The Weekly Edge 29th September

September 29, 2025

Your weekly briefing on business growth, strategy, and the future of work.

📈 Trending News

The Sustainability Advantage: A major trend identified by Forbes and Inc. is the growing consumer demand for eco-friendly practices. This is no longer a niche market. Businesses implementing sustainable supply chains, offering reusable packaging, and being transparent about their environmental impact are winning customer loyalty and building stronger brands. This shift is creating new opportunities in everything from green consulting to circular economy ventures.

Hiring for Skills, Not Just Diplomas: The war for talent continues, and smart companies are changing the rules. There's a significant move towards skills-based hiring, where a candidate's proven abilities are valued over traditional credentials, a trend highlighted by sources like Coursera. This widens the talent pool and helps businesses find the right people to navigate challenges, regardless of their background. It’s a practical strategy for building a more agile and capable team.

🛠️ Tool of the Week

Asana: It's a work management platform that helps teams organize, track, and manage their work. From small projects to large strategic initiatives, Asana brings clarity to who’s doing what, by when.

• Why it's a game-changer: As you scale, complexity grows. Asana prevents tasks from falling through the cracks, improves collaboration between team members (especially in remote or hybrid set-ups), and gives you a clear, visual overview of progress across all your company's projects.

💡 Quick Tips / Growth Hacks

1. Optimize Your Local SEO: For many businesses, growth starts locally. Ensure your Google Business Profile is fully updated with current hours, services, and photos. Actively encourage happy customers to leave reviews, this is one of the most powerful and free marketing tools available.
2. Start a Customer Referral Program: Your best customers are your most credible salespeople. Create a simple, formal program that rewards existing customers for bringing in new business. A small discount, a gift card, or a free month of service can generate a significant ROI.
3. Form a Strategic Partnership: Identify a non-competing business that serves a similar customer base. Propose a joint venture, a co-hosted webinar, or a cross-promotional campaign. This allows you to tap into a new audience for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

How a B2B Service Firm Doubled Its Leads Through Community Building

"Innovate Solutions," a mid-sized consulting firm, was hitting a plateau with its traditional marketing efforts. Instead of just increasing their ad spend, they focused on building a community. They launched a free monthly webinar series addressing common pain points in their industry and started an exclusive LinkedIn group for attendees to continue the conversation. By consistently providing value and fostering connections, they established themselves as the go-to experts. Within six months, their inbound leads doubled, and their sales cycle shortened because they were building relationships with prospects long before the first sales call.

❓ Reader Q&A

Question: "As a small business, how can I effectively compete with the much larger companies in my industry?"

Answer: You compete by being nimble and personal. Large companies often struggle with bureaucracy and impersonal customer service. Double down on your strengths:

• Offer exceptional, personalized customer service. Know your customers by name.
• Be more agile. You can make decisions and adapt to market changes much faster.
• Focus on a specific niche. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, dominate a specific segment of the market that larger players may overlook. Your size is your advantage, not a weakness.