“I don’t really understand my business’s numbers. Our costs are huge, we aren’t growing, and we have no contingency to cover us if anything goes wrong.”

“My business is doing really well. My customers all know me by name and trust me to do a good job. I don’t know much about our competitors, but I’m sure they aren’t doing as well as us”

Many small businesses struggle with a fundamental lack of understanding of their markets, customers and competitors. You’ll ask owner-managers how big their market is, and they have no idea. You’ll ask where the opportunities for the market are. They will talk about where they sell to, but they probably won’t...

“The business is doing really well. We’ve achieved so much since we started out, but I don’t know where to go from here”

Strategy is not a silver bullet. It is not that thing that you find and can use forever without ever changing it. It is not a mathematical solution where there can only be one answer. The context is always shifting, meaning that what led you to success yesterday, may not lead you to success today.

There is a common misconception that, because SMEs have fewer resources at their disposal than large companies, this will stifle their ability to innovate. While it is true that SMEs may not have the resources of large corporates, the streamlined nature of most SMEs means that things can be done without much bureaucracy - which is actually an enormous advantage to innovation.

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.