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Many small and medium-sized enterprises treat branding as something to think about after the business is running smoothly. In reality, a clear brand strategy is one of the most powerful productivity tools at your disposal. When your team, your customers, and your partners all understand what your business stands for, decisions get made faster, priorities become clearer, and energy stops being wasted.

This is comprehensively discussed in our module 6, exploring how to build a brand strategy that doesn’t just look good — it actively drives the performance of your business.

And as you may predict, it starts with the vision and mission. Defining your mission is the reason your business exists beyond making a profit. A well-articulated mission gives your team a shared purpose, which research consistently links to higher engagement and productivity.

Getting to understand who you are selling to

Create a simple customer profile. Understanding your audience removes guesswork from every marketing and operational decision your business makes.

Aligning Your Brand with Internal Operations

Here is where most SMEs miss the opportunity. Brand strategy shouldn’t sit in a folder on the marketing manager’s desktop — it should be embedded in how your business runs day to day.

When your brand values are clearly defined, they become a decision-making framework. If one of your brand values is reliability, that shapes how your team handles late deliveries, customer complaints, and internal deadlines. Productivity improves not because you’ve added more processes, but because people at every level understand what “good” looks like.

Practical steps to embed your brand internally: share your brand values during onboarding, reference them in performance reviews, and use them to evaluate new opportunities. Would this partnership or product align with who we are? That single question saves hours of deliberation.

Building Consistently Across Every Touchpoint

Inconsistent branding creates confusion — and confusion slows everything down. Customers have to work harder to trust you. Your team has to field more questions. Your marketing costs more to produce results.

Develop a simple brand guide covering your tone of voice, visual identity, and key messages. This doesn’t need to be a 50-page document. For most SMEs, a two-page reference sheet is enough to ensure your website, social media, proposals, and customer emails all feel like they come from the same business.

Consistency compounds over time. The more recognisable your brand becomes, the less effort each individual interaction requires.

Measuring and Iterating

A brand strategy is not a one-time project. Set measurable brand goals — customer awareness, net promoter score, repeat business rates — and review them quarterly  alongside your operational KPIs.

The Help to Grow Management Programme encourages leaders to treat every area of the business as a system that can be improved. Your brand is no different. Small, evidence-based refinements will outperform expensive rebrands every time.

Key Takeaways

A strong brand strategy removes ambiguity — and ambiguity is the enemy of productivity. When your SME knows exactly who it is, what it offers, and who it serves, your team spends less time second-guessing and more time delivering. That is the direct link between brand clarity and business performance.

This module is part of the Help to Grow: Management Course, supporting UK SME leaders to build sustainable, high-performing businesses. To book your space: Kingston Business School, Kingston University | Small Business Charter

Sue Land is the founder of Your Marketing Team, a marketing management and consultancy service based in Reigate, Surrey. With a background spanning IBM and Samsung Mobile, Sue has built a unique approach to outsourced marketing that prioritises long-term partnerships over short-term gains.

Tell us about your business and what makes it unique.

We’re a team of nine specialists offering outsourced marketing services to SMEs who don’t have the budget to employ a full team in-house, or the time and know-how to manage an internal marketing resource. What sets us apart is that we measure our success not by campaigns delivered, but by how much our clients grow.

We don’t just execute briefs, we get our hands dirty, challenge assumptions, and sometimes say no if we don’t believe something will drive real growth. We also work alongside our clients’ existing partners, for example photographers or copywriters, rather than insisting we do everything.

Perhaps most unusually, we only work with one company per industry at a time. Our role in a business is a marketing director role, and you can’t be a marketing director for two competing businesses. Yes, it means turning down work, but if our success is measured by our clients’ success, we have to build them up to be the best they can be.

What drove you to start the business?

Personal reasons mainly. I wanted to be there for my children. After reaching senior marketing positions in the telecoms industry, I knew returning to that world would mean leaving the house at 7:30am and getting home at 6:30pm or later. With a one-year-old and a three-year-old, I wanted the flexibility to do school drop-offs, pick-ups, and be at every nativity play or parent assembly. It was a life choice. Now they’re 14 and 16, I work full time but having that flexibility when they were young mattered enormously.

What are your biggest challenges?

Managing directors and CEOs typically like to work with marketing people with experience in their specific industry. We can’t always come to the table with a portfolio from a specific sector. We do have case studies where we’ve supported businesses that have grown to the point of acquisition.

The way we tackle this challenge is through our three lead consultants, each with different sector backgrounds: myself in IT and telecoms, Becky in events, sponsorship activation and Formula One, and Laurie in travel and retail. We also find that knowing less about an industry can be an advantage. We spend more time researching the market and bringing innovative ideas from other sectors that no one else has thought of.

How has Help to Grow impacted your business?

I’d been thinking about how to scale the business and open offices in other UK locations, but it was all just theory swirling around my head. Then Maliha called about Help to Grow.  As a Christian, I’d been praying for God’s guidance that very week, and the timing felt like divine intervention. An answer to prayer.

The Help to Grow course has been amazing because since I started the business over 12 years ago, I haven’t allocated the time to stick rigidly to a business plan. I love marketing and enjoy what I do every day, but I hadn’t created the right environment for our own growth. The course gave me the motivation to set aside time every Friday afternoon to work on where we’re going and how we’ll get there. The mentoring was brilliant too, my Help to Grow mentor’s strengths in operations and finance complimented my marketing background perfectly.

Without Help to Grow, I wouldn’t have had the discipline to plan how we are going to move forward with our growth. It’s made scaling from an idea into a realistic, planned reality.

What advice would you give to someone starting Help to Grow?

Set aside the time. I appreciate, it’s difficult when you run a business. Commit to that Friday afternoon or whenever works for you and protect it. Make the most of the mentoring, especially if your mentor’s strengths complement your weaknesses. Engage with the case studies and other participants; they’ll help you think differently about your challenges.

Where do you see the business in five to ten years?

We’re planning to establish offices in different locations across the UK. Whilst we do use Teams and Zoom, we find creativity and execution work better when people are together. We are created to be social creatures, and face-to-face collaboration, both within the team and with clients is important to achieve the best results and it’s important for our mental health.

We already have a potential team identified for our first new location and the market is opening up there. As hiring costs rise, more small business owners are looking for our model like ours. The Help to Grow course, has given me the framework to make this expansion happen.

Sue Land founded Your Marketing Team 12 years ago and completed the Help to Grow: Management programme at Kingston University. Her business continues to grow through long-term partnerships built on genuine client success rather than campaign churn.

To register for our new cohort starting on 16th January 2026: Kingston Business School, Kingston University | Small Business Charter

Last tuesday,  Kingston Business School hosted ‘The Business of Food & Drinks”. The evening started off with a panel discussion with the founders of London based food and drinks business including Help To Grow Alumni. The conversation yielded several noteworthy perspectives on contemporary entrepreneurship and market innovation.

The Genesis of a Market Solution

The establishment of Bihari Drinks was precipitated by a fundamental observation within the alcoholic beverage sector. The founder, Vikas Thakker, recognised that existing products functioned primarily as supplementary elements to dining experiences rather than as intentionally designed complements to cuisine. This market inefficiency became the catalyst for their venture, demonstrating how consumer frustration can translate into viable business opportunities.

Value-Driven Business Philosophy

The founders articulated a deliberate approach to integrating personal principles into their organisational framework. Citing the example of Green & Black’s transformation of the confectionery industry through health-conscious innovation, they explained how Green & Black incorporates values of authenticity, equilibrium, and consumer respect into its core operations. This values-based methodology extends beyond product formulation to encompass the entirety of the customer experience.

Addressing Operational Complexities

A significant portion of the discussion focused on challenges that receive limited attention in traditional business literature. The Scoop & Waffle, founder, Helen highlighted the difficulty entrepreneurs face in formulating appropriate questions and identifying suitable advisors.

The Scoop & Waffle, founder, Helen Barker-Benfield highlighted the difficulty entrepreneurs face in formulating appropriate questions and identifying suitable advisors. The experiences shared by her illustrated the nuanced difficulties inherent in building sustainable enterprises.”

Helena highlighted how the Help to Grow Management course at Kingston had changed her business exponentially.

Actionable Guidance for Business Initiation

Perhaps the most pragmatic counsel offered during the evening concerned the timing of venture launch. The founders advocated strongly against deferring action while awaiting optimal conditions, whether conceptual refinement or capital accumulation. Their recommendation emphasised commencing operations at a manageable scale with subsequent strategic expansion, a methodology that enabled their own transition from ideation to market presence through rapid iteration and customer engagement.

Concluding Observations

The evening’s exchange underscored several principles relevant to modern SMEs practice: authentic problem identification outweighs trend exploitation, organisational values constitute competitive differentiation, and strategic action surpasses prolonged preparation in generating business momentum. These insights offer a framework for SMEs evaluating entrepreneurial pathways in an increasingly complex commercial landscape.

To join Help to Grow Management course at Kingston: Help to Grow: Management Course | Kingston University

Imagine creativity not as a lightning bolt of genius, but as a gentle, persistent stream—cultivated through small, deliberate creative practice at workplace.

In the engaging discussion on Harvard Business Review Podcast, marketing executives Kathryn Jacob and Sue Unerman challenge the notion that creativity is reserved for a select few, arguing instead that it’s a skill everyone can and should cultivate in the workplace. Their book, “A Year of Creativity,” offers 52 smart ideas to help individuals and teams boost innovation and creative thinking.

In the podcast, they propose several strategies for sparking creativity. One particularly intriguing technique is the “what won’t you do” exercise, where teams explore ideas they’d typically reject. This opens up a new dimension to look at an existing task but through disrupting your own viewpoint.

Unlike traditional approaches that rely on annual away-day brainstorming sessions, Jacob and Unerman advocate for consistent, small-scale creative practice. They compared it to physical exercise – just as you need regular workouts to stay fit, you need regular mental exercise to keep your creative muscles strong.

Some of the other approaches include, viewing problems from different perspectives (like an alien’s or a grandmother’s viewpoint). One might think, this is not relevant to what I am doing but taking this route can spark a chain of creative ideas which can be ground-breaking in accomplishing efficiency.

The authors are particularly critical of organisations overly reliant on logical, data-driven thinking. They argue that truly transformative ideas come from combining data analysis with gut instinct and emotional intelligence.

Crucially, they believe creativity isn’t limited to traditionally “creative” roles. Every employee brings a unique perspective and potential for innovation. They highlight how children are naturally creative but lose this ability as they grow older, with 80% of adults feeling they don’t fulfil their creative potential.

On the other hand, if you come across individuals in your organisations resistant to new ideas, they suggest creating informal “maverick groups” – small teams that meet regularly to discuss innovative concepts, without necessarily seeking explicit management approval.

Their core message is powerful: creativity isn’t about grand, revolutionary moments, but consistent, small-scale exploration. In a world increasingly curated by algorithms and AI, embracing human creativity is more important than ever.

As we move into 2025, Jacob and Unerman challenge business leaders to move beyond purely logical thinking and embrace the messy, emotional, intuitive side of innovation. By doing so, organisations can unlock tremendous potential, keeping teams engaged, motivated, and ahead of the competition.

What are some of the ways you encourage Creativity at your workplace?

To access the full podcast: Boost Your Creativity in Any Job

In the 12 week growth and leadership programme, Help to Grow Management, we insist on fresh perspectives and explore practical frameworks and tools that can be applied in any industry or business. We learn the influential and creative ways to cultivate high-performance work culture in Module 9.

To find out more: Help to Grow: Management Course | Kingston University

In the labyrinth of professional life, where women have long been told to choose between competence and likability, a revelatory conversation between Amy Gallo and Alison Fragale illuminates a different path — one that braids together the seemingly opposing forces of assertiveness and warmth into a powerful catalyst for success.

I was listening to this conversation on the Harvard Business Review Podcast in their Women at Work section. Being a woman myself in everyday life and being in a position of power in some arenas, I resonated with the challenges women face – when they discussed how women can show up both assertive and warm in power spaces such as board rooms as well as I daily interactions.

The discussion reveals that assertiveness and warmth can and should coexist in professional interactions. Alison explains that when someone displays assertiveness, others naturally become more accommodating, while warmth tends to be mimicked. This creates an ideal dynamic where being both assertive and warm leads to an audience that is both accommodating and friendly.

The conversation addresses several practical strategies for combining assertiveness and warmth. For example, in negotiations, showing care for others while being clear about one’s needs can be highly effective. Alison discusses the importance of how we present ourselves in daily interactions, from out-of-office messages to responding to “How are you?” She advises against defaulting to answers like “busy,” which can undermine perceived capability without adding warmth.

Our significant portion focuses on building and maintaining professional relationships. Alison recommends a daily connection habit – reaching out to one person each day, either to make a new connection or reconnect with someone from your network. She emphasises that these interactions don’t need to be open-ended but can be simple appreciative messages.

The interview also explores the value of pushing beyond comfort zones through exercises like “collecting nos” – making ten different requests to different people until you receive ten rejections. This exercise often reveals that people are more willing to say yes than we expect, and getting a “no” rarely impacts our status as much as we fear.

The discussion emphasises the importance of self-presentation, advising against self-deprecation and deflecting compliments, as these behaviours can diminish our perceived capability. Instead, Alison suggests finding ways to build warmth that doesn’t come at the expense of appearing competent.

A key insight from the interview is that authentic growth often requires trying new approaches that might initially feel uncomfortable. While Alison remains “agnostic” about specific tactics, she encourages observing and learning from others’ effective behaviours and being willing to experiment with new approaches to combining assertiveness and warmth.

The conversation concludes with a powerful guiding question for professional interactions: “What can I do to show up as both assertive and warm in this moment?” This simple but fundamental question can help women navigate professional situations more effectively, leading to greater success and influence in their careers.

Do you agree with Alison?

To discover ways to grow as a strong leader, find out more about our Help to Grow Management programme, designed for SMEs:

Help to Grow: Management Course | Kingston University

Advancing from mid-level to senior management and leadership can be challenging, even for talented and ambitious professionals. External factors like limited organisational needs, budget constraints, or long-standing incumbents in desired positions can slow progress and this applies to all industries from the automotive industry to health. These challenges were recently discussed in the Harvard Business Review Podcast, Women at work, hosted by Amy Bernstein.

The insightful conversation explored ways to overcome mid-career stagnation, especially for women. Despite some factors beyond your control such as limited higher-level positions available, being seen as the person you were when you started, not who you’ve become, and lack of opportunities to gain the required experience for higher roles, there are still some aspects you have full control over as rightly pointed out by Lauren Reyes and Megan Bock.

Some of the takeaways from the podcast are,

1. To move up, it’s important to:
   • Clearly articulate your desire for advancement to leadership.
   • Make a business case for your promotion or a new senior role.
   • Build relationships and visibility with influential people inside and outside your organisation.
2. Be willing to take calculated risks:
   • Apply for roles you may not feel 100% qualified for
   • Consider moving to a new organisation that sees your potential.
   • Relocate if necessary for the right opportunity.
3. Strategies for advancement include:
   • Hiring an executive coach.
   • Completing leadership development programmes such as Help to Grow Management at Kingston University.
   • Proposing new roles or projects that showcase senior leadership skills.
   • Building a network across your industry.
4. To change perceptions:
   • Take on high-visibility projects outside your usual role.
   • Identify and solve organisational problems proactively.
   • Build relationships with leaders outside your direct chain of command.
   • Showcase your expertise through speaking, writing, or social media.
5. Be strategic about career moves:
   • Create a long-term career map to guide decisions.
   • Ensure each move aligns with your ultimate goals.
   • Consider both short-term opportunities and long-term fit.

Moving up requires leaving you comfort zone but untapped opportunities both internal and external may value your potential more than what you are receiving now. By following these strategies and being willing to take smart risks, middle managers can position themselves for advancement into senior leadership roles.

In business world, finding new customers can be tough and expensive. Yet, one of the most effective strategies is often right in front of us: customer referrals.

Recently a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article ‘Research: Customer Referrals Are Contagious by Rachel Gershon, Zhenling Jiang, Will Fraser and Jitendra Gupta enfolded some compelling reasons why customer referrals are so important, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and those focusing on growth leadership within limited resources.

Referral Contagion

The magic of customer referrals lies in trust. According to the authors, when a potential customer hears about your product or service from someone they know and trust, it carries much more weight than any advertisement. For SMEs, which often rely on word-of-mouth to build their brand, this trust can be a game-changer. Referred customers are not just more likely to trust your brand—they’re also more likely to make a purchase.

But this goes beyond one purchase according to the authors. Backed by the data from over 4 million customers, they discovered that those who join through referral make more purchases than those customers who purchased using other methods. They also found out that a whopping 30% – 57% of new customers get in through those who joined through referrals. The authors coined the term “referral contagion — the tendency for referred customers to bring in more referrals.”

They investigated it from the lens of homophily, a concept that describes the tendency of individuals to build social networks with those who are similar to them. It leads to the phenomenon that if a customer likes a brand, they may have friends who would also like it.

Furthermore, the authors also discovered another key driving factor of referral contagion using controlled experiments. They found out that referred customers are more likely to refer to others as compared to non-referred customers.

If you would like to read more on this, go to the original article:

https://hbr.org/2024/06/research-customer-referrals-are-contagious

Businesses are still struggling to create an impact and establish strong connections with their customers despite the available help from emerging AI-powered digital tools such as ChatGPT, copy.ai etc. So what is missing?

Recently, Jude Faultless has delivered a session on impactful communication at Kingston Business School. The session was part of the Future of Work Summit, organised by Kingston Chambers of Commerce.

The overall session was insightful, but it particularly brought forward some interesting perspectives on how communication could create a far greater impact if the needs of a buyer are kept at the heart of a business. Yet some of us fixate on what we want to sell instead of what needs there might be of a person who is going to buy. We can change that and do the opposite instead – find where our customers are and know what problems they are facing. With this reversing, we can create a value in our product that our customers need.

Some of the other takeaways from Jude Faultless’ session are, assessing what communication strategies, tools and frameworks are working and also realising what needs to go. One of the ways to test is by checking, Who stops scrolling when we want to speak to them? We can invest hundreds of pounds targeting larger sections and bring our marketing content in front of the queue but if a user still scrolls past our call for action post, what value does the reach have? Measuring reach and regularly assessing organic and paid socials are important in understanding fast-moving and disruptive trends and the implications for a business.

Another interesting factor discussed in the session was to create a bigger impact requires staying relevant. Relevance is a bridge between a business and its customer. If a business is not relevant to its customers’ needs, there is no quantifiable success; no matter how exceptionally great a product or service is.  This applies to all aspects and stages of a business. From content creation to the delivery channels, choosing what problem is a product solving for its user is the key. Find out why they need it, where they need it, and where they might need it. If a customer is watching Tiktok, don’t use email marketing. Jude Faultless emphasised on staying relevant.

Lastly, nearly all products and services have an emotional value even if it may not look like there is. What problem is your business solving and what strings of emotion is it touching?

As a small business owner, launching a new business product or service, you’ll face plenty of challenges – especially when you’re introducing something entirely novel without existing competition. It takes considerable time and resources to build a superior offering from the ground up. But one critical piece that can help fuel your initial growth is securing those first few customers.

While acquiring any customers is difficult at first, those pioneers provide value far beyond just revenue. Here are three key reasons why cultivating strong relationships with your early adopters is so vital:

Word-of-Mouth Multiplier

Your first customers may not have other options, which makes them more likely to try your new solution. But even better, if they have a positive experience, they’ll naturally discuss it with their friends, colleagues and networks. This is how hugely successful startups like Etsy and Uber gained traction – through organic sharing from satisfied early users. Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth referrals during your bootstrapped days.

Insightful User Feedback

There’s a reason these initial users were drawn to an unproven product – they likely weren’t fully satisfied with existing alternatives. Rather than just taking their money, work closely with these early adopters to understand their pain points, goals and perspectives. Support them, listen to their needs, and help them get maximum value from your offering. Why? They’ll reciprocate by providing invaluable feedback on what’s working well, areas for improvement, and ideas for new features. This kind of user research would normally require paying for focus groups and consultants.

Free Product Support & Training

Some SMEs creatively employ their first customers for tasks you’d traditionally hire staff for, like product support and training.  Your earliest fans are usually enthusiastic evangelists who happily wear multiple hats to contribute to your success.

The investment to nurture your first customers is well worth the effort. Not only do they provide critical early revenue, but their word-of-mouth reach, user insights, and hands-on assistance can push your start-up forward faster with limited resources. If you play your cards right, it’s like getting free marketing, R&D, and customer service all rolled into one. Embrace the power of your pioneering patrons.

To learn more about how to grow your business with our Help to Grow Management Programme: https://kingstonuniversitybusinesstraining.com/

Help to Grow Management course is a 90% government-funded leadership growth programme for SME leaders, delivered by industry experts at Kingston University Business School.

On 27^th March, as the sun sat on another year of business growth, it was time for us to gather and celebrate the remarkable achievements of our graduating cohorts of Year 3 Help to Grow: Management Course. This completion ceremony wasn’t just a symbolic gesture; it’s a testament to the commitment, hard work, and growth each SME leader has exhibited throughout their journey.

Following the musical welcome by Yao and Mihkel, Dr. Bahare Afrahi, Director Help to Grow Management at Kingston University and founder of Innovation Playground Kingston University Business Training, welcomed everyone. Dr. Afrahi gave a moving speech acknowledging the commitment of each SME leader and reiterated the importance of a strategic and innovative approach to growth. She also shared her views on innovative thinking and reminded of life as a pie to measure the quality of a life – if one section gets bigger, the others shrink.

Soon after the welcome speech, Help to Grow Speakers, Glenn Bowering and Juan L Soon joined Dr. Afrahi and handed out certificates to graduating SME leaders from a diverse background.

Among the graduating SME leaders, were Jennifer Walker, who is the Head of Growth at Bandstand and Tamsyn Jefferson-Harvey who runs a Business Accountancy Business joined by Jess Guard, Steve Bushill, Saša Gostić, Natalja Petkune, Conor Bath and many others. Graduating participants commented how the Alumni network, 1.2.1 business mentoring and networking opportunities make Help to Grow Management a unique knowledge exchange programme and bring invaluable support to SME leaders to last a lifetime.

Paula Middleton, Executive Consultant at Centre for Political & Diplomatic Studies Ltd, and Help to Grow Alumni, also attended and received a certificate on behalf of her colleague Marketta Brennan. Paula shared how this leadership management course has transformed her business growth. She highlighted how the applied learning of strategic innovation from Help to Grow has driven the success of CPDS.

Ahead of the networking event, Andrei Ceteras, our Help to Grow Alumni, founder and director of Medukcare spoke about the impact of Help to Grow Management on his domiciliary care business and shared a valuable insight on his business growth journey. He commended how the valuable knowledge of Kingston University speakers that helped transform his business post-covid and increased it revenue by 250% in 1 year.

To register for May cohort:

Kingston Business School, Kingston University | Small Business Charter

Billy Beane, a baseball executive, who found remarkable success by bringing an unusual approach to winning baseball games. Wondered how he came up with his unconventional strategy to baseball team management that transformed the way baseball game world traditionally worked?

By paying attention to data analytics that others ignored.

To be able to lead a business using innovative approach requires one to become a ‘first-class noticer” as what Saul Bellow calls one – someone who disrupts the maddening circulation of business affair. Noticing is a vital skill for a business leader not to be consumed by the workings of running a business or leading a team. It is then, you experience what is already in front of you. It is then you are able to notice which previously seemed invisible and therefore a great possibility unattained.

So how can a business leader or a manager inculcate this art of noticing in their everyday business practices?

1- Listen deeply. You have an idea that you are sure of its success? Looking and listening is perhaps a first way forward. Listen to what others have to say, listen to what others have said about it before, listen to what hasn’t been said. Are you listening?

2- Be ready to fail. It is understandable to protect one’s business and one’s own credibility as a leader, but it is also a way to never succeed in areas you possibly could. Make allowances for innovation in your processes. Ideas you thought might not work, give them a chance.

3- Empathise. A problem that is not yours, put yourself at the front of it. How would you resolve it? A problem that is yours, how do you think others will resolve it? Remove your biases that come in the way to approach any problem.

Inculcating a habit of noticing, will connect you with unmatched possibilities, with right people who would become your rock and with a business that has an ability to navigate in difficult times.

To get more support on how to grow a business that is both stronger and sustainable, find out here:  (kingstonuniversitybusinesstraining.com)

Have you ever wondered why an old-school, power-driven, leadership style is no longer effective in an AI-focused, complex, and cross-functional business world? And why something that has previously sustained business leadership and management for centuries has no relevance in the current and ever-changing economic climate?

Because it deters innovation.

It creates one-dimensional vision in a multi-facetted complex world.

It takes the power away from people to co-create the business with you.

The top business and management experts who understand the critical nature of innovation in business has named 3 specific roles required to lead innovatively referred in a Podcast on Harvard Business Review. If you miss applying these 3 roles towards leading your team or a project through and through, it can be detrimental for your organisation to innovate or to bring the agility that your
project needs.

The three roles known to be climacteric in leading a business requires innovating – Innovating the ways a business is strategised, innovating the ways it understands and positions its customer value proposition and innovating the ways a business inculcate its culture for the people who work for the business as well as the people the business works for.

First of them is to be an Architect – building a culture and capabilities for people who would be able to collaborate, experiment and grow in-line with your mission and vision, says Linda A Hill, an American ethnographer and business leadership expert.

She then goes on to introduce Bridger as a second leadership role a business leader needs to take on. What she means by Bridger is to get out of your organisation to create partnerships with external talents, tools, and resources. This will enable you to outsource specialised resources to deliver your project beyond your limited capacity. This in result will bridge the gap between you and unlimited business opportunities you may have missed by staying in your box and build multitudes of business communities.

Lastly yet unequivocally important is to become a Catalyst. And what it means to be catalyst as a business leader is to then really reap the benefits of designing the culture and capabilities and bridging the gap by co-creating the business capabilities on a larger canvas of eco-system. What this says is to use the trust and influence we have built to accelerate new organisation units without having a formal authority but mutual empathy, growth and real connections.

To lead your business innovatively, the Help to Grow Management course at Kingston University is a great way to develop an in-depth understanding of Strategy and Innovation.

I’m hearing manifesting increasingly often in small business terms. While I’m not convinced by the law of attraction, the idea of having a positive and repetitive belief about your vision and actions is something that could be of great value to you and your business.

I follow Mel Robbins and her podcasts and in one she discusses exactly this type of manifesting, she describes it as training your brain to believe in something that hasn’t happened yet. It’s a technique I’ve seen used in athletes – think back to try conversions in rugby and the kicker visualising the ball going through the posts before actually kicking it. You are literally training your brain to believe it’s happening and to take the action. David Hamilton in his book “Why Woo-Woo Works” also discusses this brain training and how visualisation impacts brain networks and shapes them to match this vision.

This vision should be realistic and align to your core values and with continued affirmative repetition helps that brain training to make positives actions and behaviours towards the vision. If you’ve taken one of our courses, you will be well aware that vision and values are central to our business training. So can you harness the power of manifesting personally and with your team to realise your business success?

Both Mel and David talk about the importance of repetition. Can you continually visualise the behaviours, steps and actions you need to take to realise your business vision? Mel also talks about how this prepares you for change and ultimately achieve your goals. Can you communicate your vision with your team, get them to visualise the steps they need to take, to bring them along on that journey? Socialising the vision and actions needed in a positive way so you all can visualise and so brain train to believe it will happen.

I know it won’t be for everyone, but if this is one way to build a positive mindset, self-belief and motivation for action it’s worth sharing.

2023 has been another year of uncertainty and change for SME’s with rising costs, interest rates and the cost of living crisis to name just a few of the challenges faced into.

We are proud here at Kingston to have supported 5 intakes of our Help to Grow Management SME leaders and decision makers through the year.  Providing a safe and open environment for discussing challenges, sharing best practice and supporting new strategies across multiple industries and business types.

It’s been great to continue to support our alumni with our regular lunchtime masterclasses and in person workshops and see our cohorts mix covering topics including HR hints and tips, web design strategy, the British Library on IP and an alumni led workshop on selling.

We held our annual completion ceremony in February 2023 – welcoming back previous completers from Help to Grow Management for an evening of music, food and a glass or two while networking.  A real celebration of their achievements and to collect their certificate from our programme director and the head of the business school.

Many thanks to our alumni who support us in providing case studies to bring the course to life for other participants.  We had a new series of static and video case studies this year that have gone down a storm!  It’s also been great to share our participants success stories beyond us here at Kingston, with our alumni featured in business events, press releases and the Small Business Charter website.  We love to see your progress and achievements on social!

We are so much more than just a course.  Many thanks to our participants, alumni, expert speakers and programme team for all their work, open mind approach and continually seeking to improve and support.  Wishing you a super start to 2024!

We are so much more than just a course…

Our alumni workshops and master classes have been running for over 18 months and are open to all Help to Grow Management Kingston alumni as part of the course and any micro or SME owner, leader or decision maker (for a small fee.)

Covering topics such as finance, HR, digital marketing, customer service, influencing and sales.  We are able to adapt and reflect the current business environment and requests from our over 300 strong alumni.

We source experts with real life experience and specialist knowledge to deliver these sessions and they are designed to fit around your busy worklife with a mix of online webinars and face to face workshops.

Always live and interactive, either an online lunch time masterclass or face to face workshop here in Kingston.  A fantastic way of both networking with fellow business leaders and applying specialist learning to your business.  Follow us on LinkedIn to see what’s coming up and register:

IP Essentials: Protecting your Innovations   Wednesday 22 November 10:30  (Workshop)

The Strategic Importance of a Good Website! 13th November 12:00-13:30pm (Webinar) (google.com)

UN Women calculate that gender equality is 300 years away.

Just let that sink in.

That many events lately have pushed back women and girls empowerment – including Covid, natural disasters, conflict and digital advances. That there has been a push back on women’s rights across the globe.

This is an issue that effects all women and girls. Feeling safe, feeling empowered and protection of our rights has to be at the forefront of change makers and decision makers. 300 years just isn’t good enough.

Digital inclusion

Women are 27 times more likely than men to face online harassment or hate speech. Only 1 in 4 report it to authorities. 9 out of 10 limit online activities because of it.  These were all statistics I took from attending this year’s UN Women CSW67.

In a world that is moving at a rapid speed to online and digital – think about the impact on women and girls in that space. There is an urgent need to make that space safe. To ensure digital equality for women. To include women in the leadership and design of online space, to think about the impacts and checks and controls needed.

We can not allow a digital world to replicate the same issues and culture that lead to that harassment and hate behaviour. More women need to be involved in STEM, employed in decision making positions in innovative and IT businesses, be listened to in the innovative product space, be supported in the workplace and in business and beyond.

We need to do this together…raise awareness, promote STEM to women and girls, employ women in decision making roles and continue pushing for better.

Women in Business

The 2019 Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurs highlighted that only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs are female.  Male led SME’s are 5 times more likely to scale up their business to £1m than female.  Access to funding was one of the key barriers and differentiators between men and women entrepreneurs.

We are proud here at Kingston Help to Grow Management to offer a limited number of Women in Business bursaries with each cohort, to give access to the support and advice to grow their business.

The Rose report also states the need for local mentoring and networks – again an area where we can support through the Help to Grow Management course, with mentoring access to our experts and our alumni programme.

We need to do this together. What can you do as an SME leader? Be a change creator.

As a small business owner or leader one of the questions you may find yourself asking is; where do I start? Every bit of my business needs me and as soon as I focus on one area I’m worried about another.

The plumbing analogy might help you to focus on the right area. It’s a simple and visual way to model and analyse your business flow.

Looking at this diagram below, where should the manager focus their efforts to increase the flow through to the bucket?

• Change the storage tank A?
• Change into a bigger bucket H?
• Change pipe section D?

Tank A could be sales coming in, which looks healthy enough so we could be tempted to increase the flow of value through the business by investing more in sales. But, when we get to pipe D, here we see the flow slowing, leaving E and F at half capacity at most. There is wasted capacity in E and F and the value flow (water) is limited by the time it goes through G and arrives in the bucket.

Some of your management activities may not always be this clearly dependent on each other but this is still a useful analogy to help you think about where the blockage in your business is.

Key points

• Don’t ignore the thin pipes or obstacles
• Make sure the thin pipeline is always full, any spare capacity here really impacts the subsequent flow
• Don’t invest your time and resources where things are running smoothly if there is a blockage later on in the system

So we’ve created a story, developed a customer persona now should be ready to convert with your sales pitch.

As a non sales person, this can be quite daunting – maybe with images of identikit blue suits, BMW’s and a wide white teeth smile. Remember it boils down to one person having a conversation with another person, both with their own aims and objectives. As with many things in life preparation and practice are your best go to.

Preparation

Learn your unique benefits and value proposition off by heart and be confident in that knowledge. Really get into the mindset of your customer persona, what language they like to use, what is an immediate turn off. What are their wants, needs, challenges. Do they want facts and figures, real life examples, detailed product information – have these prepared and to hand. Know what you need to process the sale – is it access to paperwork, payment system or a follow up RFQ for example. Know the limitations in negotiating price or the product.

Practice

Practice with members of your team, friends and family. Understand the questions they have to improve your pitch or preparation and continuously improve. Reflect on your own delivery – the words you are using, your own body language and the energy you bring to the sale. Practice listening to your individual customer, understand their specific needs and requirements and then (using your prep work) align how your business can help or answer their questions or concerns. If you don’t know something, explain your next steps to find out for them and give a definitive
timeline.

The close

Be confident in how you need to process the sale and communicate this clearly. Is it agreeing a timeframe of delivery or an immediate payment and exchange of goods? Ensure you both know
what has been agreed, next steps and timing.

I believe people buy from people, so be yourself, be confident in your preparation and continuously learn and improve as you practice.

Delegation takes a lot of time and can lead to costly mistakes but if you don’t do it, you won’t grow and could end up being an obstacle in your own business.

You may find the below useful. It’s called the skill/ will matrix and it helps you to think about the people you are delegating to.

Essentially, if they have low skill and are not motivated to do the job, you’re going to need to tell them what to do, unless you can motivate them to see why it would be good for them to take on the new task.

If they are very willing but a bit clueless (a new recruit or a new job fits into this category), then guide them carefully – spell out what needs to be done, how and to what standard and check the work before they make a big mistake or miss a crucial deadline.

If they have a lot of skill but no motivation to do the task, you’ll need to excite them before you can rely on them to take on the delegated task with enthusiasm.

And finally, if they know how to do the task and are very willing, delegate away! Be careful that you have really understood their levels of skill and motivation and spend time explaining and checking that they do understand the task.

This article will look at creating customer personas, to help you understand and define your marketing communications strategy and delivery and ultimately attract your target customers to your business.

Marketing your business is often seen as a minefield of overcrowded, ineffective and costly (of both your time and money) activity.  You need to be a researcher, behaviourist, creative, innovator, linguist and data analyst to name but a few…but without marketing your business, you can’t attract new customers.  Here I try and break this into a simple and achievable starting point from a practitioner perspective.

So, here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Know your customer or customers

In a previous blog I wrote about storytelling, well this is the part where you get to create your characters – your target customer or customers.  What are they called?  What do they enjoy doing?  What challenges do they face?  How and where do they spend their time?  What do they relate to?

Harry, 15, enjoys skateboarding with his group of friends from school.  He’s constantly on snapchat and posts short videos of himself and his mates doing tricks on TikTok.  He’s very conscious of his self image and will choose brands that his mates wear and his favourite artist from Wireless.

Michelle, 43, works full time at a local business.  She enjoys walks in the park and coffee and cake with a close knit group of friends.  She’s on Facebook, but rarely posts unless it’s a special occasion. She shops online with Ocado, but does enjoy the makers markets at the local town centre.   She likes the feeling of community and a personal touch.

You can get creative and find pictures that illustrate your customer personas and key words.

How you would market to Harry would be very different to Michelle.  They have different interests, different places they go to, different social media platforms and would have a different tone of voice to appeal to them.  How they make decisions on purchases is different.

Don’t have too many persona’s, one or two is great unless you have a diverse business portfolio, keep it clear and simple so that your marketing can be segmented and targeted.

Research is key

How would you know this about your customer persona?  By undertaking market research! Ask people who meet your customer type what they like about your business, what problems it solves, where they would go to find you, why they would buy from you. Look at similar profiles online – who do they follow, what do they post about, what language to they use, how do they interact with people and businesses.

Always have your eyes and ears open (and a notebook to hand!) as there is so much information out there to gather and sometimes all it takes is a quick drop of information that aligns to your values and those of your target customer.

Design your campaign

How will your business offering appeal to your target customer or customers?  What language would make them feel connected to your product or service and so make a decision?  How would your offering solve an issue or problem for them or benefit their sense of belonging, wellbeing, and value? Which channels (email, social media, print, radio, outdoor) are relevant to your customer? What visuals will resonate?  What Harry would click on is going to be different to what Michelle would choose.

You should have this from your research, so now you need to apply it to your communications.

Feedback, Measure and Learn

I personally use Canva to mock up ideas, designs and storyboards and then come back and re-work with a fresh pair of eyes, get feedback (from people who match my customer persona) and re-work again.

Trial it, measure response and conversions and yes, learn and re-work again.

From a branding perspective, once you have a chosen brand theme, colour, font etc it’s important to keep it consistent throughout everything (website, social media, any print ads.)  Absolutely change your strapline or message to keep it relevant.  I personally think aligning to events that are current, in the public eye (think Bake-off, Wimbledon, World Cup final) and that are aligned to your customer persona helps keep a campaign fresh, relevant, and alive.

This article is a bit different, we have interviewed two of our business mentors from our Kingston team, Glenn Bowering Director of People Inside and Paul Shaw Co-Founder of Restaurant Developments  to find out more on business mentoring, why you might benefit from one, what it is and how it can benefit small businesses.

Q: Why would someone want a mentor?

Paul:  Having a mentor can be a valuable and rewarding experience for a small business owner. Running your own business can be a solitary and stressful affair sometimes and its quite normal to feel that no one really knows what you’re going through. We all need advice and guidance from time to time and a business mentor can provide it.

A good mentor will never seek to judge, instruct or influence, only to support, guide and suggest. They can help you connect to people and resources you wouldn’t otherwise have access to and will provide a different perspective on business problems and challenges. Crucially, a good business mentor will always keep you accountable for your decisions and actions and will help you to maintain discipline and momentum as you develop your business.

Glenn: Running a business can be hard work and isolating. Often business owners reach a level where they are extremely busy but the results they care about seem to plateau and it’s not clear why.

A mentor is someone who shares their knowledge, skills or experience in order to help someone else develop. The motivation for working with a mentor is usually because someone is approaching the limit of how their own knowledge, skills and experience can be used to progress.

Working with a mentor can help a business owner stand back, re-evaluate, gain new perspectives, and often benefit from the experiences of another.

Q: How would you go about choosing a mentor?  

Paul: Firstly, be clear about your goals. What are you looking to achieve through mentoring and what kind of mentor is most likely to help you reach your objectives? Look for someone with experience that is relevant to you. They might not be in your direct line of business, but they will probably be in a related line. You may want a mentor who has have expertise in an area where you‘re not so strong yourself – marketing or finance, for example. Most importantly, you need to get on. Look for someone you feel you can really connect with; someone who listens; someone who grasps the challenges you’re facing; someone who won’t patronise you, but will communicate with you in an open and honest manner.

Glenn: When looking for a mentor, rapport and chemistry are key – you want someone you feel comfortable opening up to and connecting with. At the same time, don’t be afraid to choose a mentor who will challenge you and push you outside your comfort zone. If you feel a little discomfort, that’s probably a good thing.

While industry-specific expertise can be helpful, a strong business mentor provides broader guidance on leadership, strategy and professional development. This is a developmental relationship, not a consulting or coaching engagement, so make sure you’re clear on boundaries.

I’d suggest having an introductory meeting to make sure it’s a good match before formalising the relationship. Be upfront about what you hope to achieve through mentoring and what you need in terms of availability, style and experience.

Q: What are common misconceptions about mentoring?

Paul: Mentors are not coaches: they won’t tell you what to do but they will help you to draw your own conclusions and reach decisions that are right for you and your business.

Mentoring is not a silver bullet: you have to want to commit to the process and you have to be prepared to trust your mentor. Most of all, you have to be completely open and honest. Without transparency and honesty, the process will fail.  Mentors will not solve all your problems: you will solve your own problems – with the help of a mentor.

Mentoring is not a one-way street: a good mentor will learn as much from you as you will learn from them. The best mentoring relationships are true and equal partnerships.

Glenn: It may not be just about business. Many founders are the bottleneck to growth so you may need to work with your mentor in areas like your leadership style or your reluctance to let go of the reigns or even developing comfort with allowing your staff to make mistakes. You should be prepared to look inwards.

Mentoring is often confused with consulting. Many feel it’s important to look for someone from their industry so they can ‘pick their brains’. However, while a mentor may share knowledge and expertise in a general sense, it’s not the mentor’s place to provide you with answers.

Final Q: What outcomes would you expect from your mentoring experience? 

Paul: Deeper insight into your business. A fresh perspective that will give you ideas and inspiration. Greater accountability and, therefore, productivity. Access to opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise arise. Access to a wider network of possible partners, clients and supporters.

A strong and long-lasting relationship with someone who really understands you and your business.

Fewer feelings of isolation, anxiety and overwhelm. A stronger, more productive and more robust business.

 Glenn: Working with a mentor will often involve an objective assessment of your business, so you can expect to feel good about all the great work you’ve done as well as identify some areas for improvement.

You should get a sense of moving forward in some way; e.g. with your leadership, the direction and/or strategy for the business, a renewed clarity and focus or some other aspect of business that is important to your personal and business growth.

You know that as an entrepreneur, by the nature of your work, you experience unique stressors that distinguish yourself from your employees. Your multifaceted roles extends from marketing and sales to product development, finance and cash flow to employee management while at the same time, you are hooked for sustaining your business for you and your employees.

Years and years of research show that you are often stewards of your employees and have a strong sense of responsibility towards your team. This can lead to burnout without the necessary self-care.

So, how can you take care of yourself and at the same time sustain your business?  Here are some suggestions for you from my research and experience.

What are the best ways entrepreneurs can take care of themselves and manage stress? 

Our research shows that psychological detachment is the core recovery experience. What is it? Well, it is ‘switching off’ during non-work time. It is our experience of being mentally away from work, to make a pause in thinking about work-related issues. In effect, it is refraining from job-related activities and thoughts during nonwork time, to mentally disengage from our jobs while being away from work.

Why? How does detachment from work affect stress levels? 

Job stressors, particularly workload, predict low levels of psychological detachment and a lack of detachment in turn predicts high strain levels and poor individual well-being such as burnout and lower life satisfaction. ‘Switching off’ reduces the effect of job stressors on the one hand and strain and poor well-being on the other hand.

What we also find in our research is that detachment from work is positively correlated with self-reported mental and physical health, well-being, and task performance.

Sounds great, but how can I detach from work? 

Whilst detachment from work, during non-work time seems to be at the core of managing stress, research suggests that entrepreneurs have difficulty detaching from work because of their sense of responsibility and that they prioritise work over life and have little desire for boundaries between the two. This is in addition to their often very high workload.

What to do then? Try creating plans to resolve incomplete work goals, this seems to be one of the best-worked strategies that help entrepreneurs detach from work.

The next thing that works well is work-related self-efficacy and enthusiasm that leads to engagement in recovery activity, which in turn mobilises further positive beliefs and affects gained during the recovery time.  Creating a virtuous circle effect.

Finally, boundary creation around information and communication seems to work its magic and help entrepreneurs detach, which in turn helps the recovery. It’s no surprise that work-related extended availability will negatively affect your detachment and recovery.

The simple message, spend more time on activities that help you switch off from work related thoughts.

Story telling has been a part of human existence since we first started communicating, it’s something that is second nature to us, that conveys meaning, learning and importantly that we can repeat.  That creates understanding, community and belonging. Either word of mouth, written, radio or visually – it evokes emotional connection when done right.

Story telling in marketing is a great way to connect with your customer.  It creates an emotional response, that is far more memorable than a set of facts or features.   It should draw out understanding of who your customer is, what they believe and what they need.  Then how your business understands their challenges and needs and can provide a solution or benefit them.  It can feed into your brand, your campaigns, your sales pitch and customer service – providing a consistent and authentic experience.

Developing a story.

At the heart of developing your story, you need a good understanding of your customer.  Who is your customer? What are their wants and needs?  What language do they use? What’s important to them? What is an instant turn off?

You also need to understand the benefits to the customer of your business – beyond the nuts and bolts – how will your customer benefit from your product or service?  What makes you unique in your customers eyes? Will your drivers for going into business connect with your customer?  Will your customers connect and care about you/the people behind your business?

As with many aspects of business can you use story telling to make something complex, simple to understand and remember?

Importantly, your story is unique to you.

So tell your story, bring it to life, create your community…and here’s to living happily ever after.

This article is intended to give you a brief overview of the different areas of registered intellectual property (IP) within the UK. We highly recommend speaking to an IP solicitor regarding specific questions around intellectual property for your business. This article is not legal advice. This article may not be relevant to those seeking to protect their business outside of the UK as it does not cover IP protection outside of it.

What is intellectual property?

Intellectual Property refers to the innovations and creations made by your business- it is the legal framework that allows you to both protect the things you create and to use them in ways that can commercially benefit you and your business. However, it does not refer to ideas behind what you do- if you bake chocolate cakes, you cannot protect the idea of cake baking, but you can protect some of the knowledge of how the cake is made, your packaging, store logos etc.

There are also exceptions to IP protections which include business models, scientific theory, mathematic formulae, things that occur naturally (e.g. plant types), or things that already exist in the public domain.

There are six main types of intellectual property, 3 that are registered and 3 that are not (trade secrets, know how and copyright.) This blog will look at registered.

Registered IP

Trademarks

Trademarks are logos or words that you use for people to identify your brand. A business can legally can own multiple trademarks and can decide to sell or license them- as the value of a business’ brand increases as does that of their trademark. Trademarks must be renewed every ten years.

All registered trademarks can use ® to indicate that their logo is legally protected. Some brands who have not registered their trademarks may use ™ instead to indicate something as their trademark, although this does not afford the same legal protections this does not mean an unregistered trademark cannot be defended in the UK, but it can be more challenging.

To register a trademark in the UK, you must first check that a similar trademark is not registered already in the classification for goods or services your business wishes to use it in. You can do this via the IPO’s online search.

Registered designs

Registered design protects the aesthetics and overall look of a product and can cover everything from fashion designs to industrial design to graphics to aspects of urban planning.

Registered design covers the looks of a product including shape, decoration and how it is configured. It protects the design from being copied, although it is also worth noting that some protection is also available automatically in the UK under Design Right law (like with trademarks you can still protect your designs in some cases without registering although the process could be more complicated). Registered designs last 5 years and can be renewed for up to 25 years.

Like trademarks you can buy or sell registered designs, and licensing a design can be very lucrative.  Like with trademarks, designs need to be registered in different territories in order to be protected, in the UK you must prove your design is innovative and to do this you must do prior art searches before registering – you can do this via databases like Design View.

Patents

Patents protection covers how a product or invention works and is made. To qualify as a patent the invention has to be an innovation- it should be a invention that is either better or different than what exists, or cheaper.  It should be new and not already in use, not obvious, and it must not just be hypothetical- you must be able to make and use it.

Patents give you the right to be the sole producer on a product for 20 years and they give you protection from other producing your product within the territory you are protected.

To register a patent you must keep your invention confidential and it is safest to not share the details of it. In cases where you must, it recommended to use non-disclosure agreements (be aware these can still be broken.) If your invention enters the public domain it may result in your patent application being rejected.

You will need to do a prior art search to prove your invention is unique. This includes anything in existence, and examples can come from creative works as well as other patents. You should search within your industry for similar inventions and can also use online patent databases such as https://worldwide.espacenet.com/ which is run by the European Patent Office.

We highly recommend speaking to an IP solicitor regarding specific questions around intellectual property for your business.