Most entrepreneurial business owners want to grow their business, make more sales and generate more profit. It’s why they started the business in the first place. But in their eagerness to make more profit and earn more, too many business owners make a fundamental mistake, which I see all too often. They assume the answer…
Category: Sunday supplement
“I can’t wait for things to get back to normal”
I’ve heard this a lot recently. They mean like things were before the pandemic. My standard response is “Why on earth would you want that?” Normality has never been anything to aspire to. I wouldn’t like being called “normal.” No one who excels is called “normal”. It’s like wanting to be mediocre or average. There…
There has never been a lower barrier to entry for new businesses
Amongst all the doom and gloom of the past few years fuelled by Brexit, the COVID pandemic and challenges to democracy a fundamental paradigm shift has taken place: There has never been a better time to be a small business owner. Technology means you can create and launch new ideas, products and services quickly. There has…
It’s all very well you saying innovate but how do I do it?
Good question; here are some ways. As an entrepreneur you already have multiple new ideas every day; we all do. But you have probably got used to suppressing them: if you followed every new idea and shiny object you’d get nothing done. But what happens to those ideas? Are they just forgotten? Start, instead, to…
The furlough scheme is bad for business
When the furlough scheme was introduced it was a sensible short-term measure to protect individuals whose employers had a sudden loss of earnings. But it is deeply discriminatory and worse, it’s bad for business. Those still with an employer receive enhanced benefits. Those without an employer do not. And some just fall through the gaps.…
Learn from the world’s most exciting companies
In a recent email I talked about why evaluating your business model is essential in these turbulent times. Successful businesses are able to maximize the amount of value that is delivered to customers (and captured in the form of revenue) for the least amount of cost in operating expenses. The better the profit margin, the more options the business…
Who does the thinking in your business?
Who does most of the thinking in your business? It’s you isn’t it? In fact, you probably do all of it. You are the master strategist for all the parts of your business. You’ve been good at outsourcing the DOING of things (like operations, website creation, newsletter production, customer support, social media, bookkeeping, etc.) but you…
It make you wonder who to believe – 2
If you read my blog on Sunday you could be forgiven for wondering if you can believe anything the government and civil servants tell us about the economy. So when the governor of the Bank of England issued a statement on Monday you probably thought “At last – someone sensible. He’ll tell us what is really going…
It makes you wonder who to believe
While most of us, quite rightly, have been focused on the easing of the lock-in and when we can get back to work we have also just witnessed one of the most extraordinary weeks in the political economy. On Wednesday a young black lad brought up on the largest council estate in Europe persuaded the…
We face huge challenges, but isn’t that a good thing?
Where many seem to be struggling with the pandemic quarantine, I’ve found home isolation, and the lack of social commitments, freeing. It’s allowed me to become more contemplative, and connected to the rhythms of family life. It’s not that I’m anti-social. I enjoy limited social engagements. But since I started my own practice some years…
