guidance.

4. Be lean & agile

Think lean as much as you can and be agile. In business you should never stand still, think about what naturally grows in the world – it changes, evolves, strengthens, and grows.

5. Review

Continuously review and engage who you need to. This should be part of your weekly if not daily focus – a cycle to reassess, refines, adjusts, and improves.

6. Have fun

Whatever extended period we spend in work, you must enjoy what you do. Otherwise you should be questioning why you’re not and take steps to change it. Getting stuck in a rut is never helpful for you or anyone round you.

7. Flexible working

Make sure that flexible working is high on your business agenda. We are seeing some radical positive changes as businesses, across industries, move away from conventional and traditional ways of working. This is an area that we really advocate as the benefits can be phenomenal.”

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Modus Business Spotlight, next month’s session is with Fab Biker PR, a specialist motorcycle PR company based here in Oxfordshire. To register for this event and to find out more about Modus visit modus-accountants.co.uk/category/events.

For more information on You HR and the services they can offer your business head on over to youhrconsultancy.co.uk.