SEP
14
Want to have a successful business? Want it to be relatively quick and easy to build? Here’s what you do.
First, look around and identify the largest group of people you can reach easily. If you are a member of the chandler’s union and you know how to reach several thousand candle makers free, they’d be a good group to start with.
Second, study those people and figure out what one thing they want most. For example, your candle makers may need...
SEP
12
Every great artist who has ever lived has redefined the media in which they work. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Picasso said, “Anything new, anything worth doing, can’t be recognized.”
For artists who need to find a way to eat as well as do their best work, and for those who want to support artists by helping them sell what they create, this...
SEP
07
If you look around the world it may seem as if there are many different kinds of businesses making money in millions of different ways. But the truth is that the vast majority of businesses can be grouped, meaningfully, into three broad categories.
Enterprises Based on Intellectual Property Licensing & Sales: Publishers, film producers, engineers with patents, programmers, and anyone who creates information that is trademarked, copyrighted, patented then distributed to others in return for payment somewhere along the line.
Enterprises Based...
AUG
17
To do really well, a business needs lots of things. A smart owner, a good market, a great product…But one thing it really needs is a great name. Name your enterprise badly and you’ll be running up hill for the rest of its existence.
Hard to believe that a company name matters, isn’t it? Especially when some big ones have some really lame names. What’s an Exxon? Why is O2 called that? What on earth does Lady Godiva have to do...
JUL
29
As many of you know, Google Adwords is probably the single most effective, trackable and targetable method on earth for putting your products and services in front of thousands of people in a matter of hours. You can set up a Google Adwords account in 5 minutes, create a campaign in under 30, and have your ads seen by tens of thousands the same day in most cases. The only delay you may encounter in using Google Adwords to reach...
JUL
25
Doug Richard is famous for saying that “not all businesses are created equal”. While many entrepeneurs can find a way to make some kind of revenue with their enterprise, that revenue may not be sufficient to justify the cost of running it. When that’s the case, it may well make sense to let the business go so they can invest time and effort more wisely elsewhere.
If you are wondering if it’s time to let your business go, the following questions...
JUL
08
Jonathan Earle, a senior marketing executive for O2, is becoming an active mentor for high-tech startups in the UK. In this interview he discusses his interest in startups and small businesses.
Question: Why do you choose to support high-tech startups?
I have an extensive background in marketing leading in all aspects of the marketing mix from P&L leadership, to customer management and managing through the line advertising budgets to deliver best in class campaigns – I also lead sizeable teams of 50+...
JUN
20
One of the most important things an entrepreneur can do to ensure significant success in their enterprise is simply to be easy to refer business to. Given that most entrepreneurs, theoretically, are in business to make money and need customers in order to achieve that goal, you would think accepting leads would be a relatively easy to master “business development” technique.
This just isn’t so.
The following tips will dramatically increase the number of referrals you get from business and personal contacts...
JUN
20
For most startups, and university spinoffs, developing a “proof of concept” is a critical step on the path to pre-launch funding. In most cases, new entrepreneurs focus on creating a proof of concept that demonstrates that they have created a solution which meets one or more technical requirements. They are often surprised that these prototypes rarely inspire people to give them the support they need.
While high-tech startups are usually based on some kind of technological innovation, what strategic partners and...
JUN
01
Rob and Nikki Wilson are best known as Founders of Read International, a social enterprise that collects used textbooks to for distribution into Africa. Their latest project, with initial funding provided by Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (www.wcmt.org.uk), is to uncover Africa’s most inspiring entrepreneurs. You can find them online at www.ontheup.org.uk. In this interview we learn more about their work and what motivates the remarkable husband and wife team.
Question: You have a really unique new social enterprise....
