Articles

What does the average business owner pack for their holidays? Sun cream? Of course. Currency? Definitely. Laptop? Sadly, probably. The ‘holiday period’ should be a time to look forward to, a time to relax and recharge. But, if you’re a business owner, it may be a...

While there’s no doubt that Donald Trump has done alright for himself with his bullish, top-down, ‘command and control’ style of leadership, the notion of the extrovert ‘alpha male’ business leader is becoming a thing of the past. Today’s great leaders, like Mark...

Does it matter if your team emails and messages clients rather than pick up the telephone and talk? Are social media and instant messaging enough to build business relationships? How many times have you tried calling someone only to get voicemail and a slow (or no)...

What do the words ‘manager’ and ‘leader’ mean to you? Most debates or articles I see on the subject tend to argue that being a leader is somehow better than being a manager. Some go so far as to suggest Jekyll and Hyde-type differences between the two. If you think...

When you started your business, you probably thought a lot about your product or service offering, the market, cash flow, and so on.  But you may not have given as much (or even any) thought to your own suitability to be an owner-manager.  Or perhaps you only had a...

When I work with a business owner, one of my first questions is, ‘Do you have an internal business plan – and if not, why not?’ Most people think of a business plan as a document that’s written for an external audience, usually investors or a bank manager, with the...

We attended a client meeting recently where the business owner chaired a biannual update for the management team. Meeting twice a year may not seem frequent enough but for this company with five operating sites the sessions work well. Every company and every person...

How intelligent are you?  A successful business owner has many attributes, which may include creativity, determination, financial acumen, energy, resilience, resourcefulness – the list goes on.  But does intelligence have a place on the list? One aspect of...

Spare wheel in the boot? Breakdown membership? Mobile phone? Coat and first aid kit? Alternative routes? All measures you might take to help in the event of a problem on your car journey. What is unlikely is that you will have a second car with you. The reasons are...