Guide to buying software for your small business

Extract . . .

"Without decent software your small business IT infrastructure is pretty much useless. Buying software can be as easy as visiting your local computer store, paying some money and getting a set of software. But this is not necessarily the most cost effective way of making such a purchase. Anyway, how do you know that your hardware will be able to run the software? Is it vital that you have the latest version of software to run your business or can older software do the trick?"

Link
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/15/buying-software-guide.shtml

Government-backed venture capital fund finally sees the light of day

Extract . . .

"The Chancellor's pre-Budget statement contained few bright ideas about how to pay down the national debt. But there was a good sprinkling of semi-formed suggestions that, for business owners and entrepreneurs, provided food for thought."

Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/brightideas/6796148/Government-backed-venture-capital-fund-finally-sees-the-light-of-day.html

The Age Old Question . . . Sole Trader or Limited Company

Extract . . .

"There is no easy answer to this question. There are a number of factors that need to be considered before the decision should be made."

For more information on the main factors:
FACTOR 1 – LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
FACTOR 2 – FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FACTOR 3 – ADMINISTRATION, MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS STANDING
FACTOR 4 – TAXATION

follow this Link
http://www.rawbusiness.com/business-articles/the-age-old-question-sole-trader-or-limited-company-45.php
 

Get a free website for your business

Extract . . .

"If you are thinking of developing a website for your business, you will be pleased to know that there is a new scheme which allows you to create your own customised website for free."

Link
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/15/15_1/free-business-website.shtml

Young entrepreneurs show what can be done with £10 and some hard work

Extract . . .

"There's knowing your market and then there's really knowing your market. Beth Mondon, 13, now knows.

She and three classmates from Avonbourne School, Bournemouth, have set up Internet Rangers to teach grandparents how to use the internet. They have held one session so far, and having learnt a few lessons, plan to run one a week from June. "

Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/brightideas/7728995/Young-entrepreneurs-show-what-can-be-done-with-10-and-some-hard-work.html

Kraft plans heat proof chocolate bars

Extract . . .

"US food giant Kraft is searching for hi-tech chocolate bar packaging that will prevent them from melting at temperatures of up to 40C." Maybe you can help?

Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/7950841/Kraft-plans-heat-proof-chocolate-bars.html

Adventures in Micro Business

Extract . . .

Each month, Professor Russell Smith answers your queries.

Link
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/adventures-in-micro-business-2054207.html

Small Business Profile: Tracey Jefferies

Extract . . .

“It’s a bit of a cliché”, says Tracey Jefferies, “but turning 40 back in 2004 really is what prompted me to start my own business. However, my first problem was in deciding what I could sell that customers would want to buy.”

Link
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/small-business-profile-tracey-jefferies-2054209.html

Guru Q&A/Angel investors

Question

Who exactly are angel investors?

Answer

Opinions vary somewhat but in our experience angel investors are high net-worth individuals who invest in entrepreneurial companies, usually at an early stage.

Typically they provide cash to young companies and take equity in return.

The amounts that angel investors typically invest is small (in the UK between £5k and £50k) when compared venture capitalists do. Generally, but not exclusively, entrepreneurs engage with business angels once they have exhausted their "friends and family" financing options and are either fearful of, or perhaps too small to consider engaging with VCs for capital.

Some angel investors are members of informal groups. This helps them increase their access to investment opportunities (e.g. more than one business angel searching for opportunities) and by investing jointly with other angels they mitigate their risk. Some networks might require a registration fee.

Gobetween Ltd here don’t charge a joining fee and they don’t charge a registration fee either. In fact at Gobetween Ltd there are no fees whatsoever chargeable to the entrepreneur.

Businesses 'paying more' to borrow than last year

Extract . . .

Bank fees and costs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have risen since the end of last year.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) says many small businesses are unable to borrow from banks, because their lending criteria are too restrictive.

Banks say demand has fallen as firms focus on paying back existing loans.

Link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11043081

10 Ways to Energise Your Email Marketing

Extract . . . 

“Email marketing has grown tremendously over the years and it can benefit your business substantially. As with any type of marketing, email marketing takes a great deal of time and effort to insure it is working effectively.

There are many types of email marketing such as sending out periodical newsletters/ezines, sending out promotional emails and product updates, tutorials, etc.

Regardless of which type of email marketing you utilise, one important thing you must do is continually evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. Do not let your email marketing go stale. You need to keep it alive, fresh and energised.”

Link
http://www.businesssolutionsmag.co.uk/featuredarticles/10-ways-to-energize-your-email-marketing

Head in the cloud

Extract . . . 

“The term ‘Cloud Computing’ originated from flow charts that demonstrated the use of the Internet. The word ‘Cloud’ is used as a metaphor for the way the Internet was viewed within these diagrams as a kind of cloud that concealed an infrastructure of software and programmes.

To help demystify the concept of how Cloud Computing can help your business, it is basically a way of avoiding huge capital expenditure on IT costs when your business is starting up. If you cannot afford to employ your own IT department as of yet, and setting up and maintaining your own server would take too much time and money, then why not get one of the many providers out there on the Internet and via mobile Android technology to do it for you?”

Link
http://www.sybmagazine.com/featureheadinthecloud.html

Scheme to 'pull electricity from the air' sparks debate

Extract . . . 

“Tiny charges gathered directly from humid air could be harnessed to generate electricity, researchers say.

Dr Francesco Galembeck told the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston that the technique exploited a little-known atmospheric effect. Tests had shown that metals could be used to gather the charges, he said, opening up a potential energy source in humid climates.”
 

Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11100528

Barclays: Big and bad, or great and good?

Extract . . .

“George Osborne's Banking Commission - set up to review whether big UK banks should be broken up - could, I suppose, have been called the Barclays Commission. Because probably the biggest dilemma for that commission will be to determine whether Barclays epitomises the dangers or the benefits of combining retail banking and investment banking.”

Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/08/barclays_big_and_bad_or_great.html

House price inflation easing off

Extract . . .

“House price inflation in England and Wales is running out of steam, according to the latest figures from the Land Registry. Although prices rose by 0.4% in July, the annual rate of increase fell back from 8.5% to 6.7%.”

Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11108699

The truth about family businesses

Extract . . .

“The heavily publicised picture of family businesses being strong on ethics, quality, filial love and long-term principles is, sadly, very rare. Believe me, I would know.
 
There are several downsides to family businesses – and I seem to have fallen into most of the traps over the years. This includes allowing my then-aging mother to assist (actually, totally hamper) a startup business, being married to my business partner (ending in divorce) and doing business with my sister (best for me not to comment on that at all!).  

Finally, both of my children have worked for me at different times. Both brought enormous knowledge to the business, having been surrounded by it from the age of nought. Both genuinely cared for the business – but they also felt they had a right to it.”

Link
http://realbusiness.co.uk/jan_cavelle/the_truth_about_family_businesses

Entrepreneurs struggling in 'wobbly' recovery

Extract . . .

“After-effects of recession suggest more insolvencies on the way. British businesses have failed to return to pre-credit crunch levels according to new research, raising new questions over the UK’s economic recovery and concerns over the prospect of a new insolvency epidemic. 

RSM Tenon’s Business Barometer found that 76% of entrepreneurs are still waiting for their businesses to return to the levels seen before the credit-crunch hit in 2007. 

Three years on and one in ten entrepreneurs believe it will take another three years for their businesses to return to ‘normal’ levels. 27% predict it will take one to two years and 20% think two to three years is a more realistic timeframe for business levels to be restored.”

Link
http://www.businessmag.co.uk/News/Finance/South--Entrepreneurs-struggling-in--wobbly--recove.aspx

Free reliable software – fact or fiction?

Guest writer Neil Bloom offers his opinion:

First let me state that I’m not an IT consultant nor a computer nerd. I’ve never read instructions or user manuals, I have no idea what makes my computer or the software work but I’m appreciative that it does (most of the time). I started using a computer in nineteen hundred and froze to death using MSDOS and Windows 3.1. I leave it to you to guess how old I am!

Could this be you?

As a new entrepreneur you will have possibly (probably?) spent your last penny and stuffed your credit card on your unique product and now have to run your business and create presentations for prospective investors and customers. Slight problem, your computer is older than you are and the software is so slow that it’s quicker to write with a hammer and chisel on granite. Don’t panic, all is not lost, you may not need a new computer you just need to give it a new lease of life and it will cost you nothing except time.

Mirage or reality?

Having trawled around the internet you’ve probably seen and possibly downloaded so called ‘free’ software only to find that they are not as good as you expected, full of bugs and possibly viruses and in some cases not as free as you thought as they were trial versions that expired in 30 days. I’ve make the same mistakes. However over the years I’ve downloaded, used, and still use a wide range of really useful totally free software. I would also add that I have used all of these programs on a computer that is seven years old running an early version of Windows XP.

First things first!

Don’t forget to backup your data before using any of these programs!

Next and most important, is your anti-virus software up to date? Before you download anything make sure that it is. If you are using Norton or similar and it’s expired there are several very good free anti-virus programs available. All of them have different methods of guarding your computer against viruses and there are many different opinions as to which is the best. I use Avast and it does the job for me.
 
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Then you need to get your computer running more efficiently. There are lots of tools around but these are the only two that I use.

Glary Utilities

Strange name for a program but a really good all-round tool for cleaning up your computer. As with many programs there is the free version and ‘premium’ paid for version but the free version is good enough for what you will need to do.
 
http://www.glaryutilities.com/

Defraggler

It’s a good idea to defragment your drive and whilst Windows provides a program to do this I use a free program called Defraggler which is not only better but quicker.

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

OK, your computer is now (I hope) running a little faster and more efficiently now it’s time to look at some productivity software.

Open Office

The Kkng of free software, I have no idea why this software suite is totally free. It’s published and supported by Sun Microsystems and 99% compatible with Microsoft Office. It may not have some of the bells and whistles of Office but it’s free and updated on a regular basis. It’s also available for all versions of Windows, Mac and Linux.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Web browsers and email

Many people use Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook for browsing the internet and sending emails. For the last three years I have been using Firefox for browsing and Thunderbird for email. In my opinion they are much more secure, are smaller and run much quicker especially on older machines. Both are open source and published by Mozilla.

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/

Image viewers and editors

Most of the time you will only want to look at images and carry out simple editing. I use two viewers/editors. Irfanview and Gimp both of which are very simple to use.

http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.gimp.org/

Communications

I can’t do without Skype. Not only do I speak to my contacts (who have Skype) free of charge, but I can also call landlines throughout the world at a ridiculously low price. It’s very easy to set up and run.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/home

Odds and ends

Here are three utilities that I use on a daily basis.

Primo PDF: This program converts almost any file into a standard PDF file. When you look at the website you will see that there is a free and premium version, for 99% of your work the free version is all you need.

http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx

Nico Photocopier: If you have a scanner this is a very simple program that allows you to use it as a photocopier. Once again there is a premium version but the free version is all you will probably need.

http://www.nicocuppen.com/pit/editor/page_detail.php?id=10103

7-Zip: When you need to compress files to send a large email or archive your work this is a great alternative to WinZip which is now time limited shareware.

http://www.7-zip.org/

The above programs should cater for most of your needs but if you are looking for something else check this website for a range of safe open source software

http://sourceforge.net/

And finally . . .

As a last resort you can back up all your data, find all your computer disks and then either reformat, or get someone else to reformat, your computer and reload your programs, including the operating system. This may seem an extreme solution but if your computer is old and has a lot of 'stuff' on it, it can also seem like you suddenly have a new computer! And for much less than buying one would cost.

DISCLAIMER

I could write a two page disclaimer but I have downloaded and used all of these programs with no problems, so the bottom line is that if they don’t work or your computer has a heart attack - don’t blame me!

The USA view/Should a Profitable Company Demand Pay Cuts?

Extract . . .

This week, our colleague Steven Greenhouse wrote a fascinating article  about a labor dispute in upstate New York. The dispute pits 305 hourly workers at a Mott’s apple juice plant against the corporate owner, Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

The workers went on strike to protest the company’s demand for wage and benefit givebacks. The company asserts that the givebacks are warranted because the plant’s labor costs are excessive compared to average wages in the region.

Link
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/should-a-profitable-company-demand-pay-cuts/?ref=smallbusiness

Banks 'to blame' for lack of small business lending, not weak demand

Extract . . .

Members of the Telegraph's group for owner-managers have reported inconsistent lending decisions, increased personal security demands, progressively more expensive overdraft facilities and a lack of business knowledge among front line bank staff in response to calls for banks to 'ramp up' lending to small companies

Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/7948353/Banks-to-blame-for-lack-of-small-business-lending-not-weak-demand.html

Guru Q&A - Angel investors

Question

How will I know which business angels are an appropriate funding source for my company?

Answer

The simple answer is 'use your intuition'. Although simple, it is relevant – but it’s far from the whole story. Intuition can be an unreliable friend. So don’t rely on it entirely. There are other aspects to consider.

An angel investor might be a great opportunity to gain an advisor. So do your research. Is this person looking to just invest cash without any hands-on involvement – or can they contribute significant experience, knowledge, and networking opportunities, as well as the cash you need to grow your business?

Ideally you’d want both. Practically though you might not get both in one individual. Fair enough. Under such circumstances you might want a suite of investors. Some who contribute both cash and expertise and others who contribute the cash. You can never have too much cash whereas it is possible you can have a surfeit of advice.

Advice is ideal if it is relevant of course but can be problematic if there is disagreement on advice between two or more of your business angel investors. Sooner or later you’ll end up being a referee and that way you are bound to upset one of them, or all of them.

So to reiterate, ideally you want more that one business angel. Both provide cash and one provides expertise.

Banks customers still paying for mistakes by investment bankers

Extract . . .

UK retail banking and small business  customers are paying for the mistakes made by Britain's big banks in the financial crisis by their investment banking divisions, where losses are five times higher than in retail banking, a City analyst has warned.

Bruce Packard at Seymour Pierce said that, according to 'the bankers' paradox', those most in need of assistance are the least likely to be given help. "With £75bn of cumulative investment banking losses – five times higher than UK retail banking losses – we are rather surprised that UK banks haven't given their markets divisions the cold shoulder."

Link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/19/banking-small-business

Business book summary / “Trade-Off (Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t)”

by Kevin Maney

Extract . . .

Kevin Maney shows how conflicting forces determine the success, or failure, of new products and services in the marketplace. Almost every decision consumers make involves a trade-off between fidelity and convenience — between the products we love and the products we need.

Link
http://www.summary.com/summaries/_/Trade-Off/?=

Businesses Pick Mobile Websites Over Apps

Extract . . .

Some 80% of businesses across a wide range of vertical industries are planning to or already have developed mobile websites as their predominant vehicle for conducting mobile commerce in the next year, according to a new survey by Adobe Systems. A downloadable, application-only mobile commerce strategy was the preference of only 8% of respondents in the Adobe Scene7 Mobile Commerce Survey, released Thursday.

Businesses' mobile strategies were highlighted in four main areas: promotions, commerce, product information, and branding. The latter was deemed the core mobile strategy for 75% of respondents, reinforcing the importance of the mobile channel to drive traffic and support different types of commerce, Adobe said.

Link
http://intelligent-enterprise.informationweek.com/channels/enterprise_applications/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1VDSHUM3O5D1FQE1GHOSKH4ATMY32JVN?articleID=226700408

Is Virtualisation the Same as Cloud Computing?

Extract . . . 

A recent Reuters news item that equates virtualisation and cloud computing is symptomatic of the ongoing confusion between the two terms. Without splitting hairs, are these really the same? 

Here's the statement from the article "Dell To Buy Storage Company 3PAR for $1.15 billion"): "International Business Machines Corp has been expanding its services business, as have other rivals like Hewlett-Packard Co and Oracle Corp. Such companies have also been stepping up investment in cloud computing, or 'virtualisation', a technology that enables users to access data and software over the Internet and corporate networks." 

(The underlining is mine. Also, let us ignore that last bit about technology enabling access to data and software over the internet -- which could be one of several 'technologies', for example IP.)

Link
http://intelligent-enterprise.informationweek.com/blog/archives/2010/08/is_virtualizati.html

Forum watch/Secret Diary of an Entrepreneur

A 'real' look at the 'exciting' life of an entrepreneur !


Link
http://community.managementtoday.co.uk/search/SearchResults.aspx?u=2677&o=DateDescending

How to avoid an online traffic jam

Extract . . .

Hostway's Neil Barton on avoiding website overload in the face of high traffic volumes . . .

Recent figures from the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) revealed that British internet users are spending 65% more time online than they did three years ago. The average surfer now spends 22 hours and 15 minutes on the internet each month and this upward curve is likely to continue. For businesses this trend is good news as it can potentially mean more traffic visiting their websites. But how prepared are today’s websites for this increase in online traffic?

Link
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/channel/TechnologyInnovation/news/1018077/mt-expert-it-avoid-online-traffic-jam/

Be more emotionally intelligent

Extract . . .

Don't expect staff to buy into your strategy because of your brilliant figures and flip-charts . . .

These are uncertain times; staff in both the private and public sector are nervous about their prospects, and are looking to their managers to steer them through the difficult months ahead. So it probably won’t be enough to bombard them with PowerPoint slides explaining the financial argument behind your brilliant new strategy – you also need to find a way of enthusing them about the journey. This is where ‘emotional intelligence’ kicks in – the ability to relate to people in a way that appeals to their hearts, as well as their heads. It’s something that few great managers can live without. So we asked Richard Brown of Cognosis for his top ten tips on how to bring your strategy to life . . .

Link

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/channel/Leadership/news/1022264/mt-experts-top-ten-tips-emotionally-intelligent/

Barclays rebels against lending targets

Extract . . .

Targets could encourage irresponsible lending, says the bank's SME chief in a bizarre role reversal.

"Get your tin hats out, the apocalypse is on its way. We only say that because, in an unprecedented reversal of roles, a bank has managed to find a way to accuse the government of being irresponsible. Steve Cooper, the man in charge of business lending at Barclays, has dug his heels in over lending targets the Government wants Barclays to sign up to. Cooper says he’s worried the targets could encourage banks to take a reckless approach to lending. In the great battle between banks, businesses and the Government over the state of business lending, it’s the first line of reasoning from a bank that has actually made sense. We think we spy the four horsemen in the distance . . ."

Link

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/newsalerts/dailynews/news/1022164/Barclays-rebels-against-lending-targets/?DCMP=EMC-Daily%20News

Small businesses bear the brunt of slowing bank lending

Extract . . .

“Business lending by banks dropped £3.5bn in June - and SMEs suffered the most. Surprised?

The Bank of England said today that business lending fell by £3.5bn in June. And guess who bore the brunt of that? That’s right, small businesses – who, unlike their larger brethren, don’t really have other sources of funding to fall back on. The banks argue that there simply isn’t much demand from this end of the market – and while there may be some truth in that, the sky-high interest rates currently on offer aren’t exactly helping. The Forum of Private Business also reckons that SMEs are not getting a fair deal on property valuations when they apply for asset-backed loans. Not particularly encouraging, is it?"

Link
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/channel/Finance/news/1023278/small-businesses-bear-brunt-slowing-bank-lending/

Protecting your business against identity fraud

Extract . . .

“Identity fraud is an ever-increasing problem in the UK. According to the Home Office, the annual cost is now £1.7bn, with businesses shouldering around £50m of the burden.

The problem of individual identity fraud is relatively well-publicised. Known methods used by criminals to obtain sensitive information include searching through rubbish bins to find discarded bank statements; intercepting mail; copying credit cards during a transaction; and so-called 'phishing' scams, which involve sending emails which look as though they have come from a bank or similar organisation, and asking customers to 'confirm' their details by return email.:”

Link
http://www.eaassociates.co.uk/content/business/business-finance/dealing-with-fraud/protect-your-business-against-identity-fraud.html?u=40c0aB44&m=6130

Three steps to cheaper financing

Extract . . .

“Sooner or later, most businesses have to turn to external sources to finance growth, whether it is to invest in new equipment or machinery, to purchase property, to upgrade technology, or to maintain cashflow while a new product line kicks in. The cost of external financing can be considerable and keeping it down is a key element in maximising your profitability. Here are three ways in which you can do this:”

Link
http://www.eaassociates.co.uk/content/business/business-finance/improving-profitability/three-steps-to-cheaper-financing.html?u=40c0aB44&m=6130

Credit conditions remain tough for SMEs

From the archives – Credit conditions remain tough for SMEs

Extract . . .

“Larger businesses are experiencing a greater availability of credit for the first time this year, but smaller firms are continuing to struggle to access capital, the CBI has reported. According to the business group’s latest Access to Finance Survey, of those firms seeking new credit lines in the past three months, 27 per cent said that availability had improved, while 10 per cent said it had deteriorated.”

Link
http://www.eaassociates.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=27999&d=601&h=160&f=260&u=40c0aB44&m=6130

A philosophical question; can friendship and business mix?

Dave Dibbens gives his opinion . . .

 

Can friendship and business mix? Families and businesses certainly mix, but that is a case of blood being thicker than water rather than friendship. That said, there are excellent examples of organisations being forged from friendships – Hewlett Packard in that famous garage by, eponymous friends, Dave and Bill. While also in the tech sector Apple started by friends the two Steves – Wozniak and Jobs with Ronald Wayne. 

 

Arguably, friendship and business mixing is like selling your old car to a friend – only to find it has a mind of its own. Outside your care it’s now both a totally unreliable money pit and a friendship buster. This is when friends don’t understand that it’s ‘nothing personal just business’ and maybe this offers a lesson for friendships and business.

This article explores the friendship and business mix to see if it can work, and if not, then why not?

Firstly to consider the interplay where friendships develop and grow: 

• In daily business people work together and often play together as one organisation
• Business creation where friends form businesses they go onto manage
• The business of selling – where people buying from people they like, which in turn causes a migration (or metamorphosis) from respect to friendship.

Today our western society is a ‘me culture’ focused on like-minded hedonism where the ‘girls from accounts’ go out together on Friday night. Clearly friendship in the workplace does flow into some private lives.

Arguably in 80% of cases this business follow-on is more intense as couples enter relationships with work colleagues. This is as true for Rupert Murdoch as it is for Joe Smith in Accounting and suggests that from a personal perspective business and friendship, assuming we have this feeling for our partners, exists and is positive in a broad sense.

Wendi Deng Murdoch, a smart woman of Chinese heritage, met her husband Rupert Murdoch, Head of News International through her work and provides, we might well assume, a high-level inside track to the Chinese psyche and world’s fastest growing market, besides being a loving wife to Rupert and mother to their two small children.

What of friendship and business creation? Consider a small innovative Software Company I knew in a past life as an illustrative model. Established by two like-minded people with their own inherent skills, but very different backgrounds they decided to, ‘Go for it’. Not initially in friendship but mutuality of goal, business symbiosis, each supporting the other. Was this friendship? Perhaps - but here’s the rub – in business what starts as mutuality can lead to friendship but only with clear division of labour and agreed governance on both sides.

However, businesses pressures are now so great that the mutuality of interest will seldom blossom into friendship. There may be a ‘relationship’ based on convenience, but this can hardly be described as friendship in the usually accepted meaning of the word. For small businesses friendships seems compromised by an initial focus on survival. Once that’s overcome, this might evolve into pressure for short-term growth and rapid returns to financial backers. These pressures cause fun and friendship to quickly leave the business stage. This leaves each stakeholder to reflect on the conflicts of business, friendship and family – pointing perhaps to a situation where family is also the business and friendships have to develop outside.

So if people buy from people they like, can this business relationship develop into friendship? A complex question. One answer from UK pub culture goes farther, where the landlord serving his customers is seen as ‘a mate’, business is interwoven with friendship. So in that instance business and friendships do mix but is that just the secret of running a successful bar?

Outside the pub and the ‘girls from accounts’ can business and friendship mix? The answer is unclear. Relationships in business still thrive despite corporate HR policies. As for mutual friends growing multinationals this needs a special talent. Few have it. To conclude; relationships can certainly flourish but it seems unlikely that real and deep friendships can sustain boardroom pressures where mutual respect and performance are perhaps more valued than the elusive chimera of true friendship.

David Dibbens, is a director of 6 Data Limited and freelance specialist in data-analysis and continual improvement in global IT services.

Do you have to be unique to succeed?

Uniqueness has become a bit jargonised these days. Entrepreneurs usually believe they have it and investors search for it. In reality, is true uniqueness a mirage for both parties? 

What’s unique to one person is seldom unique to another. This is because life experiences differ. It’s often the case that Entrepreneurs products are unique – but many fail to realise that they are only so at a point in time. The Sinclair C5 was perceived as unique when launched on 10th January 1985. However, it wasn’t the first battery powered vehicle - history dates show the 18th century was a major start for electric vehicles. An electric vehicle broke the 100 km/hr speed barrier on April 29, 1899. So amending the old adage - ‘there’s seldom anything unique under the Sun’ seems highly appropriate in the entrepreneur/investor arena.

Uniqueness arises at a specific point in time and probably because of a precise need. Whether that need is real or imagined is an interesting point that is, however, beyond the scope of this article. The Sinclair C5 failure can be put down to many reasons but perhaps poor timing and a lack of need are the primary causes. In 1985 we didn’t need one. Simple as that. The contrast with the mobile phone, invented 1973, commercialised by 1983, is stark. Once the mobile cellphone arrived courtesy of Motorola the need became clear. The financial community and those working remotely were early adopters as it offered immediacy of communications in situations where time is money and where knowledge is the power to make that money.

Uniqueness is therefore not always a mirage but a tangible reality either in terms of careful marketing and brand development - arguably the most common form - or real product innovation which is considerably more challenging. For every unique brand, like Mercedes or Apple, there are many that while unique, fail to grab attention, usually for good reasons. Product innovation is more of a challenge as it takes many forms from the software in an iPhone through to the copyright licenses we pay for in the price of every mobile phone. Yes, a licence can indeed be innovative, especially if it results in user benefits not previously available.

For investors, the crucial challenge is to balance the tangible and verifiable merits of an entrepreneur's unique offering, product or service, against the blandishments of the ‘better mousetrap’. Is it better to have a truly unique offering to the market? Investors need financial returns that balance risk with return in a portfolio where risk is managed within boundaries. For investors, it can be argued that unique products create a higher risk because the demand specific needs in terms of management and infrastructure that may be outside of the entrepreneur's know-how and outside the comfort zone of the investor.

Consider the electric car. There are now several models in production. Each needs electricity to recharge its batteries - so nothing unique there. The uniqueness is how to commercialise the charging facilities for these and other cars due to range limits of the current battery technology. This opens up unique options for entrepreneurs like Shai Agassi of Better Place who want to meet this need uniquely with a network of battery swap-in swap-out stations across various countries. Investors in Better Place are gambling not only on the unique robots and infrastructure supporting the concept but also in the, as yet unproven, belief that electric vehicle drivers will use such swapping points due to range limits of current battery technology.

Better Place investors don’t foresee the potential for ‘game-changers’ either in terms of battery technology e.g. extending range, or that driver behaviour for electric car drivers may differ from their petroleum driving peers. The price and physical characteristics of electricity and petroleum are very different. For example my home does not have a petrol pump but it does have electricity. The cost-drivers also differ e.g. you can charge existing battery vehicles for pence whereas a tank of petroleum costs more than £50 - depending on tank capacity. Uniqueness therefore rests in both the eyes and heart of entrepreneurs and investors.

For many end-users, uniqueness remains a mirage especially as customers become both more cynical and ‘savvy’ about the ‘next big thing’. Key early adopters are now looking beyond what the entrepreneur or entrepreneurial company is delivering - to what it should deliver within the given technology. A recent example of this is the iPad, successfully selling an initial 300,000 units at launch. Quickly iPad spawned comments like, ‘where’s the front facing camera’ and ‘why no second charging point so I can use it in both landscape and portrait mode?’

Maybe this shows the real challenge for entrepreneurs, investors and other stakeholders in our society? It’s not uniqueness that’s axiomatically desirable, more that exceeding users' rising expectations is probably an immortal objective. 

David Dibbens, is a director of 6 Data Limited and freelance specialist in data-analysis and continual improvement in global IT services.

What is an Entrepreneur?

As a general rule, the term 'entrepreneur' is applied to someone who creates a product or service (not necessarily new) by exploiting a niche in the market that may not, at that time, exist. One definition of entrepreneurship places an emphasis on innovation, such as:

•   new products
•   new production methods
•   new markets
•   new forms of organisation

Thought by many to be a modern idea, in fact the concept of entrepreneurship dates back to the 18th century and originates in the work of Richard Cantillon in his work Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General 1755. An even earlier example of entrepreneurship were the English merchant adventurers of the 16th and 17th centuries. The intrepid captains of the merchants’ ships loaded them up with trade goods, purchased usually by money loaned to them by private investors, and sailed away to frequently unknown and sometimes dangerous destinations. 

Business entrepreneurs are viewed as fundamentally important in the capitalistic society, while social entrepreneurs' principal objectives include the creation of a net social benefit.

Social entrepreneurs act within a market aiming to create social value through the improvement of goods and services offered to the community. Their main aim is to help offer a better service improving the community as a whole and are predominately run as non profit schemes. To support this point Zahra (2009) said that “social entrepreneurs make significant and diverse contributions to their communities and societies, adopting business models to offer creative solutions to complex and persistent social problems”. Examples of socially run businesses include the NHS.

A more generally held theory is that entrepreneurs emerge from the population on demand, from the combination of opportunities and people well-positioned to take advantage of them. An entrepreneur may perceive that they are among the few to recognise or be able to solve a problem. In this view, one studies on one side the distribution of information available to would-be entrepreneurs, due largely to the work of Joseph Schumpeter and on the other, how environmental factors (access to capital, competition, etc.), change the rate of a society's production of entrepreneurs.

The research of entrepreneurship owes a lot to Schumpeter’s contributions. He was probably the first scholar to develop its theories. He gave two theories. In the early one, Schumpeter argued that the innovation and technological change of a nation comes from the entrepreneurs, or wild spirits. He coined the word Unternehmergeist, German for entrepreneur-spirit. He believed that these individuals are the ones who make things work in the economy of the country.

Many people use the terms 'entrepreneur' and 'small business owner' synonymously. While they may have much in common, there are significant differences between the entrepreneurial venture and the small business. Entrepreneurial ventures differ from small businesses in these ways:

1. Amount of wealth creation - rather than simply generating an income stream that replaces traditional employment, a successful entrepreneurial venture creates substantial wealth.
2. Speed of wealth creation - while a successful small business can generate several million dollars of profit over a lifetime, entrepreneurial wealth creation often is rapid; for example, within five years.
3. Risk - the risk of an entrepreneurial venture must be high; otherwise, with the incentive of sure profits many entrepreneurs would be pursuing the idea and the opportunity would no longer exist.
4. Innovation - entrepreneurship often involves substantial innovation beyond what a small business might exhibit. This innovation gives the venture the competitive advantage that results in wealth creation. The innovation may be in the product or service itself, or in the business processes used to deliver it.

Another important distinction is that between entrepreneurs and inventors. Put simply, a small number of entrepreneurs are inventive and create genuinely new products or services. Conversely, very few inventors are true entrepreneurs. A well know example of a modern entrepreneur is Richard Branson who has created many new businesses without making significant new inventions. A rare example of someone who has made a great success in combining both roles is James Dyson. Both functions have important parts to play in a business society, but they are very different in nature.

Perhaps Niccolo Machiavelli had the last word on the subject.
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”