General Business - Ongoing Growth

A to Z listing of Directors briefings

Reaching out. Almost every business needs to promote itself in some way, reaching out to customers and potential customers.

More and more businesses are using email to improve their communications. It can be a quick, convenient and effective way of contacting both customers and other members of your team, without the disruptive effect of a phone call.

The Internet is a powerful tool for improving your business's efficiency. But it can also be a great way for employees to waste time, damage the security of your IT system and give you legal headaches.

The confidence to win. Developing assertiveness can be the key to getting the best out of your people - increased sales, better customer service, higher productivity and more ideas for improvement.

What are the odds? Accidents, mistakes and misunderstandings can happen in any business

Are you measuring up? Every business can use benchmarking. At its simplest it helps you to compare statistics and control costs. More sophisticated benchmarking looks at process design and business strategy.

Controlling the future. No business can know exactly what the future holds. But budgeting reduces the level of uncertainty, helping you anticipate problems, learn from the past and improve your ability to control the business.

Customer loyalty matters because selling more to existing customers is easier, and cheaper, than finding and selling to new ones.

Individual investment. Finance of £10,000 to £250,000 can be surprisingly difficult to obtain. Banks generally require security and most venture capital firms are not interested in financing these amounts.