Business Butler Blog - management

For far too long, particularly in industry, ‘soft’ skills have been seen as the responsibility of HR while the operations department, maintenance, logistics, finance etc. concentrate on the ‘hard’ skills that generate value. As somewhat of a disruptor I take a contrary view. Firstly, why spend any time at all on soft skills if they do not contribute to the bottom line? Secondly, ...

Behind every successful business is a dedicated team of highly motivated and engaged workers. So with staff playing such an integral role it is important that businesses look after their most important asset. Paying them a reasonable wage and rewarding success go without saying. But what is pivotal to having a motivated workforce who are dedicated to driving a business forward is their mental, ...

Successful business owners share many traits and put their success down to several reasons including work ethic, timing, vision and being supported by a talented team. Obviously all of these are important but we are going to focus on that final reason i.e. the team, or more importantly leadership of that team. A team or a business without leadership is like a ship without a rudder, left to drif...

Last summer, after the hottest period of weather the UK has seen for a LONG while, I jumped at the opportunity to go for an early morning swim with a good friend. When I pulled back the curtains this morning, a bit blurry eyed it was raining… what would you do?

Me? No questions I got ready. It reminded me of the wet summer holidays in Cornwall when we lived in our swimming costumes, ...

Bureaucracy. The word alone is enough to make you shudder.

But we’re here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way.

Yes, ok, we get it. When you think of bureaucracy you immediately picture a sour-faced public servant, begrudgingly following overly complicated processes, that, let’s be honest, are only making his/her life harder.

And, as an additional (joyous) bonus, all com...

Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint hearted. In fact, the rocky road to owning a thriving business is fraught with danger, risks, demands and complications.

And if that hasn’t put you off, this might. Because the ugly truth is that 20 percent of...

The importance of streamlining business processes 

Every business aims to be slick, efficient and agile, which is why streamlining your business processes is essential. In today’s blog we will be going through the importance of this for any sized business and also a few ways you can start to achiev...

Have you ever had thoughts about whether or not you should turn your hobby/passion into a potentially profitable business? It’s fair to say that most people would have had these thoughts at some point, I know I have! Today I am going to be going through 8 important questions to ask yourself before considering starting a business of your own.

What is the core motivation for startin...

Company bonuses have always been around, they are a great way to boost morale and can help with productivity. A recent article went into how a Cardiff firm gave staff a free all-inclusive break to Tenerife. Yolk Recruitment Ltd. paid to take their 55 staff on holiday to thank them for continuing to work through the pandemic.

Until a week ago few people would have heard the name Vishal Garg unless they were unfortunate enough to work for him. As the CEO of Better.com, an online mortgage company based in New York, he recently made headlines around the world for his ruthless approach to staff redundancies.

The bearer of bad news

Garg gathered together 900 staff for a Zoom call and fired th...

Latest research indicates that 20% of startups will fail in the first year and 60% won’t succeed past year three, startling figures that would put many people off trying in the first place but business owners are brave at heart. A lack of financial management knowledge is often quoted as one of the main reasons why businesses fail and with that in mind it is essential that business owners equip...

Excellent leadership skills are highly sought-after, because behind every successful business is a great leader. And those with such qualities are not restricted to work in the sectors they currently operate in, because leadership skills are transferrable and can be deployed successfully across all industries.

Conversely, without effective leadership, a business is much like a ship withou...

A Guest Blog by Manjula Bray, Business Psychologist and Leadership Expert.

A better first question might be: ‘what is business psychology?’ – something I am often asked to explain at networking events. Siri defines psychology it as:

‘the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially t...

Along with the general worry and uncertainty caused by the Covid -19 pandemic there was additional concern and angst felt by business owners and managers across the country as their workers joined the rapid and mass migration to working from home (WFH). The main fears were that they would not be able to assert the same degree of control over their businesses and manage their workforces as effec...

Everybody has a favourite brand, don’t they? I mean as I teenager, for some unknown reason, I loved Adidas, Pepsi and Wrangler! Not quite sure why because my friends went for Nike, Coke and Levi’s – maybe I just liked to be different.

When you are young and impressionable you don’t tend to look at the reasoning behind such decisions. However, when your are older and wiser and especially w...

The most important asset any company has is its staff. Successful managers realise that if they keep their workers happy then it will have a positive effect throughout the whole business.

So, the key question is how do managers keep staff happy? Is it by paying them lots of money? Rewarding them with bonuses and promotion? Or praising them when they do well? The answer is yes to all of th...

Trying to motivate a team is challenging enough but even more so in the current economic climate. So, when businesses do start functioning again and the millions of workers return to work after months of working from home (WFH), leaders and managers will need as much help as possible to inspire staff and propel businesses forward to profitability and growth. Following on from last week’s blog a...