Columns, blogs and opinion from some of the UKs leading business opinion makers and entrepreneurs and small business owners
Having an efficient and effective sales strategy is key to the success of all SMEs – particularly as they battle to build a strong customer base in their critical early years. Unfortunately, they are often held back by expensive and unwieldy IT systems that drain their resources and make the process of converting sales slow and unwieldy.
I think that sleeping in the middle of the working day is ok. I know this is going to be controversial.
I’ve got an issue with some of the things that have come out of the CBI conference that I just can’t ignore…
Week three and all the contestants have now had the chance to get a real taste of what the Apprentice experience is all about. With Dan and Joy being fired in the first two weeks everyone must feel vulnerable.
Whilst watching Week 2 of The Apprentice, I joined in the Twitter debate along with many other viewers and noted a few issues that surprised me and that I also find fairly worrying.
So to task two and the beach accessory – I love the fact that they met at Heathrow, there would have been that little bit of excitement in the candidates of ‘Where are we going?’ ‘What do you think the task is?’ and then Lord Sugar delivers the fact that they are not going anywhere!!
With Christmas now a mere 12 weeks down the road, this could be the last chance for retailers to make adequate plans for everyone’s favourite annual shop-fest.
But what does Christmas mean to your business? Are you set up to capitalise on all the available opportunities? Are you even aware of what those opportunities are – particularly from a digital or multi-channel perspective?
With all of the above in mind, here’s my early Christmas present to you, in the form of my ‘5 top tips for multi-channel festive domination’ in the run up to Christmas 2010.
Well its back and it has started with a BANG, well bangers to be precise. Lord Sugar had all 16 candidates working through the night to produce a range of sausages and sell to the public.
Sales Expert Andy Preston explains that although LinkedIn is one of the best business development tools available, many people don’t use it properly, and even worse – make various mistakes that actually LOSE them sales, rather than WIN them…
For many SMEs planning their move to cloud computing, customer relationship management (CRM) is a logical place to begin.
As the hype around Tony Blair’s book continues to cause a stir, one thought leadership strategist is backing his actions as those of a REAL thought leader!
Many of the UK’s SMEs have to fight to survive in their early years and the economic downturn has only made the challenges more difficult. Research shows that around 270,000 small businesses are registered annually in the UK, yet almost the same number close down every year.
The other day I saw some comments made by businesswoman and West Ham Vice-Chairman, Karren Brady, which could’ve come from my own mouth.
Have you ever had one of those tumbleweed moments in a presentation you’ve given when you’ve told a joke, and nobody laughed? Or have you been in the audience and shuffled uncomfortably, acutely embarrassed for the presenter who is desperately trying to recover the situation? In this article we take a look at how to avoid those situations.
An interesting story has been published on the negotiations between one of the most successful candidates for investment to appear on Dragon’s Den and two of the Dragons, James Caan and Duncan Ballantyne, who together agreed to invest £80,000 in Sharon Wright’s business, Talpa Products. And she had only asked for £50,000!
When, some time after her session in the den, Sharon signed up to a contract with very onerous terms without reading the contract she had been given.
