Julian’s Business Tips

Julian’s Business Tips: Playing Business Politics? As I write this in mid-August, the Conservative leadership election is awash with negative comments and divisive ‘wedge’ issues. But ‘that’s politics’, isn’t it? Now I know it’s important to let people understand your position, but in my opinion, the ‘vote for us because the others are worse’ attitude […]

Julian’s Business Tips: How is Your Judgement? It might seem obvious that business people need to look after ourselves – but we’re not very good at it. We know that we need to look after our teams, but lots of managers and leaders have a tendency to ignore themselves – and that isn’t good! These

Julian’s Business Tips: Business as Usual ‘Business as usual’ – what actually is that? At work I’m currently trying to ‘reset’ my team; transition from how we’ve been working over the pandemic, and create what will be the new ‘normal’. As people return from the unusual working practices of the last two years, they’re finding

Julian’s Business Tips: Business is Blooming! Spring is a time for growth, and if your small business is growing, you may be thinking about recruiting new staff. Here’s a really useful exercise you might want to try before you start recruiting seriously. Small businesses are usually based around a few people, and as they grow,

Julian’s Business Tips: Fishing for Customers Marketing is a huge subject – so I’m going to try and sum it up in 250 words for you. Marketing is letting customers know that you have a product they want. And doing it in such a way that they are persuaded to buy it. Simple. Marketing is

Julian’s Business Tips: Your Business Journey Last month’s homework was to think about your long-term objective, your vision. I describe running a successful business as going on a journey – and you need to lead your team to the right destination. Do you know where you’re going? That destination is your vision. Once you have

Julian’s Business Tips: Just You? Or a Team? This month, I want you to think about whether your new business is just you, or do you see yourself employing a team one day? Working on your own is great – freedom from interference and staff problems, but it’s also lonely, and everything falls to you.

Julian’s Business Tips: New Year, New Business Idea? I’m going to begin this year with a series of articles, aimed at startups, but also thought-provoking for established businesses. Lots of people review their lives at this time of year, and many will be toying with the idea of starting a new business. Is that right

Julian’s Business Tips: Swim to Win I watched an interview with Adam Peaty today, a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. He said that it was one of the hardest things he’d ever done – because it involved working with someone else – you relying on them, them relying on you. Business is like that, many

Julian’s Business Tips: To Finish First… ‘I prefer to run as fast as I can,’ I overheard the 10 year old say to his father, ‘Rather than j ust jogging along like them.’ He’d just been watching the last stages of a half marathon, and was unimpressed by the pace of the runners. As one

Julian’s Business Tips: Did You Hear What I Said? As August’s article pointed out, listening is a really important skill. We use listening to do lots of key tasks: to understand things, to gain information, to learn, for enjoyment, and plenty more. But you need to distinguish between hearing things, and listening to them. Research