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6 things playing games can teach us about business
by Ben Fowler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Ben Fowler on Small Business
Games are often seen as a fun way of passing time and considered a distraction from education and professional success. However, we’re turning that view on its head. We believe games are actually an abundant source of business lessons that SME leaders can benefit from. We launched the Let’s Play Business! podcast to help business leaders understand the lessons that can be drawn from the games around them, many of which they’ve probably played at some point in their lives.
6 things games can teach us about doing business
We’ve had some excellent business leaders on as guests, including Chris Rhodes, operations director at The Tech Dept, and Susanna Lawson, CEO and co-founder of OneFile and 2017’s Businesswoman of the Year.
Here are the top tips discussed in the first four episodes:
#1 – Strategic thinking – defend what can be defended, consolidate and build back up
Both Monopoly Deal and chess are great at encouraging strategic thinking, with players asking themselves, what actions can I take now to improve my current situation and what actions will have the most significant impact? When you’re running a business, the same applies, especially when the challenges are multiple and often
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Top 7 turnaround tips to save your small business from going under
by Steve Swayne • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Steve Swayne on Small Business
On average some 300 plus companies fail every week in the UK, with multiple effects: employees lose their livelihoods, customers lose access to services, suppliers, creditors and shareholders all lose money.
Not every company can be turned around, but there are many stressed businesses that, with professional time-limited expertise, can reverse their decline and prosper. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented and complex challenges for businesses and in the short to medium term we are likely to see even highly competent management teams stressed and challenged.
Just over a month into lockdown, we published a societal impact report that conservatively estimated that our turnaround expert members saved more than 200,000 jobs and protected £2bn in enterprise value in the previous year. The report also looked at the key steps in achieving an effective turnaround and the specific challenges for SMEs.
Although for SMEs a typical turnaround is between three and 18 months, a longer period of two to two-and-a-half years is required. The first period is about stabilisation, understanding what has gone wrong and resetting the direction. The second 12 months is about building on change and preparing for growth.
With a turnaround approach, this unprecedented situation
Hot Business News Today
Top 7 turnaround tips to save your small business from going under
by Steve Swayne • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Steve Swayne on Small Business
On average some 300 plus companies fail every week in the UK, with multiple effects: employees lose their livelihoods, customers lose access to services, suppliers, creditors and shareholders all lose money.
Not every company can be turned around, but there are many stressed businesses that, with professional time-limited expertise, can reverse their decline and prosper. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented and complex challenges for businesses and in the short to medium term we are likely to see even highly competent management teams stressed and challenged.
Just over a month into lockdown, we published a societal impact report that conservatively estimated that our turnaround expert members saved more than 200,000 jobs and protected £2bn in enterprise value in the previous year. The report also looked at the key steps in achieving an effective turnaround and the specific challenges for SMEs.
Although for SMEs a typical turnaround is between three and 18 months, a longer period of two to two-and-a-half years is required. The first period is about stabilisation, understanding what has gone wrong and resetting the direction. The second 12 months is about building on change and preparing for growth.
With a turnaround approach, this unprecedented situation
Hot Business News Today
4 tips to prepare for Brexit uncertainty – whatever happens
by Victoria Brocklesby • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Victoria Brocklesby on Small Business
The subject of Brexit fills many with dread as we continue to talk about it ad nauseam. That said, one way or another, a decision will be made which will greatly influence how UK businesses operate moving forward. The impact will be huge.
How Brexit has affected my firm
From the moment the Brexit decision was announced, we knew that it was going to be a huge change for us. Roughly 50pc of the aluminium we buy is from Spain and Germany, while a large number of our workforce comes from Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. We are still continually working to assess the risks Brexit might throw at us and how we might mitigate them, in both the short and long term.
Initially, we introduced several safeguards to ensure our operations continued at the usual high standard. We invested heavily in relationships with our European suppliers, who agreed to extend our credit terms across the entire turbulent Brexit period. On top of this, more than £3.5 million of aluminium profile was stockpiled at our factory in High Wycombe, so that we would not be impacted if there is ever any border controversy. Additional support
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Karren Brady Q&A – 6 qualities of a successful entrepreneur
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Baroness Karren Brady – best-known as Lord Sugar’s advisor on The Apprentice – is unwavering in her decision to go into the business world.
Small Business caught up with her as she addressed an audience of entrepreneurs in the VWorks co-working space at Bristol’s Village Hotel.
When asked what else she would be doing given the choice, she earnestly replied that there was nothing else she’d rather be doing, pointing out that “even if you’re a rock star, you have sing the same songs over and over again”.
In among the victories, the setbacks and the lighter moments, Brady shared six attributes that she thinks make a strong business owner.
Leadership
Karren Brady says that successful leadership is about knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do.
As a business owner and a parent, she taught her kids the ability to have independence, ambition and opinions of their own.
Ambition
In business you’ve got to carry on being a success and she praises Lord Sugar highly for that. On The Apprentice, when Lord Sugar is shown as being somewhere at 4am, he really is. He’s the first in the office and the last to leave, says Brady.
Determination
A key
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Nearly half of co-founders buy their business partners out – survey
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
More than two fifths (43pc) of company founders are forced to buy their co-founders out of their businesses due to rifts and power struggles.
The most common reason for founding teams to split is a difference in opinions over the company’s direction, according to a survey by venture capitalist Fuel Ventures.
Of the 43pc of founders who’d been forced to buy out their fellow co-founder, more than two thirds (71pc) said it was due to “a difference of opinions for the company’s direction”, while 18pc said they felt their former partner “didn’t reciprocate their beliefs/values”.
And nearly all of those founders who’d split said the schism was triggered by “a single specific disagreement”, following a period of dispute or unrest within the founding team.
Nearly three quarters (73pc) of founders said they would never co-found a business again. And 81pc of those who would consider co-founding a business again said they would only do it with someone “they knew well”.
As to why entrepreneurs felt they needed a co-founder, 57pc of those surveyed said they felt more confident and comfortable having someone to run the business with, while one third (32pc) said they felt obliged to have a