Category Archives: Blog

Blog

Its great to be nice – A rant!

We don’t get a lot of stories where the nice guy gets the girl, the car and all the money. If he’s nice to start with then he has to get mad first, which defeats the object. Even Peter Parker has a dark side. Bruce Wayne, well enough said.

OK, There is one thing I DON”T like and that bullies! It’s a red rag to a bull. So Game On!!!

So over the last few months I have noticed people in business who should know better treating young people (who are trying to enter the work place through work placements, graduate schemes for the first time) in a way that someone who has been in industry for some years would have sat them down and provided them with a few treats of colour and wisdom.

Many FE colleges require their student learners to gain experience and these students try calling, writing and emailing local businesses to gain this experience. The response they get is just shocking.

So we all have to start somewhere and in those first steps into employment we will (hopefully) make a few mistakes and learn to be better people. Young people need the support to grow, its obvious, but our small businesses need to engage to make this happen. Small businesses are afraid of young people, they are not sure of their skills, ability, work ethic or how they will fit in with existing staff. So there are major risks in employing young people. Thus, apprentices. They see them are needing lots of support (and a minority do) which will drain their business

UK SMEs employed 14.1 million people and had a combined turnover of £1,500 billion. Youth employment would not wiped out if the 4.6 million SME businesses employed just one more person each.

We should have a national “Take on a Work Experience Day” whereby small companies with less than 10 people (which is 95% of all businesses) should take just one person on for two months.

After all there are just three ways to deal with bullies, (1)get everyone in the room and get them to find common ground, (2)take the bully over the playing field with all your mates, their friends and some tools and sort it out once and for all, or (3)ban the bullies. So lets try the first option!!!

 

Blog, Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets

Winter Wonder Land

Not everyone likes business, not everyone wants to pay taxes and working long hours is just the pits.

So in Britain a little snow means you don’t need to go to school. This educates everyone to understand that they don’t need to go to work when it snows. The entire country closes down because we have been educated to stay at home. Education is a powerful tool for social engineering.

Its also very hard as a parent to go to work when you have to look after children at home.

After all, it just takes one day off (e.g. A royal Wedding) and we are all in recession!

So if we wanted to end this recession we would understand that work helps increase the economy. The work ethic of the German’s ensures their success. Everyone has to play their part. Every little helps!  So why do we let notification of recession or even a little cold weather let us fail.

 

Every entrepreneurs needs an stable environment which enables business.

We can see new freedoms in some countries has meant economic failure as the system is broken down and people can not rely on others. We take so much for granted, yet in many countries they can even rely on others to provide the products or services which keep them in business. We have such a stable system which allows us to succeed.

If the UK was open for business every day of the year, we would not be in recession.

 

Business needs a positive press

If the media is telling you that Africa, Middle East, South America…etc is so bad. Our business people will not go there and do business. The majority of companies in this country are small, we don’t have large sales and market research departments. We look for opportunities based on the limited amount of knowledge and time we have available. So if the all TV stations are telling us these countries are bad, our economy is going to stay out of them.

If our SME’s increased their sales by 10% to international customers, we would not be in recession.

 

Every Business needs a global financial system

Even the smallest business can sell to the global market. Put up a web site and just wait for the global orders to come in. However, once those orders come in, there is just one thing we need, that’s the money in our bank account. Without a global financial system, which ensure we can move and receive money, our opportunities are very limited.

If London was the banking capital of the world, we would not be in recession.

Blog

Virtual Enterprise saves Christmas

Virtual Enterprise saves Christmas

When I read the news that online retail is the winner for Christmas 2012

“According to research from e-commerce software company ChannelAdvisor, eBay sales were up 36.6 per cent year-on-year on Christmas Day 2012, while Amazon UK sales increased by 27.7 per cent.

On Boxing Day, eBay saw sales rise by 49.3 per cent year-on-year and Amazon recorded an increase of 44.7 per cent.”

I come to the following conclusions,

The small retailer won in 2012 with the small virtual companies in the UK wining over the larger stores. So Tesco increased by 18% and ebay sales by 36.6%.

“Tesco : Online sales increased 18 per cent driven by multichannel initiatives such as click and collect and grocery ‘drive thru’ that lets customers order online and pick up shopping from the local store at a chosen time.“

The high street has become an leisure experience centre, where buying is just one small aspect, an not the most important one. The first reason to go into the high street during Christmas was to see the lights, have some mulled wine with friends and family.

The small virtual businesses in the UK is more efficient than any physical shop.

  • They don’t have fixed overheads, which those cementing their business on the high street do. The high street provide little or no flexibility for a business.  Those providing leases (pension funds and equity) want too much and base their revenue on increased property value.
  • They don’t pay massive business rates which are just another tax on property and makes the high street a none starter for the majority of business.
  • They don’t have to pay business electricity, gas and high insurance for a high street property.
  • They don’t’ worry about security or riots which occurred in the UK a few years ago. Ebay and Amazon look after all the security.
  • They have a worldwide market, which ensures you have a global reach and not just your local town.

They are on trend and therefore it’s a good time to start a business selling your products and services in 2013.  Take a look at http://virtualent.co.uk/ which is a conference for those considering or have started a virtual business.

Blog

Why are Mexicans richer than British Entrepreneurs?

I was looking through the Forbe’s rich list (http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/) and noticed a few trends.

The first is that the majority of richest people in the world are self made entrepreneurs.

1. Carlos Slim Helu
2. Bill Gates
3. Warren Buffet

In fact the list is split into new world and old world wealth, the majority of the successful self made entrepreneurs are based in the new world. This is because the majority of the growth in the world, the majority of the worlds population is in the developing world. Its also easy to start a business, no tax, red tape or health and safety to learn, manage and report on a monthly basis.

However, its doesn’t stop you starting a business in the UK which sells into these markets.

The second point is that Carlos Slim Helu, a mexican can become richer than any British person. The richest British person is at number 78 which is Gerald Cavendish with $11b. Forbe’s write about him “The sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, remains the U.K.’s wealthiest landowner, with his fortune increasing this year along with the property market in London.”

So the richest person in the UK is not a self made entrepreneur, its old money which is inherited, in fact old world wealth based on the value of land and property in London.

So during 2013, I am going to find out…

So why don’t we have more entrepreneurs?

Have we lost our entrepreneurial spirit?

Have we become happy to earn the minimum wage?

Have we all been educated past starting our own business?

Have we made it too difficult to do?

Do we know how to run a service business

Blog, Enterprise Education, Skills Development

Little is more in Enterprise Support

When you are starting a business the more help and support you get the better, you would expect so.

However, after some years of helping and supporting startups, I am starting to see this is not always the case.

I guess its the difference between support and Intervention. To support someone, especially with mentoring and signposting which allows the person to find their way (with a little more direction) and   learn the skills and network required to manage their business is the right thing to do.

Its when the support becomes intervention that when the entrepreneur stops being the person in control and the support organisation does. This is when you have to do 50 hours doing this, sign all these forms and the process you will follow to make your business  is this.

This is wrong!

Everyone learns to be a entrepreneur differently, because they HAVE to be learn to be an entrepreneur, to solve problems, to look at the world in a new light of opportunities.

The problem these organisations have is that governments like a controlled process. They provide contracts to build bridges, its take some many weeks and will cost some much money. However, stating we can make some many businesses in so many weeks is not such a quantifiable statement. The process of starting a business normally starts many years before the person makes this statement. It may start with Dragon’s Den or The Apprentice in 10 grade. So the only thing you are really doing is counting those who have already spent many years deliberating this step.

The best entrepreneur support organisations do only ONE thing, they create an amazing network of people who all benefit from being part of it. This is because:

  1. Co-founders can be found in your network
  2. Mentoring can be found in your network
  3. Resources can be found in your network
  4. Funding can be found in your network

So before you start out in 2013, ensure you have the support network around you.