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Kick-starting your Business

Before you dive into a new venture make sure you have a robust plan. . When starting off it can very easy to go off on a tangent being side tracked, be careful, this can waste of valuable time and money. Ensure you research your product/service, find out who your competition is and be realistic that there is real demand for what you’re planning to sell. Ask your self, what is your USP - unique selling point? Remain flexible and move with the times, be prepared for the unexpected and see changes as opportunities as opposed to barriers!

I left The Apprentice in 2008 during the ‘boom’ times and suddenly the recession hit. Businesses now have to be run like a tight ship; cost control, not relying on an overdraft, providing the best customer service and we’re all going back to basics. Now is a brilliant time to start a business if you see an opportunity launch it - somebody else’s downfall could be your step on the ladder.

My business School Speakers launched in September 2010 after spotting a gap in the market for quality speakers in schools right across the curriculum and so far so good. The response has been great which is really satisfying. We are helping teachers and inspiring students all over the UK!

Growing your Business

Business is all about who you know, contacts and nurturing relationships. As competition heats up building more personal relationships with partners, suppliers and customers can really help you stand out from the crowd, develop and grow. Target your dream contacts and approach them via social media (Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook), email, letter or phone. I use sites such as Linkedin with great results. I believe in the ethos ‘TLC’ – touch, love and contact your approach to your customers. Do you understand what they want? Are you talking to them regularly and in the right way? Be flexible in your approach as one size doesn’t fit all. Resources such as www.businesslink.gov.uk can help but learning from the experiences of your peers by joining business social networking sites can also be invaluable. Have no shame in self promotion to boost your business and ensure you have a voice on issues that affect you. Remember as an entrepreneur growing a business your personal profile is almost as important as your business, the two go hand in hand.

Marketing your Business

My golden nugget of business advice would be to network and PR yourself – this costs nothing apart from your time. Business is all about contacts and you need to drive awareness about yourself. Business cards will probably be the best investment you’ll ever make. Ensure you have an auto-signature on your email so people have your contact details easily to hand.

There are also plenty of online tools to market your business and as it's free to network with people online - make the most of it. Twitter and Facebook can help you make contacts, drive awareness and market your products to new customers. You also need to think carefully about your website - it needs to work well on search engines and be easy to use for potential customers . It's easy to spend a fortune on a pretty website, but it needs to deliver the goods too, so make sure you get this right. Take the time to find the right person/agency who can deliver both.

Staying competitive

You need to be available 24/7, business isn't 9 to 5 anymore. Get a smartphone and mobile broadband and you will be able to stay in touch on the move and work efficiently in between meetings. Especially in the current climate you need to stay competitive and ahead of your game. Long gone are the days where to be in business you need an office, you can work from anywhere!

The secret of my success is that I love what I do and it’s crucial to be passionate about what you do day in day out. I work very, very hard, listen to my instincts and just go for it!

Above all, don't give up - particularly at the moment times are tough, but have faith and keep going. I was nicknamed a Rottweiler for my tenacious approach, I chose my goals and go after them. If you want something to work you’ll make it happen.

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Startup Britain – are those offers really such a good deal?

So they got 70+ big companies to pledge help to Startup Britain. That’s nice and it might be useful. But who are these companies and what have they pledged? Is it useful to someone trying to start a business? And did they ask any new/struggling startups what they would have wanted? What the organisers have done is laudable, but considering that they all started businesses, they seem to have forgotten their roots.

This is not a cynical yah boo post about Startup Britain, I think it’s a great idea. I’m told that it’s been organised very quickly, I absolutely appreciate that this kind of thing takes a lot of organising. It’s clearly been rushed out to be launched just behind the budget. Nothing wrong with that! This kind of initiative needs a lot of press coverage. Getting heavyweight multimillionaires’ and government backing is an excellent way to do it. Let’s not forget (as many people are doing) that this is a not for profit initiative.
It’s not finished so it’s hard to have a final opinion. And it’s not on exactly the track that I’d like to see. It’s very near the right track but has one wheel on the gravel.

Some of these offers are what the companies do all the time, anyway. They aren’t special deals. Blackberry, Instant ,PowWow, Regus – I’m looking at you but you are not alone. O2 – one month’s free line rental – whilst stocks last? Which marketing whizz thought that one up? Sure you can afford it? MOO.com with 50 free business cards. You’re starting to get it, but 50 cards isn’t enough.

Will 20% off a pair of glasses help me start a business? I really admire Jamie Murray Wells but that really smacks of bandwagon jumping-on, for the publicity. I know he’s one of the founders – but you can see how it looks. Analyse the Microsoft deal, I bet it’s not them actually training people on IT. It will likely be a Microsoft training course if you use their products. Because that what MS does all the time anyway. McKinsey are creating yet another scheme to get graduates to start a business. There are so many schemes for graduates already, that the website has a section for it.

Deals limited to 1000 hours, 5000 businesses won’t last long. Then what? If you’re not in that queue today, or make the decision to start a business next year, this deal is gone. This is being billed as a £1500 package. I can’t see it. Not every offer is suitable for every business and there are a lot of offers that still need to be found.

I suspect that what happened was that companies were asked what they would offer to get on scheme, and they saw it as a free advertising bandwagon. What these companies don’t seem to have looked at is how much new business they could win. Business that would stay with them, longterm. If someone helps you, when you really need, that tends not to be forgotten. This is art of gaining customer loyalty.

There is a big list of names that have pledged their support but we have no offer yet. I can see the deep ruts in the agreement made by the wheels as the bandwagon passed by. The amount of free advertising that these companies are getting should shame them into a better deal. Did I say shame? Send dictionaries to each company please.

What I would like to see:

Start with a list of all the things that startups need. Again not all companies need the same things so it’s going to be a long list. A lot of those things are on the SUB list – but the offers are weak.

Instead of asking these national megacorps what they can give (this isn’t a raffle prize) I’d like to see some guidance as to the type of deal that is being sought. Companies will want to calculate the cost (naturally), this is easy as there are plenty of figures on how many people do, or want to start a business. But they can come up with a deal.

These have to be real deals. 10% off is nice (all discounts are good) but it’s not enough to make it the best deal around. I could probably get cheaper insurance or printer by shopping around. It has to be good deal. A deal to save money, a deal that allows you to afford something that you would have had to go without. A deal that will make a difference! For services the deals should last a year.

I don’t expect companies to make a loss on the deals that they offer. I don’t expect it because it doesn’t need to happen. They are clever enough to create good deals that aren’t loss making. They can do tie-in deals, that’s OK too, as long as the tie-in isn’t punitive. You an take off the frills to make it more affordable.

Presumably national companies won’t do great deals for fear of a lot of people taking them up. And being national that’s entirely possible. They don’t want small-beer accounts really, they want the big companies with their big budgets because they all look short term. If the big companies want to be a part of this I’d like to see them really look as though they are interested in nurturing the small companies to grow – to become bigger customers.

But come on big guys, if you’re going to be here, get creative with the deals. I’m not just saying give a bigger discount, but create a deal. To give you an idea of what would help: a multifunction printer on 6 months interest free credit. A heavily discounted broadband deal, 6 months half price– tie-in for 2 years if you like. Business Insurance – 6 months interest free payments.

Get creative – build a deal for startups. Maybe a reduced product offer, but at a startups price. That would help. If you big-company marketing teams can’t come up with something, here’s MY offer.

Tell me what your business is and I’ll think of something to get you started off. If I can’t come up with a deal I’ll ask the startups community. I promise to submit only sensible deals that will allow you to make money on them.

Any takers?

Because this concentrates on big names with national coverage it misses all the other products and services that businesses need. The people in the big companies have (likely) never started or run a small business. So can we expect them to know what the small businesses need? Maybe not – but we could tell them. We could give them some ideas and pointers and see what they can build on that.

Startups need local firms too. We need vehicle leasing/van hire, accountants, lawyers, stationery, commercial premises agents, printers, office furniture, recruiters, product packaging, PR firms, copywriters, web designers, website builders and more.

I’d like to see this open to any company in the UK that wants to offer a deal to Startups. Sort it by county and industry – like a Yellow Pages of Startupdeals.

There are thousands of firms out there that startups need and that would be willing to give a great deal to a startup firm. If they all helped one company to startup and in doing so got one new customer, that would help the economy.

The immediate reaction seemed to be a lot of negativity. I can only imagine because there is already tons of free help/advice on the web on all areas of starting a business. Maybe everyone was looking to the meaty bits, the deals. But what they got is the same Google voucher that falls out of every business magazine. I can see why there is some cynicism. But I think the reaction has a lot to do with the way it was launched. It’s clearly not even half ready and (possibly because it was kept under wraps) launched by the PM it looks like it’s government funded. Many thought it was.

Let’s see if the remaining deals prove me wrong when they come along. Yo! Sushi? Will there really be a free lunch?
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