Why productivity matters
Productive companies get more out of what they’ve got, enabling them to increase their profits, pay higher wages and invest in their future. More productive businesses mean a more prosperous country. Discover why productivity matters below.
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Sales & Growth
Article
When does it make sense to turn work down?
Making the decision to turn work down is agonising. But focusing on your USP and profitable business is essential. So, when should you turn work down?
Marketing & Sales
Sales & Growth
Article
Honing the company offering using customer feedback
While there have never been more ways for comments – be it positive or negative – to be given on products or services, customer feedback can be a powerful tool, if used wisely.
Marketing & Sales
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Joining a family business advisory board can unlock new leadership skills
Three business leaders share their advisory board experience and reveal an unexpected perk – advisors to family businesses gain as much as they give.
Improve your own leadership capabilities
Planning
Article
Help de-risk business growth by taking these simple steps
Ambition needs to be tempered with practical steps to de-risk growth. Entrepreneurs share the approach they take to balance growth and sustainability.
Ambition
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Your best lockdown decisions – We ask 18 business leaders to reflect
Be the Business asked 18 SME leaders to tell us the most impactful lockdown decisions they’ve made since the coronavirus outbreak began.
Planning
Article
How I successfully applied for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
Barry Leahey successfully applied for funding through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. He talks us through the key steps he took.
Sales & Growth
Article
Focus on what makes you truly unique as a business
When brother and sister team Harry and Leah Lobek decided they couldn’t put off starting a business any longer, the two knew the concept needed to stand out in a crowded market. The end result, London Shell Co., definitely hits the mark there.
Marketing & Sales
Leadership & Strategy
Article
A look at the management style changes made by successful business leaders
Whether they realise it or not, leaders in everything from business to sport have a management style. What separates the best from also rans is the ability to change this style as the environment around them evolves.
Leadership Behaviours
People & Team
Article
To furlough or not to furlough – how to make tough decisions about staff
Ccoronavirus has meant owners and leaders are facing some of the toughest decisions of their lives. Here's some help when it comes to your people.
Leadership & Strategy
Article
What vision and values building really teaches you
Sometimes it's the journey that teaches the most about your destination – at least that’s how I feel having been part of a vision and values building process.
Vision & Values
People & Team
Article
SMEs need to develop career paths or risk losing staff
Small businesses have to establish viable career paths to retain staff. Three business leaders share the steps they’ve taken.
Talent development
Digital Readiness
Article
Want to rid yourself of those pesky business admin burdens? Here are some great solutions
From balancing the company books to paying utility bills, business admin can start to become a real productivity drain. However, embracing technology automating processes means this needn’t always be the case.
Digital Commerce
Leadership & Strategy
Article
I suggested to our competitors that we all suspend trading
At the start of the coronavirus crisis, Hattons Model Railways MD came up with a bold idea that had the power to help everyone – competitors included.
External Collaboration
Digital Readiness
Article
Don’t use outsourcing to hide from a problem
Outsourcing should never be used as a way to blindly hand ownership of a problem to someone else knows Dave Walker, director of technology at storage specialist Lovespace.
Digital Commerce
Digital Readiness
Article
Let Google train your team in Google Analytics
While most SMEs agree that Google Analytics is a vitally important data tool founder of marketing agency Digital Clarity, Reggie James says that more than half of all companies are not very clear on how they should be using it.
Digital Commerce
People & Team
Article
We invest in learning and development schemes to see great outcomes
If you want results from your learning and development schemes, then you need to invest in them believes Stephen Oakden, director of BE Design.
Talent development
Digital Readiness
Article
An opportune time to fast-track digital change
Despite causing numerous setbacks, the coronavirus crisis has given St Michaels Resort a golden opportunity to embrace digital change future-proof the business.
Planning
Article
Getting your staff interested in business turnover and profit
Financial indicators like turnover and profit can feel like abstract ideas to employees, particularly if they aren’t non-revenue generating. Yet every staff member has an impact on company performance.
Target Setting
Sales & Growth
Article
The businesses selling into unusual export countries
Libya, Jordan, Senegal and the Philippines – all unusual export countries British SMEs are doing business with. Be the Business looked at how each of these companies selected the right trading nations and what was crucial in de-risking the process.
Expanding & Exporting
Leadership & Strategy
Article
What a butcher can learn from a steel supplier
Sharing common business problems has brought companies from very different backgrounds together and begun to form long-lasting support networks.
Seek external advice
People & Team
Article
How to monitor your best performing staff and empower them
While most focus may go on dealing with members of staff not pulling their weight, business leaders must be careful to not ignore their best performing staff who are the most important assets.
Talent development
Planning
Article
Rapid innovation in a traditional sector
Lockdown for business owners Mark Holden and Tom Jenkinson mandated a period of rapid innovation – and a glimpse of an interesting new world.
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Peter Bibby: I hate waste and I’m efficiency mad
We spoke with Peter Bibby, an expert in turning around failing businesses, with over 20 survival stories under his belt. He shares with us the importance of efficiency and what it takes to make a small and medium-size enterprise successful.
Leadership Behaviours
Digital Readiness
Article
What we learned from using Slack for the first time
Devotees say Slack increases productivity, communication and transparency. But is it all it’s cracked up to be? Business owners share their experience.
Digital Commerce