Smorgasbord helps people who are starting or growing a business, by providing funding and support to overcome the five main barriers to SME growth. In order to find out what the main barriers to growth are, we asked some of the hundreds of businesses we have helped with advice or start-up funding over the last few years. We combined this with a variety of research from, amongst others, The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), The Small Business Alliance and The Scale Up Inst

The world of sport and the world of business have many things in common. Mistaking aggression for being competitive, not always understanding the difference between being driven and being determined and most importantly often focussing on the result rather than using peak performance as a way of achieving the result. Anyone working in both sports and in business sees the ironies, the similarities and the chance for business and sport to embrace and exchange the learning. Simo

I was lucky enough to meet Kerrie Dorman of The Association of Business Mentors last Tuesday evening at an innovation event at the very cool and creative Custard factory in Birmingham. Apart from meeting interesting people and discussing a wide range of innovation topics there was wine and cheese. What's not to like? I have been advising businesses for some time and it still confuses me; am I a mentor, a coach, a consultant, or an adviser; or even advisor? You see, if you che

I was listening to David Hyner being interviewed by Ian Brodie recently. No, not Ian Broudie of the famed 1990’s pop combo, The Lightning Seeds, but he of the Authority Marketing Podcast. David Hyner interviewed 149 people who are at the top of their fields. Sports, business, celebrity, people who are the best at whatever it is they do. He found that the one common factor between all of these people was that they all had what he calls ‘a massive goal’ They did not have a real