Blogs

Having clearly defined your vision and prepared yourself mentally for your mission, there’s one further step to take before you blast off in search of the stars. You need to acknowledge that, ultimately, it’s down to you whether you succeed or fail, and that you will be the main driving force behind your quest. This means that the buck will stop with you, and that you need to be ready to assume full responsibility of...

Energy prices have been rising at an unprecedented rate since 2021. It has caused a significant amount of worry and stress for everyone across the UK. Both households and businesses are looking for ways to manage their soaring utility bills. One in four small business owners has increased prices to cope with rising business costs and inflation, and 30% have said that they will have to reduce their energy usage to save on costs*. If...

Helo Blod, a free Welsh translation and advice service, is celebrating translating 1 million words having introduced more than 1000 businesses across Wales to the benefits of using more Welsh as part of a push to help double the daily use of Welsh by 2050. Launched in March 2020 to support the Welsh Government’s Cymraeg 2050 strategy, Helo Blod offers businesses and charities up to 500 words a month translated, free...

On what can be a long and tough road to success, celebrating your key accomplishments along the way can provide both an emotional and mental break from the effort that went into winning. It can certainly be cathartic and energising to let off steam by, perhaps, throwing a party, or treating yourself and your team to some other kind of reward in recognition of your hard work. You should also try to get more from...

Those businesses that achieve high growth and long-term sustainability are the ones that have three key ingredients: A clear vision, strategy and plan. Customer focused culture aligned to the market. Disciplined processes and systems . Some thoughts: Having clarity of what you want to achieve is vital - it is this clarity that drives the successful team. The plan must be articulated into a series of bite - sized activities that drive action and that...

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...