I’ve recently started work on a new book: The Big Book of Business Ideas. I’d like to include a number of case studies in the book and some ‘from the trenches’ advice. In order to compile the case studies and advice, I need around 400 small business owners to answer a simple questionnaire. What’s in [...]

John’s recent post Never Let Lawyers Write Your Contracts prompted me to think more widely about the things which prevent us from winning sales – even though that was not the intention. Every business has to make sales, deliver a product or service and then collect payment – making a profit along the way. Most [...]

Everything your business does, every bit of communication your business sends out and everything your employees do whilst on duty/in uniform reflects on your business. No matter how much you spend on ‘branding’ these actions affect the image of your brand that your customers, suppliers and employees have far more than any ‘branding’. That communication [...]

A reader asks: I’d like to start an Internet dating site. Where can I get hold of the software to be able to start one?  How much is web dating software likely to cost me? A quick Google suggests there’s quite a bit of free dating site software available, although how good it is, or [...]

In recent weeks, we bought a horse – it is 16 years since we last went through this process. The changes in the buying process made me think. Instead of buying local papers and using a red pen, we read web sites and search databases against a precise set of criteria. We looked at detailed [...]

A reader asks: For a while now I have had an idea about starting up my own business delivering locally sourced meat, vegetables, fruit etc. all sourced from my local farmers and deliver to the public. I know there are a lot of large firms providing this service but they are in the main just [...]

There are millions of sources of business advice. Some are good. Some are less good. It is often relatively straight forward to keep asking people for advice until you find someone who advises you to do what you wanted to do in the first place. This can be good. But it is unlikely to lead [...]

I’ve previously blogged about poor customer service, notably my experiences with Lloyds TSB (Lloyds TSB Customer Dissatisfaction Guaranteed), the letting agent I used (Remain A Customer Or We’ll Sue You) and an organisation that will remain nameless (We Solemnly Promise To Let You Down). I’m suffered countless other instances of bad service, including yet another [...]