Category: Blog Posts
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“Why isn’t there more money in my bank account?”
This is one of the most common questions business owners ask when we first meet. Their business is successful but it doesn’t seem to be reflected in their bank balance. Or if the business is doing less well “why am I putting all this effort in for so little money?” It seems a simple…
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Everything you wanted to know about credit management but were afraid to ask …
This blog gives a deeper dive into the themes brought up in my previous blog on Eight things you can do to make your business more profitable – 4. Tighten your management of debtors. Why give credit? The fundamental principle is that you give credit to win and grow you business. Keep this at the…
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Eight things you can do to make your business more profitable
We all know they key to being a successful business is to sell more. But we’d be wrong. Most business owners are pouring money down the drain. Here are 8 things you can do to make your business perform better and make more profit. Each can make a substantial difference to your business’s performance. Taken…
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Is money really the language of business?
There is a provocative (in the best sense of the word – provocative is good as it makes us think) post on LinkedIn by Liz Ryan. It is entitled “The Three Biggest Lies Told in Business”. At number 2 – “Numbers are the language of business”. Her point is that it is people and how they…
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Have you got the problem most businesses only dream of?
Do you or your company have a problem to die for, a problem most people only dream of? I’m talking about being too successful – something I’ve noticed again recently with some of the companies I’m working with. And the problem? After years of hard work and struggle these business owners and senior managers have…
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“Planning is a waste of time!” – Type B
I’ve spent much of the last few years working with small business owners. I have found it immensely fulfilling and a real privilege to work with so many dynamic and decent people who have achieved so much. At the same time we know it can be very lonely running your own business. There are very…
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Is running a business a bit like playing tetris?
You can learn quite a bit about how well a business is run by how well it copes with those inevitable bumps in the road. It may be something that is beyond our control: a key supplier goes out of business or stops selling a critical component, an important customer insists on new terms or switches…
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FSB guidance on credit management
The Feb/Mar 2013 edition of First Voice – the magazine of the FSB – contains an interesting article on credit management. It is largely prompted by the poor payment behaviour of large customers towards their suppliers. Some of which are now asking for suppliers to pay a discount to get paid on time. Hopefully this…
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Making sense of what you (don’t) see
Failure to understand what lies beneath the towering ice mountain in front of us can have disastrous consequences. On the other hand the benefits of insight are far greater than one might imagine. Standard Financial Statements are the bit visible above the surface. It is knowing what lies beneath that allows you to decide on…