In through the outfield

15 May 2008

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) on YouTube

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to see that UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) have adopted YouTube as a communications vehicle, but I was.

Even more impressive is the fact they have created their own (pretty slick channel). As they say on their page, ” Videos produced by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) the Government organisation that helps UK based companies succeed in international markets. We assist overseas companies to bring high quality investment to the UK’s vibrant economy.”

You can even watch Lord Digby Jones who opened the Business & IP Centre back in March 2006.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLib00ZxX4s]

6 April 2008

Alex Bellinger interviews me for SmallBizPod

As I mentioned in my previous blog post on our first Facebook event at the Business & IP Centre, Alex Bellinger the founder of SmallBizPod was there with his microphone. His podcast based on interviews at this event were delayed a little by Alastair Darling and his 2008 Budget, but have now gone up on the site here.

Alex Bellinger Although I felt I rambled on a bit, Alex seems to have kept most of the interview in the final edit. It is a mixture of chat about the Business & IP Centre and the role of Facebook and blogs to promote it to a new audience.

The show also included a cross section of interviews with some of the 50 or so members of our Facebook group who showed up on the evening. Talking of which, I see our membership has now grown to nearly 1,400 members.

22 March 20086 March 2013

Mothers of Invention III

Last Monday evening saw the latest in our series of appropriately named Inspiring Entrepreneurs events. We heard five amazing stories and a discussion moderated by BBC news presenter Mishal Husain.

Mothers of Invention III kicked of with Jessica Huie, who at 17 years old discovered she was pregnant. Her father not happy, telling her that “you will only ever be a statistic”. This made a deep impression on Jessica and her subsequent successes are her way of showing him he was wrong.

She combined motherhood, college, work experience and a weekend job at a shoe shop, as well as working initially for free, at Pride magazine, local radio and publicist Max Clifford.

While searching for a card for daughter, she realised that there was nothing available with images of black or Asian people. In traditional entrepreneur style, rather than simply complaining, she started a company, and now her Colorblind Cards are spreading rapidly across the UK and soon to appear in the United States.

Sian Sutherland told her story of how she went from promoting other companies skincare products to developing her own Mama Mio range. Her main piece of advice was to ensure you have a business plan as it helps to focus on what makes your business different from your competitors.

Lorraine Heggessey, former controller of BBC1 and now CEO of Talkback Thames, surprised us when she exclaimed that in business, “everyone is bluffing.” And that historically men have been better at this then women.

Debbie Reynolds, founder of the School for Sign Language was for me the most engaging speaker with an amazingly frank honesty about her lack of business knowledge prior to starting out. However with a grant of just £1,600 she has gone on to reach a turnover of £170,000, employ 28 deaf and hearing workers and volunteers’, and won several awards in just a couple of years.

Sam Roddick, the daughter of Body Shop founder and supporter of the Business & IP Centre, Dame Anita Roddick, maintained the family tradition of being thought provoking, provocative and shocking. Describing herself as an activist, she aims to change peoples view on sexuality and eroticism.

Her erotic emporium, Coco de Mer sells sex products which are beautifully designed, luxurious and expensive. A human-hair whip is £188, bondage knickers are £200 a pair, and a Shiri Zinn Crystal Dildo, with Swarovski crystals is £1,100, including stand.

She described her route to commercial success as initially a “fuck-up”, but the important point was that she learnt from these early mistakes. In particular stocking around 1,000 items, most of which were either one-off creations or short run products from creatives.

13 March 20086 March 2013

Are you Desperately Seeking Finance?

A recurring theme when talking to early stage entrepreneurs is where are they going to get finance from.

In order to help address this problem we are devoting our next Inspiring Entrepreneurs event to this topic.

If you’re running, or about to launch, your own business, the we are offering a unique opportunity to pitch your idea to a panel of financial experts, including former “Dragon” Doug Richard.

Desperately Seeking Finance is a panel debate and discussion dedicated to the secrets of raising finance. As part of the evening, three entrepreneurs will present their business idea.

To qualify please send a 200 word summary of your business idea, including key financial projections, to bipcworkshops@bl.uk.

The deadline for submitting your plans is 25 March 2008, and those selected will be contacted the following week and asked to prepare a two minute presentation for the evening of 22 April.

Desperately Seeking Finance 2, Tuesday 22 April 2008, 18.15 – 21.00

13 March 2008

The Hairforce wins award at British Female Inventors & Innovators Awards Ceremony

Great to hear that The Hairforce won the The Health & Beauty award at the British Female Inventors & Innovators Awards Ceremony, sponsored by Boots.

I have already blogged about Dee Wright and her innovative service company The Hairforce – Lice Asassins, which uses a safe and chemical-free method to rid children of head lice.

I predict you will be hearing more about her in the future.

14 February 20086 March 2013

The cool Wattson from DIY KYOTO

In the networking area of the Business & IP Centre are several illustrated examples of ‘success stories’. These are entrepreneurs and inventors who have made use of Centre and gone on to achievement.

One of my favourites is the Wattson from DIY KYOTO who’s wonderful motto is, “to value simple things, and seek to produce products of perfect convenience and utility, elegant in their conception and efficient in their operation.”

If you have been reading this blog for a while you may have noticed my interest in product design and the Wattson is a perfect example of form and function combined into one. Not only does it look elegant whilst showing you how much money you are spending on electricity, the coloured glow emanating from its’ base gives you an immediate sense of your consumption as it changes from blue (good) to red (bad).

This achievement has been recognised by Stuff Magazine who awarded the Wattson number 8 on the cool list of gadgets for 2007, beating the iPod nano into 10th place. An amazing achievement for such a young company.

11 February 20086 March 2013

Clip & Pull a Dignified Living product

One of the perks of my job is meeting inventors and then seeing them go on to be successful with a bit of help from us in the Business & IP Centre.

The latest one to make it into the media is Cintra Jaggan-Vince and her Clip & Pull invention. One of several products from her company Dignified Living providing solutions “to help people maintain their independence, safety and dignity with the task of dressing and undressing.”

In a double page feature in the Guardian of 1 February 2008 Cintra is mentioned and a photo of her proudly holding the Clip & Pull product.

Cintra certainly made an impression on me and my colleagues by demonstrating how effective her invention is, in front of our enquiry desk with the aid of a large pair of frilly knickers.

She has already won several awards including the Global Women Inventors & Innovators Network – Special Recognition Award Singapore 2004.

11 February 20087 January 2013

Blogging for small business success

There has been an exponential rate of increase in blogging in the last couple of years. Although there is a danger of a new blog getting lost in the mass of postings, blogging can be a key factor in business success.

The wonderful people at Cobweb Information for Business give some useful tips in their latest free e-newsletter, which I have included below. I believe the key to success is having a passion about your area of expertise. I remember soon after starting this job trying to convince Michael North the owner of the Olive Trail in Bloomsbury to start a blog on Olive Oil as he had such an incredible knowledge and enthusiasm.

1. Blogging takes commitment and time. You’ll have to dedicate your time to providing customers and other site visitors (and this may include other bloggers) with new information. There’s nothing more off-putting for readers when they visit a blog only to find stale, old content. This doesn’t mean you have to type forever – some of the best blogs are short, pithy entries that the reader can view and understand easily.

2. The content must be relevant. Blogs can help to position you as an expert in your field if they’re written the right way. They also enable you to promote your products and services with the personal touch, as you can link to news articles, pictures etc, to keep the content fresh and inspiring.

3. Links are important. It’s easy to forget the business behind the blog and get lost in the blog’s content. Build links to the site from other websites related to your business or your expertise. More links generally mean more traffic and a better search engine position.

4. Blogs are interactive. Readers can normally post their own comments to your blog entries. This allows existing and potential customers to comment on your product or service, or the process involved in buying that product or service. Bear in mind that it might take some time for someone to comment on your entries, so persevere. Install a site counter or check your website statistics to see how many people are viewing your blog. Blog Patrol has free blog counting tools you can download.

5. Is there a call to action? Does the blog link through to a special offer or service you’re currently running? Calls to action will help you win new customers or encourage existing ones to try out new products or services.

6. Can you make cash from your blog? For instance, is there advertising space on it which an organisation could use to market to your audience? Is there an affiliate programme you can join? Post some affiliate links within your blog and you could earn money when a reader clicks through to the affiliate site and buys a product.

7 February 20087 January 2013

Angels Den introduces those seeking money, for their business, to over 3,800 Angels

Our British Library Entrepreneur and SME Network Facebook group goes from strength to strength with 993 members as of this evening.

Isabel Oswell our intrepid head of Business Marketing is a reluctant convert to social networking, but has promised to be our thousandth member. So her time is rapidly approaching.

A recent message on our wall looks interesting. It is promoting Angels Den, a website that introduces those seeking money, for their business, to over 3800 Angels.

In the last week I have twice been asked how to find business Angels. This could well be the answer.

“Never mind that we have the largest number of angels in Europe – more importantly we are funding 17% of deals on the site. We promise no Pinstripes, no jargon – just good common sense and the grooviest Angels in town.”

Unlike many commercial services aimed at business start ups AngelsDEN are refreshingly up front about their charges, and go on to explain why they charge.

“Why isn’t it free of charge?

Many people have asked us why we charge for this service…well, we’re running a commercial enterprise and we need to cover our admin and promotion costs, pay staff to check your submission and pay for the upkeep of the website. We don’t get any public funding for Angels Den so that’s why we need to charge.

To set up a serious business with outside funding you do need to be prepared to spend some money. In some ways the £499 (plus VAT) fee also acts as a filter for people who are not really committed to doing what it takes to be successful or aren’t sufficiently far down the line to be ready to get funding.”