Business advice to help you grow your SME and small & medium sized company and help you grow your company
Over the past few years, social networking sites have developed from a way to keep in touch with friends and family, into a powerful promotional tool for businesses. The likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest represent great opportunities to engage with customers and show a different side to a business.
Negative mentions about a business or its products on the internet could hit a company in the balance sheet, and once a company has a poor online reputation, it could spread like a virus. Companies need to take ownership of their online reputation to avoid potential disaster.
Jo Haigh is a partner in fds Corporate Finance Services, with bases in London, Birmingham and Yorkshire, and a partner in the fds Group, here she gives us her top tips on how not to negotiate.
At the best of times, in any organisation, internal communication is very important. Add a recession, insecure employees and an uncertain future, as companies such as JJB Sports and FirstGroup are currently experiencing, and internal communication becomes paramount. Gail Franks, managing director, Summersault Communications tells us why.
The European victory in Golf’s Ryder Cup was a magnificent example of tenacity. 10-4 down on the final day Poulter and Mcllroy played a series of outstanding shots to deliver a seemingly impossible European victory, but what can business learn from this ‘never give up attitude’?
A company’s web site is its shop window whether it sells online or not, so why is it that so many companies leave their hosting choices to chance, asks Raj Sukkersudha, Managing Director at Q3 Internet Services.
Why is it that experience is the one thing you get just after you need it?
Like all the important things in life you don’t find it in books or university lecture halls. Here Richard Bosworth talks about the lessons learnt.
With the Davies Report published last year, gender diversity has never had a higher profile. The weight of public opinion and threatened legislation are starting to fracture the glass ceiling that has kept women out of the boardroom. Fiona Elsa Dent is Director of Executive Education at Ashridge Business School, and co-author of Women in Business: Navigating Career Success
All independent contractors have gone through this at one point or another. You have a service that you have out in the marketplace and for some reason, you are not able to provide it for what you think it is worth. It isn’t so much that no one will hire you; the problem is that they won’t pay you what you think you should be getting for what you do. Getting paid what you are worth is a subject that can be fraught with assumptions.
If you own a small business, your domain name could be one of the most important assets you own. Creating a clear domain for your website both makes you look credible and provides you with the rights to your trading name. Sally Tomkotowicz from namesco gives us her advice on getting your small business online
Growing a business quickly brings all kinds of challenges. Paul Lindley founder of Ella’s Kitchen and a National Business Award finalist gives us his top tips for growing a business.
Christopher Shaw, CEO of the alternative finance provider Platform Black tells us the signs to watch out for in business that may indicate there is a problem.
Late payment is among the biggest challenges to the cash flow of any individual business, and it also plays a major part in the health of the wider supply chain. Max Firth gives his top tips to getting paid on time.
We see rows and rows of manufactured goods and produce on shop shelves every day, but not many of us wonder just how much effort it took to put them there.
It is unlikely that, between them, the staff of a small business will have as comprehensive a skill set as a larger outfit. But SMEs will encounter problems and require projects completing that their employees may not be trained to tackle, from market research and financial modelling to web design and lead generation.
