Mark Blayney – författare

There is lots of advice around for starting a business, but less for when it is established but un-profitable, or gets into difficulties. This is a guide to help you when the going gets tough. It acts as a smoke detector - to help spot the early warning signs of approaching difficulty, and as a fire extinguisher - for immediate use in a crisis. It will help you to turn a business around by explaining: why businesses fail, how to spot the warning signs, key ways to stabilise your finances, how to devise a realistic recovery plan, and how to manage that plan into effective action.

Some people only ever sell their business once, usually when they are looking to retire. Others will find themselves selling their businesses a number of times during their careers as they move from one project to the next. But both types of people have one thing in common: they need to get the best deal possible out of the sale.This practical, commonsense book will help to secure the best result. Now updated and revised, it is in its 2nd updated edition. It offers first-hand advice on the whole sale process from deciding why and when to sell through getting the best sale to completing the deal. Charts and examples offer advice on essential legal, financial and strategic issues for all types of enterprises, however big or small your business.

Twelve-ish. Shade in the Murillo gardens, as satisfying as lemonade. In the heat, just for a moment, Miguel stood in front of me. The old Miguel, not the one we've got now. The fuzzy image held its hand out and led me to the old Arab wall. When we were first married, we tried to climb it in the middle of the night. A celebration. 'This wall's been here hundreds of years,' Miguel said. 'If we can conquer that, we can conquer anything.' I believed him. I open my eyes and he's gone.In these slippery stories the truth and the possible weave as unexpected lives, complicated minds and exotic spaces are sketched in with nimble words and quick wit. Ghosts torment from the past; future selves write back; the lost look about, find themselves watched, are lead astray.Keep company with thieves and murdering artists, with the couple who miss the ferry for their make-or-break holiday; the mayonnaise deliveryman who becomes a reluctant golddigger, and the psychoanalyst and his GP wife investigate a local widow's naked appearances in church.Between these pages you can never be sure quite who you'll meet next, but you can be sure that you're in safe hands. An intriguing new collection from a writer you'll want to keep an eye on.