Alan Sugar didn’t start pointing the finger at terrified suited professionals overnight, and Richard Branson didn’t become the go-to name in everything from home media to air travel within his first week on the job. 

On 22 and 23 July 2016, athletics stars from around the world will meet at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for one of the world’s biggest athletics events – the iconic IAAF Diamond League.

Branding is a word commonly referred to by advertisers and marketeers, but what does it actually mean? 

Well, quite a lot as it turns out. As a business your brand is your most powerful tool, it's your identity, a representation of who you are and how you connect with your customers. Branding in Business goes way beyond just a logo, it’s your business culture and something which is reflected across all touchpoints - how you communicate with your customers, how you speak online and even the colours and symbols you use in your brand architecture - your logo.

The use of colour and design are a crucial part of creating an effective and cohesive brand identity. It allows you to showcase meaning and message without the use of words and once established it can also offer instantaneous recognition for your customers, with the potential for driving brand loyalty.

• The dating game of the business world: Recruitment

  Recruitment is crucial for any business. Without the right workforce a business would limp along and eventually grind to a halt. With the right employees behind a brand, firms can thrive, develop and prosper. It’s a bit like the dating game of the business world, get it wrong and you’re left frayed and frustrated, get it right and you’re buzzing, buoyant and excited about the future.

  Though hiring the right people isn’t easy and takes time, money and effort. If you’re an employer wrestling with the often precarious world of recruitment, you may find the following advice useful to help iron out recruitment problems and generate employment success.

• “Leeds is probably the best place in the UK to be working right now.” Now there’s a statement and it was one made just this time last year by BahGum, a social network for careers, companies and job seekers.

  It’s no secret that in recent years more and more of Britain’s top employers have been setting up a home in Leeds. And being home to the likes of HSBC subsidiary First Direct, Yorkshire Bank, more than 200 law firms, not to mention a myriad of innovative technology companies and start-ups, it’s hardly surprising Leeds has gained a justifiable crown of being regarded as being probably the best place in the UK to work right now, where jobs are “plentiful, meaningful and successful.”

  Carrwood Park takes a look at how and why Leeds has become widely known as the ‘London of the North’ and whether you’re starting a business in Leeds or are already well-established, seven reasons why it makes sense to do business in Leeds.

Emerging as what was widely considered a unique privilege of company directors, flexible working patterns whereby we have greater freedom over when and where we choose to work, is now evolving as a habitual pattern of working for the masses. Prolific advances in communications and technology enabling us to work and report back to clients and our seniors from remote locations have paved the way for flexible, remote working. As a means of keeping up with the high demand of this modern model of working flexible office space is now readily available around the world, in the form of co-working centres, virtual offices and serviced offices.

They say there’s an app for practically anything these days, including apps to help businesses and freelancers of all shapes, sizes and industries, find their most convenient and ideal flexible office space and use their co-working set-up to the maximum.

If finding flexible office space in an attempt to craft a more professional business image and take your company forward is on your 2016 business list agenda, you may be interested in the following seven best mobile apps for flexible office space.

• Ask Me Anything: 10 Answers to Your Questions about Leeds business address

  We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, outside London Leeds is the largest business and financial hub in the UK. Given Leeds’ enviable status as being the ‘London of the North’, a vibrant, well-connected city, in which students and professionals flock to in their droves, it stands to reason having a business address in buoyant and thriving Leeds is going to paint your business in an admirable light. 

  If you are thinking of taking the plunge and getting an ultra-exclusive Leeds business address, either by renting office space in Leeds or having a virtual office in the city or its surroundings, take a look at the answers to the following ten important questions related to business addresses in Leeds?

From the ‘big cheese’ in his/her office having little to do with the humble workforce, to the ladies swooning over the latest hunky recruit in the sales departments, offices by their very nature are full of clichés, jokes and puns. As flexible office space continues to snowball in prominence and popularity, so too do the jokes and jibes about this modern form of office space. Carrwood Park takes a look at 13 of the ‘punniest’ flexible office space puns you can find.