The BOOM! factor: Control, grow and add impact

09 Aug 2011 Voices

When passion, energy, preparation and opportunity meet both businesses and charities can be truly powerful. Tesse Akpeki outlines the thinking of BOOM.

Tesse Apeki

When passion, energy, preparation and opportunity meet both businesses and charities can be truly powerful. Tesse Akpeki outlines the thinking of BOOM.

BOOM! the Business Owners’ Operations Manual helps business owners to Build, Own, Operate and Maintain their business from planning to profit to make an impact.  

Author and business coach, Emma Wimhurst points out that obsessive optimism, enjoyment of responsibility, the desire to achieve, the reward of hard work and the urge to be entrepreneurial are key personality traits for BOOM!entrepreneurs.  She introduces the reader to seven business disciplines. When the disciplines become fixed in routine, they become practical habits to help the BOOM!preneur stay on track when the going gets tough and become an intrinsic part of the way the entrepreneur thinks, acts, leads and conducts business. 

By applying self discipline to our management style and business disciplines to the management structure, the performance and profitability of the organisation is enhanced and ongoing success is assured.

Four hard skills  

  • Business strategy – focusing the vision
  • Business planning – building the business
  • Marketing management – mastering the marketing
  • Practical finance – managing the money


These four business disciplines, the building blocks of any business, affect the systems and processes.  In these challenging times, organisations ignore them at their peril.

Three soft skills

  • Team building – inspiring and leading the team
  • Customer commitment  - caring for customers
  • Personal development – motivating yourself.


Leadership disciplines five to seven reflect personal values and influence management styles. The focus is on people-related aspects of business management - aspects that are harder to control.  Interestingly, the greatest personal satisfaction occurs when  practices relating to  communication, motivation and team working are applied in the right manner.

BOOM!  leadership techniques and practices are down to earth, practical and straight-talking. BOOM!preneurs can sign up to free BOOM!bytes by visiting www.emmawimhurst.com.

BOOM! is for any business – the sole trader, the nonprofit or civil society organisation that is utilises a business mindset and the small to medium business outfit.    

Emma concludes by reminding BOOM!preneurs to:

Build – develop business responsibility with the future in mind

Own – take personal ownership of business decisions and outcomes

Operate – in a personal, efficient and consistent way

Maintain – create impact by maintaining passion, enthusiasm and personal motivation.  Where you lead others will follow


Having watched the latest series of Dragon’s Den I am just hoping that for a more successful outcome, future applicants seeking investment from the Dragon’s get a hold of Emma’s book before making their pitch! With the BOOM! mindset they would be much better prepared.