Clear and distinctive written communications are essential if you wish to create a favourable impression, project personal and corporate personality and strike a distinctive note. "Effective Business Writing" will help you to formulate a systematic approach to writing that makes its easier and quicker to get the right words down, avoiding the dangers of bland and formulaic approaches. It is important to adopt the right style, create a clear and appropriate structure, and select the method - letter, fax or email - that suits your purpose.

"Effective Customer Care" is an essential guide to creating excellent customer service that will not only satisfy your customers and prompt orders, but also cement customer relationships and develop loyalty...and thus increase profits. You will find out what really goes through a customer's mind when they look to purchase a product or service, and what might turn them away without you even realising it.

Financial management comprises more than accounting and reporting. It is crucial at all stages in the business cycle, whatever the state of your business. "Effective Financial Management" starts with advice on raising money for a business, continues through maintaining investor relationships, includes useful information on accounting, reporting and communicating effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, gives vital tips on budgeting, forecasting and managing business costs and cash flow, and tells you how to successfully assess projects and buy assets.

Internal communication has previously been overlooked in standard approaches to public relations, both in theory and in practice. The second edition of "Effective Internal Communication" explores the ways in which attitude is fast changing as more and more organizations recognize that good communication with their workforce is vital for continued success and profitability. In a practical and jargon-free style, "Effective Internal Communication" looks at how internal communication is conducted across the different sectors and in organizations of differing sizes and complexity.

The power of the media is unquestionable - the dramatic effect it can have on public opinion and decision making is quite unique. Knowing how to use the media effectively is an essential skill for the public relations practitioner. In this third edition of "Effective Media Relations", three public relations professionals give clear, practical guidance on how to work with journalists to get the best possible media coverage.

Dealing with difficult people can make life impossible. The workplace is inhabited by a wide variety of people and it can sometimes be difficult to get on with them as well as get on with your work. However by understanding difficult people and the things they do, the problematic situations and awkward issues can be resolved.

This second edition of the best-selling Dealing with Difficult People includes a brand new chapter on dealing with difficult people in the digital sphere. It provides the tools and techniques you need to get the best out of the worst, including how to deal with difficult customers, advice on beating bullies at their own game and how to deal with a boss who drives you barmy.

Ensuring innovation and a creative approach to new challenges is crucial in leadership success. Being able to communicate and share your ideas takes no less skill. "Decision Making and Problem Solving Strategies" will help you to learn key techniques and models to confidently make the right decisions.

"Develop Your Assertiveness" offers simple techniques that will help you become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses, so that you can learn how best to modify your behaviour in social and business interactions. Being more confident and learning how best to communicate with your colleagues will enable you to create win-win situations, thus improving your career prospects and enhancing your social life.

"Develop Your Leadership Skills" is John Adair's most accessible title on leadership. Full of exercises and checklists, it can help to boost confidence levels and guide and inspire anyone on their journey to becoming a leader of excellence. Acknowledged as a world expert, John Adair offers stimulating insights into recognizing and developing individual leadership qualities, acquiring personal authority and, most importantly, mastering core leadership functions such as planning, communicating and motivating.

"Develop Your Marketing Skills" is a user-friendly guide appropriate for business people for whom implementation is the key issue. It outlines the key concepts and principles which govern the subject of marketing, such as product management, market research, communications, market coverage, creating a marketing plan and pricing perspectives.

"Develop Your PR Skills" is a simple, straightforward guide to maximising your company's potential through effective PR. It will help the reader to gain a quick understanding of the concepts and principles and learn how to use them in actual business scenarios. It covers strategic public relations, public relations and the internet, working with the media, how to deal with different stakeholders and customers, dealing with a crisis, using internal communications, using research to get a competitive edge, evaluating the success of your PR, and ethics and sustainability.

Going beyond handling nerves and presenting PowerPoint slides, "Develop Your Presentation Skills, 2nd edition", provides you with a practical toolkit for developing a belting presentation and improving your confidence along the way. Step-by-step advice includes practical help with unpicking the original brief, understanding just what the audience wants and constructing compelling content that will keep your audience rapt with attention.

Meetings are important business and social activities. We meet with other people to learn, to exchange information, to take decisions and to enjoy ourselves. However, research has suggested that meetings are not only a waste of time but also engulf 60 per cent of our working time. Despite their necessity, many meetings are organized by individuals who have other full-time responsibilities and lack the formal training and experience to ensure their successful planning and execution.

Meetings are important business and social activities. However, research suggests that meetings engulf as much as 60 per cent of the time we spend at work. Despite their necessity and the costs involved, many meetings are organized by individuals who have other full-time responsibilities and lack the formal training and experience to ensure their successful planning and execution. "How to Manage Meetings" provides much-needed guidance on how to get meetings right.

"How to Manage People" is a practical book from bestselling author Michael Armstrong. It provides advice to managers and team leaders on how to manage people in their teams - getting the best results from them and dealing with any people problems that may arise. Many managers have to do their job without HR advice and this book is particularly designed to meet their needs.

"How to Negotiate Effectively" provides tips, tools and techniques for getting it right. It explores and advises on every aspect of the negotiation process, including: tactics and counter-measures, handling deadlock, making concessions, enhancing your authority and getting the best deal. This new edition also contains material on identifying true decision makers, and how to spot buying signals in negotiations. An essential step-by-step guide, "How to Negotiate Effectively" will help anyone achieve a balanced 'win-win' outcome every time.

How to Sell Yourself gives indispensable guidelines on how you can get noticed and promoted at work, through developing and managing your 'image' for success.

Anyone involved in business will, at some point, have to prepare a business plan - whether it is to raise finance, sell a business or develop a specific project. They are very unlikely to support something that is scrappy, untidy and badly written. Starting with the premise that there's only ever one chance to make a good impression, "How to Write a Business Plan" covers all the issues involved in producing a plan - from profiling competitors and forecasting market development, to the importance of providing clear and concise financial information.

"How to Write a Marketing Plan" makes the task of writing a marketing plan much easier. This practical step-by-step guide details how to formulate a workable and successful plan. Fully updated and packed with exercises to help the reader produce sections of their own marketing plan, this comprehensive workbook looks at all the essential stages, including: carrying out a marketing audit; setting objectives and the strategies to achieve them; devising budgets; and, writing and implementing the plan.

Getting a message across on paper and presenting a proposal in a clear and persuasive form are vital skills for anyone in business. "How to Write Reports and Proposals" provides practical advice on how to impress, convince and persuade your colleagues or clients.

Staff development is a key management responsibility. Good people and good performance - and hence good development - are vital to success in a fast changing and competitive world. "Improve Your Coaching and Training Skills" contains practical guidelines to help you develop your staff. Ideal for busy managers who don't have human resources support, it will help you to boost staff effectiveness through coaching and training.

Good communication skills are vital in today's workplace. Whether you need to keep the interest of a large audience, impress a potential employer or simply win the argument at an important meeting, sounding the part is key.