I am grateful to my colleague Julie Boadilla for this report.
I thought this event was a very productive session. Having done a bit of networking on the night of the event, I noticed that most of the attendees were undergraduate students. There were four presenters who explained how they set up their businesses and gave tips on how to become successful, they also outlined how they overcame challenges and obstacles they encountered.
The first speaker was Adam Goodyer who’s business Concert Live produces live CD’s of music concerts within 15 minutes of the end of the event, so fans can re-live the concert experience. He decided that rather than rely on patents to protect his invention he would compete by being better than his competitors. Despite no previous music industry experience, the company is going from strength to strength, and last year generated revenue of over £1million. His tip was to always be aware of the little things. He didn’t arrange for local banking facilities in the early days and so ended up in the uncomfortable situation of having to take a bin bag with £65,000 in cash to his local branch.
Tricia Weener is co-founder of Intelligent Marketing, a creative marketing agency that achieved a £2million turnover last year, and represents clients such as Honda, Woolworth’s and Guinness. Tricia and her co-founder won this year’s Women in Business category at the Startup Awards. She recommended not to be afraid of employing people who are better at you.
Rhodri Ferrier of Bulldog Grooming Products left samples of his natural moisturiser for each person in the audience. The company was named “Sainsbury’s Small Branded Supplier of the Year 2007/08”.
We also had Dan Cobley, who is marketing director, UK Ireland and Benelux for Google.
I thought it was interesting and informative in a way that they explained what they did right and wrong. Also they were honest and admitted that they made mistakes along the way.
The 45 minute questions and answer session was equally good and overall I greatly enjoyed the event.
Julie Boadilla