Blogs

Conventional wisdom would state that the current stormy conditions are not the right time to start a business. Overall spending is way down and the “Plan B” safety net of “always being able to quickly get back into employment” may not be so straight forward as it once was. I get it. But that’s not the whole story, is it? We’re seeing that these COVID-19 times are generating more entrepreneurial opportunities than we’ve seen for...

The Near Ready Leadership Programme has been designed following the Ministerial objective to increase diversity on public body boards, aligned with the strategy set out in 'Reflecting and Running Wales - Diversity & Inclusion Strategy for Public Appointments in Wales'. The goal is to create a robust pipeline of potential board members, ensuring that individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people of high calibre, expertise and skills, who are nearly ready to apply can...

Freshness of thinking is a key component of driving new ideas and innovation. Remember it is vital that we maintain competitive advantage through continuously exploring new ways of doing things. To avoid getting into a personal “rut” regularly view things from different angles. Some thoughts on how to practice "Fresh Thinking": Think about things in your life or career that you believe need to change - are you getting stale? Write down the things you...

Your vision for success must be supported by a strong sense of purpose. Setting the right goals to reach your destination acts as the stepping stones to success, fuelled by your passion for your vision. But it is your sense of purpose that will drive you from goal to goal. If your vision truly reflects your passion and what you want to get out of life, and you have aligned a series of goals to...

Money worries are the biggest cause of stress for employees across Wales and the UK and are damaging to business too. People take their money worries to work, affecting their performance and levels of sick leave. The pandemic and the recent increase in energy costs have shown that it is more important than ever for organisations to support their employees to build their financial wellbeing. We also know the pandemic has meant significant challenges for...

Did you know that 39% of businesses and 26% of charities in the UK had a cyber security breach or attack in the previous twelve months? These are figures taken from the most recent Cyber Security Breaches Survey produced by the government annually. The report also highlights the increase in remote working as a direct result of the COVID 19 pandemic. This in turn, has increased many organisations vulnerability to a cyberattack. In Wales alone...

In developing a business or a career we have to be honest with ourselves in terms of what we can achieve given the resources we have at our disposal. For our personal development we must always maintain the self-belief that we can achieve a bigger and better future, this must be balanced against self-awareness. Winners have a great way of reality checking what they need to do to get the result, understanding our strengths and...

I believe there is an element of laziness in entrepreneurship...but not in the traditional sense that you may think! Entrepreneurship is about creativity, hard work, determination, and having the ability to keep going no matter what. The “lazy” part of the process is that we entrepreneurs are always looking to find easier ways of doing things...to strip away unnecessary layers of complexity and to beat our competitors in the process. But If we are not...

Businesses large and small are being invited to an online event looking at easy ways to improve the financial wellbeing of staff next month (22 February 2022). Hosted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), with speakers including Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt, and Rhian Hughes from the Money and Pensions Service, the event will focus on simple ways to boost the financial resilience of staff with Moneyworks Wales – a free salary savings...

As the end of January is fast approaching, it's a good a time as any to reflect on the past year - our experiences, challenges and how we've overcome them. 2021 has been quite a year for all of us, I’m sure you’ll agree. For me, it’s been a year of change – there’s been some big ones, change of house, change of job (twice!), becoming a secondary carer to my mum. Some changes I...