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?

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 associated...

Every business is different and enjoys a distinct journey - past and future. Furthermore, each business owner or manager is different and will undertake a personal growth journey specific to them. Here are 8 lessons BGP delegates have learnt about themselves and about their business on the programme - in their own, unedited words...

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 and...

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.

I’m delighted to share with you a phrase that we often use on the Business Growth Programme (BGP) – squeezing the lemon!

Over my career I have taken business courses at Cranfield University, Stanford University and the London Business School (LBS).

In my opinion only one of them truly understood early stage business and the leadership credentials it takes to run one. That was Cranfield. I am not saying that Stanford and LBS were not excellent schools but they were almost entirely run by academics and attended by academic business people too.

Almeda scoop double awards at the prestigious National Family Business Awards 2017! 

In the last Management Essentials blog, we looked at 5 key sales and profit terms, we will now provide explanations for the basic things needed to understand business cash-flow and the business phenomenon commonly known as “working capital”.

Having worked with hundreds of SMEs through Cranfield’s Business Growth Programme (BGP), for over 10 years now, it is more often than not, a lack of know-how with finance that inhibits business owners and hampers or restricts business growth.These blog...

What could you achieve in 20 minutes? Catch-up on emails, make that call you keep putting off, take a quick look at the figures and see if you're on track? OR, create a 14-page business growth plan that will benchmark you against some of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs?

Guest blog, provided by Sean Singleton, BGP Alumni, Managing Director at Your Favourite Story.

The beauty of digital marketing is it allows SME businesses to punch massively above their weight. However, it's not easy and requires effort and expertise.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for SME businesses to find new effective routes to engage customers at every level. As product lifecycles continue to decrease and brand loyalty is at an all-time low, businesses must re-examine marketing...