Step 7 of Building a Better Business

Anna Stubbs • August 2, 2023

Get someone independent to hold you to account

Have you ever set a New Year’s resolution and then reset the same one again the following year? It's widely recognised that approximately 80% of New Year's resolutions fail. How can we increase our chances of successfully achieving our goals? Accountability.



The most foolproof way of ensuring you complete the actions you’ve committed to is to give someone nagging rights to follow you up. This may be your personal trainer at the gym who makes sure you show up at 6am, or it could be your accountant who checks in on you every 90 days to make sure you’re on track to completing your actions and achieving your business goals.

A soft coach will encourage soft results.

If you think about the type of coach a successful sports team would benefit from, would it be a hard coach or a soft coach? It’s no different in business. We all need someone with the backbone to hold us firmly to account and follow through on consequences for failure to act (‘give me 100 burpees!’).

A soft coach, maybe a life partner or a friend, is likely to worry they’ll upset you if they nag about inaction. They’re likely to accept your excuses. Whereas a hard coach isn’t going to worry about hurting your feelings and they won’t accept excuses. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a heart. Great coaches have backbone and heart; they just care more about your results than your excuses.

If you really want to achieve your goals, seek accountability from a coach who’ll console you after you’ve done the burpees, one who discourages inaction, and enables you to achieve. We can help.

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, and has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you can be.” - Tom Landry

Keeping your tax and expenses in check when you are self-employed

By Anna Stubbs • September 4, 2026
Contracting or freelancing requires you to wear a lot of hats. Relationship-building, keeping track of your time, marketing your skills and actually doing the work. But one of your priorities should also be establishing how you handle your money and setting the groundwork for good habits.

Does the electricity cut help your small business?

By Anna Stubbs • September 4, 2026
The UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has wasted no time making new tax policies since taking office, having announced a tax cut to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills from 1 October. While this measure is primarily targeted at households, some smaller businesses will, importantly, also be eligible for relief.

Budgeting for success: the importance of good financial management

By Anna Stubbs • September 4, 2026
When you’re operating and managing a small business, you have a finite pot of cash to work with. Because of this, it’s incredibly important to manage your cash well and to have clear budgets and spending limits for every area of your business operations.  Let’s take a look at why budgeting is such a vital part of your financial management, and what you can do to keep your company on budget and in a positive cashflow position.