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Entrepreneurs Panel

Steve Purdham
Debbie Pierce
Richard O'Sullivan
Brian Hay
Gary Jacobson
Jeremy Roberts
Tony Caldeira
David Pollock
Ian Morris

Entrepreneurs Panel

David Pollock

Last time we had a business card order I noticed a number of staff had chosen to uptitle themselves – some of them to roles that I didn’t even know existed. I’ve never worried much about job titles but is it okay just to let people decide what they want to be called?

David Pollock

I have a grossly under-performing salesman who I have been considering firing for some time. He has just asked to be transferred off the product... Can I just bin him anyway?

David Pollock

A couple of longstanding members of my management team are grumbling that they would like an equity stake in the business. I value them and their contribution but I’m not sure about diluting my current 100 per cent shareholding. What’s your advice?

David Pollock

We had a team of contract cleaners in last month during office hours following a case of swine flu. The next week one of my competitors started approaching our clients, using information that I think can only have come from our sales database. my suspicions are obvious. Is there anything I can do?

David Pollock

My company has quite a laid-back and sociable culture. We have recently begun integrating a smaller acquired business into our offices and the staff that have joined us are used to a much more formal working environment, to which they seem wedded. What should I do to maintain harmonious relations?

David Pollock

My workplace requires a degree of concentration but has in recent months become so chatty as, I fear, to impact upon productivity. I don’t want to impose a Trappist regime, and indeed my staff need to discuss their work regularly, but I think things have gone too far. I don’t want my staff to think I’m an ogre, and I have no problem with the occasional water cooler chat, but how can I make them realise that sometimes silence is golden?

David Pollock

I am 45 years old and have been my own boss since leaving school, building up a £5 million-turnover logistics business that rents its premises. So far I've done very little about my pension – just putting away five or six per cent of the (relatively modest) salary I pay myself into the staff money purchase scheme. What do you think I should do?

  • Turning excess lard into dough? It’s like taking candy from a baby. EN heads to the fit farm and examines a bulging bottom line.

  • EN visited the British Business Angels Association’s annual conference and found a sector torn between confidence and crisis.

  • Are we emerging from recession into an energy crisis? Probably not, as EN discovers.

  • EN and Downtown in Business hosted a wide-ranging panel debate following June’s emergency Budget. This is what happened.

  • Making money out of nurseries should be child’s play. Shouldn’t it? EN examines the real bottom line.

Five Minutes With

Frank McKenna has never exactly been shy about being the public face of the Downtown in Business brand, which he founded in Liverpool in 2004 and now boasts operations in Preston and Manchester (the latter launched earlier this year). His weekly, “Thank Frank it’s Friday” email missives, “Frankie Says” blog and Tarantino-inspired advertisements are cases in point.

Betta Living’s boss reminds us a bit of TV’s David Dickinson. But was his best transaction the Real Deal? Stuart Anderson hastily conceals his Ikea loyalty card as Noel Dean reveals...

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