There’s a dilemma when you are starting a company. There are lots of boring essentials like company formation, VAT, Data Protection Act, employment law and, depending on which industry you are in, a host of other legislation. Yet complying with these doesn’t help you to sell anything, build a customer base or most importantly turn a profit.
Posts Tagged ‘start-up’
Getting the boring essentials right from the start
Posted in Advice for your business, tagged Data Protection, Formation, Law, start-up, VAT on 7 April, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
USPs? Piece of cake…
Posted in Advice for your business, Sales and Marketing, tagged Business Plan, corporate, Dragon's Den, Peter Jones, sales pitch, start-up, unique selling point, USP on 17 February, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
USP is much beloved on the Dragon’s Den. Often you’ll hear Peter Jones saying: “I like that, that’s your USP.” USP, of course, stands for unique selling point (or proposition).
Keeping it real – www.inafishbowl.com
Posted in Life as an SME, tagged entrepreneurs, Head & Griffiths, inafishbowl.com, Rico Mexican Kitchen, Sharabang Music, start-up on 8 February, 2010 | 1 Comment »
We’ve recently launched new interactive business website www.inafishbowl.com to help start-ups learn from the experiences of others. Arguably, there’s no better way to learn.
Sources of start-up funding
Posted in Finance, tagged angel investor, capital, Finance, investment, money, start-up, venture capital on 8 January, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Back in the mid-1990s, my company, Actinic, was set up using my own money and some I borrowed from family and friends. My business partner and I then raised £165k from an angel investor, and later a further £1.5m from venture capitalists, 3i.
Boosting sales: Things my new clients say to me
Posted in Advice for your business, Life as an SME, Random thoughts, Sales and Marketing, Successful entrepreneurs, tagged advice, business advisers, business start up, expert advice, practical business advice, sales, selling, SME, start-up, success, training, what business startups need to know on 14 October, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Referencing his experience helping start-ups, SMEs and beyond, Steve Bent from unrivalled talks about boosting sales. In this installment he tackles the basics of sales process: meaurement.
Treat your website like an employee
Posted in IT, tagged employees, knowledge, skills, start-up, startup, website on 8 September, 2009 | 5 Comments »
For many Start-ups, the website is an early investment, and for many more and early headache. To avoid common mistakes, it can be good to adjust the way you think about your site. Rather than thinking of it as a project or a tool, think of it as your first employee – a valued member of the team to be nurtured and developed.
The passion of creative start-ups
Posted in Advice for your business, Business Plan, Successful entrepreneurs, You and your idea, tagged creative, entrepreneur, Expert, start-up, survival on 2 September, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Bristol Media, the superb network for Bristol’s creative community, recently asked me to put my Marketing Donut hat on, and take part in a panel discussion about how to get your creative business started. I was called in to talk specifically about social media marketing. The discussion was ‘a game of two halves’. First up, [...]
Start Up Donut launches today
Posted in Advice for your business, Random thoughts, tagged advice, new business, start-up on 29 July, 2009 | 1 Comment »
We’re on target to launch the site later today. It will be at www.startupdonut.co.uk. Why did we develop this site? We asked people running small businesses what they wanted from business advice websites. Their answers were quite clear: “Quick, practical answers to the questions I have today” “Credible experts and expertise” “No disruptive, annoying display [...]
