There has been a lot of drawing of breath today over the Taxpayers’ Alliance’s view that benefit claimants should be forced to work for their money. Sounds like a lot of common sense to me.
Category: Columns
Columns, blogs and opinion from some of the UKs leading business opinion makers and entrepreneurs and small business owners
A Five Step Formula to Establish Your Big Business Strategy
When drilling down your business strategy, it’s effective to unearth the key strategic questions to keep your business focused.
Dragons’ Den gets a ‘brand’ new look & my tips for hiring a PR agency
Every armchair wannabe investor’s favourite TV show is back on our screens. Dragons’ Den returned on BBC Two last night, with a few tweaks to the format and two new dragons. Interior design guru Kelly Hoppen replaces Hilary Devey, whilst cloud-computing entrepreneur Piers Linney fills Theo Paphitis’ shoes.
The importance & skills of delegation
In my early management training days, there was the old joke “my manager wanted me to attend a seminar on delegation so I sent my junior”. This isn’t what delegation is about, nor is it about abdication; it is solely the indolent manager’s way out.
Is ‘bespoke’ just an excuse to charge more?
How often do you see the words ‘bespoke training’, tailored just for you’, ‘made to order’, ‘custom made’? Way too often I fear!
I don’t recognise Maternity Leave issue, but do recognise motives behind survey!
What can I say about the headlines this morning that scream that mothers ‘feel discriminated against at work’? Except that it’s not a situation that I recognise at all.
Mini bonds – a new source of funding for SMEs
In the wake of the financial crisis and the lower availability of debt from banks, a number of companies have issued what I call ‘mini bonds’ to investors.
Don’t dodge disclosures – the dos and don’ts of hiding assets during a divorce
The price of not ‘playing fair’ during divorce proceedings makes great headlines when multi million pound fortunes are at stake but owners of SMEs can also learn lessons from the landmark ruling in the Prest divorce case.
PR Awareness Week? Think we need more Dr Who & less Malcolm Tucker
July saw the first ever National PR Awareness Day – an attempt to improve the reputation of an industry that works to improve reputations.
Sending out a business SOS
There are hundreds of thousands of talented professionals that have latent entrepreneurial capability whose inner voice is being muted by corporate constraints. As a venture capitalist, I back experienced professionals who often spin out of the corporate world and start-up their own company. I call this group of new businesses ‘Spin out Start-ups’ (SOS).
Small Business Owners: Are Your Sales Skills Sharp Enough To Cope? Part 2
In my last blog, I talked about some of the challenges that business owners face in the current economic conditions. In part two, we’ll be looking at sharpening up cold calling, questioning and closing skills.
Small Business Owners – Are Your Sales Skills Sharp Enough To Cope?
The Challenge – As a business owner in the current economic conditions, you can’t afford to take their eye off the ball. In a recession, business is tougher. Existing clients beat you down on price, therefore losing you valuable profit.
How to tame a Dragon
As someone who’s done it before and now has their own venture capital business, I’d say I’m in a good position to advise entrepreneurs on how to win investment from VCs.
A look at alternative sources of finance for SMEs
In the wake of the financial crisis, and with the Government desperate to generate growth in the economy, owners of SMEs are faced with a bewildering choice of financing options for their business.
The inches, eighths & movement involved in growing your business
Many suggest knowing how you can grow your business. Here I have chosen three proven examples that you can start today which will cost you absolutely nothing to implement and could well bring about immediate results.
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