The Best Small Business Lessons From Our 2025 Webinars

This year, we’ve been lucky enough to speak with some brilliant entrepreneurs, business owners and experts in our Talking Small Business lunchtime webinar series. From decluttering your workspace to scaling a service-based business, from building brilliant relationships to mastering LinkedIn, our guests shared practical, actionable wisdom that can transform how you run your business. 

Here are three standout lessons from each session: 

From ‘Decluttering for Business Success’ with Siân Pelleschi 

1. Clear your desk for headspace: a 10-minute desk reorganisation can give you the mental clarity to focus on your priority tasks without being distracted by the clutter around you. 
2. Turn the narrative around: instead of focusing on what you haven’t done, celebrate what you have achieved. Keep a “done list” rather than just a to-do list so you can see your progress. 
3. Asking for help isn’t failure: we call a plumber when pipes leak because they have the skill set we don’t. The same applies to professional organising, content planning, or any business support. Acknowledging you need help is a strength, not a weakness. 

Watch Siân’s webinar back 

From ‘Scaling Your Service-Based Business’ with Will Blower 

1. Make the most of the time you have at the beginning: build systems and processes when you’re time-rich and cash-poor. 
2. Sales come from relationships, not just transactions: building personal relationships with clients is key. 
3. Learning by doing is more effective than reading business books: hands-on experience teaches you more than theoretical knowledge. 

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From ‘Freelancing, Podcasting and Building a Community’ with Steve Folland 

1. Your friends are not your target market: focus on your actual audience rather than trying to please people you know. 
2. Building a reputation takes time and consistent effort: success doesn’t happen overnight, but persistence pays off. 
3. Creating personal content serves as a portfolio and keeps creativity alive: working on your own projects maintains your creative energy whilst showcasing your skills. 

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From ‘From LinkedIn Lurker to LinkedIn Leader’ with Gus Bhandal 

1. LinkedIn is a social media platform for conversations, not a CV site: treat it like the longest networking event. 
2. Commenting on posts can be as, if not more, effective as writing posts: engagement matters as much as creating your own content. 
3. Use the FAST approach: find pain points in your potential client’s experience, agitate these problems by highlighting the consequences, present solutions and how you fix these issues, and share testimonials that prove your effectiveness. 

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From ‘How to Start Something’ with Angela Lyons 

1. Just start, don’t hold yourself back: if you don’t start, it will never happen. 
2. Focus on building a strong referral network: most of Angela’s business comes from referrals rather than cold marketing. 
3. When networking, focus on being helpful rather than selling: offer advice freely and build genuine connections. 

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 From ‘How to Start-Up and Scale-Up Fast’ with Julie Spence 

1. Set up a separate business bank account from day one: this creates a crucial mindset shift that establishes the clear distinction between personal and business life. 
2. Real-world scenarios are entirely different from what you study: it’s okay not to know everything, asking questions shows professionalism, not weakness. 
3. Don’t be afraid to knock on doors: Julie literally went door-to-door handing out CVs, and backed it up with online accounting software certifications to prove she was serious about the career change. 

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 From ‘Building Brilliant Business Relationships’ with Anita Ellis 

1. Consistency trumps perfection: posting regularly matters more than waiting for the perfect post. 
2. Set clear working boundaries from day one: Anita works four days a week, never logs on Fridays, and doesn’t have work emails on her phone. 
3. Natural networking works best: business can come from casual conversations anywhere, even in swimming pools on holiday. 

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 From ‘Marketing Strategies for Six-Figure Success’ with Vic Taylor 

1. Price is only an issue in the absence of value: if customers are questioning your prices, you haven’t communicated enough value. Focus on transformation and outcomes, not features and time spent. 
2. Productise your services like a dentist or vet: instead of hourly rates, create packages with fixed prices for defined outcomes. Customers prefer knowing exactly what they’ll pay for a specific result rather than time-based billing. 
3. Choose five strategic marketing touchpoints, not a plate of spaghetti: map two touchpoints at awareness, one each at interest, desire and action. Connect them logically so customers flow seamlessly from first contact to purchase rather than getting lost. 

Watch Vic’s webinar back