Looking to grow your business in a cost-of-living crisis?

The solution may be to spend your money. The cost of living in the UK has been rising steadily in recent times, and this is putting a strain on small businesses who are struggling to pay their costs, leading to some businesses having to close down. If you are a small...

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant

If you are contemplating hiring a Virtual Assistant but your not sure how to go about it or what to even consider then below is our guide to ensure this valuable resource becomes your best business decision ever. Define your needs The very first step is to define what...

Four easy steps to Business Improvement

So, I am going to take a bit of a guess here and assume that you have a business plan. You wrote it because you were told to and now it sits in a draw or archived somewhere on your hard drive in the same state as it was when you wrote it 5/10 years ago? If I am right,...

The Cashflow Forecast

Every businessperson understands the need to know their numbers. Income, gross and net earnings, and even having a clear idea of what you’re spending on your fixed assets are key to running a successful business. But how many businesses effectively look at what...

Why do we need to plan?

It’s that time of year for a fresh start, laying to bed the year gone by and putting down on paper how different 2024 is going to be. We should all have a plan; our world might not go to that plan (I am 100% certain it won’t) but we all want the plan. Why? It’s...

But Elon Musk never had a business plan!

Not true, I promise. What he didn’t have a structured document talking about his finances or a SWOT analysis and sales plan that targeted investors and brought his team together to align to one vision. He is far beyond that, and his credibility and vast experience is...

The Art of Resilience

I’m sure we would all agree that 2020 was a hell of a year. Well, 2021 hasn’t started off that much better but at least we are now heading in the right direction. Towards the end of a year writers/bloggers/publishers suggest a word to characterize the year. Arianna...

Vision, Mission and Values

There are many interpretations as to the purpose of setting the vision, mission and values for your business, but I thought I would share my thoughts as I believe they are a key component to business improvement. Vision Most business owners have a vision. They know...

What 2020 did for me

When I set this blog up I made a promise to myself that I would write one EVERY month. They would be predominantly informative, helping businesses to improve and grow, with the odd spattering of reflection. So, first of all, I would like to say sorry… not sorry...

Keep your customers close – your competitors closer

Are you the best at what you do? How do you know? Do you know who your competitors are? When did you last complete a competitor analysis? Do you even know where to start? Many businesses like to think they have conducted a competitor analysis when really all they have...

The Easiest Way to Plan

Planning It’s the start of the year and a new decade. The chances are you’ve probably been thinking about a plan for where you would like to be this time next year. Some of you will have even committed pen to paper to solidify your goals. You probably even have a...

Time to reflect

I write the first draft of this blog as I sit in a car park of an event that started 40 minutes ago but due to various circumstances, some in my control (left the house 15 minutes late) and some out of my control (the M6 carpark), I have decided not to gate crash the...

Business Model Canvas – what, why and how

What is it? The Business Model Canvas was designed by Alexander Osterwalder. In short, it is a business plan on a page which can help assess a new business model or provide a snapshot of your business at a point in time. It helps to define your customer segments, how...