Today saw the publication of a report by Lord Young entitled ‘Growing Your Business’- one of a series of pieces by ‘The Dude’ (still don’t know why he has that nickname) to help Small Businesses in the UK. I have a lot of time for Lord Young, I’ve met him, and discussed a few ideas…
Well, if you are Richard Branson then the answer is just a couple of hundred dollars. Yes, one of the most important entrepreneurs of our time started his first business with just a few hundred dollars received from the sale of a lost necklace that was never claimed. Branson was still at school and his…
I heard on the radio recently something about the number of Young Entrepreneurs rocketing since the recession started. This triggered off a few little things in my head that were bugging me. For one, the phrase ‘Young Entrepreneurs’. Now, I am no stranger to this phrase as for many years I ran one of the…
Many people fantasise about how they would quit their job (perhaps even more so than usual on a Monday morning!) but one man in the UK has come up with one of the most inventive ways of doing it. Chris Holmes AKA Mr Cake informed his bosses at Stansted Border Force about his plans to…
Recently I was looking to open a business bank account for a new venture I’m looking to start- so I thought I would do the rounds with the banks to see what was on offer. I’m not going to name names here, but I was actually quite shocked at what I found. I went in…
We’ve all heard it before. Try and keep the best people, and surround yourself with people better than you. This is the secret of success, and apparently people like Branson are masters at it. However, many people have reported that small businesses suffer from ‘resource poverty’ when it comes to people management and business owners…
Waspies mean business Keep up won’t you? News that there are now 395,000 independent, own biz, direct sellers in the UK, up 20,000 since 2009 with an increase of 120% in party plan revenue, got me thinking. You’d be right in guessing that I’m more Agent Provocateur than Ann Summers but what’s not to like…
Don’t believe all you read There is a better way to start up success than the business planning process. A lot of the same ‘must dos’, processes, are quoted by entrepreneurship academics, management gurus, glampreneurs and politicians as being needed for you to start and run your own business successfully. Training and supporting prospective entrepreneurs…
You don’t need a job, start a business. You don’t need a VC to start a business, bootstrap. You don’t need to go it alone to start a business, join the Enterprise Rockers. You don’t need help from government to start a business, you won’t get it. You don’t need an MBA to start a…
Last night I watched a movie with my wife, and the actress in the movie kept on saying, “Life is in session”. What was the movie? No, seriously – it got me thinking about the whole life journey thing, what makes it interesting and what gives it meaning? It being Easter (obviously not enough work…
