Category Archives: management

Letting clients go

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Jon Stow

Quite a few years ago I worked for a very large firm of accountants. One of the less pleasurable aspects was in dealing with difficult clients. There were clients who paid their bills late of course, there were clients who … Continue reading →

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Being in business is not a game

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Jon Stow

I hope you enjoy running your business. I know I enjoy running mine. Business should be fun and give pleasure and a sense of achievement, as well, of course, as making money. It might come as a surprise to some … Continue reading →

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Manage yourself, manage your clients

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Jon Stow

In running our own businesses it is very easy to not allow ourselves enough recreation time, or time not just working. Of course we do not just keep regular working hours. Most of us attend to our tasks at odd … Continue reading →

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Have we bred a dependent society?

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Jon Stow

As part of the election coverage Sky News ran an interview with an IT manager who had been out of work for fifteen months, The angle was to ask what he was looking for amongst the policies of the various … Continue reading →

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Why we should give ownership of their jobs to our employees

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Jon Stow

Although I have touched on the subject before, two recent incidents have brought me back. An event I organize was severely disrupted by failures in catering at the venue, and I gave up queueing in a branch of a well-known … Continue reading →

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Why we should not always take the easy way in business

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Jon Stow

If you are as lucky as I am, you will enjoy your work and running your own business. We have at least some control of our destiny even given the trials and tribulations of the economic downturn. However, I was … Continue reading →

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Why you should define your offering as a freelancer or consultant

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Jon Stow

In these challenging times with regard to the state of the economy there are a lot more people without full-time employment who find themselves looking for freelance work and who are seeking to offer one form or another of business … Continue reading →

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Why we need to take an outside view in business

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Jon Stow

I am in a reflective mood. I am coming to the end of an engagement helping a client; an engagement which should not be ending. This is not just because obviously an income stream will stop; I have other clients. … Continue reading →

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Why customer service is important even to those who are not customers yet

Posted on January 10, 2010 by Jon Stow

I am feeling a bit let down by the local commercial hospitality providers. The hotel told me they were closed for the week for refurbishment. It is a pity no one told me when I made what I thought was a booking, and it is a pity too that no one realised the error and telephoned me. All-in-all it was pretty poor customer service. Continue reading →

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Why quality is important – lessons from BMW and Waitrose

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Jon Stow

We need to engage trusted and recommended people to support our businesses, and we need to be the best in our field at what we do. We need to be different from the rest, to have something special as far as our prospects are concerned so that they want to be our clients. We need to be the Waitrose experience, top quality products and services for which we can charge a decent amount have our clients or customers and clients come back to us again and again. Continue reading →

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