Growth Planning

A soaring headcount may be a symptom of success but it can also create some serious problems. Nick Britton asks leaders of fast-growing companies how they have expanded rapidly without sacrificing the culture that made them successful in the first place.

Entrepreneurs

Success breeds confidence, but you need to be sure that pride doesn’t overwhelm your business acumen. Many good careers – and fortunes – have been ruined by an inability to accept reality.

Opinion

Building a business is a unique journey because the operation you run evolves through so many different stages - until you stand back from the cash flows, contracts, and strategies, you often can't recognise at what stage your venture is.

Financial Management

As every entrepreneur knows, growing a company is fraught with perils. Your business model, for instance, might have worked well up to a certain stage of development, but may prove woefully unsuitable at the next one. Key customers or suppliers may let you down.

Venture Capital Funding

Alchemists of old used to try to turn lead into gold, but latter-day exponents take businesses on their death-beds and nurse them back to rude health, says Elderstreet Investments boss Michael Jackson.

Entrepreneurs

Having built a thriving betting shop business, Peter Done changed tack and took on employment consultancy Peninsula. He eventually turned the company’s fortunes around, but sailed close to the wind on many occasions.