On 15th August the government launched a support package for the 

Four days left to complete Home Business Survey (and win an iPad!)

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. On the same day, Enterprise Nation opened a Home Business Survey, in association with 

. There are 4 days left to complete and we'd love your views to be one of them.

Home based businesses contribute over Â£300billion to the UK economy. There's social benefit too as home business owners run a business round the family, self-police daytime neighbourhoods and spend more time and money in their local economy.

To support the sector more, we'd like to know more! Please spend 3 minutes completing the survey to tell us how you want to grow, your work pattern and the highs and lows of homeworking!

&lt;p&gt;My career spans almost 35 years and started in retail and commercial banking. Of course, my apprenticeship strarted before this working in hospitality and catering.&amp;nbsp; Apart from the usual paper-rounds my first job, at 13 was working on a Saturday for the local fish "n" chip shop! I progressed to working in the local golf club, a 4 star hotel and local pubs as waiting and bar staff whilst studying.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The call of a full-time beckoned and I joined the TSB in my local town. I moved on from there to work for the pioneering and multi-award-winning First Direct in Leeds. My 3 years&amp;nbsp;at First Direct&amp;nbsp;taught me many things but most importantly about good leadership and the impact that has on culture and engagement.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 1995 I moved to take up my first management position for a medium-sized foodservice business in Huddersfield. Starting small with an internal sales team of 4 the aim was to transform the culture from one of order taking to sales &amp;amp; customer service focused.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I achieved this, improving the contribution from sales office activity to revenue whilst reducing error rates by 90%.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 2002, the company merged with a similar-sized business in Lancashire. A new role was created for me to handle compliance. The aim was to standardise H&amp;amp;S and Food Safety processes, improve awareness through training in these mandatory areas of business and to continue supporting internal sales offices with training and integration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I took some professional CIPD&amp;nbsp;qualifications at this time to strengthen my knowledge of people development and training, achieving a Distinction grade.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 2004 my compliance management role became a Directorship and I continued to hold this position until 2007, implementing ISO9000:2000 during that time. Also, extending the training scope of the role to all sales roles, external and internal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 2007, I took the role of Commercial Director. The aim was to steer the company through the recession and ensure we grew profitably. Quite a challenge considering around 65% of our revenue was supplying the "at-risk" sectors pubs, hotels and restaurants. Discretionary spending and spend on eating out were about to come under scrutiny. We needed a plan! We grew profitably for the 6 years I held the post. This was achieved by changing culture, changing the team capabilities in line with a new growth strategy and a lot of hard work!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 2013 I left that business having finished the financial year adding £1.2mn for growth and increasing gross profits.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Since then I have supported around 100 businesses with strategy, planning, leadership and team development as well as sales and marketing plans.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Often, I work with the support of Lancashire or Cumbria growth hub and their funding for the client. I am an approved coach and business advisor with both growth hubs.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My sole purpose is to ensure business owners focus on their own definition of success, not what the books or industry experts" tell them they should be achieving.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I found that getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats (as Jim Collins&amp;nbsp;would advise us) was the right approach for me.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Managing Director

Paul Aisthorpe on the importance of good mentoring

Discover how transformative the right mentor can be.

I am a Chartered Accountant, having earned a respected reputation in the field of accounting, with more than 15 years of experience in working with small and medium-sized enterprises. Having worked with business owners ranging from one-man start-ups to large companies requiring a different level of services, I have developed a passion for the profession and I am driven by the success of my clients. I have spent many years in business working at boardroom level, holding various positions before being motivated to start my own practice, Makesworth Accountants, where I have blended my technical skills in accounting and tax with my business skills derived from my time in the industry. I have embraced the changing times and technologies and strongly agree that accountants are moving from being number crunchers to being reliable and trusted advisors. Throughout this process, Makesworth has been able to secure various affiliations and awards.
My objective is to add value to my clients’ businesses through the application of my extensive experience and knowledge in accounting, tax, HMRC investigations, business start-ups, and much more.
You can expect us to provide expert solutions for your business needs no matter what business model you have. You will receive a cost-effective service and a free initial consultation.

Chartered Accountant

Accountancy, Taxation and Business Advisory

Accountancy, Taxation and Business Advisory Services in the UK

I have worked in the media and marketing world for over 15 years covering large corporates (JC Decaux, Metro Newspaper and Eurosport), medium sized businesses and startups. I have planned multi million pound media campaigns and run small budget growth strategies. I have raised money both for my own startups and created successful investment decks for clients.

Now, with my company, The Brand Launchers, and my business partner Tim Stoller, I am helping people launch, ignite or pivot their businesses.

Our vision is to help one million companies take their business to the next level.

Creative Director

build a fast, practical business model

Putting a business plan together yourself can be fraught with confusion and anxiety. It often means it is not done well or never gets done at all. Our process makes it simple and effective:

​1. You answer a set of questions that will take about an hour.

2. Send them to us, and we go through them in detail.

3. We have a 60-minute meeting with you to discuss, question and clarify your answers.

4. We do the rest. In 3 working days, we present back to you your business plan.

5. You now have the

Four days left to complete Home Business Survey (and win an iPad!)

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