Way back in 1984, an American Advertising Executive, Jay Conrad Levinson, published a book called Guerrilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business. Levinson, who as Senior Vice President of J Walter Thompson was responsible for many major campaigns including the Marlborough Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Tony the Tiger, and the Jolly [...]
Networking refers to the practice of interacting with associates, fellow entrepreneurs, colleagues and other people to build a network of far-reaching contacts. Today, networking has become an integral element of conducting business as it helps to reach wider audiences and perhaps maximize client base in the process. A very famous entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki once stated [...]
The Time to Train regulations were introduced by the Labour government and took effect for businesses employing 250 or more people in April 2010. They were due to be extended to all employers as from April 2011 but this has now been indefinately postponed to enable a full review is undertaken. The regulations require businesses [...]
People like me are prone to bang on about the need for a Business Plan, a Marketing Plan, a Finance Plan and so on. Mind you for me a good business plan should contain all those elements but each does have a stand-alone life of its own and each needs regular updating. It isn’t enough [...]
Running your own business is great but anyone who thinks that it is easy or less of a hassle than being an employee is fooling themselves. Most employees can finish their work and go home and relax but someone running their own business cannot switch off so easily. Trust me – I’ve been there. You [...]
The last Labour government introduced the Time to Train scheme which enabled any employee with more than 26 weeks service to request time off work to undertake training of any sort. Whilst on the surface that seems reasonable in practice the new right raised a lot of issues not the least being the fear that if a [...]
The recent worldwide financial crisis has clearly indicated that there is an urgent need to improve the effectiveness of company boards. This can only be achieved when all board members, together with shareholders, employees and other stakeholders, truly understand their roles and responsibilities. For over 10 years the Institute of Directors (IoD) have been offering [...]
The Combined Code on Corporate Governance * is published by the Financial Reporting Council and applies to all UK incorporated companies (and some foreign companies) listed on the UK Stock Exchange. The most recent (2008) version of the Code combines the Cadbury and Greenbury reports on corporate governance, the Turnbull Report on Internal Control (revised [...]
No one likes getting complaints from customers but the fact is that if you handle a complaint well you can make the complainer into an asset – someone who will praise your business. OK, we all know that there are some people you can never please no matter what you do and there are some [...]
In the current economic situation and with more people leaving regular employment and setting up as consultants, it has become much more acceptable to run your business from home. Apart from anything else, running a new business from the spare bedroom removes a whole layer of cost and risk, and makes it a lot more [...]
Customers are the lifeblood of any business and without them no company can survive. So how do you go about getting (and keeping) customers? Finding customers is the key to running a successful business and all highly successful businesses are good at marketing. This doesn’t mean that you need to spend thousands on an expensive [...]
Many small start-ups find setting up an office at home the most attractive option. It is cheap and handy, but there may be drawbacks. The Legal Position The first thing is to consider is whether or not you can legally set your office up at home. If you rent your home there may very well [...]
Ever wondered why some people succeed in business and others don’t? Or why some of them are exceptionally successful? Well some of it may be luck but there are common factors seen in all successful business people that would seem to indicate otherwise. It appears that great entrepreneurs have 5 key qualities that help them succeed in situations [...]
There is a saying in marketing that “image is everything” and there is a lot of truth in that. Your customers, existing and potential, will expect you to present a professional image and your stationery is an important factor in creating your business image. You should take time to consider what you will need and [...]
In the first two parts of this post we have looked at what you will need by way of furniture for your office and also what communications equipment you will need to consider. In this part we will now look at office equipment: what you are likely to need, what your options are, and how [...]
In the first part of this post we looked at what you needed to furnish your office. Now we consider what equipment you will need in order to connect to the outside world. Communications The one item you are certain to need in your office is a telephone line. Even if you have a [...]
Ask most business owners what a business plan is for and they will say that you need it when starting a business to get a bank account opened or when you try to get funding for a new project. There is some truth in that but it is only part of the story. A business [...]
Everyone knows that starting a business is risky but once over that stage most entrepreneurs look to the next challenge – growing the business. In many ways this is much more of a risk as if you get it wrong – and the line between success and failure can be a very fine one – [...]
