I absolutely love working with my clients and lately have started to let go of all my preconceived labels of what sort of business I am in.

For over 15 years I identified myself as a Human Resource Manager or HR Director. Then I stuck on the label of Business and Executive Coach before changing labels again and becoming a HR and Business Development Consultant before once again changing the labels to Freelance Copywriter and Author.

Last week I was talking with one of my longer term clients and we were having a laugh about all the roles I play in his business. He started with me about 3 years ago for a 3 month coaching program where we focused on his personal growth and business direction. He subsequently moved out of that company and into a new role that he loves the challenge of.

A few months ago I got the first phone call – “Help – my computer has crashed and taken all of last year’s invoices with it and the back-ups didn’t work.  I have no idea what I am supposed to be delivering to whom in the next week!” 

I raced over to his store and the IT guru confirmed that the computer was fried. There was nothing for it – I spent a day re-creating from manual records his most urgent details and then organized him a book-keeper from my contacts to keep the process going and to fix the financial challenges that I discovered in the process of re-entry. We also organized regular computer back-ups and restores to stop future problems.  I was using my Corporate Troubleshooter label.

While I was in the store we were visited by the Fire Brigade doing their annual fire inspections. I rapidly organized and ran fire evacuation training for all staff that day and marked all fire exits and fire evacuation plans.   I was using my Accredited Workplace Health & Safety Officer label.

One of the staff in the tea-room commented they wanted more information about their pays. I took this comment back to Ian who asked me to research the correct award they should be paid under and the current Workchoices rulings for payslips. I was using my Degree in Industrial Relations label.

A week later I had another call. “Help – one of my staff has injured himself and I have a trade show in two days time. Oh, and did I mention that I need you to organise flyers to hand out at the show”.  I put on my copywriters label and quickly wrote and printed flyers. All of our plans to staff the show fell flat – so I pitched in and helped staff the stand at the show and generated a number of great leads during a very quiet show.

Two weeks later – another call. “Remember how I have the Gold Coast Homeshow this weekend – can you do some press releases and flyers for me?”  Sure – press releases were rapidly completed (and great results – inside cover and page 5 full colour spread, followed by photo and story on the front cover of the Gold Coast Bulletin).  Copywriter label was firmly in place.

A few days out – “My salesperson has just resigned. Help!”  I spent 3 days staffing the trade show with him (and we conservatively took in about $80 000 in new business).  Corporate Troubleshooter and sales.

I also organized new casual staff to help back at the store while we were sorting out the optimal staffing levels and shifts. I am now doing up new employment contracts for his staff, setting up position descriptions, writing the HR Policy manual and recruiting to fill his vacancy. HR Manager label again.

So, as we were driving back from the Gold Coast after the show he made the comment –

 “Your business is like the Weirdest Elephant in the Universe. You have so many big skill pieces in your tool-kit that whenever I get stuck I call you. You know or can fix or know someone who can fix just about anything.”

This was a massive lesson for me.  Just when I was trying to work out what label to put on Heart Harmony, one of my clients was telling me that he loved the fact that I had lots of labels in my toolkit, and that it was the combination of the labels and my experience that made me so valuable to him.

Labels are great in their place – they help us find the spices we want to put in our cooking and to know what street we are driving along, but when applied to people they can be limiting.

So – what labels are you applying to yourself in your business? Do you have labels in your toolkit that you aren’t using? Are you cutting yourself off from potential business because your label is too narrow? Perhaps your value is also in the combination of your life skills and experience, rather than a thin definition of who you are and what you can do?

Ingrid Cliff is a Brisbane based Business Development and Human Resources Consultant to Small and Medium Businesses with her company Heart Harmony www.heartharmony.com.au.