Getting advice about your business can sometimes feel like you’re all at sea, surrounded by well-meaning views and opinions, but never quite sure which of them will help you stay afloat. 

This is a particular risk in today’s uncertain economic climate, where the stakes are high, and a poor decision can lead to costly mistakes.

Rising operating and materials costs, funding debts, Covid loan paybacks – as business growth coaches who keep abreast of the market, we know these factors are pushing up business insolvency rates across the country.

On 22nd November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt made his Autumn Statement to Parliament – and despite the challenges of the past three years there were positives in it for businesses.

But much of this upside also requires preparation on your part, so here’s our overview of what you need to know, the changes and the continuities you should expect, how you will benefit from them, and what you will need to do to ensure you don’t miss out.

Building and running a business can sometimes feel like a very lonely affair.  Steering the ship is all well and good, but as business growth coaches we’ve seen many business owners and entrepreneurs who were so lacking in advice and support that they could no longer see either the open water or the rocks.

As business growth coaches, we’ve worked with some truly inspirational entrepreneurs and business owners - and we believe there is huge value in sharing their experiences and feedback around the opportunities, watchouts, and pitfalls that starting and running a new business inevitably entails.

Selling a business is the goal of most business owners at some stage in their career, with the prospect of a comfortable lifestyle thereafter a powerful incentive.

But as business coaches, we at Lesley Jones often see the other side of the coin: business owners who don’t ask themselves the right questions about the sale, about what kind of buyer they’re aiming for, and about the value that kind of buyer is looking for in their purchase.

“People buy people” goes the saying, and as business growth coaches we have seen time and again that the most successful people are those who communicate their offering and their differentiators through compelling stories, not simply through facts, info, and brain dumps.

In a dizzying few months, Charles III went from being the Prince of Wales, in the shadow of a revered and formidable Queen, to celebrating his official birthday as King – a brand new head of a “family firm” that, for almost 70 years, had known one leader and one alone. 

And as business growth coaches, we watched these monumental changes with avid interest.

As a business growth coach, we saw the pandemic sweep aside many notions of business normality and stability, and we were also there to help businesses pivot and get through it.

And three years on, the importance of exploring an alternative strategy, modelling a different way of doing things, or simply trying something new to get round a challenge has most certainly not gone away. 

If you’re a small, solo business, give yourself a hearty pat on the back. The solo self-employed workforce contributes an estimated £278 billion to the UK economy, so you deserve it!

But as business growth coaches, we know the reality is that a pat on the back is not enough in times like these. 

There can be little doubt about it – business insolvency is on the rise.

It has recently been reported that, in the UK, almost 60% of small businesses fail in their first three years. The Government’s own figures show that in January this year (2023) alone, the number of registered company insolvencies was 11% higher than the same period pre-pandemic.

Successful entrepreneurs know they need to take time to reflect and review their progress periodically if they are to achieve their annual goals. With over half of the year gone already, now is a good time to do this, if you haven’t already.  In this article, we look at how to review the progress of your business, and how you can use this information to ensure your business flourishes in the next six months.

Every business owner has a reason why they started their business. Your specific reason for starting a business doesn’t matter. There just needs to be a ‘why’ because this is often the most significant motivating factor.

Whatever business you are in, you are competing with other brands. The last thing you want is to blend into the background, to look and sound the same as your competitors. Instead, you want to stand out. You want to be memorable. You want to give your ideal clients a reason to choose you. And this means defining your very own ‘secret sauce’.

Business owners know that making sales is crucial for their business. To get the money flowing in and the books looking great, they start with a focus on marketing their business and getting their target market to buy. A business with sales rolling in is successful, right? Not necessarily.

Why are so many small businesses failing? While there are a multitude of competing factors, failure to plan the direction of a business is a big one. It is said that one in four small businesses do not have a business plan in place...

Many small business owners start out eager to grow their business, seeing it as their long-term future. Creating an exit strategy in which they set out how they plan to remove themselves from the business is simply not on their agenda...