Blog
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What do your branding colour choices say about your business?
When it comes to your corporate identity, which is, basically, the visual expression of your brand personality, your colour choices are crucial. As explained on the UXPlanet.org: “Colours hold power to influence your audience’s feelings and behaviours. They are a… Continue reading
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Start-up stories: how some of the world’s most successful businesses began
From Nike and Adidas to Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, SUBWAY and Ben & Jerry’s, even the most mighty businesses have humble beginnings. In 1964 University of Oregon athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman started Blue Ribbon Sports as a distributor for Japanese… Continue reading
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Why it’s OK to fail sometimes in business
Chances are, you’ve probably never heard of Traf-O-Data. It was a venture started in the early 1970s by a couple of teenagers from Seattle, Washington. Using the Intel 8008 processor, Traf-O-Data analysed traffic data punched into paper rolls, so traffic… Continue reading
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Harness the power of customer testimonials and case studies
Your small business website may look awesome, complete with fantastic colour, image and design choices throughout. It may be rich in wonderful written (or even video) content, which effortlessly showcases your wares. Your website may be easy to find, use… Continue reading
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How to design a great business logo
No matter how big or small you business, it pays to have a good logo. The world’s largest and most successful businesses realise this, of course. As Peter Shadbolt observed in his BBC News website piece: “From Nike’s ‘Swoosh’ symbol to Starbucks’… Continue reading
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The golden rules of using LinkedIn to attract new customers
LinkedIn has some 610m users in more than 200 countries and territories (20m-plus in the UK). More than 260m LinkedIn users log into the site every month, with 40% of those being active daily users. LinkedIn describes itself as the… Continue reading
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Negotiating: 10 ways to get better results
Negotiating isn’t extraordinary, of course. It’s something that most of us do many times each day, whether formally or informally, in our business or personal lives. Some of us are natural negotiators, while others struggle. However, negotiating isn’t simply a… Continue reading
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Seven key things you really need to get right when starting your own business
Last year, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs, a record-breaking 772,002 new businesses were formed in the UK – a 13.25% increase on 2019’s total. In more recent years, about 650k had been the annual average, so there’s no doubt… Continue reading
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Do I need to file a tax return for my side hustle?
Side hustles have become very popular. According to some sources, more than a third of UK adults already have a side hustle and that could soon increase to half. A side hustle, of course, is a way to earn cash… Continue reading
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How to deal with overdue invoice payments
Late payment continues to prove a major headache for many small businesses. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, late payment impacts 52% of small UK firms, with an estimated 56 million hours of productivity lost each year and 50,000… Continue reading
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Bake Off business lessons: What are the key ingredients for success?
We love The Great British Bake Off in our house. We tune in every week. Reportedly, more than 10.8m viewers watched the first episode of the 11th series when it aired in September (6.9m viewers watched it live, the rest… Continue reading
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Eight ways to ensure that small businesses actually read your content
Many small-business content creators/writers have never worked for a small business, let alone started and run one. That can be highly problematic. Some make assumptions about small businesses and their owners that just aren’t true. Common examples? Well, in truth,… Continue reading
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When is the best time to post on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok?
SMEs are now among the UK’s most active social media users. While an estimated 40% of them were using social media in 2010, that figure was reportedly more than 90% in 2025. Many UK SMEs achieve excellent results from using… Continue reading
