Due to the outstanding response to our last traders podcast, we decided to invite our client, Ross Maxwell, professional full-time trader, and Director of Key Zone Traders, onto our podcast to record a special episode.   Key Zone Traders is an online trading education company for new and existing traders. Ross focuses particularly on the importance of mindset in order to trade successfully. In the podcast he shares the story of one of his clients who had been making losses for over 10 years. Working with Ross, he made a consistent plan for trading and focused on making healthy mindset habits. The result? He’s been profitable for over 2 years now.   Listen to Caroline Ward (our very own financial traders Chartered Accountant and Adviser) ask Ross everything from how to start trading the right way, understanding what a draw down period is and how to keep a good mindset during it to how mindfulness helps him trade every day.   Once you’ve listened to and digested this podcast, you will be able to:   ✅ Understand what a draw down period is and how to keep a good mindset during it ✅ How to get into the right mindset for trading ✅ Importance of getting the right structure in place to take that pressure off ✅ How to start trading the right way ✅ How to develop the skills to identify when you’re feeling emotional so you can step back ✅ How mindfulness helps your trading ✅ Understand the importance of investing in trading education ✅ Find a strategy for trading and the importance of working on making one strategy successful    Let’s continue the conversation… A4G Accountants for Traders | LinkedIn | Website Book a free discovery call with one of our growth advisers Keyzone Traders | www.keyzonetraders.com | Ross@keyzonetraders.com Recommended reads The Chimp Paradox Trade Mindfully – Gary Dayton

This month, we are discussing the ways you can generate cash and/or finance into your business. Nowadays, there are so many ways to raise funds for your business, whether you’re just starting out, growing your business, or working on an expansion project… However, it isn’t just an easy as picking an off the shelf package and getting going. There are several considerations and risks that you will need to analyse ahead of taking out finance. To help clear up some of the fog around generating finance into your business, we fired some questions at Will Richardson, Partner at A4G sister company, A4G Growth. Will assists businesses to source the best forms of commercial finance and providing them with the advice they need to make sound business decisions.   By listening to this podcast, you will learn:  ✅ The most common ways small you can get into finance into your business and how to navigate these smoothly ✅ The importance of having a business plan, up to date management information and cash flow plan when getting finance ✅ Your finance options such as commercial finance, asset finance, invoice finance, stock finance, development loans, bridging finance, crowdfunding ✅ How to access finance options ✅ What programmes like incubators and accelerators are and when to choose this finance option ✅ How to generate cash with grants, what grants are available right now and how to overcome the hurdles ✅ Why you may choose investment over borrowing ✅ Practical advice on generating cash and raising finance   Let’s continue the conversation… Raising finance is part of our Business Breakthrough Growth Programme where we can create a personalised programme for you and your business to achieve growth, including generating cash and finance to reinvest into your business. Find out more about our Breakthrough Growth Programme here. Alternatively, download this PDF with all of our Business Breakthrough Programmes which you can share with your network.   A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Sign up to our Breakthrough Growth Programme Book a free discovery call with one of our growth advisers Kent and Medway Growth Hub

Why you should make marketing a priority in your business and how you can build a strong marketing strategy to support your growth strategy. Once you’ve listened to and digested this podcast, you will be able to: ✅ Know the difference between inbound, outbound and referral marketing ✅ Build an inbound marketing strategy ✅ Build an outbound strategy and which industries would benefit from this form of marketing ✅ Build a referral marketing strategy and how beneficial this method is for all industries ✅ Define your Unique Selling Point and use it within your marketing strategy to stand out ahead of your competitors ✅ Know the importance of thinking of Return on Investment when building your strategy and methods of marketing ✅ Budget for marketing (your time and money) ✅ Learn top tips from someone whose business has grown consecutively for 25+ years and helped countless others grow theirs Let’s continue the conversation… Marketing is part of our Business Breakthrough Growth Programme where we can create a personalised programme for you and your business to achieve growth, including building a marketing strategy. Find out more about our Breakthrough Growth Programme on our website. Alternatively, download this PDF with all of our Business Breakthrough Programmes which you can share with your network (that’s referral marketing ;)) A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Sign up to our Breakthrough Growth Programme Book a free discovery call with one of our growth advisers Buy Accidental Millionaires

We’ve tackled the factors that may be limiting your growth and getting your mindset ready for growth, so now how are you actually going to do it? In this episode, you’ll learn how. This month, we’re joined by not one, but two guests! First, we’re joined by Simon Thompson is Managing Director of Relish, an agency who have been through a number of phases of growth over the last few years themselves and help many other consumer businesses grow their business by helping produce successful acquisition strategies. Simon will be sharing his insight into how knowing your ideal customer is key to fit into your growth plans. Our second guest is Josh Curties, Partner at A4G, who will talk to Charlotte about the practical considerations of how you actually go about choosing a strategy for growth. Once you’ve listened to and digested this podcast, you will be able to: ✅ Define your ideal customer and consumer   ✅ Know strategies to gain market advantage ✅ Analyse your customers’ needs and demand for your products/services ✅ Define your ideal customer and consumer   ✅ Breakdown your products and services to ascertain which ones are successful, performing or underperforming using the BCG matrix ✅ Consider your product lifecycle ✅ Use the ‘Five Forces’ strategic thinking process to analyse your business’ competitive environment and measure your competition intensity, attractiveness and profitability of an industry or market ✅ Use the Ansoff model to grow your business   Let’s continue the conversation… This episode goes into great detail surrounding the various growth models and how to create your own growth strategy for your business, including examples and case studies from our experiences helping other business’ grow their business.  If you want further help in building a growth strategy for your business, use the details below to get in touch with us or Relish.   A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Sign up to our Breakthrough Growth Programme Book a free discovery call with one of our growth advisers Buy Accidental Millionaires Relish | Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter  Recommended reads   Porters 5 Forces

This month’s episode is a VERY exciting one! We’re joined by Managing Partner at A4G to celebrate the launch of his first ever book, Accidental Millionaires: The secret mindset successful business owners share with sporting legends.  To continue the excitement, we are also joined by two of Team GB’s most successful athletes, Steve Backley OBE and Roger Black MBE, who have worked with Malcolm for over 20 years and provided insight throughout the book. Accidental Millionaires is for business who hate standing still. Other than that, you could be anywhere on your business journey. You might be right at the start line full of enthusiasm and bursting with ideas. Maybe you’ve been going a year or two and are starting to feel a little disillusioned at the challenges you’re facing. Or perhaps you’ve been going for ten years or more and are stuck in a rut making little progress. By reading Accidental Millionaires and applying its content, you are as likely as possible that you’ll succeed in your chosen field. To get your hands on your own copy, head over to Amazon here. In this episode, Malcolm, Steve and Roger share:  How the idea behind the book came to life What the book is about The 5 sections of the book and what the readers will gain How the pandemic shifted their businesses Details of the mind-setting programme Biggest lesson learnt in business Advice on growing businesses How to get your hands on a copy of Accidental Millionaires A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Buy Accidental Millionaires: The secret mindset successful business owners share with sporting legends here. Sign up to our Breakthrough Growth Programme Steve Backley OBE & Roger Black MBE | BackleyBlack website | Mind-Setting Programme

Welcome back to our 3rd series of the Let’s Get Down to Business podcast: The Growth Series. In this series we will take you through every step to growing your business, starting with getting you and your business ready for growth. Today’s episode is the second part of our two-part episode on how to scale up your business without losing your values or your mind. In this episode, we’re joined by A4G Partner, Emma White, to help you discover and overcome the limiting factors that may be stopping you from growing, particularly focusing on lack of time (a common complaint from business owners). Emma shares advice and tips on how to have more time to work ON your business (not in it)   Let’s continue the conversation…   A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Sign up to our Breakthrough Growth Programme Sign up to Box Academy    Recommended reads The E-Myth Revisited   The 5AM Club

Welcome to our 3rd series of the Let’s Get Down to Business podcast. To help you get 2022 off to a flying start, we’re kicking off with The Growth Series. It’s not good enough being one of the crowd anymore. There’s so much more your business can achieve, and we’re here to help you achieve it. In this series we will help you get ready for growth, build a growth strategy, overcome the challenges to growth and that a growing business brings and share likeminded business owners’ stories of the ups and downs of growth. We’re kicking off our first episode by chatting to Zeenat Noorani, a Mental Health and Wellbeing Coach and owner of Vida de la Mariposa Coaching to talk about the first challenge to growing a business: You. Often Zeenat offers guidance and support on how to scale up with losing your values, or your mind, and overcome that first obstacle to growth. Let’s continue the conversation… Book a free discovery call and find out if you qualify for your Breakthrough Growth Programme.  Zeenat | Listen to Radio Show  | Book a call  | Find out more A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Valuable resources - recommended reads  Change Your Paradigm, Change Your Life: Flip That Switch Now! You Were Born Rich 12 Power Principles for Success...

It’s that time of year that we all start to reflect on the lessons we’ve learnt and celebrate the successes of the year and look forward at the goals we want to achieve in the following year.  In today’s episode we’re joined by friends of the firm and likeminded business owners to find out what lessons they learnt in 2021 and the goals their going into 2022 with. Listen along and gain some food for thought to start reflecting on your own key takeaways and goals for the new year.  *Let’s connect* A4G | Website | Email | LinkedIn  Kate Golby, Kasaris Communications | Email | LinkedIn Mary Eniolu, Can Do Academy | Email | LinkedIn David Breaker, Wellness Wide | Email | LinkedIn Michelle Dowsett, Discovery PA | Email | LinkedIn James Dand, Inner Anthem| Email | LinkedIn  Kenny Stibbles, Konsileo | Email | LinkedIn Luke Walden, MoneyCorp | Email | LinkedIn Pamela Angley, Angley Digital Media | Email | LinkedIn Paul Carter, Let’s Clean | Email | LinkedIn  Toufak Ahangari, Insights into Funding Ltd | Email | LinkedIn Linda Garcia, Alluxi Consulting Ltd | Email | LinkedIn Ryan Wakeman, Sypro Financial Consultancy | Email | LinkedIn Linda Cloke, We Do Social Media Ltd | Email | LinkedIn Martin Kingman, Professional Legal Collections Ltd | Email | LinkedIn Sebastian Knudsen, Fluidly | Email | LinkedIn Richard Cox, Richard Cox Wealth Management | Email | LinkedIn

Is your business dependent on you? Would your business still be able to run efficiently without you? Are silly things going wrong in your business? Do you have ‘growing pains’ or maybe you’re struggling to grow? You need systems. In today’s episode (the last in our 12 vital ingredients for business success series), Charlotte is joined by our Managing Partner, Malcolm Palmer, who has built a successful business, which has grown consecutively for over 25 years based on systems, to discuss the importance of systems and how to implement them. You’ll learn: What systems are, how they can help you grow your business and make it less dependent on you, how to format your systems and how to train your team on systems and ensure they are writing, following and improving upon them. Stay connected with us A4G (us) | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Malcolm Palmer | LinkedIn Books | Toyota Way | The E-myth Revisited | Black Box Thinking  

In today’s episode, we’re chatting with the wonderful Robyn Lee – Business Owner, Nutritionist, Operations Director for two businesses, Podcast Host and mum of one. Robyn shares how she left an intense 90-hour-week corporate job to follow a new passion in nutrition and has built up the portfolio she has today. She shares the biggest lessons she’s learnt, how to keep your mindset in check in business and her advice for preventing burn out. * Stay connected with us *  A4G (us) | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Robyn | Instagram | LinkedIn | Podcast

A staggering 70% of business partnerships fail. Have you mixed personal relationships with business? Or has your business grown, and partnerships have developed? Don’t be part of the staggering 70% of business partnerships that fail. This week, Josh Curties, Partner at A4G, is discussing the factors that often lead to business partnership failure and how you can avoid them. He also delves into how you can build a good team and motivate them to reduce over dependence on managers and owners. Stay connected with us A4G | LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Email Josh Curties | LinkedIn

Do you wish there were more hours in the day? Do you spend the majority of your day fire-fighting issues? Do you know how to effectively spend your time and delegate? This week we’re covering the next 2 ingredients for business success with Emma sharing her advice and tips for how to use your time more effectively as a business owner (citing the 60:30:10 rule, the quadrant time management system, the 5 D’s of management) and how to ensure you as the business owner are in the right roles. To carry on this conversation and ensure make new habits to use your time effectively, we recommend you read some of the following books: Black Box Thinking - https://amzn.to/3lSOAPF The E-Myth Revisited - https://amzn.to/3piEhXo One Minute Manager - https://amzn.to/3AZqzea  

This week Charlotte hands over the mic to Josh Curties, Partner at A4G (and our in-house Tax Communications Manager) to discuss the hot-topic of the moment for owner-managed businesses - The Chancellor's Autumn Budget.  In this episode Josh dives deeper into the Budget announcements (and the small print) and discusses what the changes may mean for you and your business. He discusses the changes to when you can draw your private pension, the changes to Capital Gains Tax and flaws to the system, the new income tax rates from 2022/23 and so much more commentary and insight.  Read to full summary on our website here: https://www.a4g-llp.co.uk/knowledge-hub/budget

As a business owner, you will have goals for your business, but are you communicating these with your team? How effective is that communication? And how effective is your management and monitoring of the performance to meet those goals? Josh Curties, Partner at A4G, joins Charlotte to provide some invaluable advice and quick tips on how to set goals (not just following textbook advice!), how you can share them with your team to help you reach them quicker and how to manage their performance. Don’t worry, it’s not full of jargon. We get down the point with clear steps and advice. And if you need further help, email us discovery@a4g-llp.co.uk, or head over to our Knowledge Hub at www.a4g-llp.co.uk, which is FULL of free tools and guidance on this topic, and many more.

Do you want to attract more good quality customers to your business? AND retain those customers? Well, that’s the goal of business, isn’t it? Get good quality customers and keep them. Malcolm Palmer and Caroline Ward, both partners at A4G, join Charlotte to share their insight on how you can do this in your business. In this episode you’ll learn how to increase the awareness of your brand, attract new customers and build a base of loyal customers by not only learning how to build a strong sales and marketing strategy, but a strong customer service strategy. Don’t worry, it’s not full of marketing jargon. We get down the point with clear steps. And if you need further help, email us discovery@a4g-llp.co.uk, or head over to our Knowledge Hub, which is FULL of free tools and guidance on this topic, and many more.

Cash flow management is a key component to a business’ success. You need to generate cash to meet your immediate and long-term needs and produce profit to expand and grow the business. This week, Emma joins Charlotte to discuss the how to manage your cash flow effectively with her easy tips and advice. You’ll learn how fund growth, build robust credit control processes, use Key Performance Indicators and tools to easily review your cash flow cycles, the warning signs to look out for and so much more. Download our 5-minute cash flow tool here and start managing your cash flow easily: www.a4g-llp.co.uk/blog/11-tips-for-cash-flow-management-to-get-through-coronavirus

Welcome to Series 2 of Let's Get Down to Business: The 12 vital ingredients for business success.  This week, Malcolm joins Charlotte to discuss the first 2 ingredients: knowing your market and competition and getting your vision and purpose right. You’ll learn why it’s so important you continually research your market and competitors, techniques on how to do this and how to differentiate yourself from your competitors with a Unique Selling Point. And why creating a concrete vision and purpose for the business is so important and how exactly to do it. For our full 12 vital ingredients for business success blog series, head over to our website: https://www.a4g-llp.co.uk/blog/12-vital-ingredients-for-successful-business-recovery

Josh joins Charlotte to talk about the recent announcement of a hike in dividend and national insurance taxes and what exactly that means for you and your business.  You’ll learn what the tax rises are and our commentary, how they may affect you, your business and your employees and what you need to do. We also touch furlough (which is ending 30 September!) and what options you have if you still have employees on furlough, such as how to reduce your employees hours, making redundancies and managing your cash flow.  We’ll be sharing more on the tax rises and how to manage beyond furlough on our knowledge hub on our website – https://www.a4g-llp.co.uk/coronavirus-business-advice-hub 

The week the interviewer became the interviewee! This week Charlotte took a break from hosting the Let’s Get Down to Business podcast and sat in the interviewee seat instead to talk to you about how a Finance director can add real value to your business. You’ll learn what a Finance director is (and how it differs from a Financial Controller), how this role fits into your business and the value they add to each section and how they can help you make more informed business decisions, manage risk and guide growth or exit planning. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you with our Virtual FD service, head over to our website: https://www.a4g-llp.co.uk/business-breakthrough/virtual-fd 

Remote working is nothing new but most of us were forced into allowing remote working during the pandemic, which has led to many employees requesting to continue this flexible working arrangement. There’s a lot of positives and negatives of this for you as the business owner and your employees.  In this episode, Charlotte interviews our Head of IT, Pete Baldwin, to get his advice on how to overcome the challenges of remote working and how to utilise the benefits. You’ll learn how to manage your remote team, blend remote working and office working, reduce the risk of a cyber-attack and keep your data secure and so much more. If you need help with the technological side of remote working, contact Pete 01474 853856 or email enquiries@a4g-llp.co.uk to hear how we can help you set up remote working and ensure it runs smoothly.