Recruiting staff is tough; really tough. Can these potential employees really do what they say they can? Will they fit into your team? Will they stay, and for how long? Do they really buy into your vision?

Most of the business owners I work with want to sell their business, for lots of money and retire. Family businesses generally have a different agenda but whatever your goal you need to build value in your business.

Remember the Skoda Cake Car? Well, this week’s guest blog is from the woman whose company  baked the cake that built the car: Sharon Goodyer. Her insightful blog follows a discussion we were having about how to make training in the work place

I'm often asked what is the difference between a business coach and mentor? In many respects they are very similar, they both focus on improvement in the business or the person. But they are different in the way that they are delivered, how the solution is delivered and by whom.

Do you have down days? No energy, zero personal productivity, low drive or enthusiasm?

Well, you're not alone; everyone I know has just such periods. But somehow we all manage to eventually shake them off but it’s so frustrating to look back on that wasted time?

I'll bet a penny to a pound that you don't have a job description – you’ll have a job title – and your team will call you the boss. As a small business owner I know that you'll end up doing everything in the business.

As a business leader it is your responsibility to solve, or to make sure that, problems are solved. Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

Problem solving is challenging but it’s critical to business success. But too many businesses spend far too much time, money and energy putting up with problems in their businesses rather than solving them.

I've always been puzzled as to why internal communications always comes at the bottom of the to-do list. I found that many businesses are great at communicating externally but when it comes to internal communications it's just a mess.