It’s one of the hardest things to do as a small and a medium business owner. Knowing where to draw the line on being friends ith employees. It is a difficult line to draw because of the need to ensure that you’re not being too harsh and avoiding being social which is a large part [...]

Quoting is one of the key elements to your business. Without pushing out enough quotes you won’t build a pipeline of forward work. The problem with a lot of communication errors in business is a direct result of a lack of information. With this in mind, the best thing to do is to provide the [...]

One of the biggest questions for manufacturers and retailers alike, particularly this time of year, is whether or not to carry inventory. Carrying inventory presents benefits and risks which this article will outline. In determining whether or not to keep inventory a business needs to look at the following factors: Raw materials input. Inventory for [...]

This article is the final installment in the series “Going Green” by the TBL team. So we’ve decided to focus on arguably one of the most discussed and ‘easiest options’ considered by companies looking to go green. So what are some typical forms that offsets take the form of: Forestry credits There are many pine [...]

Continuing our going green series this article looks at Transportation and Selling and its impact on the ability of your business to deliver cost effective environmental savings. So what are some of the questions that you should be asking your business in order to determine whether or not you have savings available in your business? [...]

If you’re reading this then the first thing you’ll think, initially at least, is what do you mean by Non-revenue Generating Units. Well essentially all NGU’s as the TBL refers to them includes all your office administration staff and overhead – generally NGU walks on two legs and you’ve met them in the hallways of [...]

If your business is in the business of producing goods then this article will be most pertinent to you. However, even service-base businesses still utilise sufficient material throughput in their selling, general and administrative expenses for this article Once you’ve determined your material throughput in terms of both actual carbon profile and then your business’ [...]

This article continues on from our previous article regarding ‘Going Green’. So having read that article you might be thinking to yourself that you’re still not convinced about this carbon business and about going green. Perhaps you’re still not convinced that your business needs to worry about dealing with its environmental impact. For most small [...]

So it seems the world is going green. But what does this really mean? Well most governments in Western and developed countries are attempting to de-carbonise their industries and countries. You’re still asking what does that mean right? The answer is simply that these governments want to change both your methods and your output. Changes [...]

Operating a small business generally means that you’re committed to your business and spend many hours in the office / at the workshop. One of the unintended consequences of working hard is that your employees will often attempt to impress you, the business owner, by spending more time in the office than the norm. If [...]