business focus 21 of the month
HW, Chartered Accountants, presents a series of articles based on the HW blogs. They offer analysis, reviews and comments and welcome your feedback at
www.hwca.com/blog
What the Olympics and Paralympics can writes Jane Wills, partner at Haines Watts
teach the SME Sport and business are different but there are a number of lessons which can be lifted from the world of sport, and the athletes we watched in awe this summer, which can be applied to business:
• Importance of the right preparation – the need to ensure all plans are realistic and designed to maximise the potential of the individual or business. The right planning will help you form an accurate picture of your cashflow, staffing needs, risks and opportunities. It is a crucial road map against which you can measure your progress.
• There is no substitute for hard
work – whether in sport or business – there are no short cuts to success and no ‘magic bullets’. Athletes, both able bodied and disabled, only achieve the ultimate success after years of hard work and apparently unrewarded effort. Even the most successful entrepreneurs, who make it seem easy, have actually put in their own years of hard work and effort to achieve their goal.
• The value of self-belief and positive thinking – this is important since you cannot compete on the sporting field or in the business environment without belief in yourself and what you are offering. Self-belief should not be confused with arrogance but instead the quiet confidence of
knowing you are offering your best and that you are able to provide something which will find a place in your chosen field.
• Enthusiasm for what you do – this is a vital tool in persuading others to ‘buy into’ your vision and understand your ultimate goals. From this you will find that the support and encouragement of others can help you develop.
• Never give up – an SME is likely to face many challenges and setbacks over time. In sport, difficulties tend to be injury related (and in the case
of the Paralympians the impact of their initial disability as well) but the most successful never allow these moments to deflect them from their longer-term plan. Instead they adapt their approach to deal with any issues without losing sight of their ultimate goal of success. An SME can use the same approach to help achieve a successful long-term future whilst still dealing with the daily problems it may face.
Details:
www.hwca.com/ challenges/
Business Breakfast Briefing continued ...
From left: Chris Piper, Rodney Style (Haines Watts), David Murray (The Business Magazine), Susan Elliott (VitalSix), Richard Holway and Ian Nash (Santander) Valuable insight into Bank of
England policy thoughts Chris Piper, the Bank of England’s Agent for Central Southern England, provided the SME 100 Breakfast Briefing with a fascinating and authoritative insight into the outlook for the UK economy.
Piper is one of 12 Bank of England regional agents in the UK and his agency maintains regular contact with a core set of over 500 companies, large and small, across eight counties to help inform the Bank’s policy. Piper regularly briefs the Monetary Policy Committee on business conditions within the UK economy.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2012
After explaining reasons for the relatively flat economy over the past two years, Piper highlighted three Bank of England policy initiatives currently being used to assist the UK economy to recover.
• Quantitative Easing: an additional £50 billion of assets are being bought through to October
• Providing the opportunity for banks to access £ liquidity, in order to support lower levels of precautionary reserves.
• A Funding for Lending Scheme, supported by HMT, which reduces banks’ funding costs and encourages more lending at a lower cost to borrowers.
www.businessmag.co.uk
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