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Tweaking your performance engine

  I am Chief Engineer in my business – I’ve created a wonderful machine which has many components. And as Chief Engineer it’s up to me to make sure they are all performing. We have, shall we say, a cleansing month here at diamond HQ. I’ve basically addressed some areas in the office of under […]

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A little less conversation a little more action.

A little less conversation a little more action. I think it’s important to talk. I think a prompt guided meeting is good for sharing information, gaining c onsensus and ensuring that we are all following the right strategic path is THE most productive time you can have. But – and this is a massive BUT […]

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first woman to receive Services to Industry Award at the House of Lords

First woman to receive Services to Industry Award at the House of Lords

So far 2018 has been a momentous year for Kate Lester, founder of diamondlogistics as she begins to receive multiple awards, for both new and repeat awards from previous years. From the first woman to receive Services to Industry Award at the House of Lords, to continuing to be the fastest growing logistics company in […]

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Equality matters – and it’s GREAT for business too!

I don’t call myself a feminist because I believe in equality of sex, gender, race, religion and disability. Equality is my thing, and look at my company as an example. A management board of 9 (five women, four men) a strategic board of 5 (four women and one man) and 60 per cent of the […]

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This month’s book recommendation

Welcome to another edition of the book club. So this week I am mostly reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris – the guy who wrote The Four-Hour Working Week. The Four-Hour Working Week was one of the first business books that made me start to transform Diamond – not because I wanted to work […]

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Being a working parent is the toughest job in the world isn’t it?

I thought long and hard about writing this and sharing this with you, but I need to share something because I can with the benefit of hindsight – and this goes out to all my fellow entrepreneurial mums and dads out there that are suffering from the most pointless of emotions. That’s guilt, and that’s […]

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My next buzzy boosting brilliant book recommendation

The book for this month is my dear friend Gary Forward’s Don’t Be a Goose. Now Gary is a recent addition to my friend’s list and I don’t mean that in the Facebook sense, I mean as in the people close to my heart. This is a guy who has absolutely abounding with positive energy […]

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You are always asking what book I am reading

Welcome to the first of Kates book club. I get emails from you every week asking me what I’m reading at the moment, so I’m going to do a quick blog once a month just telling you what my book of the month is. This month is The Four Disciplines of Execution, I read The […]

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Its Diamond 25th birthday on the 16th, and here’s how I made it!

I’ve been in business for 25 years on the sixteenth of March and sometimes it’s been really tough, in what has actually over 25 years now been a steadily upward trajectory with a little bit of an acceleration at the end here. It’s actually been lots and lots of up and downs and some of […]

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Would you change the name of your company if you could?

A friend of mine was asking me what he should call his business. He works in the kitchens and he was wanting to know whether he should call his business around the geography, plus what is that he does, i.e. Watford Kitchens. Or whether he should name it after himself and the fact that he […]

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February Q & A

Here’s a Q & A for February from Teresa. She asked, what do you concentrate on daily? By that, she means my daily routine, and it’s really straightforward, there are 5 points. Number one, I look at the cash- I look at the cash actually in my bank and in my savings account. We obviously […]

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Feelings Versus Reality

I have a chap in my office here at diamond who is great bar one thing – he defaults to the defensive which makes it really challenging to manage him. He defaults to the defensive because he’s been conditioned over the years to defend himself – bad upbringing, bad management in other businesses he’s worked […]

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Boxing Day 2016 – An Excuse to Find Legitimate YOU Time on Boxing day!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBRiB7315qM Merry Xmas! Please note the Xmas jumper.  Now I am guessing that you are sitting here on Boxing Day maybe feeling a little bit stuffed still from yesterday’s indulgences. This is not your chill out and relax email – if you are anything like me your family will be driving you nuts by now […]

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How did I achieve success ‘so easily’?. Here’s how in Decembers Q and A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZUWaeXJm6k   Hi and welcome. Laura writes, simply, what’s the secret of how you became so successful so quickly? Well this one is super simple. I didn’t. I started Diamond in 1992 – earnt a whole £5ooo in my first year, and a mere £11000 in my second and worked 60 hour week with my […]

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Dinner With Peter Stringfellow

I had dinner with Peter Stringfellow the other evening – and what a guy! What really captured me about him was his genuine humility of a man, who has led the global nightclub scene since the sixties. He didn’t consider himself a businessman – he’s just a nightclub owner, he says. This is the man […]

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October Q & A

There’s a great question here from Marcus who writes, I have a particularly awkward employee, she’s a new hire, but quite frankly she’s difficult, a bit rude to me and I feel like I’m pacifying her. I feel like I’m walking around on tippy-toes and to be frank I’m having to placate her – she’s […]

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Exclusivity or Mass Market

It’s funny – I have watched the meteoric rise of business bloggers and their teams and their audience numbers and whilst it really is well done for them – I don’t wish in anyway shape or form to have 100k subscribers. How can I have the kind of relationship with you guys – like replying […]

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It IS All About The Money

Most entrepreneurs do not want to be dragged back into the finances of their business. They – on their relentless journey onwards, onwards, onwards – often don’t stop to look at the most vital part of their business – the money honey.   I have covered this before but I can’t stress the importance enough […]

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My Ex-salesman Stole A Third Of My Business

This was some time ago when we were little and basically what happened was I remortgaged my house to fund the establishment of a new branch. This cost me £30k but my sales person in Guildford was convinced about the extension of territory and so I thought I’d support him. After 6 months he and […]

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Be Careful Who You Hang Around With

If you wish for longevity in business you need to know who you hang around with counts. Or in Kate terms, s*** sticks. If you hang around with them too much then it starts to tarnish you and your reputation.   It is well known in social terms that we are collectively the sum of […]

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Q and A for August – Delivering Bad News

Jane asks how to you deliver bad news – in her instance when one of her franchises has failed or stopped trading etc.   It really simple – what’s happened, why it happened how you are going to react to it and why?  And lots of reassurance.   And you all know I was going […]

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What I learned from F. W. De Klerk

One of the amazing things about my career is that I have the privilege to meet amazing people – and recently I got to not only shake hands but listen to a great speech on change management from the Nobel Peace Prize Winner and architect of the end of apartheid in South Africa, and of […]

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First and last time I mention football, I promise……

What businesses can learn from Leicester City? I blame my mate Barry. There I was leading my life, oblivious to the pull of football, until a group of us, including Barry, went away to France for the weekend in the closing weeks of this year’s season. Needless to say, Barry is a lifelong supporter of […]

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It Can Be Lonely Running Your Own Business

It can be very lonely running your own business…. It’s 3 am in the morning, and you wake with that fear in your chest and your heart racing. You crept out of bed and pace to your office and stared into the glow of the screen feeling utterly alone. Been there? I bet you have. […]

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Procrastinating…..

Are you procrastinating? Again? Procrastination is really shitty. Not only is it an enormous waste of time – literally and metaphorically – but it makes you feel bad. No one likes procrastinating. When I find myself surfing house porn – rightmove.com is definitely one of my favourite wastes of time – I know I am […]

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The Arsehole Ratio

  Well you all love the arsehole post – it seemed to resonate with so many of you – and typical responses I got were, ‘Thanks for the blog, but I feel arseholes are everywhere and the bigger my business grows, the more I seem to find. Help!’   It seems there’s a lot of […]

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Life Is Very Short

Prince’s death has given me a royal kick up the arse…I mean 57? Seriously I am 44 years old – I have no idea when my time is up and I would be PRETTY pissed off if I know every minute of every hour of my last day was spent working. I know as entrepreneurs […]

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Recruiting Super Stars

  We didn’t get the guy we wanted for a particular position the other day and it got me thinking about how we come across, and how we should spend more and more time looking at our internal stakeholders with the same focus and care that we recruit our new clients with. There are a […]

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I’m on a mission to be nice.

Once an arsehole always an arsehole.   I know of people that as their job has grown and as their status has shifted they have progressively turned into arseholes.  I am on a one-woman issue to show that you don’t have to be an arsehole to be successful in business and that kindness and courtesy […]

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Kate’s Q and A for March

Siobhan writes – how do you stay disciplined when you are your own boss? I find myself getting distracted and keep bumping my task list. What’s your top tips to get stuff done? Well Siobhan it’s easy. It’s all about personal discipline – especially the discipline to just finish that task list to succeed. I […]

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What I learned from Alex Ferguson

This is a very seasonal one for you – Xmas cards! That’s right folks – I am definitely the first person to mention the C – word this year – but I am going to talk about something that has utterly changed my opinion of actually sending them – so much so that for the […]

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3 ways to make sure you get the right advice.

Part of the entrepreneurial journey has to be learning and listening to advice.  The worst business owners I have known set-up their businesses and then reached a level which is the “comfort zone” and didn’t learn, didn’t listen and didn’t employ anyone – employees or advisers to challenge them and help their business grow. So […]

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Chumbawamba

Well here’s news for you. Sh*t happens in business. You make mistakes, you lose money, people let you down, you get taken for money and you make more mistakes! I’ve made quite a few mistakes – so many in fact I think I qualify as an expert in business if an expert is defined as […]

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Do you feel you are a fraud?

  Do you know what – sometimes I go to write these blogs and think what a flipping fraud you are Lester. You dole out all this great advice but you are just a day back from holiday and already feeling overwhelmed, have got that rising anxiety in your belly and now you are writing […]

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It’s not a sacrifice – it’s a choice

I have to be honest – it’s coming up to 5 years of 100% focus on my business now and I have been really rewarded by the progress. Yes it’s been hard, and yes it’s been very challenging and I know we are a good 3-5 years away from realising our plans so the work […]

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Your new job title is Creative Director

I spent year’s sort of hating the industry I was in as it didn’t feed my creative soul. In facts it’s only truthfully in the last 10 years or so I appreciated that the ‘art’ of being an entrepreneur was creative enough to satisfy the money maker as well as the creative person in my […]

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Sorry Mr. Grey…

One of the things it’s taken me a long time to learn in business is that giving a little leeway does you no good at all. The reality is business is primarily black and white, right and wrong, with few shades of grey. Now this can seem kind of tough but it’s supported statistically in […]

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Running your own race

  It’s the New Year and the marathon runners are out training for their April runs. Having been a marathon runner myself in the past I know what commitment and dedication it takes just to finish let alone do a reasonable time. As I was listening to a Baz Lurman track the other day – […]

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Gap Focus

Mind the gap I work on my personal self development daily and I encourage you as entrepreneurs to continue to learn, develop and improve your game in a similar manner – because we are the tools of our business – and in order to make sure we are at our peak performance – like elite […]

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January Q+A

I have been asked by Tony – hi Tony – what are my top 10 books that are must reads for entrepreneurs who really want to expand their horizons and develop their businesses? Well 10 is really difficult actually Tony so as a starting point I have given an outline of 11 – plus I’ve […]

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Habits are a hot topic this month…

I’ve just got back from a break and have picked up a few habits that I cant seem to shift regardless of my work day since I have come back. And this is a very good thing because they are good habits – habits I have wanted to establish with regularity for some time. If […]

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You have to try this Miracle Morning Stuff…

I’ve just come back from Vietnam – and it reminded me how much I loved Good Morning Vietnam – the awesome film by Robin Williams – the key phrase I remember being “it’s 0600 hours and what does the ‘0’ stand for – oh my god it’s early.” Now I am known for my early […]

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Christmas message 2016

Just a quick one this week. I’d like to say thank you and send you my best wishes for the festive period. But first I’d like to remember a few friends we have lost this year – particularly in the Entrepreneurs’ Circle and my dear Sandy’s mum.  You are never far from our thoughts – […]

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Kate’s Q&A – December 2015

Today’s Q&A question comes from Ashley Hoyland of Hoyland Ink: I watched one of your talks at Leeds Business Week (the Vodafone one) and you recommended the ‘Will It Make The Boat Go Faster’ book. I read the whole book the next day and found it so helpful! Now (like you) I ask myself ‘will it make […]

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Do you know what you want to achieve in 2016?

Okay I am going to say the C word – Christmas is coming and if you are like me then you are hanging out for a break. The last quarter of our year is a very busy one for us – not just in terms of our day to day work but also we use […]

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Time to Review Your Year

It’s nearing the year end and it’s a very good idea to look back at your year – see what’s been successful and what’s not been successful and look at what you didn’t achieve when you really wanted to. Let’s be honest – best laid plans and all that – but stuff does happen that […]

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What do you say YES to?

I get asked to speak, mentor, write and do cool stuff every week. Some of it is COMPLETELY amazing – I’ve recently been to the Romanian Embassy for supper with the Ambassador (as you do, no jokes about Fererro Rocher please!)  and am off to have afternoon tea with F W De Klerk this month. What […]

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Who moved the cheese?

It really saddened me to hear about the loss of 1700 jobs in Redcar that was announced in September. That’s 1700 families – many of whom have been working in steel for generations – with lives, communities and businesses shattered. Now I can’t go into the whys and wherefores of the decisions or whether I […]

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How to recruit and keep superstars

I was asked the other day what I thought my job was, and I think the following pretty much sums up not only my job description but that of any successful entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is simply the ability to have an idea and build a sustainable and profitable business from it, which contributes in […]

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Award winning self-promotion

Forgive me for appearing a little knackered today, however last night I was up in town until midnight at the UK Private Business Awards. Those of you who know me personally will be aware that we have had a flurry of awards this year – well this wasn’t one of them – I didn’t even […]

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How great is your desire?

There’s a lady I know who runs a fab business but she was posting on Facebook this week about how she doesn’t think she can do it. She doesn’t think she has what it takes to do it, doesn’t think she has the energy, and doesn’t think she has the skills or talents to do […]

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Kate’s Q&A October 2015 – How do you deal with the shits in business?

Thank you to Stephen for submitting this question for October – he writes as follows:  Had a bad week after being let down by taking some people at their word!!! You’ve said there are “shits” in business, well I definitely came across a couple last week. They made veiled threats forcing me into a corner and […]

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What do Apple and Amazon share with the UK’s fastest growing courier company?

In any commoditised, competitive industry you have to start with differentiation. You could be the cheapest, the coolest or the best – it depends how you position yourself to your clients.  As I sit here tapping away at my MacBook, with books beside me from Amazon I am a dedicated follower of two of the […]

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Infrastructure or revenue? Which one first?

Do you build infrastructure to grow and then add turnover, or do you achieve turnover and then add infrastructure? If you have lots of money and investment then it is easier to put in bullet proof administrative processes to make sure that you can cope with most of the permutations of your sales. But realistically […]

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Kate’s Q&A – September 2015 Part 2

Welcome back. Last week we had a double whammy question about Scaling your business – and it’s really got me thinking so this September and October I think we are going to have a bit of a focus on this subject. Anyway last week we discussed reasons to scale your business.   My reasons were […]

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Kate’s Q&A – September 2015

This month David has asked me a great double whammy question:  why scale your business, and what’s the biggest challenge in scaling?  He’s sitting pretty on a great consultancy model based business, and has a six-figure income and no staff. Now he could grow his business – get people in, expand his offering, but he […]

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Why does the holiday effect not last very long?

Have you found that your holiday seems a long way off, but you only got back last week?  You have got back to work to a shit storm of banks, cash flow issues, staff challenges and customers running amok and already you can feel that bubble of tension rising in you. And then on the […]

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Skill sets to learn to be a great entrepreneur

One of the greatest things I started doing before I started turning my business around was to start turning me around – developing myself as a person into what I needed to be to be a great business person.  Now I am by no means perfect but I do aspire and work towards honing the […]

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If you’re not getting the results you need – then change what you’re doing!!

I have been trying to lose a stone for about a year now. It’s not a lot of weight but it has gradually crept on in the last 4-5 years and I wanted to address it before I find myself fat and fifty. I’ve always done a bit of yoga and a bit of running, […]

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Make like a Benedictine nun…

I am constantly asked how I can do so much stuff – and not just random stuff, that’s proper project-led, take-my-business-forward stuff.  I do 2.5 full time jobs a week in my organisation, plus I keep fit which is 10 plus hours, plus I write this here blog, plus I work on other projects and […]

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Kate’s Q&A – July 2015

Hi all – this month I have a superb question, and it’s a biggie. Here’s the question from Sam: Hi Kate, Loved both of your books and your inspiration vids. I am embarking on shedding a toxic relationship AND just setting up my business – have you got any tips on how to keep afloat […]

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Kate’s Q&A – August 2015

What’s the best time to do things? Now we are doing a lot of work on time management this month because it’s one of the key challenges facing entrepreneurs, and I am thinking, if you are like me the summer is generally a bit more mellow so instead of a crazy work schedule you can […]

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There’s no I in TEAM

Kevin Pietersen scores 355 for Surrey and he’s still not selected for England? One of my favourite books is ‘Will it Make the Boat go Faster’ by Ben Hunt Davies.  It’s a management manual on absolute focus on one goal – in Ben’s case, how to make their eight man craft win the Gold at […]

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Retrain your brain

Ever thought ‘Bloody staff!’? Or ‘Oh God, it’s Monday’? Or ‘My job would be okay if it weren’t for ‘bloody customers’’? We have all had those days I am sure! However, if you habitually phrase these things in the negative, slowly but surely they will become the things you don’t want them to be. If […]

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Scrooge’s Xmas

This is a seasonal one for July! I remember at my first network Xmas event in 2013 when I was proud to have our first seven franchises attend plus all my team from Diamond HQ. I was excited at the prospect of celebrating our success and getting together with what was now our national team […]

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A loyal as a sewer rat

There has been an incident of late when a couple of people have left an organisation I know has benefitted literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of businesses, around the UK – and have set up on their own. I am sure many of you know who I am talking about. Now everyone has the right […]

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The importance of taking a break

When you run a marathon you take gels with you to keep your energy going because, clearly whilst running for us normal folk for 4 – 5 hours you are going to need to top up your reserves. There is a top trick to sustain your performance through out the course, and that’s to start […]

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Kate’s Q&A – June 2015

I have been asked by James – thank you James – why I had bailed from using a certain supplier and whether I thought they would still be of use to him. I am sure many of you know who I am talking about and I answered him accordingly: It was a question of morals. […]

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It’s all about love

I had a very full-on meeting in London the other day with a group of business people. These are some of the most interesting guys and gals I know and they have fascinating businesses and careers. We had had a really full on meet – swapping knowledge and sharing ideas. And then we went for […]

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Kate Featured In The Guardian

Kate was featured in today’s Guardian newspaper, in the Women In Leadership section. You can read the article by clicking here.

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Lesson I learned from Floyd Mayweather

I have just been watching a program about Floyd Mayweather – for the benefit of the uninitiated, Floyd is a boxer who went from winning bronze in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to earning £100m in May this year after winning a fight against eight-division world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao in Los Angeles. Whether you like […]

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Kate’s Q&A – May 2015

  It’s always darkest before the dawn… Welcome to my fellow insomniacs out there. I had a lovely message from Sean last week saying that he was having a crap night of it. His business, which is doing very well, is facing many challenges, and while he’s normally a deep sleeper he found himself awake […]

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The art of selling

  I want to share one of my favourite quotes, by Andy Warhol. He said, “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art”. But how do you make that money? There’s no two ways about it – you have to get out there and SELL. And it’s not […]

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Magpie syndrome

Can I tell you the hardest bit about my job? It is staying focused on just one thing. And I am not just talking about focusing on one task either. I am talking about focusing on one business, one theme, one project to land as well. Because I am an entrepreneur and I like to […]

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Carrot versus stick

  I love motivating people, leading a team, watching people succeed. I am just not perfect at – because if I were then 100% of my team would function 100% of the time to 100% of their capacity. Right?   And they don’t. Which is really frustrating. Because as you know there is no way […]

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Kate’s Q&A – April 2015

Welcome to Kate’s Q&A for April. Thanks to Tony for his question, which was: Who do you go to for advice if you are doing something that is outside of your skill set? You see Tony has big plans to do something he hasn’t done before – and it’s big, multimillion in terms of turnover […]

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The Power of PR

So you have a budget for Sales and Marketing but it’s looking kind of tight. Orders are down and you know promotion is key but your £30k a year sale rep seems to have achieved bugger all (and the last one that did took it with him when he started up in competition down the […]

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It’s All About The Money Honey

I was reminded of a great quote by the late great Zig Ziglar the other day and it said ‘Money isn’t everything but its right up there with oxygen’. Too true! Many people in UK small businesses are very funny about asking for money. Asking for what they are worth, reviewing prices, getting the company […]

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An Act Of Reasonable Recklessness

In the last 23 years – yes Diamond is 23 in March – I ticked along for 20 years then super accelerated my growth in the last 3. So I have done a lot of thinking about what the first 20 were – namely a very typical journey of a small business to a seven […]

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What’s Your Plan B?

I have been in business – the same business for over 23 years. Not a lot of businesses achieve that and to be honest there has been many a time if I wondered if I’d still be here in a year’s time. After all, small businesses are tough. But there is one key element, which […]

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Kate’s Q&A – March 2015

Welcome to the second Kate Q and A – and when I got this question originally I thought cheeky monkey but then I thought actually there is a very important message here so bear with me. This chap was asking about my relationship status – single and very happily so thank you – no applicants […]

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You’re Welcome

You’re welcome? I heard a great talk by Jonathan Winchester the other day talking about the client experience within your business. You see it starts from the first step out of the car, the first phone call, the first interaction. Whether its people visiting your office, being ignored instead of welcomed or the phone ringing […]

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I Have The Worst Cold

I have the worst cold….. I have the worst cold today as you can no doubt hear from my voice and I thought ‘Shall I cancel my shoot today?’ I mean I could, couldn’t I – after all I am my own boss and the purveyor of my own destiny. Aren’t I? But it’s a […]

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David And Goliath

I had a hilarious bit of gossip yesterday when I heard that the CEO of a major carrier had seen a video when I stated that I wanted to liberate British business from crappy couriers. He then declared war on little old Diamond Logistics. Bless him! Please note Mr. You-know-exactly-who-you-are I said ‘couriers’ not carriers […]

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I Kind Of Like The Idea Of A Dog..

I kind of like the idea of a dog.  Something  to enthusiastically greet you at the end of the day, something that would temper my desire to work 15 hour days, something to drag me out for some exercise in the most lousy of weather.  But I am sure, having been a dog owner before, […]

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Kate’s Q and A | February 2015 | How much grit does it take?

Hi and welcome to Kate’s Q and A – the result  of questions from my subscribers. It’s a confidential service so I won’t be naming names but I thought this one was a goody to start with as it totally reflected where I was at, this week. The question can be summed up by this […]

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The Infinite Task List

Bored? Not busy? Don’t know what to do today? I’m guessing NOT! If you’re like me, your ‘To Do List’ is endless. As entrepreneurs we should never be short of things to do. We are more likely to complain about not enough hours in the day rather than being bored. However there is a very […]

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The Traits Of Very Successful Entrepreneurs

I spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs that I can learn from – people with more experience then me, bigger businesses than me – because I am learning on the job and their experience is invaluable. I have noticed a lot of shared traits that I thought I would share with you that WITHOUT […]

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JFDI and Stop Reading Self Help Books now available in paper back.

My books ‘JFDI: The kick ar*e format to make YOUR business match YOUR ambition’ and ‘Stop reading self help books’ are both now available in paper back. Grab a copy of either book in paper back for FREE by donating £10+ to a charity of your choice and sending me a screenshot to kate@katelester.com.  I […]

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New Year’s Resolutions are bollocks

As my dry January lasted 5 days, my diet until Fish and Chip Friday and my ‘I will only work 10 hours days’ didn’t last….well…… 10 hours, I was beginning to think I was the world’s worst at keeping my New Year’s resolutions. However, overall actually my healthy eating and increased exercise regime is sticking […]

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Shirley Valentine

Some of you keen followers will notice we are saving you from my wallpaper this week – no need for shades and the WALL is back. Do you remember Shirley Valentine? Where Shirley had no one to talk to but the wall. Do you fee like that sometime in your business? That there is no […]

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Shared Success

In 20 over years of business I have only had to say goodbye to four customers because they were impossible to trade with. They were, quite frankly, horrid. And I simply closed their accounts. This is hard but sometimes necessary. That is not to say that the rest of our client relationships have always run […]

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The C Word

  Today I want to talk about the C word. I know it’s kind of controversial but it comes up a lot in my work and I think it’s more frequent use is worthy of a discussion topics. I am talking about – dare I say it, crying. Why? What did you think I was […]

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I was bloody furious

I was absolutely incensed the other night watching Richard Bacon on ‘How Rich Are You?’ discussing the widening poverty gap and the lack of mobility within the social classes. I think it was tantamount to MURDER. Murder of hope and aspiration. Murder of the possibility of transformation. Seriously – I feel that passionate about it. […]

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The Impossible Dream

You have got to love Jane Maudsley – she sang us out at the Entrepreneurs Convention singing the Impossible Dream – as her tribute to all us entrepreneurs. Watch the video here. We were all welling up – a very special moment – and what a voice! It got me to thinking. What is an […]

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Crossing the Atlantic single-handed

I have recently spent 2 days at the National Entrepreneurs convention surrounded by my favourite workaholics – people who run their own businesses. I’ve met Steve Wozniak, presented the awards on the big stage and have met some really inspirational people – but my favourite bit by far was Debra Searle’s speech about her single […]

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You win some AND you lose some

We were really disheartened yesterday to hear we were losing a big client who spent £20,000 with us last month. As a result of a series of f***ups – ours and a third party supplier – we have lost a client who has been with us for three years  – gave us no notice at […]

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The Pursuit of Happiness

I have some big news for all you money led entrepreneurs out there. I love money – it’s very handy, lets me do all the things I like to do. But here’s the thing – it won’t make you happy. Business success won’t make you happy. Falling in love won’t make you happy.  Having children […]

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Shared Success

In 20 over years of business I have only had to say goodbye to four customers because they were impossible to trade with. They were, quite frankly, horrid. And I simply closed their accounts. This is hard but sometimes necessary. That is not to say that the rest of our client relationships have always run […]

Read More Click Here