How to manage change in the workplace

Businesses can become set in their ways, responding to circumstances but not moving ahead and creating opportunities. The result may be stagnating profits and personnel who are just coasting along. When this happens it's time to introduce new work practices. But how you bring about change is crucially important if it is to have a successful outcome. Here are the steps involved to make change easy for your business.

Making the transition from practitioner to MD

You've set up a thriving business, you're doing well, but you have a long-held ambition to expand and run several outlets. How do you set about achieving your dream? This feature looks at the issues to consider, focusing on how one businessman achieved success and how you and follow in his footsteps.

One year on... what next?

You launched your own business a year ago. You have met all your early objectives and things are going well. How do you stay on course and keep up the level of excitement and achievement? And what is the next step?

A systematic approach to decision-making

Making decisions can be difficult - but not making them or making the wrong one can be disastrous. Here's a simply approach to help you make the right decision every time.

Management training to build an empire

Jeremy Dew tells how a change of style encouraged growth for his hair salon. After 18 years in hairdressing, he decided it was time to reinvent himself. He had a grand vision but he knew he needed to give himself a kick-start to turn this into reality. This is how he did it.

Why hi-tech most companies fail and what to do about it

Discover the hallmarks of successful hi-tech companies and avoid the classic mistakes.

How to make your staff think for themselves

The same scene is enacted a thousand times a day in offices up and down the country! You are hard at work, concentrating on something important, and there is a knock on the door. You pause. A member of your team comes in asking, 'What should I do about...? Actually it is easier than you think to train your staff to think for themselves. Here is a simple two-step formula to help you do it.

Protecting your livelihood should you be struck down

What price peace of mind? We look at the options available for insuring yourself and your business against personal disaster.

How mentoring can help drive your business forward

It is lonely at the top of any business, big or small. How mentoring can help you drive your business forward.

How to turn an antagonist back into a working associate

Sometimes people lose their temper without warning, and the fallout can be disastrous. Here are some practical tips to help you resolve such tricky situations.

Seven tips to improve your chances of success

A third of all new businesses fail. These seven fundamental business development ideas will improve your chances not only of surviving but growing and succeeding too.

How one man bands can keep the office going while away

Do you work on your own? Or is the person you work with also the person you want to go on holiday with? Yet it is vital to have regular breaks to recharge your batteries. But you can still escape from the office - follow 10 tips for a smooth get-away.

Developing a business strategy

It's never good to be complacent - however well things seem to be going. You should always have a strategy to grow your business, though growth can mean into an empire or equally into a more stable business. Here are the seven steps to creating a strategy to grow and increase profits.

How you can profit from values

There is a place for values in every business - and it might do your bottom line more good than you would expect. The qualities of leaders are in the values they set.

How to get inside people's heads

Understanding people is an essential ingredient to business success. Learn how to recognise the four main types of personality - reserved or out-going task-focused personalities, and reserved or outgoing people -focused personalites. Then discover how best to handle each type.

Do you value your business?

Values exist in your business, whether you realise it or not. The important question is, are they YOUR values? What makes a leader and how to inspire people to follow you.

Get fit - get yourself a coach!

Winning athletes have coaches - so why not winning business owners? Learn about a proven way to maximise your potential. How coaching works. How to find the right one for you. How much you can expect to pay. Includes a case study.

The ends justify the means

Everyone in business must set themselves goals to achieve - but how do you measure whether you are succeeding? Everyone has heard the old saying, 'The ends justify the means'. This has come to have slightly sinister overtones - but in business this is literally true!

Time to plan for disaster

After 11 September 2001, no-one in business can pretend to be immune from disaster. We look at how to prepare a simple contingency plan. Includes useful contacts.

How a more spiritual approach to business can pay dividends

Business is assumed to be hard-edged, objective and aggressive. Get in touch with your spiritual and creative side and watch your business grow.

What it takes to become a successful entrepreneur

Mother of three, Lindsay Levin is a woman of drive, passion and flair. The director of five companies and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year shares the secrets of her success.

Harness your vision

A vision of where you are going is vital for any business. But once it's created you need to harness it carefully to get the most out of it.

Make the most of meetings

'I waste so much time at meetings. Last week we got through an hour's work - but it took us four hours to do it!' How often have you heard words such as these - or even said them yourself? Meetings are important, but if they aren't run properly, they can be unproductive and time-consuming. Discover how to manage them more effectively.

Leadership vs management

True leadership is a rare commodity - but one needed in any organisation. But what does it really mean to be a leader?

How to choose the right training course

Time and money are precious, so how do you ensure that the training course you have signed up for will be worth it. Here are 18 crunch questions to help you sift the chaff from the wheat.

Put the Super into supervisor

Supervisors are the bridge between operational staff and operations, and management. Management creates the grand vision and the policies; supervisors oversee their implementation. Discover the traits of great supervisors in this introduction to the topic.

How to get people to work together well

Business owners and managers need to look both at the tasks that need to be done - and at how people work together to achieve them. We look at the skills involved. How to build better immediate relationships with your customers. How to ensure that when there's a problem in your team that it doesn't affect performance? How to coach your staff and freelances so that they learn from their own experiences and don't just look to you for answers.

Top entrepreneurs - what we can learn from them

What is it about great entrepreneurs that makes them so successful? The answers to this question could transform your business.

Why failure is vital to your success

In the UK we tend to look down on failure - but actually, it's vital to success. Here is why it's so important to VALUE our failures and indeed boast about them.

Why honesty is the best policy

Sometimes telling the truth can appear downright difficult, and we will do anything to avoid it. But, honesty is most often the best policy - and it's not as hard as it seems. In the first part of this guide we look at how to deal situations that appear downright difficult. In the second part of the guide, we look at how to get things moving forward when doing nothing appears the more preferable option.

What it takes to become a leader

It's easy to confuse managing a business with leadership - but there is a huge difference. Use our guide to discover how to become a great leader.

Management lessons from the pharaoahs

What can the construction of the pyramids teach us about building a business? Here is our guide to developing your business and to dealing with the human challenges you may face on the way.

Lead your people

Leadership isn't just about vision and goal-setting - it's also about motivating staff and taking them with you. We explain how to get the most from your team.

Get in touch with your shadowside

In any business, there's a whole lot of stuff going on underneath the surface that is critical to success. Even in times of relative calm, a great amount of your time will be spent dealing with the hidden side of the business. Here's why you need to be in touch with the undercurrents in your business.