RUTH’S BLOG

Read regular updates from Ruth covering extracts from her book and training courses, thought leadership and opinion pieces.

Female Entrepreneurs

Changing society for the better

Changing society for the better

 John Smythe and Ruth Saunders have written ‘Female Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of Their Success’ to encourage society to recognise and embrace the huge value that female entrepreneurs bring to our economy.  Female entrepreneurship is growing at a faster rate than...

Scaling up your business successfully

Scaling up your business successfully

I co-wrote my latest book ‘Female Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of Their Success’ to encourage every woman who has set up an entrepreneurial business to decide if they have the desire and capabilities to scale up – as well as offer wisdom and insights on how to do it....

Setting your business up for success

Setting your business up for success

I wrote ‘Female Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of Their Success’ to help every woman who has dreamt of being an entrepreneur to set up a successful entrepreneurial business. Below are some nuggets of advice from the 52 female entrepreneurs featured in the book on what to...

Taking The Entrepreneurial Leap

Taking The Entrepreneurial Leap

My most recent book, ‘Female Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of Their Success’ was written to encourage every woman who has dreamt of being an entrepreneur but hasn’t yet taken the leap to take the first steps towards realising their dreams – as well as every woman who...

Leadership

Dealing With Senior Manager Ego

Dealing With Senior Manager Ego

Under Attack  In some presentation meetings, senior managers act aggressively, asking challenging questions. They overtly challenge the findings and recommendations, and making it clear that they are not in agreement with what is being proposed. The senior manager ego...

Answering Challenging Questions

Answering Challenging Questions

How can you prepare to answer those challenging questions that some senior managers throw at you during your presentation meetings? When they start to quetsion your rationale, financials or business case, do you get defensive or waffle? The answer is to help them engage and problem-solve ..

Power of 3 – When One Is Not Enough

Power of 3 – When One Is Not Enough

One Is Often Not Enough In business, we’re trained to make decisions logically, rationalising the benefits of a business proposal using a compelling recommendation supported by a robust business case. Often a single business meeting to review a commercial, credible,...

Dealing With Challenging Senior Managers

Dealing With Challenging Senior Managers

Dealing with challenging senior managers Some senior managers can be quick to give their agreement when presented to, whilst others can be slow to be convinced. They might overtly challenge the recommendations and supporting fact base, or ask new questions that...

Dealing With Aggressive Senior Managers

Dealing With Aggressive Senior Managers

Being aggressively challenged by a senior manager can be a highly uncomfortable, disconcerting and demotivating experience, particularly if it happens in front of others. It can be tough to handle at the time and can leave us cold afterwards. Learn from my experience and insights..

Marketing Strategy

Build Brand Trust in a Covid World

Build Brand Trust in a Covid World

Covid is on track to be the great accelerator, creating a high level of disruption that will change the way we behave forever. So, now more than ever, it’s important for marketers to assess whether their brand is behaving in a trustworthy way today and whether they...

Choosing ‘where’ to market

Choosing ‘where’ to market

Why choose 'where' to market When it comes to ‘where’ to market a brand, it’s important to sell through sales channels that make the brand both visible and accessible to people in a way that is easy to engage with and purchase. Otherwise, it’s likely to get lost in...

Choosing ‘when’ to engage people

Choosing ‘when’ to engage people

Why choose ‘when' to engage people When choosing “when” to talk with people, marketers should optimize their marketing ROI by focusing their spend on those high-impact touch points and messages that have the greatest influence. Entrepreneurs understand the value of...

Choosing ‘why’ to be in business

Choosing ‘why’ to be in business

Getting people’s attention can be tough. Getting them to convert their attention into action can be even tougher. A strong brand purpose helps companies define what business they’re in, which customers they are targeting and what they are offering them to better meet their needs.

Choosing ‘what’ to support

Choosing ‘what’ to support

To be successful, companies should choose which brands and products to support – and importantly which not to support – with the aim of focusing their scarce resources on those that will deliver the greatest return for the company today,

Choosing ‘who’ to target

Choosing ‘who’ to target

When thinking about which customers to target, companies should not try to please everyone. Instead, they should focus their scarce resources on attracting and retaining those customers who will deliver the greatest return for the company

Choosing ‘where’ to play

Choosing ‘where’ to play

Marketing is vital to helping companies deliver the innovation and compelling brand positionings needed for growth. For the Board to invest, they need to demonstrate where to focus and how to build shareholder value and profitable returns.