Pricing is by far the most powerful profit lever that business owners can influence. However, only some approach pricing in a way that fully capitalises on its value. For the majority of businesses, pricing is very much an afterthought. Customers who buy on price will bleed you dry if you let them, they will attempt to suck the life right out of your business. As there is no loyalty with shoppers who are price based only, they’re only in it for what’s in it for them and will change at the drop of a hat or £/$.  There are 3 golden rules for setting the perfect price. Rule No.1. Your price ..read more

What is a high-value self-managing business in the first place? It is a business that virtually runs itself, or can survive for months without a significant amount of your time (as the business owner) and effort. The vast majority of businesses are not in this fortunate position, they require significant input on a daily basis from the owners.  There are effectively two classes of business:- Owner-Centric Businesses. The vast majority of small businesses are built around the owner of the business and require a significant amount of time and effort from them to operate effectively. These ..read more

More and more people are looking at starting a business, but is it right for you? Since the pandemic, there has been an explosion of people looking to start their own businesses. For some, the time spent in lockdown was a time to reflect on what they had achieved whilst working for others. And for others, it was an opportunity to explore new adventures and think about starting their own business. Starting a business is not for everyone people decide to start a business for all sorts of reasons. For some it’s simple, they see an opportunity with a new product or service and they leap into actio ..read more

Five things you need to look for when buying a small business. Are you thinking of buying a small business? Then making sure it’s a good investment is crucial. There’s little point in spending loads of money on a venture that will cause you a lot of headaches and could drain you of all your financial and personal resources.  There are plenty of examples of when buying the wrong business has had calamitous outcomes for the purchaser. So, where should you start? What do you want from the purchase? And what features make a company worth the investment?  Here we outline five criteria you ..read more

You’ve spent years, perhaps even decades, building your business, and now you’re ready to sell. But what’s it worth? And is it an attractive buy? Here we detail six business valuation methods and some of the features that make it a more desirable purchase. What makes your business enticing to buy? Even though you may have spent a lot of time and energy growing your company, specific features make a business more enticing to buy. These include: Location. Where your business is situated could have a significant impact on its worth. A solid financial situation, including enviable cash flow, an e ..read more

“May you live in interesting times” This is an English expression that is claimed to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in “uninteresting times” of peace and tranquility than in “interesting” ones, which are usually times of trouble.  Whether you like it or not we certainly live in interesting times, what with the recent pandemic and now the ‘shortages’ of certain staples of modern life such as fuel and certain foods.  The recent fuel crisis in the UK demonstrates one of the fundament ..read more

Did you know that the key to great marketing is to communicate your inside reality to the outside? This blog is all about your inside reality versus outside perception. Have you ever thought about why people choose your business over another? Have you ever really given serious thought as to the purpose of marketing? If you’ve thought about the former, you’ll probably say things like we give superior service or our products are better, or we’ve spent a long time building up a great relationship, or even, our prices are better than the competition, but is any of this the real reason?  The t ..read more

Prescription Without Diagnosis is Malpractice, in this blog we’ll introduce you to SPIN Selling techniques that overcome this fundamental problem. Here’s a thing that I see all the time from both professional advisors and the keyboard warriors/experts who occupy the world of social media. It’s providing a prescription before doing any sort of diagnosis. If you ever go on social media and see people reaching out and asking a question of whatever community they’re in, suddenly they’ll be inundated with thousands of responses, all offering advice, or more often trying to sell to them. Of course ..read more

There are a few fundamental skills that a business owner needs in order to build a successful business. Motivation, persistence, marketing and sales, financial skills to name a few. However, one that gets left off most lists is decision-making skills. I’ve written before about how you and your business are a function of the decisions you’ve made over your lifetime both good and bad. Yet decision-making skills are not on most business owners’ radar.  Decision-making is simultaneously the best skill you can learn, and the hardest skill to actually master. When it comes to decision making, t ..read more

Have you ever pondered on why you’re not getting to where you want to get to. You want to build a big successful business but it’s just not happening. You feel that you’re busy all the time, in fact, you probably never have a minute to spare. I bet that you’ve even tried all the time management techniques to improve your productivity. One thing that you might not have tried is the Eisenhower matrix. I’m not talking about a tool to manage time but rather a discipline, decision framework to manage ourselves and our own priorities and expectations.  The Eisenhower Matrix (also called the urg ..read more