Next Monday, 6 September, is a big day for small businesses in England. No, it's not because home-based entrepreneurs can finally get some work done as their kids go back to school but because it's the deadline for submissions from councils for the creation of the government's new Local Enterprise Partnerships.

LEPs are the coalition's replacement for the much derided Regional Development Agencies and ministers promise they will be much cheaper to run and will have greater involvement from local authorities on the ground and businesses themselves in the form of groups like chambers of commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses. 

The move is a welcome one as for two long small business owners seeking support and guidance have been confused by a myriad of schemes and initiatives run by all sorts of groups and associations. Then of course there is the millions of pounds of government money which has been used to fund the RDAs which critics say has generated little value for money with the fact that only nine regional bodies exist means that some areas have lacked support.

 I've just finished an enforced break (well, reduced workload) thanks to the school holidays, and I'm keen to get stuck back in. Any small business owner would feel the same - we are NOT a work-shy crowd by any stretch of the imagination.

But, although I'm itching to back into the thick of it, I've made a decision to suspend my full-blown return to work for a (short) period of reflection and actual goal setting. All the business gurus tell us to have clear goals, and indeed you probably set one when you started business. But what happens when your business is up and running? Are you too busy dealing with day-to-day decisions and and actually DOING business? When was the last time you reviewed your goals? Are you still on course? Are they still relevant? Do you need new ones?

If you've been to the Edinburgh festival, you'll know just how huge a buzz it creates around the Scottish capital. From the smallest high street shop to the largest auditorium, the whole city is taken over by a fabulous atmosphere of mirth and merriment as Edinburgh's population doubles in size from 500,000 to one million every August.

It's with that spirit in mind that MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival has been created. Taking place in venues all around Sheffield from 8-11 September, the Yorkshire city will celebrate all that's good about enterprise and the entrepreneurs behind it. A little bit of the Edinburgh festival itself will even be in town as Sunday Times enterprise editor Rachel Bridge stages her one-woman show 'How to Make a Million Before Lunch' which she performed in Scotland this year. 

One of the things that I often hear when speaking at events, working with clients or out networking with business colleagues is…..

‘That’s all well and good, Adrian, but where am I going to find the time to do all that?”

People often complain that they do not have enough time. But the fact of the matter is that they have the same amount of time as anyone else, whether rich or poor, successful or waiting to be found. It’s what you do with it that matters not how much you have.

Being a master of your time is one of the greatest skills that you can develop and one of the most powerful things that you can teach your team to help them improve their performance and productivity.

Here’s a set of 3 big tips from some of the biggest known names in the time management, peak performance and productivity industry that have helped me along the way. I hope they help you.

 Tweeters are you tracking your keywords?

So, you've jumped on the social media bandwagon and set up a Twitter account, perhaps have a Facebook page and are active on Linked-In... however, are you really ‘getting’ social media?

 I recently blogged about a characteristic, and how to build it, that all successful entrepreneurs must have bucket loads of – resilience. It occurred to me today, that another characteristic that all successful entrepreneurs must gain quickly is patience. Let’s face it the opposite of patience is ‘hasty’ and ‘impetuous’ some character traits more normally associated with entrepreneurs. Let me let you into a little secret.

I am a massive fan of motorsport, especially F1 which is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of motor racing. For me it’s the combination of individual skill, team dynamics and technology that make these supercharged go-karts so exciting.

Does the government really need another ‘celebrity’ telling it how to spend our tax money?

Sir Philip Green has been announced as the latest ‘celebrity’ entrepreneur to join the government’s stable of advisers, but ministers are now calling for his own tax affairs to be investigated.

I recently posted a blog (Who will you trust) about factors which should influence your decision to hire a specific coach. Similar to the coaching profession, anyone can decide to call themselves a trainer or leadership expert. An external trainer will set you back anything from £300 to £2500 a day. You may ask, what’s the difference between a trainer which charges £300 and £2500; actually not a lot. It’s all about how much you value their worth and how good they are at identifying the value of their proposed solution to you.

So, how do you go about finding a identifying a reputable external training consultant to work with your business?

1. Price is not a guarantee of success or experience

I would like to go on a journey with you.  My goal: to make sense of the web in a way you may not have considered before. The web is more than a random collection of websites. It has a structure and a meaning to it that, if you understand it, you can use to the advantage of your business. I would like to expose that inner structure and show you how to structure your website, and indeed your entire business.

We are no longer in a position, whether we run small local businesses or businesses that aspire to sell products and services worldwide, to merely view the web as a marketing tool, or an ecommerce site or a distribution channel. We must start thinking of it as the primary organizing principle of our business. It is more important than the “real” world it mirrors. And in the coming year or two it will become obvious to everyone that a new order of business is emerging. These will be businesses, small or large, that are large in their impact on the web.