Small Business Big Profit

House prices falling, fuel costs rising and wages falling behind the cost of living means that we will start to see the burden on our credit cards increase.
The heavier the debt burden the greater the personal strain that we experience and the harder it becomes to work smarter, earn faster and pay off the debt.  [...]

What a topic to write about!  This happened to me in Spring 2007 and with the benefit of time and hindsight it is something I should have accepted months before it happened.
I was busy trying to do too many things to be able to focus on the few that were important and in the end [...]

A few days ago I was lucky enough to have been a delegate at the UK Crime Literature Festival.  Based in Harrogate at the beautifully refurbished Crown Hotel, the event was a packed four days of talks, discussions and panel interviews.  Sponsored by Theakstons Brewery, who funded this years Crime Book award.  More about this [...]

Working with our local sixth form college in Bradford (am I allowed to call them sixth form colleges any more?) this week has been an insight into the way communication methods have changed for the better and a reminder that life shifts at speed.
In designing our contribution to the Freshers’ Week for September, we have been [...]

We all love books and the written form.
I imagine that you enjoy visiting bookshops, and not just the big and bright chainstore book depots that you find at motorway junctions and in city centres.  These are great of course, sometimes simply for the sheer volume of stock they carry as well as for the hours [...]

This weekend a friend came to see me at home.  He was hesitant about explaining why he needed to come over, but said it was both important and private.
So we sat down in the lounge on Saturday morning and the first few minutes I thought to myself, “He’s trying to be very positive, but there’s [...]

Just yesterday I had lunch with a brilliant writer at Betty’s in Ilkley.  For those of you who do not know the history or significance of Betty’s let it be simply said that the place is an institution and a bit of a landmark.  Just like the Tea Rooms in Harrogate is a part of the Yorkshire [...]

You have committed time and money to attending a Literature Festival, a Writing Weekend or a programme of Writing with other people, so how do you prepare for the event, and what do you do when you are there?
Assuming that you are going to a residential programme where you will be working through facilitated exercises [...]

This weekend I was in my local supermarket when I saw the artist who painted the beautiful picture that hangs above my writing desk. Liz painted this picture of a traditional stone built property when she and her husband were in a Lake District village last year.
Approaching what they thought was going to be an [...]

Failure is hardly a word to inspire or to give positive messages, and yet some of my biggest learnings have come from the failure of a business I had run for years and which came to a slow halt that lead to my personal bankruptcy and massive life shifts.
When you start any business it is [...]