If Lord Sugar can do it, why can't l?
It struck me recently that some of the most watched TV programmes at the moment all have something in common.

I am thinking of shows like The Apprentice, The X Factor, Dragons’ Den, Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, Mary Queen of Shops and The Hotel Inspector to name but a few.

They tell people the truth as they see it.

Charlie Mullins: Can we have our billion pounds back please RBS There you go, what great news for a Friday morning! The people's bank, RBS, the one which is 84% publicly owned, has just posted a half year profit of £1.1billion - that's almost a billion quid we can cut off the deficit!

Why team building doesn’t work in a recession Hilary Briggs, London Chairman of the Academy of Chief Executives, talks about how in tough economic times lower sales trigger the need for cost reductions and why with a slimmed down workforce you can't build your team the normal way.

It’s that (recruitment) time again… “Where exactly is the ‘middle of nowhere’ please?”
With the latest figures on graduate recruitment showing that vacancies have dropped by nearly 7% in the year up to June 2010 following a fall of 8.9% in 2009, businesses might be forgiven for thinking that the lucky few to succeed in gaining employment would turn up on the first day with a strong work ethic.

Don't mourn the dream of the paperless office Is your business still chasing the dream of the paperless office? Do you and your employees have a footer on all your emails saying “do you really need to print this email?” Do you allow people at their desks to read the news online because you believe it’s better for the environment than buying a newspaper every day? Are you considering buying yourself or maybe your staff an iPad in order to save paper?

Brad’s three top tips for getting the most out of networking There's lots of advice I could give you about how to get the most out of networking. If you ever want my help with that come and ask me. But these are the most important things to remember, in my opinion:

England lose World Cup final 2-1 The date is July 30th 1966: Imagine if Geoff Hurst had been sick on that summer’s day, history would be very different.

The Pitch 2010: Your chance to win £50,000 of business support Entrepreneurs from around the country are gearing up to take part in the most business-focussed competition of 2010, competing against fellow start-ups and small business owners from their region and around the UK for the chance to be crowned Britain’s Best New Business.

Are you a business hero? A search to find the UK's most inspirational men and women who have beaten the odds to succeed in business has got underway with the launch of the fifth annual Barclays Trading Places Awards.

Nearly half of business owners more stressed than year ago Pressure is mounting among many business owners according to a survey which shows that 41% of private company bosses say their stress levels have increased compared to a year ago.

David Cameron was right "Put down the BlackBerry" In all the fuss over mounting debt and sneaky give-away's, Claire King thinks that David Cameron made a crucial point in his riposte immediately as Alistair Darling sat down, which I fear will be overlooked by many Budget commentators.

Women are better at interviews but fear of maternity means they loose out According to bosses women perform better at interviews, have better presentation, communication, motivation skills, understand companies and cultures better, are more thorough, affable and better able to balance multiple tasks and yet according to 42.7% of senior management surveyed by TheLadders.co.uk, they will not get the top job because they fear that women will leave to have children.

Women don't need to act like men to succeed in the Boardroom Following the latest reports that women are still under-represented in big businesses, a leading career accelerator is urging women to stick to their guns and not resort to traditional 'command and control' behaviour just to get ahead.

UK’s most powerful companies are Twitter shy With Twitter expected to serve its 10 billionth tweet on Friday, 5 March, research has found that just a fraction of the FTSE 100 have got on board with Twitter. Just 16 of the UK's top 100 companies are using the social networking site to chat with customers. The sidelining of Twitter as an informal communication channel could well be costing them dearly - 20 per cent of 'tweets' contain a reference to a product or brand, according to metrics released last week*.

Rebuilding trust should be top business resolution in 2010 After a difficult year for many top brands, from ongoing strike disputes at British Airways and Royal Mail to the latest Eurostar snow crisis, businesses are being reminded that rebuilding customer trust and loyalty should be their top priority in the New Year.

Lord Sugar sets the record straight Lord Sugar has hit back at the critics who claim that he is “out of touch with SMEs”, insisting that he is “passionately committed” to helping small firms.

The government enterprise tsar reportedly said SMEs who complained about being refused loans were “moaners” who were living in “Disneyland”.

Use Christmas to re-energise for 2010 The season to be merry is upon us as we rush to prepare for a few days off work. Then comes the strain of too much food, drink or financial worries and Christmas is anything but relaxing. Hoping to promote Christmas cheer in tough economic times, Apprentice star, Claire Young has launched the 'Balancing Britain Campaign', working with Chinese health and wellbeing organisation Lishi in a bid to encourage the nation to switch off over Christmas.

The Government is acting like a 'sat nav with no postcode' Entrepreneur Rik Hellewell, owner of the UK’s largest oven-valeting franchise network, Ovenu, has slammed the Government for acting like a ’sat nav with no postcode’ saying they would do well to follow the lead of their counterparts in the southern hemisphere.

The UK's 'excessive' boardroom habits are a complete waste of time Charlie Mullins has hit out at the ‘excessive’ boardroom habits of UK businesses, saying firms need to adopt a ‘less talk more work’ attitude if they are to survive the downturn.

Leading entrepreneur slams 'greedy bankers' over plans to abolish cheques Charlie Mullins, managing director of leading independent plumbing firm, Pimlico Plumbers, has slammed controversial plans by British banks, which could see cheques abolished by 2018.