Believe it or not, the key to retaining good staff has nothing to do with salary. Laurence Harrould finds six ways to increase loyalty that won't cost you a thing. 1.Certainty How much stress would it create for you if you had to decide each day where your office would be? While this may be an absurd example, it illustrates our need for certainty. The same applies to your staff. Are they sure there will be a job for them when they turn up to work? Do they know what … more »

Kickstart – Penny Flanders spends a great deal of time doing manual work administering her website. Is this what's holding her back from growing the business? Our expert panel finds out. Penny Flanders launched second-hand clothing emporium Miss Money Penny in February 2009. The idea behind it occurred to her about six months earlier.  "Within the space of four weeks, about five girlfriends said to me, ‘I've got all these clothes in my wardrobe and they've got tags on them and I don't want to take them to markets, and … more »

Many small businesses keep their prices low for fear of losing customers, but end up losing money as a result. Laurence Harrould discusses how to move your business from a non-profit organisation to a cash cow. Increasing profitability can only be done in two ways: increasing revenue or reducing costs. We will look at both these options and explore which works best. We’ll start with a business, such as a coffee shop, which sells items (see Table 1). Customers 3000 Number of purchases 24 Average sale price $15 Sales 1,080,000 … more »