Budget 2014 showed promise: But it lacked beef for entrepreneurs to really get their teeth into March 23, 2014 YOU CAN’T please all of the people all of the time, particularly if you’re the chancellor of the Exchequer. Even if George Osborne had promised last Wednesday to personally traipse the length and breadth of the country handing out free candyfloss, an obesity pressure group of some sort would have released a statement condemning him. [...]
Gimme 5 March 23, 2014 …WEBSITES FOR ENTREPRENEURS Shell LiveWire Shell’s UK-wide enterprise scheme and social investment programme. It offers four monthly £1,000 awards and an annual £10,000 Young Entrepreneur award. shell-livewire.org Skype There’s more to Skype than free internet calls. Tools like video conferencing make it a more useful resource for small businesses than you might expect. skype.com Startup [...]
Trade Secrets March 16, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks fashion, funding and family business with Nish and Sach Kukadia, co-founders of the flash sales website and private members club Secretsales.com DEAL of the day, or flash sales sites, were brought into the post-dotcom bubble world with the launch of Woot.com in 2004. It gave customers a 24 hour window each day [...]
Pop-ups are coming to the Tube: Three ideas for how startups can hop onto the trend successfully March 16, 2014 POP-UP shops could soon be appearing at a Tube station near you. On top of reports that Transport for London is exploring turning obsolete ticket offices into online delivery collection hubs, it signed a deal last week to make its retail property empire available for temporary occupation. Its estate amounts to 1,000 retail premises within [...]
Gimme 5 March 16, 2014 …OF THE BEST AWARDS FOR ENTREPRENEURS Deloitte Technology Fast 50Now in its 16th year, the technology award programme is a ranking of the UK’s 50 fastest growing tech companies, based on revenue growth over the last five years. deloitte.co.uk/fast50 The EuropasThe Awards, taking place this June in London, celebrate Europe’s hottest tech startups. Former winners [...]
Fancy a brew? Annabel Palmer talks craft beer with Draft House’s Charlie McVeigh March 10, 2014 Draft House founder Charlie McVeigh talks about the perils of the hospitality industry, and how he’s taking advantage of Britain’s real ale renaissance A CRAFT beer revolution has taken hold in Britain. Consumption of independently-brewed beer rose by 22.3m pints to 415m pints in 2012, according to the Society of Independent Brewers. And figures suggest [...]
The Power of Three: How big business could join government to support small companies March 10, 2014 IF I received a pound for every time a chief executive of a large firm said to me “we’d like to be the champions of small business”, I’d be comfortably off. However, over the past year, I’ve seen an increasing number of businesses not only voicing this statement, but acting on it. This is a [...]
Gimme 5 March 10, 2014 …TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP 1. Harvard Business School Tuition: $58,875 (per year) The top school for those wanting to refine an existing idea; looking for an idea or team to join; or thinking about entrepreneurial companies to join upon graduation. 2. Stanford Graduate School of Business (SGSB) Tuition: $59,990 (per year) The Center for [...]
The Rainmaker March 2, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to serial entrepreneur and renowned investor Robin Klein about his career’s many successes – and one missed opportunity ENTREPRENEURS often complain that access to capital is an insurmountable barrier to getting their business off the ground. But Robin Klein – the entrepreneur and venture capitalist – thinks they’re lucky. “There has never [...]
Innovation Diary: You can start a company and keep a career – and you don’t need to be a part-time entrepreneur March 2, 2014 WORKING 5 to 9 isn’t a Dolly Parton misprint, but the title of a book by Enterprise Nation’s Emma Jones on the growing popularity of part-time startups. Casual entrepreneurship, fostered by services like AirBnB and Rentmygarden.co.uk, can be an opportunity to make some money on the side by renting out your assets. And the already-wealthy [...]