Nick Hughes Articles

With Technology Everything Has Become Possible - Click To Read Article
The technology available to the small business owner is comparable to that available to large corporations. This is a remarkable fact, one that will allow small business owners to create and build sophisticated operations. To explore this further I knew I would have to have a conversation with Leslie Babel, President of DigitalFire Inc, an IT Support and Technology company. Leslie’s passion is technology and how he can apply it to make small businesses more effective, more competitive and more fun!

You Can't Do It Alone - Click To Read Article
One of the major barriers to business success is not having a coherent well thought out strategic action plan. Once this hurdle is overcome the business owner faces another equally debilitating barrier. They don’t have the time and/or resources to execute the plan.

The Power of Purpose - Click To Read Article
Do you know the purpose of your business? Do you clearly understand why you started your business? Have you communicated this purpose to all those who work with you? Have you documented the purpose? If the answers to any of these is ‘no’ then you are probably finding it difficult to stay on course as you are bombarded by the day to day surprises lurking in your future. The solution lies in the Power of Purpose, which states that when a business owner clearly knows and deeply believes in the purpose of her business she will achieve great success because she has a strong beacon to guide every action and decision.

The Fragmented Focus Treadmill - Click To Read Article
Are you finding it difficult to stay focused on the “important” things because there are too many “urgent” things needing your immediate attention? Do you start each day determined to achieve your goals but end the day with important work undone? To add misery to this confusion are you working harder and harder and getting absolutely nowhere? Are you failing to make any progress despite your efforts? These are all indications that you are stuck on the Fragmented Focus Treadmill.

Technology and the Small Business - Click To Read Article
The technology available to the small business owner is comparable to that available to large corporations. This is a remarkable fact, one that will allow small business owners to create and build sophisticated operations. To explore this further I knew I would have to have a conversation with Leslie Babel, President of DigitalFire Inc, an IT Support and Technology company. Leslie’s passion is technology and how he can apply it to make small businesses more effective, more competitive and more fun!

Seven Barriers to Business Growth - Click To Read Article
Successfully growing a business is much more than just selling more stuff. You must also prepare yourself and your business for a larger more complex world. Through our work with small business owners during the last 25 years we have identified seven key barriers that stop business growth in its tracks. But fear not; there are ways to jump these barriers and achieve successful growth.

Planning Helps the Heart Grow Fonder - Click To Read Article
The world’s oldest form of business partnership is alive and well. In fact it is thriving and growing. It is the business partnership of two people who live together; they are called copreneurs. There are 227,000 Canadian couples who are copreneurs; and that’s not counting the unmarried couples!

Manage Your Critical Success Indicators - Click To Read Article
The experts are unanimous! The first step to successfully grow a business is to develop a solid strategic plan. A plan with measurable three year objectives linked directly to one year operational tactics. In fact, my articles constantly extol the merits of strategic plans. The mantra is clear: Plan For Success. The warnings are also clear: fail to plan you plan to fail! The implication that success will automatically follow a plan is misleading. While plans are extremely important they are only half the battle. The plan will give you the road map but you must still manage your business. Unfortunately, few of us have had any serious training in the management of a business and the trial and error approach of learning is fraught with danger.

Lessons to learn from the book Good to Great - Click To Read Article
While the companies in the book Good to Great are large publicly owned corporations I believe that many of its lessons can be applied to small, privately owned businesses. I regularly recommend it as essential reading to our clients, who are all small business entrepreneurs. Here are some of the lessons to be learnt from Good to Great.

How Healthy Is Your Business? - Click To Read Article
Cholesterol is often described as the silent killer. High cholesterol is bad for us and yet there are no symptoms. There is no pain; there is no nausea; there is no shortness of breath. That is why doctors regularly check our cholesterol.

Focus - Click To Read Article
One of the common attributes of successful people, whether they are athletes, entertainers, or business leaders, is their ability to focus. They are able to concentrate all of their attention and energy on the right things in the right way. They are focus gurus.

Diamonds In Your Backyard - Click To Read Article
This is a story about David. David was a very ambitious and proud man, who was desperate to be very rich. To this end he traveled the globe, spending years away from home searching for a diamond mine. He knew that once he owned a diamond mine his dream of riches would come true. Unfortunately David ended his days neither rich nor happy. After he died the local condominium developer bought David’s property and started to dig the foundation. And what did he find? He found that for all these years David was sitting right on top of a very large, very rich diamond mine. I tell this story to remind us to look first in our own back yards for the glittering opportunities.

Do You Have A Vision For Your Business? - Click To Read Article
“A business without a vision is directionless. It lacks purpose” writes Michael Gerber in his latest book E-Myth Mastery. You cannot plan the future of your business if you don’t have a vision. It is the starting point of any business growth plan.

Critical Success Factors - Click To Read Article
The Critical Success Factors are those components of your strategic plan that must succeed if the overall plan is to succeed. It is from the Critical Success Factors that you identify your 30/60/90 Day Focus.

Business Growth Needs Powerful Objectives - Click To Read Article
Yogi Berra is quoted as saying “If you don’t know where you are going you will end up somewhere else”. Business objectives specify where you are going; they are your destination. They give you direction to drive your company’s growth. They provide your team with a common purpose. They focus your activities towards a future goal. All business owners set objectives. The key, however, is to ensure the objectives are powerful and will result in successful growth. All too often objectives are vague. Or they are so unrealistic that they lack credibility. Or they are missing measurable and specific results.

Business Growth Strategies - Click To Read Article
Growing a business is a risky business. In fact there are more risks associated with growing a business than there are with starting a business. Four of the most common hurdles preventing business growth are: • The business owner is too busy to work on growth activities. • There is not enough money to finance the growth. • The business owner has gaps in knowledge and experience • There is no growth plan. Here are the strategies to deal with these hurdles.

Business Accountability Teams - they go to BAT for you - Click To Read Article
How hard it is sometimes to stay focused; to put in that extra effort to achieve the business results we want. How easy it is to be wooed by the warm day to play a round of golf when we should be making sales calls. How easy it is to rationalize that taking the afternoon off will be made up for next week. This is especially true when there is no one to hold us accountable; ah the freedoms of business ownership!

Achieving Successful Business Growth - Click To Read Article
Successful business growth is not a miracle. It is the result of business owners directing all their talents and energies to the single purpose of building a bigger business. Through our work with successful businesses we have identified 6 key actions that business owners must do if they are to successfully grow their business.


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