This blog is longer than my usual offering but worth it, I hope, for the point it makes.
If you don’t have the time (or possibly the inclination!) to read it, you can listen instead:
I’ve just come back from a week away, travelling around the UK on business. I stayed in three hotels on my travels. The first two failed with their customer service in such small, easy-to-put-right ways — the third showed them how to do it. [Read more…]
Some business stories leave you feeling impressed at the courage of the person at the core of the business: its founder. Recently I watched this video about how LEGO® came about. (Thanks to the great website, Brain Pickings for leading me to it.) [Read more…]
Too busy to read this? Listen to Julie on SoundCloud instead. She’ll soon put you to sleep…
This morning, I’ve been pondering the nature of business (as you do). Prompted, for the most part, by the recent news that the UK energy providers are raking in the profits (up by 733% we’re told) and Vodafone are paying just £1,400 tax on profits of £3.5bn*.
It’s no wonder that some people hate business. It feels lately that every newspaper we open, radio or TV we turn on, or blog we read, regales us with stories of corporate greed, hidden profits and backroom deals.
But — and it’s a big but — we risk confusing the vehicle with the driver. [Read more…]
I’ve just been watching the BBC programme, Dragons’ Den on catch-up TV. During the show, an artisan is pitching for investment in his company, which sells high-price hanging garden seats.
Towards the end of his (unsuccessful) pitch, one of the ‘dragons’, Hilary Devey, tells the artist that he could be sourcing manufacture of his product in Morocco, for a tenth of the price he pays in the UK. The artist replies, ‘But we do have to keep some work here in the UK. It’s not just about outsourcing everything, surely?’ [Read more…]
OK, OK. You need to be past a certain age to get the reference to Weebles. They were a 1970s toy which had a heavy base. When you pushed them, they wobbled… but they never fell over.
I was talking the other day to a business friend, Ben. He likened me to a Weeble (and I’m hoping it’s my resilience he was referring to!).
Ben and I were discussing just how resilient business owners have to be to cope with the daily pressures of running a business. I started thinking about the number of very large orders of our Essential Business Guide we have been asked to quote for over the past years. [Read more…]