Welcome to Essential Business. If you were to ask us what we do, we’d say, “We create business guides, workbooks and online courses for business start-ups, small and micro business owners, and the professionals who support them”.
Why do we do it? Because running a business is challenging, sometimes scary and always demanding. We know it is because we’ve done it and we’re still doing it. We want to help anyone running or advising a small business to gain the vital skills and understanding that make business success more likely.
Our strapline is: Taking care of business. We care about business, we care about the people who run their own businesses, and we care about educating people about the right and wrong ways of doing business.
Who we are
Essential Business was founded, owned and run by Julie Stanford way back in 2002. She had been running her own businesses for 20 years, and her experience during those years prompted her to create and develop the first Essential Business publications:
I felt (and still do!) that business is far easier to talk or write about than to do. I also suspected that I wasn’t the only person who sometimes struggled to find the right answers to my many and varied business questions.
Asking around, I realised that I wasn’t the only one. Other business people I knew felt just as frustrated. Although there are many, many books available and hundreds of pages of free content on the internet, sorting the good from the bad (and sometimes downright wrong!) was difficult and a waste of precious time.
So, because my background was in planning and designing books and workbooks that people can read and understand, I decided to stop wondering and start doing. My goal was simple: clarify what’s involved in starting and running a business, ditch (or explain) the jargon, and create inviting and easy-to-follow learning materials that help build essential business skills, step by step.
How we started
In 2003, Julie gathered a team of collaborators and subject specialists, and together they wrote, designed and published the first book in the Essential Business range, the Essential Business Guide. The book won the Plain English award, is now in its fourth edition and has been used by thousands of business owners and their advisers.
Over the years, customers asked for other learning materials, presented in the same clear and jargon-free style, so we created a series of practical workbooks, courses and trainer support materials.
Where we’re going
In January 2025, MENTA were pleased to acquire the Essential Business series content with Julie joining the team as publishing and content consultant. Together, we’ll continue to make complicated business information easy to read and understand.
Alex Till, Chief Executive Officer of MENTA, says:
We have used Essential Business materials for many years, and when the opportunity arose to acquire the content, we jumped at the chance. We know first-hand the value in these materials, and our joint aim is to produce resources for business support professionals to help business owners gain the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. We look forward to making these excellent guides and workbooks available for business owners for many years to come.
