Category: Advice

I went mystery shopping this week for a new client. They wanted to see what happened at their workplace when they weren’t there following fairly negative informal feedback from friends when they had visited. They had a strong suspicion the reception staff’s customer service was not up to scratch but didn’t know the full extent and wanted us to assess what development needs there may be from our own experience.

In a tough trading climate it’s essential to hang on to good people. Yet in a recession it isn’t always easy to reward loyalty with increased pay. Michael Davies, of LondonOffices.com looks at other ways businesses can retain talent.

Managing your boss may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s an unspoken, imperative part of day-to-day work that will help you achieve your personal career ambitions, and excel in your current role.

Making a capital gain is usually good news – but it can also come with a hefty tax bill. So, whether you are selling all, or part, of your business, or some other assets (for example property or shares) it’s important to plan for a capital gain in order to minimise the tax burden.

Hilary Briggs gives us her top tips for getting the most out of your meetings.

Recent research commissioned by the mental health charity Mind found work to be the biggest cause of stress, with nearly thirty five per cent of the 2000 people they talked to claiming it to be an issue.

Teams are the building blocks of organisations. Teams are groups of people who work together to achieve things, but not all groups are teams. Teams are characterised by team members having to work together to get things done.

Research undertaken by Streamline last year saw that nine out of ten SMEs see the internet a profitable place to do business, and almost half found the set up costs to be lower than they anticipated. With millions of active internet shoppers increasing their online spend year-on-year in spite of the recession , the potential benefits of selling online have never been greater.

With UK SEO Agency, QueryClick, we are putting together easy to follow snippets of expert advice across a range of search marketing disciplines including search engine optimisation, paid advertising, customer relationship optimisation, content strategy and analytics.

The number of small businesses throughout the UK trying to ‘go green’ has almost doubled in the last two years, according to recent research, with many of them planning become more and more environmentally friendly in years to come.

Next month will see Andy Murray and Spaniard Rafael Nadal battle it out at Wimbledon. Yet while the six-foot titans slug it out on Centre Court, the battle between the UK and Spain for most connected nation has already been won. Spain has only just switched on its 4G services, while in the UK, small businesses have been enjoying superfast mobile data since October last year.

As part of our expert advice series we asked accountant Carl Elsby, of Elsby & Co, to look at the role of the accountant in business survival and growth.

In any business you need to have clear boundaries both internally with your staff, but also externally with your clients. Personal transformation coach, Dr Lisa Turner, reveals how to how to have clear boundaries in business.

Success in business often depends on a speedy response to queries from prospective customers, as well as the method in which your company is projected to the outside world. So many companies make the mistake of cutting their marketing budgets when they should be using imagination and flair to promote their companies.