When not to borrow
By Matthew Rock
The bail-out of Northern Rock brings to mind the advice of the great entrepreneur Edward Atkin.

Pack a punch with your bank
By Kate Pritchard
Grant Bovey, best known as the husband of television presenter Anthea Turner, had a slightly unusual problem when he approached banks for start-up funding for Imagine Homes, the buy-to-let property company that he built from scratch in 2003.

Material girl talks shop
By Kate Pritchard

Interior design superstar Kelly Hoppen has a word of advice for budding entrepreneurs: don’t plough your own cash into starting up a business.

A deal's devil is in the detail
By Jeremy Furniss
Even the most promising company sales and purchases can come unstuck for totally avoidable reasons.

Have you got the right numbers?
By Richard Farr
Most entrepreneurs don’t rely on their FDs. Why? Because entrepreneurs aren’t usually steeped in high-level financial training.

Raise your prices but don't upset your customers
By Nick Hood
I see blunders like this all the time.

Cure your cash-flow problems
By Simon Walters
Even perfectly decent businesses can run into trouble because its directors are too busy dealing with, well, everything else, and lose sight of a few fundamentals.

Why management buy-outs fail
By Jeremy Furniss
For every successful MBO, another five fail. But it doesn’t have to be so. Remember some basic points and you too can become the management.

Watch out for last minute renegotiations
By Jeremy Furniss
There are plenty of good reasons why deals fall at the final fence. Don’t let your deal be one of them.

Negotiating an earn-out
By Barrie Pearson
Vendors hate earn-outs. So do acquirers. Most professional advisers hate them, too. So why do over 50 per cent of all private company deals involve them?