Business with the Donnos

Jade Donno
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Join the Donno family each week as we share the real highs and lows of running a business together—mixing practical advice with unfiltered stories from behind the scenes of family life and entrepreneurship. Email jade@1accounts.co.uk with any questions or just DM or comment on our episodes! 

  1. 3D AGO

    People Buy From People

    Send a text Tired of hiding behind a logo while your marketing stalls? We unpack why personal branding has become the most reliable growth channel for small businesses and how to start without feeling awkward or salesy. From building a real voice to avoiding the pitfalls of over-polished content, we share the practical moves that make people choose you before they ever visit your website. We explore the sweet spot where personal and company brands support each other, not compete. You’ll hear why authenticity beats production gloss, how everyday behaviour in public can make or break trust, and what it takes to keep your message consistent without oversharing. We dig into storycraft—how to shape your journey, your mistakes, and your why into value that educates instead of pitches—so that prospects see you as the helpful expert, not another megaphone. Community is the force multiplier. We talk micro-influencers, customer advocacy, and frictionless sharing that creates social proof, plus the hidden cost of blocking tags or user-generated content. Then we get tactical: pick one platform, post once a week, and invest ten minutes a day in thoughtful comments. Use AI for structure, not your voice, and prioritise consistency over intensity. We wrap with a simple challenge designed to get you posting a human, useful update that has nothing to do with your service—then reply to every comment to spark conversations that convert. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who runs a small business, and leave a quick review so more people can find these practical playbooks. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    26 min

  2. FEB 18

    Build A Business That Runs Without You

    Send a text Could your business grow if you disappeared for three weeks with your phone off? We tackle the owner’s trap head-on and share the exact mindset, systems, and hiring moves that turn a founder-dependent operation into a resilient, valuable company someone else would actually want to buy. From the first friction audit to the final handover, we walk through how we’ve applied these ideas inside our own firm. We break down the difference between being the doer and being the leader, why A players outperform “helpers,” and how to hire owners of outcomes. You’ll hear practical ways to document knowledge quickly—Loom walkthroughs, step-by-step scribes, and living SOPs your team updates as tools change. We explore the “holiday test” and the “bus test” to expose single points of failure, then show how simple automation and dashboards cut status meetings, surface bottlenecks, and keep work moving without you acting as the switchboard. Valuation comes into sharp focus as we link lower founder dependency to higher multiples. We unpack EBITDA, recurring revenue, and why buyers reward clean, comprehensible profit over clever tax positioning. Expect straight talk on separating personal finances from business accounts, setting salaries that reflect reality, and planning your exit window at least three years ahead. Along the way, we share candid shop-floor examples—from phone answering services to workflow dashboards—that saved hours and raised standards. If you’re ready to step back without things falling apart, start small: delegate one task this week with a clear SOP, measure what breaks when you’re away, and fix it with process, people, or tech. Subscribe for more hands-on playbooks, share this with a founder who needs the nudge, and leave a rating to tell us what you’ll systemise next. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    31 min

  3. FEB 11

    Apprenticeships That Actually Work

    Send a text Apprenticeships can be a growth engine or a drain on your team depending on one decision: how you design the experience. We’ve hired across accounting and marketing, trained people from level two through to professional quals, and even completed a management MBA via an apprenticeship route—so we’ve seen both sides of the process. In this candid session, we break down what actually works for small businesses and what to avoid if you want real capability rather than short-term capacity. We start with the basics—apprenticeship levels, how funding really plays out, and why off-the-job hours are often misunderstood. Then we get practical: choosing the right provider, aligning apprenticeships to AAT or ACCA pathways, and insisting that assignments apply to your business instead of abstract case studies. You’ll hear how our early generic provider added noise and frustration, and how switching to a specialist transformed results. We also talk about the human side: setting clear expectations, assigning a single accountable mentor, and keeping apprentices in the office early to accelerate tacit learning. Culture is where the ROI lives. We share how psychological safety helps juniors challenge assumptions, bring digital fluency to the table, and grow into leaders who know your clients inside out. Expect frank talk on costs beyond wages, training contracts, and the real productivity dip at the start. We unpack common mistakes—treating apprentices like cheap labour, skipping a training plan, outsourcing all learning to the college—and we explore generational communication gaps, from phone confidence to messaging norms, with tips to coach skills that classes often miss. By the end, you’ll know when apprenticeships make sense, when they don’t, and how to build a repeatable system that turns potential into performance. If you’re ready to grow talent the smart way—provider fit, mentor model, culture-first—hit play, subscribe for more honest takes on small business, and leave a review with your biggest apprenticeship lesson or question. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    35 min

  4. FEB 10

    2026 Starts With A Plan

    Send a text Tired of drifting year to year and hoping growth just happens? We dig into a practical, human way to plan 2026 so your business protects profit, stays cash healthy, and actually supports the life you want. We start with the destination—growth, stability, lower stress, or a clean exit—then work backwards into simple, repeatable actions your team can own. You’ll hear how we pair a survival plan with an ambition plan to balance resilience and stretch. We break down forecasting in plain English, covering profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash so you can see the impact of price changes, minimum wage rises, and shifting demand before they hit the bank. We talk micro‑scenarios for new contracts, how to avoid the “cash rich, profit poor” trap, and the small habits that make a big difference—like moving VAT and corporation tax into separate pots each month. Operations get the spotlight too. We map bottlenecks, reduce rework, and decide where technology or AI helps and where only people create value. A robot can carry plates down a long corridor; a great server can read the room, upsell the wine, and bring guests back. On the marketing side, we swap random posting for intent: clear goals, timely campaigns, simple funnels, and KPIs that link spend to sales without sacrificing authenticity. Finally, we focus on team alignment and execution. Goals don’t work if they stay in the founder’s head. We share how to communicate the 2026 picture, turn it into quarterly KPIs, assign owners, and review often without rewriting the plan every week. Keep the strategy lean; pour the effort into delivery. If you’re ready to plan the year before the year plans you, hit play, then tell us your top goal for 2026. Subscribe, share this with a founder who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    32 min

  5. JAN 30

    KPIs Made Simple

    Send a text The dashboards everyone talks about but no one seems to have? We built one, made it useful, and got it to update itself before breakfast and after close. This week we share the messy middle: the dead-end Power BI attempt, the admin pain of manual spreadsheets, and the moment an AI builder helped us ship a working operational dashboard without writing code from scratch. We walk through the decisions that mattered: why we capped our dashboard at ten tiles, how we picked metrics that trigger action, and what changed when the team could see a simple graph beating a target line. You’ll hear how we pull data from our practice management system and a receipt capture tool with client health analytics, why we ignore timesheets yet still track performance by department, and how twice-daily syncs offer clarity without micromanagement. We also open up about the ROI mindset that pushed us forward—spend a focused half week now to reclaim hours forever—and the surprising ways small, visible numbers nudge behaviour. If you run a small business or a trade, there’s a blueprint here. We sketch practical dashboards for plumbers and other SMEs—jobs booked, inquiries, money owed, cash collected—and explain when to bring in finance tools like Fathom for profit and cash snapshots. We’re candid about AI’s limits and strengths, showing how low-code tools can turn a persistent bottleneck into a clean workflow. Along the way, we share a bonus win: a transparent bookkeeping pricer built with the same approach to remove a recurring pricing headache. Ready to swap KPI noise for daily clarity? Press play, steal the structure, and start with one metric that changes behaviour. If this helped, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share the episode with a founder who keeps saying “I’ll do the spreadsheet later.” 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    28 min

  6. JAN 20

    You Don’t Need To Be Big To Transform Your Business

    Send a text What if small businesses could outpace big brands by making simpler, smarter choices? We dive into the practical side of digital transformation where it matters most: seamless payments, recurring bookings, faster quotes, and fewer evening admin marathons. Our goal is simple—strip away the friction that pushes customers to abandon carts and owners to burn out, and replace it with tools and processes that quietly do the heavy lifting. We share concrete examples you can copy this week. Picture a trades business that auto-renews annual services, fills the diary via an online calendar, and collects payment instantly—no phone tag, no chasing. Think transparent pricing calculators that empower your team and speed up sales. We talk frankly about costs and complexity, why most software is cheaper than you expect, and how to get help if tech feels overwhelming. The advantage of being small shines through: you can decide today, implement tomorrow, and improve next week without waiting on a committee. Tool choice and discipline sit at the heart of the conversation. Pick strong platforms, go deep, and resist the lure of the latest shiny app. Then layer in AI as a force multiplier: use it to draft, research, and outline, but always review and refine. We cover professional guardrails, practical prompting, and how to keep your brand voice human. Finally, we walk through a simple process mapping method—Post-it notes and all—that turns scattered steps into a smooth customer journey. Subscribe, share this with a fellow business owner, and leave a review with your biggest bottleneck—we’ll tackle the most common ones in an upcoming show. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    32 min

  7. JAN 16

    Stop, Start, Fix: Smarter Moves For 2026

    Send a text January always brings pressure to do more – grow faster, add services, chase ideas. But in reality, trying to fix everything at once is often what stalls good businesses. In this episode, we start with a few real-life updates, then get straight into what actually moves the needle when cash feels tight and headspace is limited. We share a simple but powerful framework: stop what drains you, start what compounds, and fix what quietly leaks profit. No buzzwords, no overcomplication – just practical decisions that protect profit and focus. We tackle one of the biggest traps for business owners: comparison. Copying competitors with totally different pricing, margins, or team structures can do real damage. Instead, we walk through three KPIs that genuinely change outcomes: Revenue tracked live against planGross margin percentageOperating cash availableYou’ll learn how to build a clear, lightweight dashboard, why daily visibility beats nasty month-end surprises, and how a 20% growth target becomes achievable when you can actually see where you stand. Then we get practical with money. Dead stock isn’t just clutter – it’s trapped cash. We explain how to clear it and reinvest into faster-moving lines. Pricing gets a proper review too, with rising costs across wages, insurance, and suppliers, and how to adjust prices without losing client trust. We’re honest about tools and software: a £22-per-month fix with a clear return can be a great decision, but expensive, time-heavy migrations without payback usually aren’t. Delegation comes back into focus as a profit lever, with simple steps to document, train, and free yourself from tasks that block sales, billing, and growth. Finally, we talk habits – because strategies only work if they’re lived. Drawing on behavioural insights, we show why small, consistent actions beat grand plans every time: checking one key number daily, reviewing pricing weekly, and tightening invoicing routines. We also touch on real-life curveballs – health, family, and unexpected disruptions – and why systems, teams, and cash buffers are what keep a business steady when life gets messy. If you want a calmer, more profitable year, start with clarity, keep it simple, and let the numbers guide your next move. If this episode helped sharpen your thinking, follow the show, share it with another business owner, and leave a quick review – it really helps more entrepreneurs find us. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    27 min

  8. 09/05/2025

    Breaking the System: Why Processes Matter

    Send a text "Breaking the System: Why Processes Matter" explores the transformative power of well-designed business processes through the candid lens of a father-daughter business team. When Paul initially built his accountancy practice, everything remained locked in his head - a common entrepreneurial trap that creates an invisible ceiling on growth. Enter Jade, who implemented systematic processes that helped triple the business. The episode reveals how proper processes aren't just about organisation but serve as the foundation for sustainable scaling. Through personal anecdotes and hard-earned wisdom, Jade and Paul discuss how implementing their 85-step onboarding process ensures nothing falls through the cracks - from technical requirements to sending new clients celebration cake. They share how technology tools like Carbon, Asana, and Loom support their systems while emphasising that processes should remain flexible enough to adapt to unique situations and evolving business needs. What makes this conversation particularly relatable is Paul's honest admission of sometimes avoiding the very processes Jade implements - a dynamic many business partnerships will recognise. Their playful banter illuminates a crucial truth: even the most process-resistant entrepreneurs eventually see the value in systems that create consistency, reduce stress, and enable growth. Whether you're just starting out or looking to break through a growth plateau, this episode provides practical insights on creating processes that support rather than suffocate your business vision. Subscribe to Business with Swoey for more candid conversations about family business dynamics and practical strategies to overcome common entrepreneurial challenges. Have you implemented processes that transformed your business? We'd love to hear your story! 🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!

    26 min
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About

Join the Donno family each week as we share the real highs and lows of running a business together—mixing practical advice with unfiltered stories from behind the scenes of family life and entrepreneurship. Email jade@1accounts.co.uk with any questions or just DM or comment on our episodes! 

Information

  • Creator
    Jade Donno
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Business with the Donnos
  • Show Website
    Business with the Donnos