You might ask, ‘What has leadership got to do with numbers?’. In most business schools around the world, the two are totally distinct subjects. In our experience, however, knowing your numbers is part of understanding the context in which you are operating, and it is only by knowing your numbers that you can have the proper perspective in which to make important strategic decisions that will influence whether or not you can reach your goals. The best leaders therefore have to have a strong...

We all know it can be a roller-coaster of a ride being an entrepreneur, so having the right support from your family can be critical. On the flip side, it is also critical to find the right balance between dedicating time to your business and dedicating time to your loved ones. Failure to do so can lead to unhappy endings where relationships break down. So, if your objective as an entrepreneur is to create a better life for yourself and your family, managing these two crucial forces becomes...

When generations to come look back at 2018 in the history books, it is fair to say it might be labelled ‘The Year of Uncertainty’. Today, it seems, we are still no clearer than we were on January 1^st, 2018, about the terms under which we will leave the European Union, or what life – and business – will look like afterwards.

We first had the opportunity of getting to know Jane, founder and CEO of accredited healthcare training provider ECG, during her BGP  journey in January 2018, and more recently she has shared her inspirational story with us. Read the interview to learn how she quit her job and successfully built not only a business, but a lifestyle that has granted her freedom, flexibility and a priceless sense of accomplishment.

When you are cash strapped and resource hungry, how do you beat the odds and increase your chances of becoming a successful social entrepreneur?

So you've had a great idea for a business. You've done your research and you've set up your home office. But now what? How do you make it through year one? How do you make it to years three and five without becoming just another statistic on how many companies fail within their first years of trading?

When should we attempt to enter the market? When can we start to talk about our ideas? And who else is doing the same thing?

Under these various conditions of uncertainty, we come across the ‘window of opportunity’.

Getting a product to market can take a long time. Ensuring its robustness, trialling it, researching markets, and gathering resources are all long-winded processes so…

It's often difficult for an entrepreneur to know the right time to hand over the reins of their company.

There's certainly no shortage of company founders who claim to have been unfairly ousted from the role of CEO of their own company by their investors. However, a transition in the role of the company founder does not have to end in tears, many entrepreneurs successfully manage a change in leadership, both for themselves and their businesses.

Jamie Waller has been there and done it, when he joined the Business Growth Programme in 2010, his business was turning over £4m and losing £400k per year. In 2016, Jamie sold that business for over £40m!

How can we actively sustain our personal performance at work?

Looking after our physical selves at work has never been so important. At any level of the business, being overworked, receiving a lack of managerial support (above and below), plus constant change create ideal circumstances for pressure and ultimately, burnout. The picture is not improving either. 

The rates of work related stress in the UK have remained flat for over a decade (HSE 2016). Long working hours continue to be...

The benefits gained by each participant are unique as the Business Growth Programme (BGP) is centred entirely on the reality of your business – your current challenges, opportunities, future goals and ambitions.

Here is a sample of our magnificent alumni, a cross-section from the BGP’s long history which has seen more than 2,300 owner-managers complete the programme, recounting their different experiences of the BGP and the unique benefits to themseves and their businesses.

The challenge of handing on the baton to the next generation has not become any easier.

With family businesses still accounting for 70-95% of the commercial enterprises in most countries, just 30% of EU-based family businesses survive to the next generation (according to trade association European Family Businesses). This is fairly consistent across the developed world, which means, statistically, just 1% will progress from the fourth to fifth generation.

More than half of business start-ups fail after four to five years, and of those that survive only around 4% become successful. One of the aspects that distinguishes these entrepreneurs from the competition is their approach to strategy.

Successful entrepreneurs tend to embrace rather than reject corporate strategies, and they will often trade off or tone down brash entrepreneurial behaviour for a more civilised approach. This results in a strategy with a winning formula for entrepreneurs...

Geeta Sidhu-Robb is a true inspiration for any budding entreprenuers out there, we first met Geeta in 2013 when she completed the Business Growth Programme and we are proud to have played a part in her entrpeneurial journey so far.