All Opinion articles – Page 10
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Opinion
How to Find the Right Partner in Crime
Starting a business is never easy, there’s so many things to consider from developing your idea to hiring the right people, all just to get your company off the ground. As an entrepreneur it’s easy to get caught up in the idea with your head down, focusing on the immediate ...
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Opinion
Room at the Top — Encouraging Diversity in the Boardroom
In January 2015 Germany joined France, Italy and many Nordic countries in opting for mandatory targets of 30% for women on corporate boards. Early analysis appears to show that quotas work and have been highly successful across Europe. This could result in a quota system being considered at EU level. ...
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Opinion
Why Do You Do What You Do?
There has probably been someone in your life – a coach, grandparent, teacher, aunt, or spiritual mentor – who’s made a difference for you. It may have been when you were young (it generally is) – it may have been recently. It may have been a positive experience ...
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Opinion
5 Best Customer Advice Tips
Here are five top tips to help ensure you’re keeping your customers happy.
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Opinion
What Should an SME Business Friendly Manifesto Look Like?
At the start of 2014, small and medium sized enterprises accounted for 60% of the estimated 5.2 million businesses operating in the UK. With the general election fast approaching party manifestos cannot fail to offer some significant pledges to help these all important businesses.
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Opinion
What can Brands Learn from Waitrose's 'free hot drink' Loyalty Scheme?
Waitrose recently implemented changes to its much-loved ‘free hot drink’ loyalty scheme, creating a great deal of discussion in the industry. This is an example of a loyalty scheme that has attracted a lot of attention — especially around its level of success, impact on profits and customer satisfaction. Some ...
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Opinion
Entrepreneurs Rugby
This is an important time of year for me – the 6 Nations championship which gives bragging rights in the northern hemisphere for the next 12 months (the World Cup and Autumn series being far less important platforms for lording it over people because most of their supporters don’t live ...
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Opinion
Small Businesses Must Do More Online
A recent study from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills showed that more than half of the public (55%) find it difficult to support local small firms because often these businesses aren't online. In fact, the figures show that as many as 2 million (39%) sole traders and small ...
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Opinion
Customer Service Goals for 2015
2014 saw some of the best and worst examples of customer service as brands struggled to distinguish themselves in a crowded market. Here are my top tips for those seeking to stand out and excel in the customer service realm this year:
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Opinion
Best Practices for Migration from Windows Server 2003
IT professionals should keep the impending Windows Server 2003 end of support deadline this coming July as a top priority. With the average migration taking between 100-300 days to complete, it is essential that businesses start the process of migration sooner rather than later to avoid mounting costs, security risks ...
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Opinion
Top Tips for Improving your Sales Technique
Persuading a customer to part with their money may not be easy, but the actual process is a straightforward one. When it comes to negotiating a sale, it’s important to correctly identify and approach your targets while understanding their needs, to effectively sell the benefits of your product. Be confident ...
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Opinion
Delving in Dark Data
‘Big data’ has become an industry buzzword amongst today’s business leaders. Corporate spending on infrastructure to capture and store diverse volumes of rapidly-changing data has risen significantly in recent years as organisations have scrambled to collect all of the consumer information they believe will help them stay ahead of the ...
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Opinion
5 Tips on How to Prepare Quotes that Get Accepted
Small businesses win work by using sales quotes. Yet they often don’t realise that how they prepare quotes can cost them business. Many lose revenue by not following up on quotes or turning quotes around fast enough.
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Opinion
The Smarter Way to Business Innovation?
Innovation is one of the most vital elements of business, yet it is arguably the most difficult to perfect. Research by Bain found two thirds of organisations highlighted innovation as a priority, yet less than 25 per cent felt their company was an effective innovator. If you are not innovating, ...
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Opinion
Why Backup Needs to be Strategic
Most businesses – 98 per cent – do not back up all of their data (Acronis Disaster Recovery Survey, IDC, May 2014). Even among those who have backup plans (only around 35 per cent of small and medium businesses, according to Gartner), 70 per cent are not fully confident in ...
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Opinion
Executive Coaching is Back on the Agenda
As the economy continues to grow in the UK, businesses are once again using executive and leadership coaching as a learning development tool to improve the performance of senior executives and CEOs.
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Opinion
The Importance of Technology When it Comes to SMEs and Auto Enrolment
Automatic enrolment is gathering momentum, as thousands of small businesses now work towards their compliance deadlines. 2015 starts to see the volume increase with 45,000 companies staging. But with 110,000 in Q1 of 2016 also to stage we may see the end of 2015 as the real crunch point.
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Opinion
How to Avoid a CryptoWall Nightmare – An Unfortunate Not-For-Profit Experience
When CryptoWall locks down an organisation, it can take days to recover. It takes just one employee to click on the wrong link, and inadvertently download the CryptoWall Trojan. Once set free, the malware proceeds to encrypt, and hold hostage all of the company’s data. In fact, I know of ...
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Opinion
Teaching a New Dog New Tricks Will Reduce the Skills Gap
When it comes to recruitment, businesses have a variety of ways of cherry-picking the best talent. Interviews, aptitude tests and assessment days are all common practice to find your perfect fit, but very few put the same level of effort into developing their new recruits once they have been selected. ...
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Opinion
The Questions Every Organisation Should Consider Before Embarking on a Big Data Project
Big data has been the technology buzzword for the last few years, with no sign that interest is waning. It seems that anyone who is anyone is utilising big data to make a difference to their business. But what exactly is big data and more importantly, why and how should ...