MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS
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A framework for Improvement: TOTE principle
Applying the TOTE principle to business. In personal development work, the TOTE principle is an iterative problem-solving strategy using feedback loops. This principle can be applied equally well to business. The First T is for Test. Test the environment and identify...
Assess your Financial Management Capability
The financial management capability of Irish SMEs varies significantly. I have been working with many Irish SMEs over the past 20 years. During this period I was helping them to assess and improve their financial management capability. Over time, I have observed a...
Why you always get unexpected Financial results
Have you ever been presented with a set of accounts where you get unexpected financial results? It’s really frustrating. Maybe you’ve had a very busy period with strong sales and you are expecting to see a very healthy profit in your accounts. In contrast, you have...
Struggling with your work-life balance?
One of the most common problems for self-employed people is achieving or maintaining a good work/life balance. I recently had a client who was finding that he was overwhelmed by the amount of work that had to be done and was seriously considering pulling back from the...
How To Get Better At Predicting Business Costs.
Do you know much it costs you to open your doors in the morning? Thats the easiest way to predict your business costs. There is a friend of mine, a retired banker who describes business owners in control of their business as ‘they know exactly how much it costs them...
Why a good budget is vital for every business owner
In one of my recent blog posts, I mentioned the need for a business to create an annual budget. One of my readers contacted me, saying “I don't really know why I'd need a budget if I'm already doing the basic bookkeeping”. So, in this post, I’m going to set out why I...
Putting your accounting knowledge into practice: an engineering perspective
What should a business owner do to make sure he or she has the best possible information at his/her fingertips? We’ve already discussed how to identify the key transactions of the business and also how to record the information that’s important to your business and...
Turning your financial transactions into insightful information: an engineering perspective
Understanding the nuts and bolts of your accounting really does give you an advantage as a business owner. As we outlined in our last blog post, breaking down your transactions into inputs and outputs (and thinking like a process-driven engineer) is the first step in...
Understanding the nuts and bolts of accounting: an engineering perspective
Understanding the nuts and bolts of accounting: an engineering perspective I was a latecomer to accounting. I first completed a degree in engineering and only moved to accounting after that. Almost everyone who heard what I was doing told me how difficult I would...
Six elements that make an excellent finance function
As a business advisor, I get to see a lot of different businesses and their finance functions. At one end of the spectrum, the finance function just does the basics i.e processing invoices, managing cash and preparing the core reports. At the other end of the...
Seven Drivers of Highly Engaged Staff
This months Blog Post comes from Mindshop Colleagues Mark Buckland and Wayne Lockhart In his highly acclaimed book ‘Good to Great’ Jim Collins suggests that employing, leading and managing engaged staff is like taking a bus trip. In doing so he outlined two...
How you can Get on top of your to do list
I was talking recently with a friend who commented that he doesn’t feel that he is achieving enough. He sat down at the start of the year and made a to-do list of all the things he wanted to get done. This list included ideas for 2 new products and improving his...
10 Tips stand out in Social Media
This blog post comes from Mindshop colleague, Fergal Coleman. Now based in Australia, Fergal has strong Galway connections. His family came from Galway, he worked for CK Electronics for a couple of years and he played for Galway United for a period. Fergal has a IT...
Improving Productivity with Smartphone Apps
On a number of occasions over the past few weeks, I have had discussions with friends and clients about how they use their smartphones to increase productivity. I am getting great use out of mine and would be lost without it. However, others are barely using the...
How to know what to change in your Business
In the poem Advent by Patrick Kavanagh, he mentions “the newness that was in every stale thing when we looked at it as children". When you look at your business, do you see that newness, or have you stopped to notice the stale things? Have you become so used to...
Using your Strengths to Leverage your Opportunities
Today we have a guest post from Chris Mason, Founder – Mindshop. Mindshop has a unique way of conducting a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. The starting point of this process is to identify your strengths and opportunities. You then...
How to overcome the Knowing-Doing Gap
Many people go on courses and learn some very powerful techniques but don’t go on to apply the techniques. Some of these people are serial course/workshop attenders. They have all the knowledge. They can tell you how to solve your problems but they don’t seem to be...
A tool for helping to make decisions
Often, I meet with clients who are struggling to make decisions. In a situation like that, I guide them through what I call the Decision Matrix. Firstly I get them to identify the alternatives. Then, I get them to identify the key factors relevant to the decision....
Why is change so hard?
Today’s guest blog post comes from Mindshop colleague, Mark Ellsworth (http://www.cainellsworth.com/gps/). Have you ever wondered why some companies seem to thrive despite economic uncertainty, while many of their competitors seem to struggle for survival? Is it that...
Why invest in Management Development
While attending a recent induction session for the SCCUL Mentors Programme, I became aware of a 2010 report by Forfás on Management Development in Ireland. You can find it here. The Report quotes findings from a McKinsey review of management practices across 14...
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