Success, and indeed survival in business, relies upon making enough sales. If you don’t, you’ll soon run out of cash and that’s likely to spell the end for your business. If you are to make enough sales, you must generate sufficient sales leads, which is a never-ending challenge, because all businesses lose customers over time. So, how does your business generate leads and how many leads is enough? Not all will convert to actual sales, of course. What’s the difference between 'qualified' and 'unqualified' sales leads? What are your options if you want to generate sales leads online and how about offline?

Answering these and other key questions is sales expert Charlie Day, founder of her own sales consultancy, Charlie Day Sales, author of the book Sales Is Easy If You Know How and creator of the Facebook group of the same name, which has more than 10,000 members. Charlie is on a mission to “help small business owners to sell with ease and confidence”.

This episode is brought to you thanks to the support of AI-powered quiz platform Interact. Activate ideal customers with quizzes and convert them from passive viewers into engaged buyers. From lead generation to audience segmentation, the Interact tools are designed to help small businesses achieve their goals and grow their business. Try Interact's AI tool for free now.

Show notes for the episode can be found on the Start Your Own Business podcast website. Visit Start Up Donut and sign up to the Donut newsletter for more free start-up news, advice and special offers to help you save time and money.

Who among us doesn’t enjoy a toastie or Mexican-style wrap? Both can be a delicious snack or meal. CRIMPiT is a successful new British business. Its clever, innovative products offer a quick, easy and mess-free way to create delicious toasties using your kitchen toaster or burritos, calzones, enchiladas, kebabs and pasties that can be heated in your air fryer, oven or pan.

CRIMPiT co-founders, Mike Harper and Ian Critchlow were inspired to create CRIMPit by the need to create a speedy, high-protein, low-carb snack for Ian's elite swimmer son.

In this new Start-Up Story, Mike explains what challenges he and Ian had to overcome to start their business, win more than half a million customers and get their products onto the shelves of high-street stockists in the UK. CRIMPiT is about to launch in the US, so what has been the recipe for its success?

Visit Start Up Donut and sign up to the Donut newsletter for more free start-up news, advice and special offers to help you save time and money.

There are more than 310,000 retail businesses in the UK, which is 5.7% of all businesses, with SMEs accounting for more than 99% of them. Many UK retail businesses, especially those in the high street, have had a very tough time in recent years, having battled Covid and a record inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis that’s left consumers much more careful when it comes to spending their cash. So, is it still worth starting a small retail business and if so where do the best opportunities lie? Should you take on premises or stay strictly online? How do you set yourself apart and create a winning brand?

Answering these and many other key questions is Catherine Erdly, a small-business independent retail expert with more than 21 years’ experience, 17 of them spent working for high street names. She now works exclusively with start-ups, independent brands and retailers, helping them to grow their profits.

This episode is brought to you thanks to the support of Square. Whether you're a small business or a multi-location retailer, Square's retail POS system includes all the tools your retail business needs including payments, inventory management and ecommerce. Find out more about Square's retail POS systems at square.com.

Show notes for the episode can be found on the Start Your Own Business podcast website. Visit Start Up Donut and sign up to the Donut newsletter for more free start-up news, advice and special offers to help you save time and money.