In recent months, as more and more funding sources disappear, it has become more and more difficult for startups and small businesses to find the money they need to grow. To meet this need, BusinessFunding.co.uk has created a continuously updated index of capital sources for businesses of every size in every industry.

Dr Stephen Bence, Founder and Director of BusinessFunding.co.uk, says: “We were often being asked to compile lists of properly-qualified funding sources for a particular project or company. We found these tasks incredibly time-consuming because the information could not be found in one place – not to mention the complexity of the funders’ eligibility criteria. This is our solution to that problem: a comprehensive and detailed database of funding sources coupled with an easy-to-use online tool to help direct businesses towards the sources of funding and finance that are most suitable for them.”

Launch partners for BusinessFunding.co.uk include: Baker Noel Chartered Accountants, the legal firm Vincent Sykes & Higham, the Public Relations firm Presswire and the digital search agency Red or Blue.

For more information about the service, visit BusinessFunding.co.uk.

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2. UK Startups Get Accelerated Training in How to Find Investors from Doug Richard at The Royal Institution of Great Britain
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Unlike LinkedIn, companies that list in Crunchbase tend to provide complete information about their rounds of funding, their stock price, the names of key decision makers and often the names of investors. Why? Because decisionmakers look businesses up in Crunchbase when they are seeking strategic relationships. The best customers, investors and strategic relationships for a high-tech startup are often other high-tech startups, and new opportunities come only to competitors who are willing to accept a few unwanted knocks on the door.

It is important to note that Crunchbase, unlike LinkedIn, allows people to modify the profiles of businesses they don’t own. That means people can post what they learn about you through meetings, the media, online, etc. The site is moderated, so disputed data must be backed up with proof, but those who post inaccurate data in Crunchbase are quickly outed and businesses who refuse to provide any data at all end up being defined by those who are willing fill in the blanks.

Millions of enterprises are listed in Crunchbase and if you own a high-tech startup, particularly one seeking funding, your business should be listed there as well. Make sure that all the information you provide is accurate, and that your contact information is always up to date. You should provide your telephone number, website address, twitter name and all the other data potential strategic partners need to get in contact with you.

If you are seeking a strategic partnership, use the resources on Crunchbase to identify the businesses, and decisionmakers, you can serve best, and those who can serve you best. Use the advanced search tools to target enterprises by location, industry, size, etc.

Related posts:

1. Hi-Tech Startup Mentor Jonathan Earle
2. Doug Richard on Bloomberg: High LinkedIn Valuation Represents Value of Facebook
3. An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting High Value Products & Services in Front of Key Individuals in Large Companies

Its a networking site where angels can meet entrepreneurs. But its core feature is a tool you can use to calculate the value of your startup in three years based on the characteristics of its team.  You tell it when your business was founded, how much money its made, how many of your team members are working for the business full time, whether or not you’ve taken outside investment, how much money you’ve invested so far, what industry you are in and a bunch other data and it runs a statistical analysis comparing you to other firms.  It then provides you with a valuation.

Is it accurate?  Of course not . . . in the sense that no prediction is accurate.  A startup is all about smart execution.  It is about doing the right things at the right times.  Exploiting your opportunities and making key decisions correctly over and over again will ultimately determine how successful you are.

That said, banks, venture captialists and savvy angel investors have used statistical models to predict a company’s success for decades.  While details matter, some factors in a start up are overwhelmingly important.

If your business is in an industry that doesn’t serve as fertile ground for startups, if your team members have never run a business before, if your startup builds no protectable intellectual property . . . then your valuation in three years will be low compared to a startup with great intellectual property protection,  in a startup friendly industry, founded by multiple partners with great track records.

Why should you bother to fill in YouNoodle’s form? Because you can figure out what factors will most improve your odds of a good valuation not just in terms of how investors see you, but in terms of how other companies perform statistically.  For example, you may find that a media company does better than an entertainment company.  You may find that adding a couple of partners with previous startup experience increases your anticipated three year valuation by a factor of ten.  You may discover that having older (or younger) people on your team skews results up substantially.

Have a look at YouNoodle.com and try out their startup predictor tool.  You’ll find it quite enlightening.

Related posts:

1. My Startup is Way Too Complex to Explain . . .
2. Naked Business: A Startup & A Small Business are Two Different Things
3. Crunchbase, a Key Networking Database for High-Tech Startups

Letting someone else write your business plan is almost always unnecessary and almost certainly unwise:

• Generally speaking you really shouldn’t be out seeking investment until you have a solid business model, some customers or pre-orders, some products or detailed specifications and working prototypes. You should probably also have a good team working with you. If you have these things writing a business plan takes a few days or a couple of weeks. Without these things, you don’t know for sure that you have a working business and you will have a very hard time proving to investors that you do. This will delay funding for a long time. If you can’t even write a business plan, funding will be a real problem.
• On the off chance you do convince an investor to put money into your business, he will tend to see your business plan as a kind of blueprint for how you’re going to run your business. If you see it as merely a convenient fiction to get his money, there’s likely to be some big trouble down the road. Since you probably don’t want a stranger creating a blueprint for your business you’ll have to abide by, you probably don’t want to have a stranger writing your business plan.
• Good businesses are composed of teams. In every business there’s someone who sells, someone who counts, someone who produces. Usually one of those people writes as well. Why? Because every business needs someone to create pitches, draft letters, deal with company billing and legal matters. A writer is required. And almost no business that needs outside funding can survive without one. So, if you can’t write your business plan because you don’t have an effective writer in house, go find one to add to your team as a consultant or as an employee. They aren’t that expensive.
• Writing a business plan isn’t that difficult. There are hundreds of templates around, and hundreds of others have been written that you can examine for reference. Once you’ve written it, you can hire an editor to help you clean it up so its easy to read and makes logical sense. The plan will be yours, the words will be yours, but you’ll simply have worked with an expert in grammar and formatting to put your best foot forward.

The key thing is that someone who is supposed to be helping you raise money should probably not charge you for giving you advice on your business plan.

They should either not work with you because your business isn’t ready for investment, or they should give you the advice free because they like your business so much that they are confident a slightly revised business plan is all they need to get the money your enterprise requires. A company that purports to raise money from investors, but charges to rewrite business plans and help you with creating pitches, is really making it’s money by providing services not by raising investment for people.

After you write your business plan yourself, you can find people to help you edit it at www.elance.com. There are many very cost effective professional writers and editors on the site for you to choose from. You’ll find you can have the services you need without getting scammed.

Related posts:

1. The Price of Money (At Least You Can Eat Catfish)
2. Naked Business: A Startup & A Small Business are Two Different Things
3. The Insanity of Angel Investors

Why was IBM Global Entrepreneur founded?

We know that working with startups can drive change. Today, the world’s physical systems are being infused with intelligence, and this opportunity to apply information technology to physical infrastructure opens up vast new markets for the IT industry.  With disruptive, new technologies, this is the perfect scenario for innovative entrepreneurs to play a major role.  With IBM’s unique vision of a Smarter Planet (ibm.com/smarterplanet/uk), we are looking to partner with technology entrepreneurs who share this vision and want to work together to address this new market opportunity.

What kinds of support do you offer to entrepreneurs?

IBM Global Entrepreneur has the products, people, and promotion that can help technology startups extend the size and reach of their company.  The initiative provides support and resources in the areas these startups need most:

1. Product
   • No charge access to IBM’s software portfolio on-site or through the cloud to accelerate software development
2. People
   • Dedicated technical enablement support to help startups develop their product and get to the marketplace faster.
   • Mentors at IBM SmartCamps around the world who can help them grow their business.
   • Industry market intelligence from our top industry experts that can help them understand the enterprise customer and the market opportunity.
3. Promotion
   • Visibility as part of the IBM Smarter Planet agenda to set themselves apart from the competition.
   • Recognition and additional benefits to partners with the most innovative solutions
   • Opportunity to showcase their company in the IBM Global Entrepreneur directory.

When was the initiative started and how many entrepreneurs have you helped?

IBM Global Entrepreneur launched on 31st March 2010, so is very new at the moment. Given this, we are at the stage of raising awareness of what we have to offer, and encouraging participation. We are doing this by engaging with individuals and organisations who are already well established in this community, and we are delighted that School for Startups is working with us as one of our ecosystem partners. Hundreds of startups have shown interest in our new initiative, and I am delighted with how enthusiastic people have been who I’ve spoken to about what we are doing.

How do entrepreneurs participate?

Startups who meet the eligibility criteria can register at ibm.com/isv/startup. On our application form we ask a few simple questions to help us understand a little about their companies, and once accepted they will be contacted by one of our Project Resource Managers (PRM). The assigned PRM will make a personal call  to welcome them, and will guide them through how they can make best us of the resources we provide on a one-to-one basis.

Startups can also apply to participate in our IBM SmartCamp London event which is taking place on 21st July at Imperial College London. SmartCamp is an exclusive event that brings together entrepreneurs, investors and experienced mentors who want to help us build a Smarter Planet. SmartCamp provides startups access to world-class advisors, plus a direct route to seed and venture capital. Applications for the London event can be made from now until 2nd July 2010.

What is your background and how did you come to IBM?

In 1987 IBM launched an integrated degree scheme with the University of Portsmouth, and I was one of the original intake to the scheme of 20 students. The initiative was pioneering as it was the first time in the UK that a company’s in-house training counted as credits towards a degree – a BSc in Computer Science. Our time was split on a weekly basis between our studies and doing a real job in IBM, so a very different model to a traditional sandwich course. The great thing was that we were paid a salary for the 3 years of the course, which certainly enhanced the experience!

Since graduating, I’ve performed a very diverse mixture of technical and business roles in IBM, both in the UK and across Europe. In 2005 I took on responsibility for establishing the IBM Academic Initiative (ibm.com/academicinitiative) across Europe, Middle East and Africa, and it was through this programme that I first started engaging with entrepreneurial students in the universities. I still look after this programme in the UK & Ireland, and am very excited about the new opportunities that leading the IBM Global Entrepreneur initiative is bringing. It is such an inspirational community of people to be collaborating with.

Is there a way entrepreneurs can learn more about the initiative online?

Our website is the best place to go to learn more: ibm.com/isv/startup

Additional information on IBM SmartCamp London can be found at ibm.com/ie/smarterplanet/smartcamp

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If your business rises above the pack, you’ll be invited to the national competition where you’ll meet more people who can help you, encounter more business professionals who may be able to support you, and present your business to working angels, venture capitalists and investors. Experts advise you, and you hone your presentation until it just can’t get any better.   If you win the competition, you get crowned ‘Britain’s  Best New Business’ and win a prize package worth £50,000.

If you are thinking of starting a new business, we encourage you to have a look at the Competition Website to see where your regional competition will be held and to download an application form. Entries must be in before 15 June, with the first heat, the South West, taking place in Bristol on 21 June.

Remember that we have a great online and face to face Perfect your Pitch event coming up on June 21. Even if you aren’t going to participate in the competition, you should attend our event.  Every business needs a perfect pitch.  It is the single most important tool you have for acquiring customers, team members, strategic partners, investors and support for your business from the community.

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1. The Pitch 2010
2. Perfect Your Pitch with Doug Richard on June 21, 6:30 – 8PM! Join Us Online or Face to Face
3. The Original Dragon Joins Judges Panel at The Pitch 09

Some people say that it is not what you know but who you know.  Truth is, it is both. If you are an entrepreneur running a business-to-business enterprise, investing time into social networking sites like Facebook (www.facebook.com) can seem like a waste of time because it probably is.  There’s little point in delivering your message about photocopiers and courier services to folks discussing dating venues and baby bottles. How can your business posts not seem like spam in that context?

That is why there is LinkedIn.com, a site where business people can talk business to other business people safely.  You really can find a large percentage of the business people you know, and those you want to know, on this website.  Perhaps more important, there are several tools that let you connect to those open to new business proposals and new networking relationships.

Using LinkedIn effectively is easy if you do the following:

1. To create an account, just go to www.linkedin.com.  Provide all the usual data.  Linked in has tools that will mine your email box for friends. If that email box happens to be your business email box, allowing LinkedIn to issue invitations is probably appropriate.  You can pick and choose contacts if you prefer.
2. Once your account is setup, your resume entered, your friends invited, go join some Groups in the business areas that matter most to you. Media, manufacturing, import/export, etc.  Groups are for people that actively want to network through LinkedIn.  Important: Being in a group with someone means you can contact them for free through LinkedIn messages. Because it means you can search for the people you need to know, based on their job title let’s say, and if you find a contact that’s in a group with you . . . you can send him a well written message and far more often than not he will reply. This means you don’t have to pay for InMail messages.
3. You can search for people by company, title, location and other parameters.  This is handy.  If you need to find potential funders for example, try searching for angel investor, private equity, venture capital, private lender, investment manager or hedge fund manager. You’ll get some useful results.
4. Make sure your profile links to your website, and make sure your website has your phone number, email address and Twitter account.
5. Ask questions on the Answers forum if you need help.  Answering questions for others is a great way to create new networking connects and demonstrate special expertise.
6. Post jobs on LinkedIn when you need to hire people.  You’ll be surprised how many well qualified people find you here.  It is also very useful to see applicant profiles, including connections, when folks respond.
7. You can now post ads on LinkedIn, and they offer some useful targeting tools. This may be a great option for straight business-to-business promotion.
8. Within Linkedin Groups, you can post links to news articles and start new discussions.  This is great for your SEO and link building efforts.

One thing that you must remember is that LinkedIn is not Facebook.  So this is not the place to post baby pictures, expose political or religious preferences, or discuss who you are dating.   The negative reactions you receive from such a breach are every bit as bad as you get from “spamming” Facebook with a blatant business message.

LinkedIn is an exceptionally good place to make new business connections and to maintain them for long periods of time.  It is a great place to market your business and promote all your website has to offer.  It really is a fully functional business community, and for business-to-business enterpreneurs it is much better than Facebook.   I look forward to seeing you there.

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1. Promoting Your Business Effectively On LinkedIn
2. LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers & Organic Page Rank
3. Pay Per Click Advertising on LinkedIn

The 4 Ps?

Product, Price, Promotion, Place, the Four P’s that historically have defined marketing operations have long been a road map for businesses who want to bring a product to market.

• Develop a product that packages a set of features and benefits
• Determine the proper price for that product
• Decide how to promote it
• Determine how to distribute it.

That’s how you market a product. At least it used to be.

For many businesses the traditional interpretation of the 4 P’s is is misleading at best and toxic at worst.  Online games and iphone apps, open source software and social networking sites blur the line between promotion and product.  Grocery stores now take orders online for home delivery. Print shops let you upload documents that are subsequently printed and couriered to clients. Many schools now consist of students and faculty that never meet face to face. Aren’t we all Internet businesses these days?

Understanding What Has Changed . . .

The reality is that over the last decade the process by which products are brought to market has changed radically and many otherwise competent business professionals are still struggling to cope with new realities.

For example, many software startups still identify their product as being a long series of specific features that let the customer achieve a given set of objectives.   When you ask these businesses to add a form that lets someone invite a friend to use the application, or to create a Facebook widget that lets the product communicate with customers through their favorite social network, these developers say “We need to work on core features first.  Lets save that for Version 2.”

• They see all “code” as a component of the “product”.
• They don’t understand that they, like everyone else in the market, must create the code required to connect their product to customers and their customers to one another.
• They don’t understand that they never get a version 2 if they haven’t integrated their product or service into its marketplace by creating the necessary code.
• They seem to believe, despite the fact that they have no customers and usually haven’t done much in the way of classic marketing research, that they know what the customer wants and it is embodied in their feature list.

The last decade of software successes demonstrates that this is “flawed” thinking. Twitter does one thing very well and everyone that uses it invites others to use it.  There is no clear division between the Twitter service and its methodology. Facebook, Linkedin, Google, Magento, and many other very successful businesses have discovered the same solution.

More traditional businesses face other cognitive challenges.

• Brick and Mortar companies believe they have a “core business” which may be anything from producing cast iron pots to selling accounting services.
• They use the web for this thing called “marketing” which is seen as an auxilliary operation they undertake in order to increase product sales.
• Annually, or quarterly, the marketing budget is calculated. Some money is spent on advertising, some is spent on the website, some is spend on bulk mail. There is no adherence to any kind of specific strategy or methodology for this development which is considered “marketing”. Companies still think in terms of campaigns.

These businesses do not see the Internet and other communication connectivity as a necessary core element to their product or service because they do not see themselves as a “software” or “internet” company. Over the last fifteen years, Amazon, Lulu, Netflix and Ebay are just a few of the businesses that have re-envisioned traditionally brick and mortar businesses leveraging new communication options.

There is a new road map for bring products and services to market because what businesses are now expected to sell is a good “customer experience” that extends all the way from presales, to product adoption, to long term use.  Actually, businesses have always been in the business of selling “good customer experiences” it is just that these days that requires that elements of “marketing” and “software development” be incorporated into almost every successful widely-adopted product or service.

Ship Early, Ship a Little, Ship Fast

Given the changes in how products are developed, priced, promoted and distributed, there has been a concurrent change to how most enterpreneurs should launch their businesses.

• Create a very stripped down version of your product or service with a very small number of features, maybe even just one really great feature.  Ceate all the code required to connect this product or service to its target market.
• Launch the product aggressively, so people who need the tool can find it and share it with friends.
• Wait for the “wall of sound” that comes as customers adopt the product and begin providing feedback. Release new versions of the product based on what actual customers want from the product rather than what they imagine the “ideal feature set” to be.

This methodology for bringing a product to market offers many advantages over more traditional strategies.

• It allows startups and small businesses to start their business with a minimum of debt or outside investment and in a relatively short period of time.  The objective is to create a very elegant, very useful, very simple solution to a given customer problem.
• It lets them leverage the Internet for solution distribution at a minimum cost and for a minimum purchase price at a reasonable profit.
• It lets them refine the product over time based on feedback from paying customers.

The Ship Early, Ship Little, Ship Fast methodology works for almost any new product or service because it jetisons an antiquated understanding of what a product is, how it is promoted and how it will be delivered.

Related posts:

1. Sell Your Products & Services with Advantages Not Features
2. What Businesses Will Be Worrying About Next Year
3. Great Marketing: Promote Just One Great Feature of Your Product or Service

But who helps social entrepreneurs create those solutions?

You can find links and descriptions for more than 50 organizations that guide and support social entrepreneurs on the VentureNavigator website. Look here to find links to organizations like:

Social Enterprise Coalition
Look here for advice about the best practices for Social Enterprises and links to some useful financial resources. This organization is the UK’s national body for social enterprise.

UnLtd
UnLtd is a charity that delivers financial support and advanced training to social enterprises in the UK.

Community Action Network
Social entrepreneurs can acquire the office space and other infrastructure they need to start their businesses through CAN.

Unity Trust Bank
Unity delivers specialist banking services for social enterprises.

Bridges Social Entrepreneur Fund
This organization provides funding solutions to social enterprises across the UK.

In addition to a catalog of Social Enterprise focused organizations, VentureNavigator also provides a series of assessments to help you identify where you, or your business, may be falling short.  These diagnostics tools can help you determine:

• Whether your business is viable.
• When your business is ready for investment.
• What management and leadership skills you require in order to run your business well.
• What kind of legal structure best meets the needs of your social enterprise.

Related posts:

1. Choosing a Social Enterprise Legal Structure: CLS, CLG, CIC or Cooperative
2. What is a Social Enterprise? Not Another Word for Charity or Non-Profit . . .
3. Social Enterprise London

START HERE! STARTING & GROWING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NACUE

DATE: TUESDAY 15TH JUNE 2010

TIME: NOON TILL 7PM

Following the huge success of our seminars around the UK, Doug and the School for Startups team are taking their nationwide tour to Brighton. A must-attend event for any budding or established entrepreneur, “Start Here! Starting and Growing a Successful Business” is hosted personally by Doug Richard and is the cornerstone of the School for Startups curriculum.

At “Start Here! Starting & Growing a Successful Business” you will learn:

• The key questions every entrepreneur must be able to answer before starting or growing a business
• How to write the perfect business model
• How to identify your product and your market
• How to start an affordable marketing campaign to increase your sales leads
• How to treat the recession as an opportunity, rather than a threat
• How to make money and secure investment
Find, Pitch & Close!

What’s included?

• 6 hours of business tuition with one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs
• Access to online resources and materials, including membership of VentureNavigator
• Accreditation as a Graduate of School for Startups (web-badge)
• Free refreshments reception

Start Here! Starting & Growing a Successful Business -…
Start Here! Starting & Growing a Successful Business – Hosted by The University of Brighton & In Partnership with NACUE

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 from 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM (GMT)
Brighton, East Sussex

Ticket Information

* University of Brighton Ticket – These tickets are for anyone affiliated to The University of Brighton. Set discounts available at the universities discretion.
* Standard Entrepreneur Ticket – These are for anyone outside of the University
* Student & Staff Discounts – students & staff using discount codes must show their ID at registration, failure to do so will result in none entry to the event.
* Online bookings policy – We only accept online bookings with a credit or debit card. Unfortunately we do not issue invoices for future payment or allow attendees to pay on the day. Anyone who has not paid for their ticket in full before the event will not be granted access.
* Refunds and changes to ticket details policy – Unfortunately we cannot offer refunds or change the name on the booking once tickets have been booked.

Who Should Attend

* Anyone with an idea for a business
* Owners of small businesses that want to grow
* Students interested in starting a business

Event Information

* Registrations Starts: 12:00hrs
* Event Starts: 13:00hrs
* In conjunction with NACUE & The University of Brighton

For more information see our full Terms and Conditions

Money Back Guarantee

We are confident that you will be completely satisfied by this event. If you are not completely satisfied with the event, we will issue a 100% refund, no questions asked. Requests for refunds must be made via email within 24hrs of the event taking place.

Nacue

School for Startups

University of Brighton

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1. Start Here! Starting & Growing A Successful Business, Leicester, May 10 – Home
2. Practical Q&A With Doug Richard — Cambridge Starting & Growing a Successful Business Class
3. University of Essex & School for Startups to Jump Start UK Small Business in Colchester