Category Archives: Business Growth

Are Your Staff Helping Your Business To Grow?

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It pays to take your annual staff appraisal or performance review process seriously. Probably more seriously than you do now. Your business approach to appraisals can unlock greater success in your business because it can unlock greater performance from your people. However, most appraisals don’t result in higher levels of energy and motivation. This is a problem because a motivated team of people, an improving team of people, a more energised team of people can transform the results of your business. But a demotivated, ‘can’t-be-bothered’ team will undermine the future success of your business. As a […]

9 Quick Tips For Motivating Your Employees

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Motivating employees can often seem like a dark art. While you might hope that providing someone with a job and regular pay should be enough, it often isn’t. The continual changes forced on us by the turbulent times we live in can severely affect morale, and with it productivity nosedives. On the other hand with motivated employees, productivity, quality and service all go up. How can you motivate your employees? 1. Read about motivation Before you start it’s a good idea to read the experts. People are motivated in different ways and by different things. So […]

How Delegating Can Help You Live a Better Life

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You may have gone into business because you like being in control of everything. You’re probably doing things you know you do well yourself, and you get a strong sense of satisfaction from that. But, if you want to keep your sanity in a growing business and live a better life then it’s vital to learn how to delegate to your employees. Why is it so difficult to delegate? There are many reasons. Perhaps: It seems quicker to do a task yourself than explain it to someone else and then have to spend time correcting the […]

What Does Brexit Mean For Your Business?

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In the wake of the UK’s EU referendum results there is a large degree of worry and uncertainty about Brexit. If you have trading links with the UK you may be wondering how you will be affected. Further complicating matters is that although the UK have not given their 2-year notice at the time of writing – and so nothing has actually changed yet – worry has spread through investors and created volatility in the various markets. The important thing is to put aside any political views that you have. Rather, view this as simply another […]

Are You Targeting Your Market?

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Where do your customers come from? Do you know? Often it can seem quite random. The nature of running a business is such that you will go through periods of feast and famine. In a bid to try and beat the ups and downs most will try to be all things to all men. The thinking is that if you spread your net far and wide you stand the best chance of catching a prospect somewhere. But is there a problem with doing that? Yes, the problem is that this approach requires a lot of patience. […]

Are You Using The 80/20 Principle?

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For many businesses an 80/20 analysis can be very beneficial. What is it? And how could you use it in your business? What Is It? The idea behind the 80/20 principle is that the relationship between causes and effects is not balanced. That 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. This is not perhaps what you would expect, but it has been proved to be remarkably accurate. Why “80/20”? The phrase ‘80/20’ has become a form of shorthand and the relationship is not […]

Successful Brainstorming

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I was recently involved in a brainstorming session to examine how a roofing contractor could improve the professionalism of his operation and his bottom line with ideas that could be readily applied at low cost and provide quick wins for him. We quickly came up with seventeen ideas that if implemented would substantially change his business profile, prospects and bottom line for minimum outlay. Due to the success of this exercise we have decided to hold a weekly internal brainstorming session among staff for a selected client to see how we can help generate business growth […]

15 Great Questions to Ask Your Accountant Now!

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Do you have any ideas on how to grow my business? Can you give me good ideas on how to improve my cash flow? Can you establish my breakeven point so that I have more financial awareness? Can you create an improvement action plan? What are the key profit drivers in my business? Can you advise on pricing strategies to increase my profitability? Can you provide cash flow forecasts so that I do not get into financial difficulties? What sales improvement ideas do you have that I can act on to increase sales? How do I […]

A tea lesson – should you be better at upselling?

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Paul Shrimpling a leading marketing advisor to UK accounting firms recently published the following on upselling. “Upselling can have a transformative effect on profits and client satisfaction too. Here’s a classic and simple example of upselling used by the tea vendor on Fridays train journey home when I asked for a cuppa… “Sir would you like your tea in this larger cup for only 20p extra or would you like less in this smaller cup?” What would you opt for? £1.90 vs £2.10 = 20p I bought the larger amount. Circa 10% price increase for probably […]

A coffee drinking educational experience – Pricing Strategy

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Bernadette Jiwa, the marketing strategist and author from Dublin but now living in Melbourne, recently blogged her coffee story. “When my family and I were in Venice recently we decided to take a seat in a tiny Cafe in St Marks Square and ordered four hot drinks (anyone who has holidayed in Italy knows what’s coming next!). There was nothing remarkable about the coffee but we walked out half an hour later having paid €37 for 4 drinks.… the most expensive cup of coffee I have ever had.… my husband kept the receipt! The lesson. If […]

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