06.09.2022

What next, now the holiday period is over?

The holiday period is over, in more ways than one. While we’ve had an unrelenting narrative in the media on the cost of living crisis for some time, now it’s now starting to bite. And not just for individuals, but for many SMEs, too, in terms of…

30.05.2022

Pre and post activation marketing checklists you shouldn’t ignore

Changes in the way we work as a result of the pandemic mean that more companies today can, or want to, only contact their customers online. This has made digital marketing a more powerful tool than ever before...

16.05.2022

Achieving your business vision

What ambitions do you have for your business? How do you perceive its progress into the future? Do you know how you'll translate this vision into a positive business strategy with clearly defined goals?

25.04.2022

Dealing with the ‘S word’: A practical guide to reducing workplace stress – part 2

The second part of our guide to reducing workplace stress focuses on how Managers and Leaders can reduce, not add to, the stress levels experienced in our businesses. So if you’re noticing signs of pressure or anxiety in your teams, here are a few…

12.04.2022

Three Motivational Tips For Your Team

It’s no secret that a motivated team delivers better results, and enjoys a higher level of job satisfaction and wellbeing. But knowing how to motivate your team is not always easy, especially if you don’t physically see them as often now hybrid…

01.03.2022

Getting the balance right between urgency and importance

Our last blog post provided some useful tips to help you run a business at a time when there are many additional challenges associated with people resources and supply chain issues. We thought it would be beneficial to continue this theme this week…

31.01.2022

More Tips for Supporting Employees’ Mental Health

We've previously emphasised the benefit to your business in supporting your employees' mental health. We saw that promoting an open culture is a key factor, along with monitoring situations that most often cause stress. Today we're sharing three…

24.01.2022

Supporting Your Employees’ Mental Health

The issue of mental health used to hover on the murky side of illness, but we're now more aware of the need for support. People today are less reluctant to acknowledge and talk openly about their mental health issues, and employers are accepting that…

12.01.2022

More Pointers to Better Management

Being a business manager can be tough. You occupy a delicate intermediary position between senior management and the workforce, where you have to provide an effective balance to the needs of both parties. Here are some more tips for effective…

10.12.2021

Why Habit-Forming Behaviours are Important

As an entrepreneur launching your own company or a career in business, you probably set out with a vision of where you wanted to end up. You may even have achieved your primary goal and gone further. Have you ever wondered why some people succeed…

11.11.2021

Do you have a plan for future leadership?

Managing change in business is a challenge at any time. Over the last year or so, we have all had to adapt and become far more flexible as individuals and agile as businesses. …

11.11.2021

How can we connect more effectively with our team?

As we adapt to a mixture of office and remote or home working, making sure that your employees remain engaged is more important than ever. …

03.11.2021

In today’s world, why having focus is more important than ever

As we move into the Autumn it is increasingly apparent that one of the challenges we face and will do for the foreseeable future, is the reality of the “new normal’ and how we adapt to this environment as business leaders. …

25.10.2021

Setting the reset button to deal with uncertain times

A good proportion of business’s we speak to and work with, have been busier than ever over the course of this last year. This is the case despite facing tricky capacity and safeguarding challenges onsite, managing increasingly difficult supply…

18.10.2021

Creating the climate for greener SMEs – part 2

In our last Business Insights, we looked at why now is the time for SMEs to embrace action to reduce their carbon footprint and suggested some small but important first steps you can take. …

22.09.2021

Creating the climate for greener SMEs

As we navigate our way out of the Covid crisis, many are warning that the next crisis, that of global warming and a climate emergency, is just around the corner if not already here. …

22.09.2021

How healthy is your customer base?

The long term resilience of your business is of course intrinsically linked to the health of your customer base, the demand this will create and your ability to service this. So how do we make sure we maximise our revenue in the future?

22.09.2021

How social media usage has changed post pandemic and what this means to your marketing.

Yes, autumn is upon us. In the most strange and unique of years, it does seem to have reached that time of year extraordinarily quickly. Most businesses I’ve been speaking to have moved on from the dugout position of mid pandemic and are now…

22.09.2021

Are you suffering from ‘potential problem paralysis’?

Over the last few months, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of senior people in SME’s asking for mentoring support to help them overcome what could be described as ‘scenario overload’ or ‘potential problem paralysis’. Given the…

20.09.2021

Do you love your customers?

We all know the importance of attracting new customers to grow our business. But if we are losing our existing customers along the way, we must find more and more new ones to stem the tide and get beyond our existing size. And that’s expensive and…

15.09.2021

7 hot tips to make social media an essential business growth tool

How to make social media work for your business. Most business leaders know they should be using social media, however many are less clear why. …

08.09.2021

How to have that difficult conversation

If you’ve run a business or managed people for any period, at some stage or other, you will have had to have a difficult conversation with an employee or team member. These can be very difficult experiences. …

06.09.2021

Why it is important to think about tomorrow

During a recent discussion with a client, I was asked how could they go about more deliberately starting to grow their business? …

26.07.2021

Why KPIs are catnip for the delivery of your marketing strategy…….plus, the top seven…

Catnip: When cats smell catnip they run towards it, rub their heads and body on the herb; jump, roll around, and vocalise. …

21.07.2021

‘Timeboxing’ – is it time to throw out your ‘to do list?

As a previously self-confessed fan of the ‘to-do list,’ this is a tough question to consider. But a few years ago Daniel Markovitz published an article in the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘To-do lists don’t work’, and it got my…

19.07.2021

Tame your ‘to do list’

I admit it, I’m a list person. Not just in business, but at home too. When I’m under pressure I feel more in control as I tick things off the list. When things are less fraught my list gives me structure and focus. …

12.07.2021

The art of successfully Managing succession

Managing change in any business can be a challenge. …

28.06.2021

When should I make my first marketing hire?

This is a question I’m asked most frequently by startups and SMEs. …

23.06.2021

Habit-forming behaviours: why are they important

When you started out on your career or first set up your own business, you probably did so with a vision. It’s likely you had an idea about what you wanted to achieve or where you’d like your chosen path to take you, even if you weren’t yet…

21.06.2021

Learning to love ‘Sales’ – Part 2

Last time we looked at how sales can get a bad rap and some ideas to overcome ‘sales phobia’ in your teams. Here are a few more ways to help your teams learn to love sales and contribute to your sales effort.

16.06.2021

Learning to love ‘Sales’ – Part 1

‘Sales' can get bad press. But no matter how innovative your product, or amazing your service, if you’re not selling it then you will never have a thriving business. …

14.06.2021

Choosing the right technology – Part two

In the 1st part of Choosing the right technology, we covered the importance of capturing the business requirements and identifying potential suppliers. In this blog, we continue the process.

09.06.2021

Choosing the right technology – Part one

As we move into the Summer and businesses begin to look longer term, you might be thinking about changes. …

26.05.2021

Re-energising your sales pipeline

Business owners and leaders are busy people. So, managing your time is a vital ingredient to being successful and developing your business. …

12.05.2021

Want to become a better manager? – Here are our top tips – Part Two

Over the next five emails, we are going to take a more in-depth look at leadership. …

10.05.2021

Want to become a better manager? – Here are our top tips – Part one

Over the next five emails, we are going to take a more in-depth look at leadership. …

05.05.2021

Six things you should do before you hire, or grow, your marketing team

So you’ve reached that critical point when you know you need to let go of running all the marketing yourself, or you’ve decided to increase the size of your marketing team. …

28.04.2021

Getting the best out of yourself

We cover a wide variety of subjects during our emails, including Marketing, Business strategy, Developing and leading teams. However, as always, if you want to implement your strategy effectively, the impetus must come from you. …

27.04.2021

Top Tips to help you lead in today’s world

It’s not easy being an effective business leader in today’s world. The Covid world is unpredictable, fast-paced and there is a relentless need for efficiency improvement. In addition, customer demands increase, and it is vital that you meet your…

22.04.2021

How can I kick start faster growth?

Recently a client asked me how they could grow their business more quickly. They wanted to grow but weren’t sure where and how to start.  …

19.04.2021

The Importance of Forward Thinking

When you contemplate the role you play in your organisation, are you working in or on your business? This may sound like an odd question. What does it mean, and what is its importance in business strategy?

14.04.2021

Planning for Your Business Future

When you think about the future of your business, how do you see it progressing? Are you able to translate this theoretical vision into a sound plan, directed by a coherent business strategy?

12.04.2021

Successful businesses are powered by your team

Team-building is critical to a successful business, and fielding a solid team becomes even more crucial if you hope to grow. …

24.03.2021

Pitching for Perfection

Every business needs investors or shareholders who are willing to invest. This is especially the case with the fast turnover of today's start-ups. The most common procedure for finding investors is to pitch them with your idea. This means you're…

17.03.2021

Simple steps to help you when exporting to the EU

Towards the end of the 1st Quarter of the new trading relationship with the EU, we thought it would be helpful to address some of the key issues that have arisen.

15.03.2021

How well do you listen to your customers?

Our customers are the lifeblood of our businesses. Yet all too often when meeting prospective new customers we can be so keen to win their business we jump in all guns blazing, eager to convey what we can offer, why they should use us and why we’re…

10.03.2021

Maximising success in your digital marketing strategy

Lockdown has meant that many of our customers can only be reached online, meaning that digital marketing has never been more important, and potentially more powerful.  …

02.03.2021

Good leadership – what does it look like? Part One

More than ever before businesses need good leadership to navigate them successfully through the current challenges and be ready for the ‘post-pandemic' era. But what is good leadership really, both for your business and your people? And how do we…

01.03.2021

How ‘customer-centric’ is your business?

Especially in the present circumstances, all businesses stand or fall on their ability to attract, satisfy and retain customers. …

24.02.2021

Looking After Your Team’s Well-Being in Lockdown 3.0 – Part 2

Last time we considered why it might not be ‘lockdown business as usual’ in this latest lockdown, the importance of a continued commitment to communication and being aware of the dangers of ‘Zoom fatigue’. …

22.02.2021

Looking After Your Team’s Well-Being in Lockdown 3.0

We’ve endured lockdowns before and come through it. However, it’s probably also true to say after almost a year of uncertainty, anxiety and stress, both at work and at home, some in our teams may be suffering from higher levels of…

17.02.2021

How Can You Become More Effective?

Our emails often cover important areas for the business such as sales or e-commerce strategies but ultimately the success of the business is down to successful implementation and in most cases, it is you who has to implement them.

08.02.2021

Adapting to Changing Circumstances

The world we live in today is full of change and new challenges, we only need to look at the impact of the pandemic to realise this. Now more than ever, just because something worked yesterday, doesn’t automatically mean it will work tomorrow.

03.02.2021

The Business Case for Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a term we've used a lot recently and particularly how insufficient engagement among employees can lead to the business disruption that is sometimes critical.

25.01.2021

Want to Strengthen Employee Engagement? Communication is critical

In our recent blogs, we've been discussing various areas of strengthening employee engagement. These include sharing your vision, organisational integrity, and the importance of effective management at all levels. In our final look at employee…

20.01.2021

Want to Strengthen Employee Engagement? Here is how to become an effective manager

In our previous blog, we looked at strengthening employee engagement by sharing your vision and establishing mutual trust with your employees. Today we're exploring another key element that's critical to achieving a fully engaged workforce, and hence…

15.01.2021

Want to Strengthen Employee Engagement? Here’s how…

Employee engagement is when people do a job because they love it rather than just because it pays their salary. It's where everyone in your organisation is on the same page and your performance and productivity start to demonstrate significant…

09.12.2020

Exporting – Your key questions answered as Brexit draws near

As we approach 2021, and many changes to our terms within Europe and other areas when it comes to exporting, there’s a huge number of questions all businesses are asking about where they should direct their focus.

18.11.2020

How can I explore and deliver a new opportunity?

Running a successful business brings many different challenges. How often do you set out to achieve one objective and find yourself dealing with something completely different? …

18.11.2020

What are your future ambitions for your business?

How do you see your business progressing? How can you translate this vision into solid plans and a clear business strategy? …

18.11.2020

How to get your marketing mojo back

During the pandemic I’ve noticed that a few businesses have lost their marketing mojo or spark. It's a symptom of the pandemic business malaise that after grappling with the challenges of implementing multiple government support schemes there's…

28.09.2020

Business Masterclasses

2020 has been a challenging year. At BHP Consulting, our team of experienced business leaders have been working hard with clients to help them through the initial crisis. 

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14.09.2020

BHP launches innovative support service for SMEs

Leading accountancy firm BHP is launching a free and innovative support service to help SMEs drive post lockdown growth, tackle challenges and pioneer new approaches to help them get to the next level.

27.03.2020

Remote working – the ‘new normal’

With a large proportion of our collective workforces now working from home, knowing how to support and manage them effectively is becoming increasingly important for most businesses.

16.12.2019

The importance of looking forward.

When you think about your role in your company, do you work in or on your business?

16.12.2019

Your business’ secret weapon – the ‘s’ word.

In recent emails we have focussed on achieving growth and how your people strategy can support that.

16.12.2019

Looking to scale your business?

As you begin to think about how to develop your business, it is vital that you understand some of the key elements that continue the growth of your business.