5 things I've discovered about my business in the run up to Christmas
Against all advice, I’m going to cram my first paragraph with lots of overused phrases from 2020; from virtual events to ‘this year has been unprecedented, a roller coaster, a huge learning curve, life changing’ and now we’ve settled on the new normal!
Not to mention ‘YOU’RE ON MUTE!’
In the past, people would often say to me that ‘Christmas must be your busiest time of the year’ when in truth it wasn’t. Yes, we ran some Christmas parties but overall, we were steadily delivering team building throughout the year.
This year though, has opened my eyes…
1: Colour coded spreadsheets are my friend
We’ve taken an unprecedented (sorry) number of bookings for December and they’re still coming in. The only way to keep on top of them has been to create an elaborate and, if I do say so myself, quite impressive spreadsheet to check I haven’t quadruple booked anyone. If I didn’t have a system in place I would truly have thrown in the towel by now; it’s amazing what a good CRM system can do when you use it properly!
2: My team of actors are AMAZING
What started off with ‘can you keep the 11th and 18th free as they’re looking pretty busy’ has gone to ‘if I give you a 5-minute break to go to the loo in between can you fit in 5 events today, and oh, can you host the first three as I’m triple booked’. Not one of my team has batted an eyelid; they are truly the most talented, dependable, supportive bunch of people I could hope to work with, and I am immensely grateful to them all.
3: I don’t like Microsoft Teams (but I love Zoom)
So much so that I named our new cat after it. (Zoom, that is, not Teams). Sorry Microsoft but having become ‘ultra-slick’ (actual testimonial from a client, honest) on Zoom and whipping between clues, suspect videos, websites and back again to sort larger teams into smaller groups to encourage more intense collaboration and investigation, Teams just doesn’t cut it.
4: You can pretty much create anything fake on the internet
When your clues are all online, they have to look realistic, aesthetically pleasing and fun. So far, I’ve created fake:
- Facebook posts
- Twitter accounts
- Facebook profiles
- Text messages
- Newspaper articles
- Birth certificates
- DBS checks
At the risk of sounding as though I’m doing something illegal (I’m not) I really rather enjoy creating these little snippets of info which make all the difference; the devil is in the detail.
5: Human interaction is essential
I’d like to say that this sudden surge of enquiries and bookings is entirely down to my splendid marketing, top notch products and recommendations from previous clients. To a certain extent, yes. But really, what this has all brought home to me is that people are still desperate to get together at this time of year, and they are happy to accept that although it’s never quite the same as a good old office party, a virtual event is better than no event at all.
Happy December, I’ll see you on the other side!