Post Recession Problems and How To Overcome Them. The recession is over according to economic commentators but have you really felt the benefits of an expanding economy? Are your SME businesses finally enjoying an upswing in economic activity? Well here is the interesting thing, most...
Moving from a sole trader to a team based business. As small business owners, we often start off alone or with just a small group of supporting employees, but not a proper team. As the business owner or CEO, we take ownership of the majority...
Business Planning – How To Get Started. Some business owners and managers, who have never written a business plan before, can suddenly wake up to the need to put some structure on their journey into the future, instead of leaving it all to chance or...
How Introverts or Extroverts Can Impact Your Business. I have always been an introvert and I have often wondered if this was a product of my upbringing, a hereditary predisposition, a cultural bias, or whether it is simply a choice I made at some stage of...
Communication In Your Business. Developing good communication within a business may sometimes be a low priority simply because most executives spend so much time communicating externally with customers, prospects, suppliers and other market participants. However, internal communicating can be every bit as important as external communicating....
How To Understand Your Competition. When you decide to get involved in selling a product or service into a market, do you spend any time analyzing that market and the potential return you can hope to get? Do you look closely at existing competitors to get...
Importance Of Business Goals. Do you have a woolly idea about where you want to take your business or do you have specific business goals written down that everyone in your business gets to see? Do you spend so much time dealing with day-to-day business issues...
Are You The Best CEO For Your Business? You may have started the business you are now running but are you the best person to take it to the next level of success? Are you bigheaded or humble? Do you possess the skill set and broad...
Improving Personal Productivity. When you run your own business, you are taking more risk in the hope of earning a greater reward for your effort, when compared to working for somebody else. But does it always work out this way? The answer is only sometimes. The...
Magic of Mind Mapping For Kids – Revisited. Back in 2009, I created a short video about the benefits of mind mapping for kids. It attracted thousands of views and still does. So why is this? Well, we all love our kids unconditionally, and we want...
Implications of Workplace Stress. Dynamic environments frequently cause stress and this has implications for business owners, managers and regular employees as they go about their jobs. We normally associate dynamic environments with high tech businesses that are growing and moving rapidly in order to keep ahead...
Business Analysis - Get A Handle On Your Business. Instinctively, we know what we know about our businesses. But what about the things we don’t know and perhaps should know? This gap in our knowledge can have serious consequences for the business. How often do you...
Ageism In Business – Fact or Fiction? Modern living has delivered a number of benefits in terms of how long people are now living, particularly in western society, and life quality for the average person is much higher than it was even fifty years ago. Yes,...
Scale Your Business But Recognise The Challenges. Now that the recession is behind us, more and more businesses are looking at how they can make up for lost ground during the last 7 or 8 years and scale their businesses. Our political leaders are talking up...
Speed Up The Cash Flow In Your SME Business. How many times have we seen so-called “profitable” SME businesses go to the wall? It happens every day in fact. Perhaps it is because some SME business owners simply don’t appreciate the difference between profit and cash....
80-20 Rule and its Implications. Recognizing the implications of the 80-20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, can have a profound impact on your business and your life. But why is this? Well, if you apply it to your business or your life, you will...
SOSTAC Marketing Model. A useful tool for creating a marketing plan was developed by best selling marketing author and consultant, Paul R. Smith, in 2011. He calls it SOSTAC ® (link to http://www.PRSmith.org). It provides a simplified approach to creating a business or marketing plan for...
Project Management in SME's. Change is inevitable in any business as we grapple with market and economic forces. Staying the same is often not a realistic option, if we want our businesses to survive and prosper. So, as owners and managers of small and medium businesses,...
The Work Life Balance Decision. If you run a small or medium business, chances are that you will sometimes struggle to maintain a proper work life balance. It happens to all of us at some stage. When we are in the office, we are constantly in...
Some Lessons in Customer Care for SME Businesses. Customer care comes naturally in some businesses while some businesses simply fail to recognize the importance of their customers. This blog explores acceptable standards of customer service and the impact excellent customer service has on customer loyalty and...
Gender Equality In Modern Business. It may seem strange to be still talking about gender equality in business in the 21st century. It harks back to the 19th and 20th centuries, doesn’t it? Well yes, that is certainly where it belongs. But has gender based discrimination...
SME Governance and Business Ethics In SME Businesses. Many business owners may think that Corporate Governance and Business Ethics only have relevance for larger businesses. However, in my view, small businesses should look to the same principles to regulate how they operate and follow proven processes...
Smart Goals Vs. Dumb Goals. If you have ever been on a business course, you will probably have learned the principal of Smart Goals. Smart Goals are used as a framework to help a business owner to focus on the journey forward and to put some...
If You Want To Grow Your Business Get The Right Help. Growing a business is easy, right! Successful businesses often start small, grow over a period of time, and then hit against a restrictive barrier before they can scale to new heights. Many never make it...
Intelligent Business Questions. Do you ask intelligent business questions? I have been in business a long time and I have been advising many businesses of different sizes, and in many different sectors, about how to improve their performance, for more than 15 years. It is interesting...
Company Culture and the Daily Huddle Many small and medium business owners are slow to recognize that company culture is equally important in small and medium businesses, as it is in larger corporations. I published a short video on this topic a few years ago, which...
Politics In Small Business. This week I decided to publish a video I shot a couple of years ago on the topic of the role for politics in small and medium businesses. It features my own experience of political maneuvering in the corporate world as well...
The Third Pillar of Scaling - Infrastructure. Two weeks ago, I introduced the topic of creating execution capability for businesses what want to scale. I talked about how people are one of the 3 critical ingredients needed to scale a business and I introduced some ideas...
The Second Pillar of Scaling - Process. Last week I introduced the topic of creating execution capability for businesses what want to scale. I talked about how people are one of the 3 critical ingredients needed to scale a business and I introduced some ideas about...
The First Pillar of Scaling - People. Even though many of us entrepreneurs choose to operate as sole-traders, there comes a time in our business when we must decide to accept the status quo, and whatever limitations come with that, or decide to scale the business...
6 Steps To Create A Customer Avatar For Your Business. We all have a general sense of whom our ideal customer or client is, but have you ever taken the time to describe him or her in detail? The picture of your ideal customer is sometimes...
How Do I Decide Whether To Upgrade My Business Equipment Or Not? You may have been putting off upgrading your business equipment because you don't have the surplus funds right now or you don't want to commit your scarce resources to a single item that will...
Here is a recent article from the Wall Street Journal that might be of interest to businesses about to start hiring new talent. http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-deal-with-a-long-hiring-process-1453231053...
What Are Roles and Responsibilities and How Can They Help My Business? When startup businesses begin to achieve a measure of success, it becomes necessary to start adding structure to the way in which the business is managed. One of the areas that need special attention...
How Can Topgrading Improve My Hiring Success Rate? Would you be surprised to hear that out of every 12 people hired, that 3 are C players (mediocre to poor performers), 6 are B players (average to good performers) and only 3 are A players (consistently excellent...
What is Spin Selling? The concept of Spin Selling has been around since 1987, when Neil Rackham first published his well-researched book “Spin Selling“ on this topic. I believe that the methods described in Neil Rackham’s book still offer great benefits and I am writing about...
Implementing Necessary Credit Control Procedures in Your Business Do you take credit control seriously in your business? Do you use effective credit control techniques to minimize business risk? Do you take a systematic and structured approach to assessing customers before deciding to grant or renew...
Creating the Right Structure for Your Business When we are setting up a small business, we are often on our own and don’t have the luxury of delegating tasks or building functional or an operational structure that supports the business. For many of us, it is...
Do I need a Business Health Check? When we work in our own businesses, we tend to get caught up in the day-to-day decisions and the routine daily activities. We often forget to take a helicopter view of where we are going, and the steps that...
The Challenge for Small and Medium businesses Post Recession It has been a tough few years for small and medium businesses and those of us operating in this space have undoubtedly felt the pain of the financial crisis. Our biggest challenge now is our lack of...
Vision, Mission and Objectives Explained There is a lot of confusion and discussion about the importance and desirability of having a vision, mission and objectives for your business. However, it is a really simple exercise to map out the vision, mission and objectives, when you view...
Using Mind Maps as a Control Mechanism in Your Business I have been a fan of mind mapping for at least 30 years and I have been teaching clients how to use them effectively for the past 15 years or so. Managing your business effectively is...
How to Choose a Management Consultant or Business Advisor What does a management consultant or business advisor actually do? You need to know the answer to this question if you are considering engaging one for your small or medium business. You also need to have a...
Learn About Benchmarking and the Benefits of Continuous Learning I am often amused when I hear business owners claiming that nobody knows their business better than they do. Many believe that they cannot actually improve their business by hiring an external professional. I fundamentally disagree with...
A Selection of Business Analysis Tools for Business Owners Not every business owner has the means or desire to hire a business consultant. So what should a business owner do if he needs to understand how his business is performing compared to other businesses? The best...
Whether you work alone or work for someone else, you still need to plan your working week so that you can achieve the maximum output. Writing something down gives it a much higher chance of happening when compared to just having a general idea of...
I had the pleasure of teaching two classes of Plato Group members last week in Dublin on the topic of business planning. One was held in Microsoft headquarters in Dublin and the other was held in Pfizer's Grange Castle complex. Each group comprised of about...
It has become clear in the last couple of years that high definition video is the best way to communicate with your target audience, if you already have a presence on the web. It allows clients and potential clients to form a view of who...
John Costigan, Managing Director of Proactive Executive Services Ltd, recently tested "HowsMyBusinessDoing?" business analysis software and gives it a positive review. Having put one of his clients through the survey process, John says "I see myself using "HowsMyBusinessDoing?" again with other clients going forward and...
