Dinosaurs, Wind Farms & Let’s Twist Again

May 8, ’12 10:19 AM

Author Leonora Soculitherz Categories Business Books, Business Bootstrapping, Business Funding, Business Ideas, Business Marketing, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Startup, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Small Business / SOHO, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Start-Up, be successful, do a reality check, not to do it!, start-up in business

Keep up won’t you – most websites that promote ‘how to successfully start and run your own business’ are sponsored by big companies and government bodies and written by people that are in jobs and have never started their own business. The advice is so yesterday. It is stuff from antiquity that belongs in a museum like my hopeless, but suitably ancient for a museum, agent – Tony Robinson OBE.

Most entrepreneurs I’ve met are looking for opportunities to make money all the time. If they followed the advice on these start up websites they wouldn’t just copy stuff and they’d be too late in getting the product or service to market and the opportunity would have gone.

Look at Loubi (Christian Louboutin to you), if he hadn’t read an article about a slashed out shoe with a red line, then thousands of rich women around the world wouldn’t have fallen off his killer heels to, legs in the air, show off his signature red soles.

Dear reader and fan, I want you to take a look at the mind of an entrepreneur. Let’s take one successful one, Stefan Topfer, Editor of this Small Business Blog and one unsuccessful one, the aforementioned aberration, Tony Robinson OBE. They have two things in common; they’re both badly dressed (fleeces – urgh) and they look for business opportunities all the time.

The Recycling Opportunity

So, yesterday, Robinson rang Topfer and the conversation went like this:

Robinson: I’ve just seen on the BBC News site that a scientist has proven that giant dinosaurs could have warmed the earth with their flatulence.
Topfer: Ja – I mean, so?
Robinson: Well, where is the equivalent place today where hundreds of dinosaurs, produce masses of hot air?
Topfer: In your House of Commons and House of Lords?
Robinson: Precisely and why will this supply of huge volumes of hot air continue ad infinitum?
Topfer: Would that be because it is mainly a boys club eating vast quantities of posh nosh provided by the City and the top 100 CEOs and one or two media moguls.
Robinson: Yeah that and their humongous expense accounts that they can spend on Big Macs and pasties. It makes you feel good to know that we can now recycle all that dinosaur fuel for the benefit of the people.
Topfer: Ja, I mean nein, I mean how?
Robinson: You’re fab at technology, do the math and turn Parliament into a massive great hot air heater channelling warmth into the council housing, parks, stations and shop doorways where those with no dosh to pay for heating live.

I won’t carry on – as Topfer told Robinson never to speak to him again. The point is that here are two dinosaurs discussing a business opportunity that utilises a source of natural energy that has been available for thousands of years. There’s nothing original here apart from the possible opportunity.

Stuff to ignore

So ignore the stuff on websites that is ‘conventional business guidance’. ‘How to come up with a great business idea?’, ‘How to pitch your idea to investors?’, ‘Getting finance’ ‘There’s a business in you’, ‘What needs to be in your business plan?’, ‘Get a mentor from a Bank or Corporate’ and ‘How to sell’. the enterprise essentials are much less complicated and far more common sense and natural than this guidance.

Most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve interviewed haven’t done any of the things that are regarded as ‘good business practice’. Most don’t like borrowing money, especially from banks. Their business planning is always in their head. Most of them are action rather than words people. They often copy and improve other people’s ideas and activities like crazy. The point is that time is money and opportunities come and go and they can’t be wasting time on this theoretical business stuff.

Instead, my advice to a start up, from my award winning series of entrepreneur interviews (see my book ‘Stripping for Freedom’) is:

Look for what customers want and are buying that you’d relish providing too.
Then, preferably by bootstrapping, check that you can afford to produce it as a product or service.
Then test market your product or service with its ‘twist’, like Louboutin’s red sole or, more likely, with an additional service that the competition aren’t providing.
Then from what you have learned launch your new business always remembering that you may need more products and services or even businesses to make the earnings you need to make.

Let’s Twist Again

This ‘copying and improving with a twist’ is important to the success of many entrepreneurs.

For example, the unique ‘twist’ that Stefan Topfer achieves with WinWeb is that he is absolutely passionate about beating the global competition not just by great cloud software and infrastructure but with exceptional customer service too. His customer service people are mentors. He’ll sack people that ‘sell’ his products and services as he believes in the customer buying what they choose that is absolutely right for them.

The great news is that everyone starting a business on their own can provide their own ‘twist’, a unique level of service, to support a product or service that customers already understand, want and need. Just get your offer out there as quickly as you can after testing it.

-Finis-

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Getting into bed with the celebs

Apr 27, ’12 6:55 PM

Author Leonora Soculitherz Categories Business Bootstrapping, Business Funding, Business Mentoring, Business Startup, Employment, Entrepreneur, Finance, Home Business, Micro Business, News, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up

Not about frocks

Keep up won’t you; I’m not asking you to actually sleep with the celebs. I don’t allow anyone to sleep with me. Simon Cowell’s unofficial biography mentioned Dannii Minogue but not me. Yet, coincidentally, I also have a chic shorter ‘do and a couple of designer frocks with an of-the-moment statement shoulder.

No, what I want you to do is consider why government folk, like your Brit Prime Minister, David Cameron, choose celebrities and big company chiefs to advise them on promoting and supporting business start-ups. Put it another way: why don’t your government ask people who have started and are currently running micro businesses to advise them on enterprise policies?

For example, they could use Stefan Topfer instead. Stefan is the Editor of The Small Business Blog and is a highly successful entrepreneur. Then there’s my hopeless agent and highly unsuccessful entrepreneur, who still knows a thing or two about starting and running micro businesses, Tony Robinson OBE.

Not about self-employment

The answer to my question is ‘charisma’. This is something the glampreneurs and fat cats have but the aforementioned German and Yorkshireman do not. Perhaps they’re messy eaters too, especially with posh nosh. You see your government like to portray starting your own business as something anyone can do. In fact they want everyone to do it whilst the big corporates, that are running the country, lay off thousands of employees. It makes the unemployment figures look acceptable.

Furthermore, the Banks and Big Companies want the 6% of start-ups that become substantial businesses as their customers and the glampreneurs want to sell all the start-ups their books and events.

It is about aspiration

Celebrity spokespeople will stay ‘on message’ for government. On message is that entrepreneurs are sexy and wealthy but the self-employed are the great unwashed. On message is that successful start-ups need to invest in financial services (loans, insurance and pensions), utilities, technology, and management and business skills – plus have a volunteer mentor, who may not have started and run their own business, on their shoulder.

Government and corporate leaders legitimise these messages about enterprise, such as, ‘Business in You’, as important for ‘trough filling’. The trough is filled with lots of dosh from start ups buying lots from big companies, taxation and lack of pay out to the welfare state and corporate social responsibility. The public sector and big company leaders keep filling the trough even as they lay off thousands of their employees.

Off message

Business owners, like Stefan Topfer and Tony Robinson OBE, recommend an alternative approach which is that people starting a business are best to bootstrap, test trade, not borrow, and should spend most of their personal time winning customers and managing cash flow.

Furthermore, they suggest that the best help they’ll get will be from other self-employed and micro business owners and that they may need to avoid supplying big corporates as they’ll pay them after, an average, 80 days. In fact, this German/Tyke combo hardly recommend start-ups do any of the stuff most government spokespeople, glampreneurs and corporate leaders do.

So now you know why government get into bed with the celebs.

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Who can you trust to help you and your biz?

Apr 27, ’12 12:20 PM

Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Accountants/CPAs, Business Funding, Business Ideas, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Service Professional, Business Startup, Business Trends, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Infrastructure, News, Professionals, Relationships, SME News Round-up, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Suppliers, be successful, bootstrap

Who can you trust to help you to survive and thrive?

There is a better way of getting help than from Government and Big Company funded start up and micro business support programmes. That’s not to say we don’t want their help and a lot of these free offers of help are good and needed.

Many of my friends and colleagues that are excellent micro business advisers and mentors give their time free to help on many of these programmes. However, whether you get one of these excellent advisers and mentors is a lottery.

Not all help is good for you and your business.

It shouldn’t be pot luck as to whether you get good help or not. In fact some of the help on offer, sadly, should carry a health and wealth warning.

UK examples of stuff that may be ‘Hot or Not’

For example, in the UK we’ve got a plethora of government backed initiatives, often with Big Company offers, designed to help start-ups and small businesses, such as ‘There’s a Business in You’; ‘Start Up Britain’; ‘LEPs’; ‘College start up courses ’; ‘Business Link’; ‘Mentorsme’ and ‘Self-employment programmes through A4e and other major welfare to work providers’.

On top of this there are lots of awards and business pitch competitions sponsored by Big Companies where the winner will get money plus help from a corporate executive or TV celebrity entrepreneur as part of the ‘prize’.

Beware The Know It All Executive

For 26 years now, along with hundreds of other business owners, I’ve warned against the many advisers that think because they’ve been in a senior management job and had some training in coaching, advising, consulting or mentoring that they possess the know how to support start-ups and micro-business owners.

Starting and running your own micro enterprise is not, primarily, about formal research, planning, loans and management skills. Indeed, most corporate managers are lost without a formal business plan, a budget with money to spend already there and some staff.

Worse still, many of the people that design the start-up or micro business owner support programme or competition, that these corporate executives will act as advisers or mentors for, have no experience of starting or running their own micro enterprise.

Blind Alleys

It is the blind leading the blind as no-one knows, including the prospective or existing micro business owner, whether it is useful or dangerous help being offered. Even the big company product and service discounts that are part of the support or prize package may be stuff that you don’t need and may be very unhelpful to getting on with the business of winning and keeping customers.

As Lord Alan Sugar says ‘The last thing you want is government interfering in business because they don’t know what they’re doing. What you want is for them to create a level playing field’

The Better Way

So, recognising that many start-ups may not be able to pay for micro business owner friendly, professional advice what is my better way.

Only allow yourself to be advised, coached, trained or mentored by someone that other micro business owners can vouch for.

Always ask the adviser or mentor at the very first meeting what experience they have of starting and running a micro business (0-9 employees) and if you’re not convinced ask for someone else to help you that other micro business owners can also vouch for.

The Rocking Better Way

As you may know, I’m a co-founder of what will be the biggest self-help community of micro business owners in the world – the Enterprise Rockers.

We help each other to, as Lord Sugar recommends Government should do, level the playing field. No obstacles to our opportunity to succeed. We also trade with each other and help each identify what does help us and what doesn’t.

If you’ve started and registered your business -join our movement and ask other micro business owners what and who is best to help you to survive and thrive. You’ll find that the best helpers are Enterprise Rockers too.

In addition and coming soon , if you can afford to pay for professional advice, the Enterprise Rockers are creating a directory of micro business friendly, proven, practical, professionals. They’ve all started and run their own micro businesses. Our directory will be called SpeedBizSolutions and it takes the risk out of those times you’re looking for an independent professional to help you and your business.

There’ll be free help too if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. See you in the Rockers!

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We may have got the T shirt but it’s still to be earned.

Mar 28, ’12 7:32 PM

Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Ideas, Business Marketing, Business Mentoring, Business Service Professional, Business Startup, Development, Development, Development, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Marketing/PR, Micro Business, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Social Entrepreneur, be successful, do a reality check, grow your business, handle problems, market and sell, start-up in business

We don’t know what we don’t know

I always chuckle to myself when big companies that sponsor awards to start up and existing small business give, as part of the prize, mentoring or advice from a senior executive in their company. Perhaps it is no laughing matter.

Firstly, it’s arrogant to assume that starting and running a micro enterprise is so easy that someone without any experience of doing it, just because they’re a top corporate executive, can offer useful help. Start ups and micro enterprises are not boiled down versions of corporates!

Secondly, because the fledgling micro business owner doesn’t know what is good and what is bad support they could implement something that turns out to be the kiss of death to their business.

A colleague, Robert Craven, has just written a blog describing how a potential start up lost their redundancy money to unscrupulous ‘support’ providers. How were they to know that they were being conned? One of the reasons we founded the Enterprise Rockers movement is that we felt that a massive community, ‘the power of plenty’, of micro business owners could be self sufficient and we could sort out the wheat from the chaff.

It is important that we do sort out what’s good and valuable from the vultures and the ‘well intentioned but dangerous’. The right micro business to micro business support will lead to 80% of start ups surviving over 3 years with 6% becoming substantial, employing businesses. Essential enterprise skills and know how make all the difference to success. So, it is worth seeking help.

We should encourage prospective and existing business owners to continue to learn and to continue to seek support.

We never know all about enterprise

Twenty four years ago when my business partner, Clare Francis, and I were nearly two years into our business we learned something that saved us from the scrap heap. It was incredibly simple and it was learned by watching videos of our influencing, selling and presenting.

Not only was our product and service offer usually wrong we were often presenting offers without having really found out what our potential clients wanted. Frankly we were desperate to make a sale and no-one wants to buy from people as desperate as we were. We weren’t unskilled. We’d both done postgraduate business courses and we’d both been at Director level in UK subsidiaries of American multinationals. We’d been superbly trained but not on how to start and succeed in our own business.

What I learned this week-end

This week-end I was at the FSB Annual Conference in Scarborough. On top of my membership fee I paid another £100 to participate in the events during the day. My prediction is that these two days were worth thousands of pounds to me in future earnings and hundreds of hours saved of wasted effort.

The three things I learned were:

1. How to improve my use of Linked In so that I can influence someone I wish to make contact with to speak to me. I learned this from the brilliant presentation of Andy Lopata.

2. How it may be worth resetting your goals in a different way if you get stuck in a rut and are not improving your performance. I learned this from the inspirational Roger Black, former Olympic silver medallist, who got silver by focussing on running his perfect race rather than seeking to beat his competitors.

3. This third one is a bit of a cheat because I didn’t learn this at the Conference. On the Saturday lunchtime, co-founder of Enterprise Rockers, Tina Boden, and I met the supremely wise, Andy Peers. Andy is one of the foremost experts in setting up and running social enterprises. I’m certain that everything he advised Tina and I to do will mean we do get over 500,000 micro business owners in our Enterprise Rockers movement. We will make Britain a fairer and better place for micro enterprise.

So, maybe we ‘get the Enterprise T shirt’ for having started and run our own business, but we never truly have fully earned it. That’s because we must keep learning from others and seeking the right kind of support in order to survive and thrive. .

It’s motivating and good fun too. Keep learning.

———- ENDS ———-

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Yes, Ex-Minister,#MicroBizMatters!

Mar 28, ’12 10:55 AM

Author Leonora Soculitherz Categories Balderdash, Business Books, Business Startup, Entrepreneur, Finance, Freelancer, Home Business, Micro Business, MumEntrepreneur, Question & Answer, Reader Stories, Recession Survival, Red-Tape, SME-Blog, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up

Question Time

Just before I flew home to Canada I was asked by my inept agent, Tony Robinson OBE, to chair a ‘Question Time’ type debate at a large micro business conference in his home town of Scarborough.

Micro businesses (0-9 employees) are, apparently, quite important to the UK. There are 4.5 million of them and they comprise 96% of all businesses. There are up to 500,000 micro business new starts each year and newer micro businesses provide most of the new jobs and innovation. As it is, micro businesses provide a third of employment and a fifth of UK turnover.

With the right support over 80% of new micro businesses will survive over 3 years and 6% of these will become substantial employing businesses. The conference was the opportunity for micro business owners to tackle government and big company leaders on what they will do to ensure micro enterprise thrives in Britain.

The Panel

The panel comprised of Will Scoop, MD of WhoppaStores, Sir Harry Gantwitt, former Secretary of State for Business and now Adviser to Investment Banker, JK Sexangold, and Robinson himself.

The clueless Robinson, Co-Founder of the Enterprise Rockers, was standing in for Bernard Ogbrush, Shadow Minister for Transport, whose train had been delayed because of sun on the tracks.

It was all a bit of a rush actually. The former Secretary of State was keen to return south almost from setting foot in Scarborough. Apparently he’d been intimidated by the seagulls, not because of their rather fearsome looks – heavily muscled, bald, tattooed and pierced – but because of their bad language towards him. Gantwitt blamed their swearing on binge drinking and vowed to increase the price of alcohol in pubs and clubs.

It wasn’t going to be an easy session to Chair. Robinson was useless and Scoop had already said to me he wouldn’t be able to comment on anything to do with fuel, alcohol, adult skills or women. This was because Scoop was not only MD of the WhoppaStores supermarket chain but also Director of the BigPubCos Trade Club.

In addition he was Chair of the Apprenticeship Services and WhoppaStores holds the UK employer record for receiving the most skills training funding from government. Scoop was also Chair of the ‘Equal Pay for Women in the Private Sector with Women in the Public Sector’ Committee. Basically he was working with Government on ‘confidential to policymakers’ solutions’ to just about everything and so couldn’t comment on hardly anything.

Gantwitt was coming into the panel not having endeared himself to all the micro business owners in the room by saying that the government was powerless on fuel prices.

His words were: ‘I know it’s difficult for those of you in road haulage and man and van firms but you’ll appreciate we can’t affect the price of oil and what is happening thousands of miles away from Britain. We’ve got an excellent public transport system in London and we’ll just have to use it – it’s greener too’.

I think Gantwitt is wrong about binge drinking too. Any local will tell you that seagulls are stealth drinkers partaking in a bottle or two of Rioja every evening with their meal.

I wanted the Question Time over as soon as possible. These were three appalling men on the panel which I couldn’t be doing with. Also, I’d spotted a rather nice evening gown, by Gino Cerutti, in Frockabella and wanted to claim it before the shop shut.

The Discussion

The following is a transcript of a segment of the ‘Question Time’, which will interest readers of The Small Business Blog. The question they were answering was ‘Do the panel think that micro business owners got a fair deal in the recent Budget?’

Gantwitt: Most definitely. The incentives they need to grow, we gave them. Firstly, they can now borrow lots to grow their little businesses into proper Smeese that solve our transitory unemployment blip. In fact who knows some of them may even be able to borrow enough to supply WhoppaStores in the future (a minute’s laughter ensued between Scoop and Gantwitt).

Scoop: Just to underline Harry’s point there. The government’s loan guarantee website makes it clear they should save £50k on a £5 million loan.

Robinson: Would anyone like a glass of water?

Gantwitt: Secondly, we incentivised them to reward themselves with a decent wage on a par with many of our advisers, by removing the 50p tax rate on salaries over £150k. It was stopping real entrepreneurs being entrepreneurial both as managers in big companies and Smeese too.

Me – Soculitherz (pronounced So-cool-it-hurts): Some say most micro business owners, real entrepreneurs, don’t want loans this size and that loans well under £50,000 are needed plus there isn’t anyone in the room that can afford to pay themselves anywhere near the wages you’re talking about.

Scoop: I’d like to come to the former Secretary of State’s defence here. The government is encouraging owners of Smeese to seize their place at the bottom of the supply chain to companies like ours. Frankly, they won’t get there without significant investment and reserves too. After all, the average time large companies, like mine, take to pay the bills of little businesses is 80 days. We do that for a reason you know and that reason is only the fittest survive.

Robinson: Would anyone like an extra strong mint?

Me: But how can micro businesses survive when your supermarkets take all their business away?

Gantwitt: Can I repay the favour and answer that for Will, Chair. Look this isn’t a ‘size’ issue it’s a ‘management’ issue When I was Secretary of State, my advisers …… by the way, my advisers knew a lot about small business, they even had them in their home doing repairs and stuff. My advisers worked very closely with Bill’s Senior Management team and only had the highest praise for them.

Scoop: Absolutely Harry and we’re indebted to national, regional and local government for supporting and investing in our expansion. What these owners of these little businesses need to do is get trained in management and hire lots of cheap or subsidised by the government, staff.

Robinson: Has anyone got a pencil sharpener?

Gantwitt: Spot on Will. This management skills gap means we’re lagging behind our international competitors in productivity and diversification. If you have the skills then it doesn’t matter who you are … a butcher or baker or candlestickmaker … you’ll manage through WhoppaStores doing better and cheaper what you were doing and you’ll already have transitioned to say … a clothes shop…

Scoop: ….. we do clothes…

Gantwitt: … or mobile phones…

Scoop: …we do mobile phones…

Robinson: Did we all remember to switch our mobile phones off?

Gantwitt: …or hairdressing, insurance … you get my drift. Would you credit …

Scoop: …absolutely, Harry, driftwood we don’t do.

I was going to challenge them on how bad the budget and current government policies were for both self employed and employed women, especially for those with young children. Then I remembered that Scoop wouldn’t answer such questions, Gantwitt wouldn’t care and Robinson would just blush. The only way out of this mess for Britain is to appoint women to all the top jobs in Government, the City and the top 100 corporates. Job done.

So I wrapped it up and reminded the audience that my latest book ‘Stripping for Freedom‘, despite being written with Robinson, was still selling well on Amazon.

———–ENDS ———–

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Gurus with Forked Tongues

Mar 7, ’12 2:56 PM

Author Leonora Soculitherz Categories Balderdash, Business Books, Business Startup, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, Freelancer, Freelancer, Home Business, Lifestyle, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Work/Life Balance, be successful, grow your business, manage your time, not to do it!, start-up in business

Today, I want to offer some advice to all my start up and micro-business owner fans on what advice not to take from silver tongued experts and gurus.

I’m on the train. I’ve been at my publishers in London checking on new cover designs for the third edition of ‘Stripping for Freedom’ and before that I attended an entrepreneurship conference. Unfortunately, I’m with my co-author, the hopeless Tony Robinson OBE. This accounts for the unusual over garments I’ve put on for the train journey. These include a sou’wester, a plastic mac, gloves and plenty of loo paper covering my shoes.

Regular readers will be pleased to know that I’m all French today. Namely, I’m dressed by Jean-Paul Gaultier and accessorised by Louis Vuitton. I’m shod, red soled, by Christian Louboutin plus I’ve a few random dabs of Chanel – pour la bonne chance.

The first reason I’m now covered up is Robinson will at some time try to open the Dairy Stix for his coffee and later, he will open his badly shaken bottle of Diet Coke. The second reason is that when he gets bored of watching YouTube videos of himself he will want to play his favourite ‘Buzzy Bee’ game with me. This involves him telling me to say to him ‘Buzzy bee, buzzy bee, have you any honey?’ He’ll then take a few mouthfuls of Diet Coke, holding the liquid in his mouth. I’ll say ‘Buzzy bee, buzzy bee, have you any honey?’ He’ll then spray Diet Coke all over me.

Now, back to my advice on what advice not to take from the many so-called small business experts and entrepreneurship gurus you may encounter at events:

1. Ignore anything that you cannot immediately see how you could make it work for your business. There is lots of advice, purported to be useful for ‘SMEs’, 99% of all businesses, which is clearly nonsense and straight from corporate gibberland. The advice doesn’t work for the 70% of all businesses that have no employees at all and 96% of all businesses with less than 10 employees where the owner just wants to earn a decent living and does all the important work themselves.

2. Ignore anything that sounds expensive. Serious entrepreneurs with serious businesses seem to make serious investments in all sorts of things that could leave you seriously overstretched. Most start-ups and micro biz owners risk their own money in their business but have no intention of building a major corporate entity, taking on major bank loans with guarantees and/or sharing their business with outside investors.

3. Ignore anything where the speaker is not telling you ‘how’ to do something but rather is advising you to pay someone just like them to give you some good advice. It seems to me that some of the entrepreneurs speaking at events actually make their money from advising businesses or from their celebrity and investing in others’ businesses. There seems little evidence that they know how to start and run their own micro-business.

Google the speaker’s name before you attend the conference. If they aren’t credible at knowing what it’s like to be doing what you do then skive off to Harvey Nicks – it’ll be a much better use of your time.

Finally, remember the Golden Soculitherz Rule, which I understand has been adopted by those crazy #Enterprise Rockers @EnterpriseRocks: ‘If you’re starting and running a micro-biz only take advice from someone who has started and run a micro-biz or is employed by someone who has started and run a micro-biz’

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Mirror Mirror on the wall…’tis the season to reflect

Dec 6, ’11 12:00 PM

Author Lorraine Allman Categories Business Checklists, Business Ideas, Business Startup, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, Micro Business, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business / SOHO

I have often been quoted as saying you need more than just a good idea to get a business off the ground. I’m sure over the festive season many people taking a rest from work will be hearing the cogs whizzing as they take some time out to ponder on a new business idea, and wondering if 2012 will be the year it all takes off.

I read an interesting and slightly amusing article the other day written by Jason Hesse concerning where entrepreneurs get their ‘big ideas’ from. A survey showed nearly half of British entrepreneurs come up with their business idea in bed, so I have a feeling over Christmas many new business ideas will be born for those fortunate enough to have a lie in or two.

Now I don’t want to be accused of “Bah, Humbug!” so I’m not going to start listing all the things required to accompany these ‘big ideas’ and spoil your ‘Eureka!’ moment. Instead, my advice is to go and talk to those people already in business. They will tell you the reality about what’s required not only to get your business idea off the ground but to survive and thrive.

If you’re one of those businesses up and running, then you’ll know how important it is to take time to work ‘on’ your business, reflecting on what’s going well and areas of the business (and yourself) you need to prioritise to make 2012 a better year.

Here are some areas to focus and reflect on:

Business Plans – What were your plans for 2011 – did you achieve/exceed them? What made a difference? What are your plans for 2012 – will you achieve them on your own or would some collaboration/partners/employees help?

Market trends – What’s happening in your target market? Future trends? Are your target groups changing? Where will they be spending their time/money in 2012?

Competitors – What are they doing? How are they doing it? New competitors on the horizon?

Accounting systems – Are they working for you, could they be improved? Are they effective in helping you manage/predict cash flow?

Mentoring/Coaching – how are you developing yourself as well as your business? Are there skills you’re going to need for future plans? Who do you talk business with?

I’m sure there are other areas specific to your business, but this is a start. Talking of start, everything detailed above is also relevant to those of you dreaming up those big ideas in bed this month too (so I guess I did manage to sneak a list in!). There is plenty to be thinking about.

Whether you’re spending Christmas in bed dreaming up your new business, or sat at the computer on Boxing Day trying to work out the online self-assessment system, have a wonderful time and don’t forget when your mirror asks the question “Who is the greatest of them all?” you know the answer!

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The Best Biz Mentors Can Be A Tad Crazy

Nov 23, ’11 2:30 PM

Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Ideas, Business Mentoring, Business Startup, Business Trends, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Micro Business, MumEntrepreneur, News, Personal Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, be successful, grow your business, start-up in business

My Dad

I reckon my first business mentor was my Dad. He started his own business, working from home, because, like many people I know, it was the best way of earning a living. His health was very poor so he had to pack in his job. In the five years between me being 13 and 18, when he died, he built a very big business. It was always a micro business, like 95% of the businesses today in the UK.

It became big in income but never had more than six employees. It was a sales agency in the wooden box and pallets industry. Many years later, when I started my own business, I realised that nearly everything useful that I’d learned about enterprise had come from my Dad as my business mentor.

He was an unlikely ace business mentor. My Dad left school at 14, picked everything up as he’d gone along, and was a complete eccentric, a showman and a storyteller who instinctively turned anything formal into a party. At football, Hull City, he had a seat just behind the Directors’ box so that he could hurl abuse and one-liners at them from start to finish. I wouldn’t sit with him.

Corporate Crackers

The point is that what I’d learned in Senior Management, even Managing Director, at two major American multinationals didn’t help me much in my own business. This was despite having received the very best business training and completed two Post Graduate Diplomas in HR Management and Business Administration. All this was next to useless in my own micro business as against the valuable help I gained from my mentors.

My business partner of twenty five years, Clare, felt the same thing. She hadn’t realised it at the time but her corporate jobs and training hadn’t prepared her for running her own business but what she’d learned from her Dad, who had his own property business, was invaluable.

No surprise then that we decided to have a mentor, another micro business owner, for our first couple of years in business. We gave him our corporate contacts and in return he asked us wise questions which stopped us doing many of the foolish things we were about to do. No money exchanged hands although a heck of a lot of money went behind the bar during our, frequently scheduled, mentoring sessions.

Sitting or Standing Up Mentors?

One of the many theories I have, which perversely academic research and government policy has yet to pick up on, is that if you’ve got a primarily ‘standing up’ business you’re best to have a mentor that has a ‘standing up’ business too. ‘Standing up’ businesses would include most building trades, cafes, shops, blues bands, chocolate makers, ice cream makers and micro-breweries.

Similarly if you’re in a ‘sitting down in an office’ type business then choose ‘a sitting down in an office’ type mentor. I’m definitely not saying only get a mentor from a similar trade or industry, only government and BigBiz think in sectors, but do get someone who really understands what you have to do each day.

Oh and beware of men in suits if you’ve got a ‘standing up’ business’ or you’re a woman. I’m sure there are exceptions to these rules of mine for choosing a mentor but there won’t be many.

Sir Jimmy Fixed It for Us Every Day

Wrestler, DJ, marathon runner, TV presenter, volunteer hospital porter and the greatest charity fund raiser of all time, Sir Jimmy Savile, died recently. He was buried in Scarborough, where I live. Thousands turned out to acknowledge his real achievements for the people of Britain both at his service in Leeds and his burial in Scarborough. He was truly a man of the people, an inspiration to many of us, and the very same person on the telly as he was in the cafes and streets of Scarborough.

He made us feel better about life and he genuinely helped many thousands of people through adversity. He was eccentric to the last. He was buried in one of his trademark track suits, in a gold coloured coffin placed at an angle in the grave, so that he ‘could see the sea’. He was also a highly successful micro business owner, millionaire and a cracking volunteer biz and personal mentor.

Two of his proudest possessions were on his mantelpiece in his Scarborough flat. They were individual letters from Princess Di and Prince Charles thanking him for his help to them, as an informal mentor.

Lots of my business owner friends seem a bit crazy. The craziness is often just appearance and behaviour that shows we’re our own boss with our own values, passion and beliefs. Some can wrongly view this, like Sir Jimmy Savile was viewed, as not professional or not to be taken seriously. We are passionate about what we do and it’s bloody hard work doing it but we can be very useful business mentors too.

Get Mentoring

My businesses have benefited a great deal from the handful of business mentors I’ve had down the years. Most of the mentoring I’ve had is over the phone or nowadays by Skype. I usually contact my mentor when I’ve got a problem or see an opportunity that I want to talk through before taking a decision. I’ve also had a great time and learned a lot as a mentor to others. I have had some training on being a better mentor and I’m going to do some more shortly.

There are lots of places around at the moment where you can find a mentor or get some training to become a better mentor yourself. One such place is the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs, which I help run, and you can find out more here about Get Mentoring – free mentor training and free mentors.

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Building better relations with your customers starts at the end

Nov 18, ’11 12:11 PM

Author Adrian Swinscoe Categories Business Ideas, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, Failure, Generation-Y, Generation-Y, Personal Business, Relationships, Relationships, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, grow your business

Today, I want to tell you a personal story of doing new things, taking risks, being innovative and being willing to fail in the quest to create something of value for my business, the people that I know, the small business community and my customers.

View the story “RARE Forum, The Drill Hall, London 3rd Nov 2011″ on Storify

We live in changing times. We live in times where the power of the consumer is rising and it is changing everything. We live in times where harnessing the power of relationships with our customers and our employees is becoming more and more key to our future growth and innovation.

Therefore, the onus on business leaders to learn, share ideas and network is rising as we think about how we grow our businesses.

There are many events in existence for businesses but these can be:

Either for large or very small businesses;
Organised by professional or trade associations and vendors of some sorts;
Filled with talks/speakers that talk for around an hour that are ultimately trying to show you how smart they are or are trying to sell you something; and
Don’t offer enough time for attendees to network, talk about and debate the issues that are presented.

Therefore, we thought it’d be great to develop and deliver an event for established small businesses, especially those with growing teams, across sectors.

In order to do this and to try and create a truly different event, we first started by describing the customer experience ie. what did we want the potential attendees to feel after they attended our event.

Here’s what we came up with:

Imagine this.

An event where you get to the end of the day and your attendance has solved a number of your most pressing problems, you have heard some great people speak, you have met a number of great contacts and your head is full of ideas for the future of your business. So much so, that when we hold the next one that you’ll want to bring a number of business contacts along it was so good.

Does that sound good?

Why did we do it this way? Well, rather than being lead by the features of our products or services, we started with the end in mind as we believe that is a better way to create something that will have an enduring emotional connection and value with our customers.

With that in mind we developed RARE Forum (www.rareforum.co.uk), an event that is:

A place to share ideas, experiences and to discuss and debate the issues of the day;
Not focused on selling anything (although there was be a price to attend);
Filled with with a number of punchy 20min speaker slots (TED style) centred around a theme;
Full of facilitated networking and debate;
Where the whole day will be recorded (video) and made available via the website to the attendees for them to watch again at a later date or share with their team and contacts; and
Where the output of discussions and answers to Qs posed by speakers will be collated and made available via a digital resource.

All this thinking and development was done earlier this year and I am pleased to say that on the 3rd November at The Drill Hall in Central London we held our first RARE Forum under the theme: ‘Business is Personal’. Talks over the course of the day covered subjects like:

Business is personal and why it’s getting more so
Unearthing killer customer insights
The world is changing fast, how can we keep up and change with it
How you can use your customers to help rally your troops?
Creating a customer centric business
What does being a leader mean in this new world?
Generation Y and Z and the future of the talent pool
What will our customers want in the future?

The day was a great success and was the first of many, we hope. We are now busy making plans for what happens next.

One of the things that we promised to do was to capture the ‘story of the day’ afterwards so that we could share that with the attendees as an aide-mémoire and as a way of capturing the essence of the day. You can check out the ‘story’ by following the link below. You really should take a look it as it includes all of the slides that the presenters used, pictures from the day, some sketches from our artist in residence and a whole set of tweets from our twitter hashtag: #rareforum. It’s also been done on Storify which means it looks pretty cool even if I do say so myself.

View the story “RARE Forum, The Drill Hall, London 3rd Nov 2011″ on Storify

For the team involved and myself personally it was a huge learning experience. Both exciting and scary in equal measure. What it did teach me, however, was that starting with the potential attendees, my customers, and what sort of experience and feeling I wanted to create for them helped give us a better understand of not what to do. But, more importantly, what not to do. Once we understood that we had a great platform to build from.

Another big lesson that I learnt is that if you want to make your business great, if you want to stand out from your competitors then you have to be willing to fail in public. However, done with the right intention and in the right way the actual risk of failure gets much, much smaller.

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Life’s a Pitch and then they buy

Nov 15, ’11 8:09 PM

Author Lorraine Allman Categories Entrepreneur, Relationships, Sales, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, be successful, market and sell

As a small business you know that every communication counts. When speaking with customers, suppliers, investors, competitors, or peers, the way in which you present yourself and your business will have a lasting impact on whether or not they do business with you, or in the case of competitors treat you as a genuine threat or potential collaborator.

Thinking of your business communications as ‘pitching’ may for some appear a little salesy yet there is nothing further from the truth. Pitching in this sense is simply about understanding, developing, and effectively communicating your authentic ‘personal brand’. It really doesn’t matter how many times you’ve won an award for excellence or how many features and benefits your product/service has, decision makers want to know about the person behind the business and will normally be influenced in their decision making by what they think of you rather than your business. I am reminded of a quote by Malcolm Levene who recently said “Being in demand for your services…is a direct response to how you behave and express yourself to others. These days that’s what counts”. I think Malcolm is right and that engaging authentically with the customer or supplier, getting your ideas and passion across is far more likely to lead them to the next stage of buying or supplying.

If you’d like some tips and ideas to improve your pitching skills, take a look at the series of short videos from Paul Boross (aka The Pitch Doctor) on his You Tube channel. His message is simple – “You are the message, You are the Product, You are the Pitch”.

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