Maintaining strength

Tips to help you maintain your business.

Keeping customers happy, selling your products, motivating your employees and keeping your finances in order are just some of the many challenges that you'll face managing your own business.

Economy Matters

Our Chief Economist, Donald MacRae, analyses Scotland's current economic environment.

Protecting against FX fluctuation

Currency management tools could be the key to helping Scottish businesses succeed in new markets.

Trading for Growth

The right kind of support is crucial to success for both the SME sector and the Scottish economy.

Driving the Bottom Line

Forthcoming tax changes to carbon emission thresholds could catch out Company Car users across the country.

Developing a marketing plan

Getting your marketing plan right is key to a successful business.

This guide will help you:

get started with your marketing plan
analyse where your business is now
identify your marketing objectives
plan your marketing tactics
set your budget
and put your marketing plan into action.

Managing your advertising spend during the downturn

Utilising social media, email marketing and blogs can help you advertise on a budget during the downturn.

This guide will cover:

using social media for market research
emailing your current customers
starting a conversation with your customers online
and cultivating word of mouth recommendations though user feedback.

Making the most of the downturn

Use the downturn to plan and prepare for when the economy recovers.

This guide should help you:

take the time to plan
fine-tune your business practices
take advantage of bargains in the marketplace
and prepare for a rebounding economy .

Credit crunch survival guide

Help your business survive through the credit crunch by being proactive and staying in control.

This guide will:

help you face up to the reality of your situation
stay open to new ideas
keep in touch with your bank
know your bottom line
and find people who can help.

Motivating and retaining key staff

Happy and motivated employees are more likely to stick with you and work hard to build your business.

This guide looks at:

what motivation is
why it is important to retain staff
encouraging managers and staff to work together
agreeing goals with your employees
rewarding your employees
and giving feedback, praise and criticism.

Pricing strategies for the downturn

During times of economic uncertainty take stock of your pricing.

This guide covers:

establishing your true costs
pricing fixes for money losers
simplifying your pricing
identifying critical price points
adding value rather than discounting
and incremental pricing.

Advanced time management

With a few small tweaks you can boost your productivity and feel more in control of your work.

This guide will show you how to:

analyse how you’re currently spending your time
prioritise your work so you get the right things done
be more productive by reducing distractions
use tools to better manage your time
get rid of common time-wasters
and avoid common time management pitfalls.

Maintaining strength

Existing customers

New customer

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