Tag Archives: business idea

Start or grow your business now – what’s holding you back?

Start and grow your business

Start and grow your business in 2013

It’s a New Year and the entrepreneurial juices are flowing. It’s time to start the business that you’ve been talking about for years. What’s stopping you?

Or maybe you’ve already got a business but it’s not growing as fast as you had thought, what has to happen to make this year the year it doubles its revenue?

I’ve talked to thousands of prospective entrepreneurs and small businesses over the years and surprisingly it’s not always lack of funding that is the biggest hurdle. It’s fear of the unknown.

Whether you are dreaming of starting a business or hoping that this year your business is going to somehow take off, it is much more comfortable to continue dreaming than to do something about it. The dream is warm and cosy; we can lie in bed and feel comforted that our lives can change for the better at any time. But if we take action, what if it doesn’t work out? There’s no longer a dream just trouble.

When I started Company Partners, one of the key drivers was to allow people to find a business partner with complementary skills and a like-mind. Having a partner will motivate and encourage anyone starting a new business. It’s quite daunting by yourself.

For existing businesses, sometimes it’s not a new (expensive) employee that you need but someone else with ideas and energy that could join as a risk (and reward) taking partner to grow the business.

Yes having the funds to start or grow a business is also important and that’s why we have such a strong Investor community on Company Partners, but the first thing is to stop dreaming and do it.

There are things you can do to get the ball rolling. Write down your ideas for a business, or the way that you would like to grow, think what you need to do in order to make this happen. Dare I say, join Company Partners and search for a business partner, or Investor.

The key is to get started. Don’t wait, have drive, energy builds on energy.

 

How to find more customers – the top 5

How to find customers1. Get free PR

If there was an unlimited amount of money to spend, advertising would be easy, but normally there isn’t. So what can you do? Well this is where free PR comes in. PR is of course short for Public Relations and was the remit of large corporations, but has now become a valuable tool for gaining public recognition of your business and products as well as building your image.

In many ways it’s the best form of advertising, because it doesn’t use sales techniques that customers are suspicious of, instead it promotes a positive message about your business that can develop customer loyalty and encourage new customers to find out more about your services or products.

You can hire a PR company to do all this for you, but that’s not cheap, so why not do it yourself. The media have to fill their papers and their broadcasts with content every day. The key is to make it interesting and have a human interest angle, not just the history of your company or latest product.

For our full members we have a comprehensive write-up on getting free PR (btw if you are a full member you also get access to business partners, mentors and business angels investors) – How to get free PR

2. Make marketing work

Marketing is the overall term for PR, advertising, branding, pricing and identifying the products that your customers want. It therefore looks at the big picture. Each business should have a marketing plan, which pulls all this together and makes sure that you have not missed an important step that will grow your business.

The main key though in making marketing work is to segment your market into bite size pieces. That way you can get your messages tailored exactly right for your potential customer. I wrote a blog on that which may help – How to market smarter

If you’re thinking of writing a marketing plan for your business, you may be interested in a deal we put together with Palo Alto to get a free copy of Marketing Plan Pro software with each copy of Business Plan Pro bought from them, you can see more here – Sales and marketing plan

3. Using a web site to generate new business

Nearly every business has a web site nowadays and if you haven’t you really must get one, it isn’t expensive and I can’t think of any business that can do without it. The first thing will be finding a domain name that meets your business needs.

Ideally the domain name would contain the key words that people will search to find your product or service, such as “bestsheds” or “berkshireaccountants”. It doesn’t have to be your company name.

Using your company name is also okay and allows you to keep your products and services unrestricted by the web site name, but the site will be harder to find on search engines for your products, so you will need to do more work on its visibility. If someone already knows your business name it will come up, but you want to be found by people who don’t know you and are searching for what you can provide.

There are plenty of very inexpensive web site packages around. Choose one that allows you to easily make changes to it, because the worst thing is seeing a site that hasn’t been updated for 2 years. Have several new items, testimonials or articles that show that it is up-to-date.

If possible get a local web designer to produce the site, again not too expensive an option. Pick one whose work is attractive to you. He can help you optimise it so it can be found on search engines like Google.

Don’t get sucked in though by all those emails from companies wanting to provide SEO (search engine optimisation). If you can afford it pick a well trusted digital marketing business, but it won’t be cheap. You can do it yourself, have a look at Perfecting a business web site .

4. Don’t use a free email address

Using gmail, hotmail or any of the free email addresses looks amateur if you are running a business. It’s okay for private use, but when you are trying to show that your business is worth buying from or investing in, then it looks shoddy.

If you already have a domain name, adding email on to it is cheap. If you haven’t a domain name for your business, get one. Then use that for email.

Put your name, contact details and a sentence saying what your business does at the bottom of your mails (as a “signature”).

5. Communicate and Network

If you have a website, offer a free incentive (such as a downloadable useful information sheet) and keep in touch with those people (make sure they have ticked a box to allow you to keep in touch).

Regularly contact existing and old customers, with special deals or just helpful information. It’s easier & cheaper than finding brand new customers.

Not everyone is comfortable with the concept of networking. It’s been over used as a term, but has been around for hundreds of years. It needn’t be hard or daunting. Just as computers talk to one another over a network and spread messages, so can us humans. The idea is that your message will pass from one person to another. A network should be more than just a list of people you talk to. It should work for you.

Thought of that way, find rememberable messages and sound-bites that you can give people you meet about your business that may cause them to mention it to someone else. On Company Partners for instance, I talk about it being like a “dating site”.

Depending on your industry and market, there will be opportunities to pass these messages on to either customers themselves, or to people who meet and influence your customers. There are thousands of organised events, choose one that best fits your market and give it a go.

Networking can also find you partners to collaborate with and ideas to try.

The old adage of invent a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, doesn’t work any more. You’ve got to tell the world about your mousetrap and show them how to get to your door.

 

Can Olympics inspire new start-ups?

Business revolutionI was lucky enough to go to the dress rehearsal of the Olympic Games opening ceremony and was hugely impressed by the hard work, energy and enthusiasm of the volunteer dancers and actors.

When the full version of the opening ceremony was shown on Friday the overall story became clearer. Much of the ceremony was celebrating the industry and innovation that Britain has displayed over the years. From the Industrial Revolution to Tim Berners-Lee and the world-wide web.

I was left wondering how many of the passionate volunteers and cheering audience would take up the mantle of our industrious and inventive predecessors?

There is no lack of enthusiasm for the use of social networking and technology, but the effort of developing the tools that make it work and starting the businesses that employ workers to drive the economy seems restricted to a few small pockets of activity.

There must be a way of capturing the vigour that was displayed on Friday night. It showed that if someone is enthused then they will put their soul into making what they are doing a success. Danny Boyle and the Olympics provided that inspiration, what can we do to inspire a generation to create products, services and businesses that generates wealth and full employment once again?

To a certain extent, youth is jaded by business, the banks and ever revealing scandals of top director’s greed. Yet there are thousands of small, well run and ethical companies out there, giving their founders a satisfying and decent living.

We need more publicity on these owner run businesses and the fulfilling life that can be had, than the continued bleak exposure of banks and big business wrongs.

 

To grow a business employ a “great one”.

Whenever I hear advice from successful entrepreneurs the most consistent mantra is “always hire the best people you can afford”.

But how good is “the best”, how do you measure that? Also, if you are in a young company, with very limited resources, how much can you really afford?

Let’s step back for a moment though and examine that advice. Is it really the most important thing that a growing business should do? What about offices, buying equipment and developing the product or service, then there’s marketing, the best product is going nowhere unless people know that it exists.

The answer may be that if you have good people aboard, they will help you get the operating essentials cheaper, faster, and of better quality. When you look at product design the difference between good and average has even more staggering claims.

Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook, suggests that some programmers and programming teams are 100 times more productive than their more typically talented peers.

This isn’t because they can programme 100 times the number of lines of code, but because they write smarter code. These truly great programmers grasp what is needed quickly and transform that into efficient, supportable, clever instructions that enhance the original concept.

What does this mean for the non IT side of businesses? Well the theory is still valid, if the multiplication factor may be less. Consider the likely results of an inspirational, highly respected and well networked senior figure in any sector of business, such as marketing, PR, raising finance, compared to an industrious but junior practitioner.

Can you measure the impact of the great person against the average worker? The difference may be that you get funding, or not. That you become well known, or not. What is the measure and worth of these?

I think we can all accept that the great person is going to do more for your company than an average worker, the question is what do you give up to be able to afford them?

Do you take out loans, sell your house or divert funds from infrastructure to hire a great employee?

It’s a balancing act, between all the calls upon your limited cash. The advice that successful entrepreneurs have given implies that you do all you can to get these few great people.

If the immensely talented ones can ramp up your business fast, then you can start to readjust the balance so that other areas have cash made available.

It is natural though to hope that even by using a less expensive resource you will still manage to make the break through. The lessons from very successful businesses however seem to speak against that.

 

Identifying successful businesses

Identifying a successful business start-up
Every experienced Investor develops a sixth sense when looking at potential business opportunities, but even so it can sometimes be difficult to put your finger on what is the key ingredient in making a new venture successful.

Over the years of working with start-ups I’ve seen companies grow rapidly and then fall away, great businesses that not only grew but sustained their position and of course those that never made it.

In all of the great ventures they got 3 basic elements right and I’ve tried to show those essentials on our model of Start-up Success above.

Much of it is common sense, but like many simple things it can often be forgotten and the whole process of identifying a good high growth business made over complicated.

Firstly, yes you guessed it, is the founders of the venture. It’s said many times that the management team is key, but why? It is because they provide the drive, ambition and ultimate quality of the business.

Not only must they have the will to succeed but also the competence to implement the business successfully. The idea is important, but the excellence of implementation of the idea is critical.

Great entrepreneurs have a vision of what they want to achieve based on an insight to a market opportunity and the capability to pull together the resources to address it.

When you as an Investor look at prospects, or perhaps if you are an entrepreneur thinking through options for starting a business, it’s worth remembering the 3 key ingredients and how they interact for sustainable success.

 

Will small businesses ever get a slice of government spending?

Government helping small businessA few days ago the office of the Prime Minister sent a letter to many small businesses and SME organisations explaining that a new online tool called Contracts Finder has been launched that will show all government tender opportunities.

At the same time he said they would eliminate the prequalification questionnaire (PQQ) for low value orders and standardise it so it was filled in just once for all other procurements.

Additionally there would be “Dragons Den” type surgeries where people with innovative products and services will be able to come and pitch to government – rather than waiting for the right tender to be issued.

All good news generally. For years the conditions set by procurements have excluded, or been unfairly weighed against smaller businesses applying for tenders. The cost of doing so is also proportionally higher for a small company than a large one.

Some people have commented that they are worried that eliminating the PQQ will create a “free for all” and that companies that stood no chance would waste their time bidding.

Well in an open market that can happen, but if in fact getting rid of the PQQ doesn’t change at all the size of company winning a tender, what was the point? There probably is still a culture in government procurement that only larger companies should win and just getting rid of prequalifying is not enough, attitudes must also change. I’ll wait and see on this one.

However, the Contracts Finder could be very good news indeed. There are some government tender sites out there (a couple charge for their use), but having one simple and easy to use central site for all tenders is a godsend. Much saving of time and hopefully it will make sure we don’t miss any relevant opportunities ever again.

Now on to the “Dragons Den” surgeries. They are not quite as the description implies, because you are not pitching for investment or funds, but for the chance to sell your innovative product or service.

The surgeries are going to be managed by Stephen Allott as a new Crown Commercial Representative (CCR) for SMEs. You will pitch to “a panel of senior procurement and operational professionals from central government and the wider public sector”.

I like this idea a lot, but the proof will be how many get taken up and what hoops they will have to jump through.

In the early days of Company Partners I approached a government figure to offer our business partner matching service to assist people who wanted to start a business. You would think that encouraging new start-ups by finding them a like minded partner to start up with was an obvious benefit to the economy.

The feedback was positive, but I would have to talk to the regional development agency, they in turn insisted I talk to a local Business Link and so it died. They also wanted me to trial it locally for 2 years and if it was successful they would put it out to tender.

Herein lays a problem. If at one of these surgeries, a young company puts forward an innovative idea for a service, will the government support them and place an order, or will there be endless jumping through hoops, or worse (in order of course to be fair and impartial) they put the service suggested up to open tender, effectively stealing the small company’s idea and giving it to someone else?

There is optimism for the general direction that the government is going on this, but let’s see if it actually produces a change.

 

Who needs a business partner?

Spot Bill GatesThere’s a common misconception of the typical entrepreneur being a charismatic individual business person, not needing or wanting a partner’s help in driving forward his all conquering venture.

Think Richard Branson, Bill Gates, or the latest film idol, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame.

Yes they were the front men and there’s no doubt that they steered the ship, but each started their businesses with partners that had complimentary skills.

Branson always had a partner for each business he began. In the earliest years it was Jonny Gems (Student magazine), then Nik Powell (Student magazine and Virgin) adding Simon Draper (Virgin) for his music knowledge. These were share holding partners, not employees, although Branson certainly surrounded himself with a very capable workforce.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft together, while Zuckerberg’s Facebook was founded with his original partner Eduardo Saverin (now the subject of a film – The Social Network).

There must be exceptions, anyone aware of one; I’d be interested to know? As far as I can find out, almost every successful company had a partner helping it to grow.

Why? Well, it is almost impossible for one person to have all the capabilities and characteristics needed to develop a business. One may have the technical skills, the other the sales or business knowledge.

Between them they start to handle the PR and soon it’s clear that one is more comfortable in that environment and they agree that he will act as the front man.

Taking on the world yourself, with no one to bounce ideas off and to give mutual motivation is quite daunting. A strong team of employees will help fill out any skills or experience that the business needs and a mentor can be very helpful in acting as a sounding board, but there’s nothing as good as having a partner with the same skin and commitment in the game as you.

Of course choosing a partner must be done with open eyes and it is absolutely important to get the right legal and partnership agreements in place. See my guide to healthy partnerships: Business Partnerships .

It was to provide a “dating site” for people to find business partners that we started Company Partners, so I guess I am a bit prejudiced in favour of not going it alone. But it’s a hard old world by yourself.

 

Where I get my best ideas!

Business ideasBusiness gets ever quicker and there’s never a time now when we aren’t connected and “on-call”. It used to be that if you were on a train or car journey, there was valuable down-time where you could ruminate on life and free your mind to come up with new ideas.

It’s good to keep busy – right? Mobiles and wi-fi are a boon to productivity – yes? Well certainly they are, but I’ve noticed that many of my more original ideas have been coming when I’m away from the connected world.

In my case it’s when I’m out running. There’s something about the comatose state that I enter after the 3rd mile that allows my subconscious to work on problems and ideas to pop into my head.

People used to say that ideas came to them in the bath and it’s well known that Archimedes ran naked down the road shouting Eureka (I’ve got it!) after he had his big idea when in the bath. But who’s got time for baths now days in a world of much speedier showers.

It takes willpower to step away from your desk, put the phone on answer and take half-an-hour to yourself, doing nothing obviously to do with the business and allow a bit of time to free up your mind. That’s when the good ideas come.

Okay you may not want to go for a run, but a walk or other activity, that gives a break and relaxes the brain to be creative is time well spent. I don’t think it can be an activity that is imposing its own demands on the brain, such as a competitive game, or watching a movie. It has to allow an almost meditative feel.

This is just my observation, but with so many demands on our time, scheduling regular opportunities to be creative has to be built into your week. Otherwise it just won’t happen. Making it a regular activity, rather than when (if) you have a chance, means it will be more likely to take place.

That’s the beauty of going for a run; it’s a regular time commitment. Going for a walk or the gym a couple times a week can serve the same purpose, if you schedule it in. It’s much more difficult to sit at your desk and say: “I’m now going to switch off for a while to be creative”.

I’m sure there are loads of other ways of getting those idea juices flowing and you need to find the one that works for you.

 

7 Tips for Inventors.

InventionsI originally put a similar article to this in our resources section, but we continue to get questions about what to do if you have invented a new product, so I’ve also put these 7 tips here in the blog to reach a wider audience.

1. Work out whether it is an “invention” or a more of a “good idea”.

The difference is that with a new invention, you can patent it (legally own it and no one else can make it). Whereas a good idea for a product or service may not be patentable, but you believe that you can be first into a market and so don’t want others to latch on to that idea.

The Patent Office does a patent search service that will help you decide if you have a case for raising a paten, they do charge for this however. Company Partners has fact sheets on patents, trademarks and copyright in the Company Partners resources pages, have a look down the resource list to find them.

2. Be careful when you tell anyone about it.

Often inventors are concerned that people may steal their idea. However if it is an invention that may be patentable, if you tell people about it first, not only may they steal the idea, but more importantly from a legal stand point…. you no longer own the idea! This is because it is now in the “public domain”. It can no longer be patented.

What can you do? Before you tell anyone, have them sign a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement). This is a simple agreement that protects your idea or invention. Here is an example agreement. If it is likely to be a novel and patentable invention don’t tell anyone at all without an NDA. If it is more of a good idea but not patentable, you will have to decide if you want a NDA signed in every case. Some people will happily sign, others won’t.

3. Companies that help you put your idea or invention into production.

If you type “invention” into Google you will get several pages of companies all offering you help. Why? What do they get out of it? Well mostly they will want to sell you their services. It may not be obvious from reading their literature at first, but it starts with you submitting your idea.  Then they will suggest that they can give you an assessment of that idea/invention – for a price. Normally a few hundred pounds. This is their bread & butter money.

They may then commit to do more (like find a buyer to license the invention from you) in exchange for a share of the royalties, but with an expenses fee attached. Or they may say that after their evaluation there are things that you can do to improve the chances of it being marketable, or of finding an investor to provide funds. This second stage normally costs a few thousand pounds.

So you can see that you have to be careful who you go with and indeed if you should go with such a company. There is a lot you can do for yourself without paying thousands of pounds. Many Mentors and Investors in Company Partners will contribute their expertise and knowledge in exchange for equity without you paying anything at all. Also try the British Library’s IP & Business Centre, they provide a wealth of information and help, almost all is free.

4. You have a great idea now you want someone to fund it.

Okay you have a great idea. Do you believe that it’s so good that you’ll remortgage your house and spend all your savings (which is what James Dyson did)? Or maybe you need some additional funds beyond that which you have access to?

This is where Angel Investors can help. These are private individuals that are looking for interesting opportunities to invest into. However Business Angels and private investors have seen it all before, most of them will expect you to also contribute some of the finances and put yourself on the line for it to succeed, or they also will not invest.

5. Implementation is king (ideas are 10 a penny).

Well some ideas are better than others of course. But everyone has some good idea for a new product or service inside them. It’s those people that get out there and make it happen that are different. 99% of great ideas never get further than a chat down the pub, or wishful thinking.

Then when you do start to make it happen, how well you implement the idea makes the difference to success or failure – not just the idea itself. If you are not best at marketing, sales or even detail planning, look for a business partner.

6. Be realistic.

It may be a great idea, but will people part with their hard earned cash and buy it? Sometimes they are great ideas, but ones that no one would actually pay money for. Be especially wary of “gadget” type inventions. Check that people really would buy them. These sound great, but often too few would be sold to make your fortune.

Do some market research; check whether other similar products or services are selling well. Put together a questionnaire, or a prototype and ask members of the public if they would spend money to buy it (friends and family don’t count). What is the addressable market for this? If it is sold, will it be at a profit (add up all expenditure and costs, including salaries and selling/distribution costs)?

7. Persevere and put in the energy.

If you’ve been realistic and after considering everything, you still want to get this invention or good idea into the market, you have to be persistent. We’ve all heard of the great businesses that were originally turned down by funders.

I listened to Tim Waterstone once describe how he was turned down for a loan to start the book chain by various banks. He persevered, mortgaged himself to the hilt and found an investor. When he was successful and eventually sold for millions to HMV, he sent the banks that turned him down a newspaper cutting of the sale.

He was however a driven and energetic man who didn’t believe in just dreaming. Not all of us are the same, but you do need determination and it helps to have a business partner or mentor. They can give you motivation and together you can bounce ideas around.

Think in business terms and understand that no one is going to give away their time or money unless you can prove the concept is a winner. That will require upfront effort and investment from yourself. But you can’t just dream – you have to make it happen.

 

Be tenacious in making your business idea work – but not blinkered

A good business idea?During our last Business Plan Workshop we had an interesting question asked  – “when should someone accept that their idea for a business will not work?”

Normally I am adamant that you need persistence and belief in yourself, never give up your dream. But this made me stop and think.

Certainly in the past I’ve had entrepreneurs contact me to describe a business idea that I can see is never going to work and sadly they may have spent years of their time and thousands of pounds in developing it.

More importantly than my opinion, when I quiz them on the evidence to indicate there is a need and if anyone would actually pay for the product or service, the information is non-existent or poor at best.

By evidence I really mean market research and that’s not just asking your friends if they think it’s a good idea. Rather the idea must be one that will form the basis of a business, that will satisfy a real need and that the public will give you their hard earned cash for it.

Actually the market research doesn’t have to be rocket science, but it must be reality. There are a lot of papers already written on most market areas that can start you off (the British Library’s Business Centre is a good source).

There are always competitors, or alternatives to your idea that you can check out. You can talk to prospective buyers, either consumer or trade and don’t ask general questions leading them to say that it’s a nice idea, ask for advance orders – pin them down. Then you’ll see the reality.

Once you are up and running, the question becomes “how long should you give it, to show that it will work?”

Again my instinct is to not give up too easily. If the market demand seems to be there, but you have to overcome difficulties, that’s normal and the great entrepreneurs have all had to overcome initial hurdles. But if it’s not taking off, stop and think whether it’s anything that can be fixed, or a fundamental flaw.

Michael Birch, who sold his social web site Bebo for $850M a couple years ago had tried lots of different ideas. Some worked, but weren’t scalable. Some worked but weren’t able to make a profit. Others may have been a good idea but there were basic flaws. Such as the address book updater (I think there are still some of these around).  He found that unless everyone on the contact list updated their address books, the user would simply stop using it. Of course not everyone did update, so it never took off.

Each time he learnt from the experience and moved on. How long did he give each one? Probably only a few months, but the Internet can give very quick feedback. For a traditional business it can take longer, however you should have set realistic goals that allow for the market you are in and be checking against them. If you’re not meeting them, what’s the reason?

You may find it is obstacles that can be overcome, or it might be that there is a basic issue with the business concept that no amount of tenacity could fix. Being tenacious and determined needs to be applied to the overall goal of being a success, not just one venture.

Knowing when to take the learning and move on, without giving up at the first sign of trouble is a difficult one. But I think it can be seen as the difference between operational problems and concept failure. If the homework is done first many of the concept issues should have already been spotted.