Business

The way we start our business is going to vary from one person to another. You might have a guy who gets on well with people throughout school and on into college or university. At the school level, he would have been marked out early as a Prefect and more than likely on to Head Boy. People instinctively look to him for advice and a little confidence boost when working together on projects or schemes. This naturally singles him out later in life as one of those high achievers. There are many who start off that way but can fade...

With a very new, fledgeling business, there are many little rules and ideas that should be adhered to along the way. Formulating a business plan is a major one. If money is to be acquired either via a grant, or loan, then the lender will need to see that business plan – a year, five year and ten-year projections will need to make sense. The ideas behind the product and sustainability are essential. Showing clearly how the product or service has been financed so far will indicate whether the loan or grant will be used to boost and grow the...

There can be nothing more frustrating for a business person than sitting waiting for someone to arrive, or if they have, to get themselves organised and ready for the meeting. We do spend an inordinate amount of time travelling – be that in the car or on trains, planes etc. There have been some amazing innovations in the last 20 or 25 years that could cut out a great deal of this extra burden. By holding electronic, web-based meetings. Virtual meetings. Using shared online business meetings etc. All these ideas are really fantastic and with a bit of ingenuity and...

Can you imagine just how long it would take to write up a whole business plan on sheets of foolscap paper? All that scribbling out and starting over. Forgetting to take photocopies but then when the plan got changed, having to write that part all over again. It seems completely unimaginable now that we ever had to do without computers. In fact, it would have been nearly as bad with just typewriters – until the word processor came along. I was lucky enough to work for a very forward-thinking boss – when I took over the role of his private...