The lone wasp buzzed annoyingly around my head before teaching me a lesson I’ll never forget…

I heard a little buzz and the pain that followed had more impact than just the sting in the tail.

So, I’d been planning strategies and implementing those marketing strategies before my 1 week trip to America. As a result I hadn’t been in the workshops much, but I do remember seeing a lone wasp flying around just before I left for America.

Roll on 14 days of warm weather, and combined with a very productive marketing strategy, you get 2 things:

  1. Business growing and a full order board and
  2. a lone wasp with a lot of friends!

Customers want their ovens, summer is coming to an end, and I’ve got them lined up so it’s into the factory to get stuck in.

Or that’s what I thought.

Now I had to wait for the stuff to do its job and that would take some time. No production in the factory today. . . that’s going to cost me dear

As soon as I got in and started making noise, that lone wasp came to visit to find out what the fuss was all about. I’m sure you’ve had that same experience.

Now I’m South African as you will probably have gathered; I’m not scared of much and wasps don’t register on my fear radar, they are classed at the same level as annoying flies, so I swatted it away.

That only seemed to annoy it and it came back.

Ok, a wasp around your head is an annoying thing, so I swatted it away again.

My mistake, because it was now pissed off, and it selected the biggest part of my body to let me know how I’ve put on a bit of weight and that wasp let me know that. It agreed, I’m sure it was thinking ‘Run fat boy, run’.

Right through my t-shirt, it felt like a red hot needle pushed into my excess.

We have a saying in South Africa:

‘Ay-na’

In England you use expletives that end with ‘hell’, and boy did it hurt like hell, and sent me heading for the door faster than a flash.

Wasp 1 – Jay 0

Ok.

Over to the wasp spray! I knew I had some, so gingerly, I went back, and standing at the door, perused the scene: why would that sting me for no rhyme or reason?

It did not take long for me to find the nest, and boy was it a big one, up on the wall against a wooden board, and from 5 metres away, I gave it hell with my wasp spray covering it in a satisfying foam.

Deuce

or

One all to you football folks

That should do the trick I thought.

But deep down I have to say I felt guilty; I don’t like killing things unnecessarily, even if it is a wasp.

The dragon would disagree: ‘What use are they in the world’ she told me later when I relayed my tale.

But now I had to wait for the stuff to do its job and that would take some time.

No production in the factory today.

Bugger, that’s going to cost me dear.

The next day I had a pile of emails to attend to, my book was due in from the printers, and I needed to get the marketing campaign going. With that all sorted, at lunch time I put on my overalls and headed back to the factory.

Bugger me, there was a swarm of wasps at the door; I mean a cloud of them, a constant stream of them flying into the factory through a tiny hole in the wall.

Hmm, seems like the wasp’s nest I had seen before was just the overflow; they had made a nest between the wooden board and the cladding of the building.

Well, that would be cosy, safe and warm.

I certainly was not going to get stung again, my belly was still red from the sting I had received 24 hours earlier.

Ok, so it needed a bit more spray on the outside.

Well, it took a whole tin of spray over a 3 hour period to slow the traffic down to a level where I thought it safe enough to venture into the factory and start work.

Being stung by the wasp was not pleasant but it has made me think; all too often we do see small tell-tale signs that something is looming over the horizon, as with the wasp flying around before I left for the States. But left unchecked it can soon get right out of hand and like a swarm, sting you in the butt or belly, and leave you out of pocket for the time wasted.

  • Is there anything in your business that you have noticed?
  • Those small tell-tale signs of something looming in the future that may impact you?
  • Something small now that if sorted might take a couple of minutes, but if left could take hours or worse, prevent you from trading?

If there is something, then commit to getting it sorted now.

Make a commitment to yourself to get it done right now, don’t wait, action it straightaway.

You’ll be so glad you did.

And unlike me, you won’t get stung!