How to recognise an Entrepreneur when you see one
Chances are you’ll have fancied yourself as someone who could run your own business at some point during your career or within the last few…
What is Sweat Equity and is it worth having?
This is a term that’s quite often used in Start-Up land. In most cases it’s fundamentally a technical/financial vehicle that allows an owner (entrepreneur) to…
Micromanagement and other delusions of grandeur
Why have a dog and bark yourself? What, exactly, is the point of having staff that are supposed to be performing certain tasks, in a…
How well do you know your own numbers?
I don’t watch Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank often. They just make me cringe. I end up feeling sorry for the entrepreneurs, but most of…
Why luck matters
What do Kitty Litter, FedEx, Hamersley Iron Ore, Velcro, Vaseline, Viagra, Popsicles and Post-It Notes all have in common? They all came into existence or…
Why sales activity is more important than sales
Sales & Marketing (or Marketing & Sales as I prefer it). It really is a numbers game. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but do…
Make your sales pipeline much more believable
“…and, knowing that he had committed the most heinous of crimes, he retreated slowly back into the shadows, never to be seen again.” Sometimes, when…
The underrated art of Objectivity
Do you find it hard to be objective about your own business? Most people do. It’s very difficult to be objective about something that you’re…
Time rich & client poor? Watch out for the Customer Services trap
Customer Services have always been a highly integral part of building a successful business. These days good service levels do so much more than just…
Never let a great staff member go (until they want to leave)
I’ve led and managed hundreds of staff over my career, and I’ve been privileged to work with some outstanding people, who also turned out to…
When did you last speak to your Top 5 customers?
Customers; are they really all that? Sometimes when you’re running a business it’s easy to get caught up in the daily ‘noise’ of unending activity.…
Not good at herding cats? Maybe remote working isn’t for your business
Home, or remote, working has really impacted both the employment and productivity landscape, particularly since COVID changed everything. Technology is a real enabler for this,…
Recruit for success. Deal with the consequences
Keeping and managing a happy crew is a tough gig when you’re running your own business. In time, as you get bigger, maybe you’ll be…
A place for everything, and…
How would you rank yourself on a Control Freakishness scale from 1 – 10? Are you borderline OCD or the human equivalent of a family…
Do you need to run the business you own?
This may seem like an odd question but it’s one that I quite often have to ask within small to medium sized businesses. Everybody has…
When’s the last time you took time out to think?
‘I don’t have time to think’. There are a lot of myths about being busy. I’m sure you’ve heard this one; ‘If you want to…
Is buying a business ever a good idea?
Mergers & Acquisitions (or M&A as it’s usually described) is a very colloquial term and doesn’t much represent how business sales and transactions happen today…
Do small businesses need a Strategy?
Ahh Strategy, what a grand word it is. Used in everything from chess to the ‘Art of War’, it oozes sophistication, intellectual superiority and entrepreneurial…
Do you know how to plan?
How would you describe yourself? Are you a ‘let’s make a plan’ kind of person? Or do you just go with the flow and hope…
How much is a Lifestyle business worth?
Well, with a few very rare exceptions, zero. Does this come as a surprise? It might do, if you didn’t realise that you were actually…
Do you need Hunters or Farmers?
It’s important to understand that, in sales, you predominantly have two modes of operation; new business (Hunters) and account management (Farmers). Companies can spend a…
Are your revenues limited by a permanent glass ceiling?
Sales, sales and more sales. Sales, and the art of selling, are a crucial part of more or less every business. But while most are…
Can you scale your business (and do you want to)?
So, you’ve been running your own show for a while now. You have services/products, customers, staff and most of the other accoutrements that go with…
How to stop your marketing budget being a waste of money
Have you ever looked your monthly or annual spend on Marketing, exhaled and silently said to yourself “This just isn’t working. I’m wasting time and…