Doug Richard is candid, committed to supporting entrepreneurship, and determined to be an active advocate for small business and new business in the UK. His commentaries and advice are always succinct and honest. They are occasionally quite brutal...
Wednesday 28th July 2010
In a vitriolic attack on the BBC, Luke Johnson a noted private equity investor and very successful entrepreneur in his own right, wrote a column yesterday in the Financial Times in which he asserts quite harshly that the whole of the BBC assumes “that business is ruthless, domineering and egotistical,” and that Dragons’ Den is [...]
Tuesday 27th July 2010
Letting someone else write your business plan is almost always unnecessary and almost certainly unwise.
Monday 26th July 2010
MindBites is much like YouTube except that every tutorial has a price and they are, as a group, of somewhat longer duration and much better quality than the kind of content you typically find for free.
Thursday 22nd July 2010
If you were to make a list of the 100 things you and those who work with you spend most of your time doing, you would likely discover that more than 90% of the tasks you undertake have no proven economic value. You think they help generate money, but you can’t prove it. And for the most part . . . you’re probably wrong.
Wednesday 21st July 2010
Every small business wants to be more successful. In 2010 that means coming to grip with the revolution of the internet. Whether you are a local business or an aspiring global business, whether you sell a hand-crafted product, your own time or highly machine aerospace parts, you have one thing in common: you must leverage [...]
Wednesday 21st July 2010
Justin Whitston, the founder of VentureLab, has taken considerable exception to my blog post from the other day, entitled, “The Insanity of Angel Investors”. He carefully reviews my points and disagrees with many of them. I shall, in a moment, try to reply thoughtfully to his comments.
But first I want to reply to his over-arching [...]
Monday 19th July 2010
The best Angels help the businesses they invest in immeasurably. They recognize good teams when they see them. They offer mentoring, advice, encouragement and occasionally a harsh word that keeps an entrepreneur focused, effective and motivated. Good angels are few and far between, but they are entirely worth looking for.
Friday 16th July 2010
In founding School for Startups, Doug has consciously chosen to hire effective entrepreneurs to support his entrepreneurs. I think this is due to his core belief that entrepreneurship is a skill that can be taught and must be learned. I’ve certainly heard him say that what is wrong with most government and academic programs that purport to teach entrepreneurship is that they are led by people who’ve never, ever, started and run a successful self-sustaining business.
Tuesday 13th July 2010
Because the LinkedIn community is all business all the time, it’s great place to run Pay Per Click ads targeted at C-level decisionmakers.
Tuesday 13th July 2010
I have never understood the antipathy that otherwise rational people have for the so-called “lifestyle business”. Quite recently I heard someone in a position of responsibility in the small business community disparage lifestyle businesses. They weren’t real businesses, he said. They only enriched the owner, he said. What the f**k, I thought to myself?
Even [...]
