But a word of warning. *“Entrepreneurs are often so passionate about their new ideas that they lose objectivity and race ahead without doing the research which is so vital to commercial...

But, she says, far too often, business negotiators get bogged down, usually over trivial irrelevances, and over 40 per cent of deals fail to meet anyone’s expectations. So how can you...

Not surprisingly it’s the UK’s SMEs that are suffering most. They’re three times more likely to be forced wait for payment from customers than large or medium firms, according to the...

For instance, experts urge small businesses to prepare a cash budget and weekly cash forecast to track the actual cash going in and out against the forecast figures. This will help...

So there’s just the little matter of finding the right franchisor! What are your interests? Your family circumstances, your financial situation? Which franchises have been thoroughly tried and tested and have...

But now comes the thorny question: who gets the company’s shares and how many? To answer this bear these points in mind: A large number of shares gives great flexibility and the...

So it makes good sense to protect it by registering it with the Patents Office sister organisation the Intellectual Property Office and although registration of trademarks can sometimes be complicated, it...

*“Getting the best deal is a skill which can certainly be acquired and involves a mixture of rational argument, aggression, gamesmanship, far play and the occasional dirty trick,”* he says. Paul Norton...