Business black holes, the cycles between them and how to jump your business into greater growth. The predictable problem of business black holes Some 20 years ago I interviewed around 700 small businesses to discover whether the growth and stall trends I’d previously been analysing in big business still occurred in the small business market. They certainly … Read more
Leading a team comes with a unique set of challenges. Managing people comes with a lot of responsibilities too. You need to develop yourself as well as your team. If you want to be a more effective manager, here are three core leadership skills you should use that can help you. Accountability is leadership Holding … Read more
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work directly with a number of leaders. I define these as people who lead their own teams and organisations. What makes some of them good leaders? My answer is personal and subjective. Note the “some of them” reference. Being good at your profession does not necessarily … Read more
Once upon a time, marketing agencies were profitable businesses. They were tough to get into and get the first few accounts, but competition was reasonable and the business model provided sufficient profit margins. Today, that is no longer the case. It is very easy to get into the business, but it’s very hard to grow … Read more
As part of a coaching programme I am taking part in, I was tasked to ask my colleagues to describe how they see me as leader. So, I asked some of my team at Empower Agency how they saw me as a leader in an anonymous survey. Here are their responses: Very helpful and reassuring … Read more
Interesting read in the Singapore Business Times from Anthea Ong, founder and chairperson of WorkWell Leaders, a non-profit collective of CEOs and leaders focused on championing workplace mental health and wellbeing. The key quote for me: "Employee mental health has never been given more attention by employers. However, experts say late-stage pandemic fatigue is also … Read more
(Thanks to Neil Grayshon for the image!) Building an excellent communications team requires lots of equally-excellent strategy, hiring, people management and culture building – and more. I knew when I started at FutureGov that I didn’t have experience in this area, so reached out to the good and the great of the UK PR industry … Read more
Ah, networking. Otherwise known as "talking to other people about what they do" or "collecting as many business cards / twitter / LinkedIn connections as physically possible". Have you ever read an article about networking that wasn’t full of common sense points and cliché? They mostly describe networking experiences as working something like this: In … Read more
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.429180!/file/Working.as.self.employed.or.freelance.pdf https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/imports/fileManager/AGCAS%20Self-employment.pdf Self-employment Why do it? The definition of self-employment is ‘starting and running a successful business or social enterprise’. Many famous companies began this way as visionary men and women patented an invention, created a company or registered a brand. Although an excellent business idea plays a key role in the ultimate success of … Read more