Our new business information wiki – Business Essentials on the Web

As part of our continuing experimination with all things Web 2.0 (Social Media) we have created a wiki for essential business information. Still currently in beta, this wiki is a designed to allow any of my British Library business information colleagues to add useful links.

 

But more revolutionary (for the British Library) is that we are also opening up the wiki to anyone who has useful information to add. In particular our partners, who have expertise in a wide range of business support activities.

 

The wiki will be of help to people who are not able to come and visit our St Pancras building, and who find that Google does not provide all the answers.

 

Obviously we ony want useful content on the wiki, and will be taking any spam off straight away, much like you see on Wikipedia. Our wiki guidelines explain in more detail.

 

Please join our little community and add your comments and submit links of your own.

http://bl-business-essentials.wikispaces.com

 

The current hot topics are, Business planning, Grants and finance, Industry specific, Intellectual property, Marketing and PR.

If you have any ideas or comments on the wiki, you can email bipc@bl.uk

Free vs Fee – the Future of News – SLA Europe meeting 3 November

Another successful SLA Europe event this evening, this time at the swanky venue of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, five minutes away from Blackfriars station.

The hot topic was Free vs Fee – the Future of News. And stemmed from the fact that most newspapers have offered their content via the Internet for free with the expectation that display advertising would create enough revenue to cover the cost of creating and distributing their content. However, with the continuing decline in physical newspaper sales and the softening of the display advertising market, news organisations are exploring new ways to charge for their digital content.

On the panel were Jeremy  Lawson  VP Sales, EMEA, Dow Jones & Company, Andrew Hughes – Commercial Director for the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), Laurence C. Rafsky Ph.D. – CEO of Acquire Media and Laurence Kaye – Principal at Laurence Kay Solicitors. The panel was excellently moderated by Donald Roll – Managing Director, Europe for Alacra.

Here are my notes from the evening:

Don Roll introduced the evening by talking about the steep decline in newspaper circulation, the recent arrival of the first free quality newspaper in the form of the London Evening Standard, and how the NLA wants to ensure newspaper publishers receive payment for web content.

Andrew Hughes – NLA initiatives

NLA are moving towards creating a set of licences for commercial use of newspaper websites.

UK newspapers spend £1b a year in creating this content, which is quite different from paper published information. For example 31% of newspaper websites has never appeared in print.

The plan is that for those who charge for access to newspaper content will be charged by the NLA, who will also charge end user clients for access to content.

Existing licences will be extended and new ones created where necessary

e-Clips Web – Working to improve access to content by using newspaper CMS systems.

Laurence Kay – The legal view – 10 key points

1. Professional journalism, ‘trusted content’ and UGC (user generated content)

2. Change takes time! Business models and culture takes time to change.

3. Global Media / local copyright?

4. If content is going to be free, why does copyright matter? Provides the framework for access and usage rights.

5. B2B versus consumer copyrights

6. ‘Effects-based’ approach to copyright. Helps to work out how to apply rules to the real world. Look at the commercial impact of activities.

7. ‘Legal’ versus ‘Illegal’ content. When to take action or technical measures over infringements.

8. Who are the ‘intermediaries’ in the value chain? E.g. Where does Google fit in? Searched for or ‘scraped’ conent?

9. ‘Fair Use’. Big variations across Europe. United States has a broad definition. If the use is commercial is that no longer fair use?

10. We are still lacking 21^st century infrastructure to cope with licensing and payments for use.

Laurence C. Rafsky – What do we mean by free?

Once freedom has been tasted there is no going back.

Value chain –

1. professionally produced but given away selectively – e.g. advertiser supported
2. Non-professional content
3. Gifted professional content. E.g. Stephen King novel
4. Free to some but not others
5. Content that should not be free.

Two enemy camps

1. Information wants to be free – the hippies
2. Corporate suits who want to charge for everything

The solution will need to be  a compromise.

A question for the NLA to consider:

Do you use copyrighted material for commercial gain without payment to content owners?

Do you use copyrighted material for commercial gain without permission from the content owners as we understand it?

The crux of the debate is between these two viewpoints.

Can we separate business use from personal use? Google don’t distinguish between the two.

Jeremy  Lawson – Supporting publishers and their right to monetise their content.

Questions from the audience:

Did the newspaper industry start digging its own grave by giving away content?

New York Times started with some free and mainly fee access. They ended it because when compared pay per click ads versus pay for access would give ten times the revenue. But as ad revenues fall they may go back to first model.

Should be driven by economics.

Do you think news aggregators are a serious threat to publishers?

Links are fine, but extracts complicate the issue as readers may not link through to content. But as web content grows and newspaper content becomes a smaller fraction, increasing hits to newspaper sites lose their economic value to the publishers.

85% of newspaper traffic comes via Google. So should Google pay the majority share?

Is the Kindle from Amazon a potential future model for subscription access to newspaper content?

Disagreement – ability to break news up into selected streams for readers counts against Kindle model.

When will paper newspapers die?

Laurence C. Rafsky predicted that by 2030 newspapers would cease to exist in paper form as a  mainstream product.

He compares their future to candles today – they will become a decorative only production.

As he pointed out, if you had a choice, why would you use paper for something that only has a value for a few hours, and then you need to scan it to create a digital version which can be archived.

B2B vs B2C

Issues about consumers within a business environment – now that the genie is out of the bottle, how do you get individuals in a corporate environment to accept paying for information.

The event was kindly sponsored by Dow Jones.

What is a CRM, and when are they best used by small business? Lucidica workshop Tuesday 3 November

This morning I managed to find the time to attend a workshop by one of our partners. Lucidica are a relatively new partner for the Business & IP Centre and currently provide six workshops related to IT and business.

This particular half day workshop on what is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and when are they best used by small business, was presented by immensely knowledgeable founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Thomas Jeffs.

He got straight down to business by explaining that a successful CRM implementation requires both staff discipline and management buy-in. With out both of these you will be wasting both your time and and your money.

Here are my notes from the morning:

What can a CRM system do?

1. Contact Management

• the most basic function of a CRM
• who they are
• what they are doing
• central point for all staff

Shared office address book – suppliers – customers – for many business this is just a piece of paper stuck onto a computer terminal

if people don’t use it and keep it up to date it become worthless

2.  Sales Force Automation – now the most popular aspect of CRM – making sure you make the best use of your sales force

• What to do and when, with regards to sales and follow ups
• Helps make sure you chase opportunities when you need to
• Allows you to forecast your predicted sales and leads – only tends to work on larger scale of operation
• Allows you to see how your sales agents are doing
• Essentially automating your sales force and sales force reporting
• Benefits not so clear to staff due to reluctance to fill in details of customer interactions

3.  Marketing Campaign Management – linked to previous activity

• How much did £100 in marketing spend raise in sales?
• How many leads did a marketing campaign generate?
• How many internal resources were required as a result of a marketing campaign? E.g. Did it attract the wrong kind of customer who were ‘high maintenance’?

4. Customer Service Management – support tickets – complaints – consistency across the Business & IP Centre

• A centralised place for tracking – breaks dependency on one member of staff
• Can provide automated responses to issues. E.g. generated ticket number and expected response from the company
• Can monitor and escalate issues if still outstanding
• Result in – consistency  and efficiency of service
• Benefits clearly visible to staff and customers

It is important to establish which of the above are the most relevant to your business, as this will have an impact the the most suitable package for you.

How do CRM systems help your business?

1. How do they do it? – Automation

Health warning

-       Automation to internal users is good

• Creation of follow-up tasks/ reminders
• Workflow tools
• Creation of templates, timelines and standards

-       Automation to external users is mixed

• Acknowledgement of complaints/issues/feedback work well
• Automated quarterly sales email – don’t work so well – de-personalises the business.

2. How do they do it? – Tracking / Recording

-       Change of address for existing clients

-       Client moves to a new company

-       Recording emails and phone contacts with sales leads

-       Recording information that client is under contract with competitor for next three months

-       Has your entire team access to this information

3. How do they do it? – Reporting

-       Reporting is the purpose for a CRM for management

-       Some things a CRM can tell you:

• Predicted sales for next three months
• Which clients haven’t been in contact for a while
• Which sales agents are getting the most leads
• Which sales agents are making the most sales
• Which contracts are up for renewal
• What total sales have you achieved from each marketing campaign
• Which clients have service level issues
• Which people work for which clients

Thomas reviewed several case studies based on real experiences at Lucidica.

Which CRM is right for you?

1. Which CRM? – Questions to ask

1. What is the function of the CRM?
2. What will it need to integrate with?
3. Who will need to use it, and from where?
4. What is the potential benefit for my business in £’s?

2. Which CRM? – Quick and dirty recommendations

-       Excel – 1st choice for people thinking about what they need to track

-       SharePoint – 1st choice for precision applications and power users

-       Sage ACT! – 1st choice for integrating into Outloook and Sage, below 10 users, primary use for contact management and sales force automation

-       SugarCRM – 1st choice for Linux users

-       SalesForce.com – 1st choice for users with little infrastructure and who rely on internet traffic for business

-       Goldmine – 1st choice for businesses with over 10 users but can’t afford Microsoft CRM

-       Microsoft CRM – 1st choice for businesses with high volume of sales and contracts

Summary

-       Make sure your CRM does not have superfluous functions

-       Make sure it can scale both up and down

-       Make sure you can get your data out of the system

-       start small and evaluate after six months

Lucidica Technology Seminars

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

- how to improve your website so search engines, like Google, lists or ranks it better/higher.

Email Marketing

- how to use professional looking emails, in bulk, to market effectively, and/or keep your clients informed (e.g. newsletters).

Technology “Must-Have’s” For Small Businesses

- from the best computers and laptops, virus-protection and back-up software we know of; to “what is a server and when does my business need one” and many free software and technology tips to reduce technology risk and increase value in your business.

An Intranet and more with Microsoft Sharepoint

- touted as a big thing in the 1990s, Intranets are finally adding value to business – especially small business now they are affordable with products like Microsoft Sharepoint. In this seminar we explain what an Intranet is, how you can use Sharepoint and how to get this powerful solution from Microsoft for FREE. We’ll talk and show you how you can use Sharepoint for your own CRM, wiki, time sheeting forms and reporting, expense summary forms, other procedures and forms with built-in workflow and much, much more.

What is a CRM, when are they best used by small business and which one to select

- Client Relationship Management (CRM) software can bolster your relationship with existing clients as well as help you work on your prospective client contacts better and more frequently with ease. We’ll outline what a CRM, how it should be used for small business and profile the top 4 or 5 CRMs affordable to small business.

Designing, developing and maintaining an effective website

- every small business should have a website. Here we dispel many myths about designing, developing and maintaining a website – it’s really not that hard! For most websites we design and build for our clients we recommend they buy some great Adobe software which allows them to maintain their website like they edit Word documents. We provide plenty of advice and tips on what is a good design, and what your developers should be including in the code when they build it.

Book review – From Inventor to Entrepreneur by Celia Gates

Having met the Celia a couple of times in the Business & IP Centre  I am aware of the both the passion she has for turning inventions into business, as well as the tremendous challenges she has faced on her journey.

So I was fascinated to see how she would express these in her new book. As with all entrepreneurial ideas this book came about because it wasn’t there when Celia needed it. In other words there was a gap in the market which meant both an opportunity to help other people in the same situation.

I’ve met quite a few inventors since joining The British Library and I now recognise Celia’s description of the inventor’s mindset after having had a light-bulb moment.

‘One of those burning ideas that bores deep into your head, gives you a rush of excitement and keeps you awake at night. You simply can’t stop thinking about it and the more your do, the better it gets. You know you’re on to a ‘winner’ but, the question is:

What on earth are you supposed to do with this idea next.

It’s with this question in mind that I have written this book. It’s the book I wanted to read when I first had my idea. I searched for it, but it didn’t exist – now I hope to put the knowledge and experience I have gained to use by helping you. The advice and guidance offered herein is cheap at the price. It has cost me at least £94,000 in expensive mistakes to acquire. The intention is to save the you the same peril but, you must be warned in advance; this book is not for the feint hearted.’

Celia is more of a creative designer than traditional inventor so I was fascinated to see that one of her earliest influences was a visit to the Alessi factory in Milan. As a fan of their products for nearly thirty years I can relate to this inspiration.

Almost everyone I meet has had a light-bulb moment at some point in their life (many have claimed to have been the first to come up with the idea of wheels on suitcases). However, the key is what they do next. According to Celia, out of 33,000 ideas, only 3,000 ever get written down, out of those only 300 are developed further, 3 of those are filed for official ownership (e.g. a Patent application), and only 1 idea goes on to become a reality in the market place.

For Celia the idea is secondary in the route to market, the primary factor is the inventor.

‘You are totally and utterly responsible for the success of your idea. Turning and idea into reality has everything to do with you. You and the belief and action you are prepared to take in order to turn your idea into a phenomenal success.’

As Celia correctly points out, the very first thing you should do with your brilliant idea is to value it. Far too many inventors devote time and money developing and protecting their idea, only to find out it will never be commercially viable.

1. You need to work out who (and calculate how many) will benefit from your idea.

‘Avoid sweeping statements such as ‘everybody in the entire world is going to benefit’

Concentrate on who is going to benefit the most, and so who are likely to be your first customers.’

2. Find out how accessible you target market is. How are you going to get to meet them to talk about your idea and get their reaction?

3. Work out who you are going to be competing against. Many inventors say they are creating a new market with their idea, but even where this is true existing businesses with either feel threatened or, see a new opportunity and will respond.

4. Clearly identify your competitive edge. Why is you idea so much better than anything else on the market?

5. How sure are you of being the original creator of your idea? Similar ideas often occur simultaneously, so keep watching out for your idea in patent searches and trade magazines.

Celia has adapted the famous Edward De Bono Six Thinking Hats Principles into what she terms The Whether? Forecast. This is to help view the idea from a range of perspectives:

Sun – think sunny positive thoughts about your idea.
Rain – concentrate on all the negative aspects, and what could go wrong.
Snow – clean sheet thinking. Imagine the landscape is covered by snow and start again.
Blue Sky – think creatively, don’t be constrained to the known.
Environment – look around you and consider the physical environment in which your idea will function.
Whether Report – review the evidence and your research. Look for gaps in your knowledge and try to fill these. Examine past trends and historical patterns to help predict the future.

The importance of building prototypes is covered;
‘They say that a picture speaks a thousand words: in this case a prototype speaks a thousand pictures.’
Apparently James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes when developing his dual-cyclone vacuum cleaner.

The book gradually moves towards more entrepreneurial activities, such as the need to develop an elevator pitch. This is something inventors are particularly bad at in my experience. Too often they go into far much technical detail, forgetting to emphasise the benefits of their invention to the consumer.

In chapter eight Celia attacks the tricky issue of selling intellectual property. Many inventors really struggle with this concept as they don’t trust anyone else to take proper care of their ‘baby’. The chapter starts with the following:

‘How to get rich from your invention

So, let’s start by overcoming a barrier: are you an inventor or an entrepreneur? With a little luck you are an Inventive Entrepreneur and in this case you are in line to make some BIG MONEY…

… but before we proceed, how do you feel about this?

Are you in the invention game to make BIG MONEY or are you inventing because it is your hobby or because it rewards you in other ways?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing something because you enjoy doing it. The world needs more social entrepreneurs and if you are in this business solely because you believe you are capable of adding infinite value to the lives of many other through your ideas then you have my utmost respect.

Her in the UK we seemingly ‘hate the concept of making BIG MONEY and yet, if we open up and are honest with ourselves, the concept of infinite riches is what stimulates and motivates many of us every day.’

I have to take issue with Celia on this point, as in my experience most inventors are more motivated by wanting to see their invention come to life, rather than making millions of pounds from it.

The rest of the book covers how to get your product into the market place, including starting production, getting attention, testing and optimising, brands and assets and return on investment.

Celia’s own experiences (and those of many other inventors) lead to the inclusion of a lengthy chapter on what to do if someone has stolen your idea.

In summary, I would say that although this book is quite quirky in places, it sees the world through an inventor’s eyes. It strongly emphasises the point that – yes – the innovative idea is essential, but unless the inventor can morph themselves into an entrepreneur then their idea is likely to remain just that, an idea, rather than a product consumers can benefit from.

From Inventor to Entrepreneur by Celia Gates

• Helping you acquire essential knowledge & skills by learning how to save time & costly mistakes.
• How to generate innovative & original thoughts.
• How to develop ideas as valuable assets.
• How to secure & register official ownership.
• How to commercialise an innovation & turn the value of you intellectual property in to riches & wealth.
• How to stop your ideas being stolen & optimise your return on your investment.

Saving Britain’s business future

The September issue of Real Business magazine has two mentions of the Business & IP Centre which are so flattering I can’t resist sharing them here.

In an article titled Saving Britain’s future, Charles Orton-Jones produces a 10-point manifesto to rescue Britain’s economy. At number three on the list is Open Business & IP Centres in six cities. To quote the initial text,
‘In 2006, the British Library opened the Business & IP Centre. The centre fuses the British Library’s vast repository of databases and commercial documents with a plethora of services for entrepreneurs – a sort of Pimp my Business Link.’

A few pages later on, in the article 27 champions of entrepreneurial Britain, Catherine Woods puts the British Library in at number 15 – behind Peter Jones, but ahead of Alan Sugar and Richard Branson.

Business Librarians’ Association conference

As I mentioned a while back (To Blog or not to Blog? That is the question), I was invited to speak on a panel at the  Business Librarians’ Association (formally BBSLG) annual conference in Dublin. The chair of the session David Meehan has just posted a short review of the session with some kind remarks relating to my contribution.

My fellow panellists were Dr. John Breslin (Electronic Engineering, NUIG; Researcher at DERI) speaking about the social semantic web, and Ian Manzie (Business Manager Ireland, Thomson Reuters) on their new web-based ‘Academy’ approach to training users.

Get Legal Clarity on what type of company you should form

I am often asked what type of company an entrepreneur should form. As with so many of these topics, the answer is, it all depends. So it is great to see the good folk at Legal Clarity (who aim to ease the burden of legal and regulatory obligations) has produced a nice clear guide to the options which I have copied below.

1. Standard Limited Company

   The overwhelming majority of companies registered at Companies House are standard limited companies (more formally known as private companies limited by shares).

   If you are forming a company with a view to making a profit then a standard limited company is probably appropriate for your needs. We would recommend that you do not form a Company Limited by Guarantee or a Public Limited Company unless you have a specific reason for doing so.

   Features of a standard limited company:

   1. Benefits from Limited Liability.
   2. Suitable for most commercial purposes.
   3. It only requires one person to form this type of company.
   4. Does not require a Company Secretary.
   5. Is not obliged to have its accounts audited by an accountant if it is a small company.
   6. Can be converted into a Public Limited Company at a later date.

   
   
2. Company Limited by Guarantee

   This type of company is suitable for non-profit making organisations such as voluntary groups, sports clubs, political organisations, and for one off or recurring events such as non-profit festivals and fairs. Companies limited by guarantee formed through Legal Clarity are not Charities, and are therefore not subject to the additional regulatory requirements imposed on Charities.

   The members of companies limited by guarantee (the equivalent of shareholders of a normal company) are not permitted to extract money from the company, even if the company has surplus funds.

   Features of a company limited by guarantee:

   1. Benefits from Limited Liability (each members’ liability is normally capped at £1).
   2. No initial investment is required for this type of company.
   3. This company can only carry out activities to meet objects specified on forming the company (for example ‘to provide a sports club for the local community’).
   4. This type of company does not issue shares or have shareholders.
   5. It only requires one person to form this type of company.
   6. Does not require a Company Secretary.
   7. Is not obliged to have its accounts audited by an accountant if it is a small company.
   8. You CANNOT convert this type of company into a Public Limited Company.

   
   
3. Public Limited Company (PLC)

   It is rare for a company to start its life as a Public Limited Company. PLCs are normally formed by converting an established standard limited company into a PLC.

   A key feature of PLCs is their ability to offer their shares to the public (if certain conditions are met). Standard Limited Companies cannot do this.

   PLCs are subject to more onerous regulation than standard limited companies. They are typically larger and longer established than standard limited companies.

   Businesses sometimes become PLCs for the prestige of identifying themselves with larger and longer established companies; these companies are referred to as ‘vanity PLCs’.

   Features of PLCs:

   1. Benefits from Limited Liability
   2. Requires at least two directors.
   3. Requires a company secretary, with specific qualifications.
   4. Requires a minimum initial investment of £12,500 with an obligation to pay a further £47,500 at a later date.
   5. Requires a Trading Certificate confirming the above initial investment before the company is permitted to trade.
   6. Shares may be offered to the general public for sale (if certain conditions are met).
   7. PLCs are subject to more onerous accounting obligations. Including a mandatory annual audit.

   
   

Other types of business structure:

1. Sole Trader

   A sole trader is not a type of company, but rather an individual who trades on their own behalf.

   Sole traders are not required to register with Companies House. In order for an individual to set-up as a sole trader they simply need to start trading or carrying on business activities.

   Sole traders are obliged to register as self-employed with HM Revenue & Customs within three months of starting to trade.

   The most important point to note is that, unlike the shareholders of limited companies, sole traders do not benefit from the protection of limited liability in relation to their business. Sole traders are personally liable for all of the debts of their business without limit, which means that their personal assets are at risk.

   For further information about the positives and negatives of operating as a sole trader as opposed to a limited company visit our sole trader page.

The description of the above types of company only applies to companies formed by Legal Clarity. Companies formed by other organisations are likely to have different features.

For further guidance please read our About Companies page.

I met the Prime Thinkers mentors

It’s been a busy few weeks for me recently (so much for a quiet summer). So I have quite a few events still to catch up on.

Our Meet the Mentors event on the evening of Tuesday 30 June was a great success, with around 30 mentors and 90 mentees. With a 3 to 1 ratio, and two hours to network, the mentees had plenty of opportunity to find subject experts to match their interests.

I took a group of the mentors around the Business & IP Centre before the event started, as many of them were not aware of the range and depth of our information and services. It was yet another reminder of how much work we still have to do to spread the word about the Centre.

Maurice Collins, the man behind our very popular Weird and Wonderful display last year was his usual charismatic self and reminded the audience of the expanding Prime Thinkers groups, and how all the money from the £100 fee goes to his Kith and Kids’ charity. Their aim is to empower families living with disability to overcome their social isolation and access the services they need.

Given the enthusiasm of my colleague Clare Harris who organised the event, I’m hoping this will be the first of many Meet the Mentor evenings.

Inspiring Entrepreneurs – Surviving and thriving: controlling costs to boost your business

Another inspiring Inspiring Entrepreneurs event this evening with the title of Surviving and Thriving: Controlling costs to boost your business. You can catch the webcast of the event once it is posted up on our website.

Doug Richards the former BBC Dragon and founder of the School for Startups started by saying he wouldn’t be able to keep to his script. He had some great stories and a few gems such as, ‘if you are small, you will die if one customer doesn’t pay your bills’.

In other words the micro immediate level is the key, not what is happening to the economy at the macro level.

Forget convential wisdom, sales are marketing are the key – not cash flow. With sales – take the order, whatever it is! Don’t start a business with Kent Richards…(Doug’s brother, who he started his first business with).

Marketing – don’t spend money – Doug has an eight hour training day covering marketing techniques that don’t cost any money.

Nick Wheeler the founder of Charles Tyrwhitt shirts gave a very entertaining talk. He founded the business at University in 1986, and it took four years to double workforce from one to two. After another fours in they went bust.

‘This is the story of how a complete and utter idiot can build up a business.’

‘It’s all about having a belief in what you are trying to do. Every day you remind yourself of what you are setting out to do.’

84% of Charles Tyrwhitt staff say they have fun working for the company.

Critical Factors for Success:
The idea – Vision – Focus – Passion – Hard work – Patience

Compound growth is the key to long term success.

Heather Gorringe the founder of Wiggly Wigglers started with quote from Winston Churchill, ‘Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm’.

If you are running a small business you need to be both proactive and reactive. The key thing she is doing to survive the economic downturn is to ‘keep working harder’.

Johnny Martin is a business finance expert who runs a regular course in the Business & IP Centre on financial management.

Imagine you are in the Dragon’s Den – how would you answer their questions about your business finances?

He feels you can’t start too young, and gets his children to use duplicate invoice books in order to receive their pocket money via their PayPal account.

The second most common reason for businesses failing is poor financial management.

Documentation can be the undoing of a business. Please check if you have any undocumented agreements.

You need to know where you are financially.

Be able to look ahead (at least six to nine months). Don’t go for financial support at the last minute, you won’t get it. Use forecasting techniques.

Be able to understand the difference between variable costs and fixed costs, and how to calculate your gross profit and gross margin. To survive in these difficult times you need to protect your gross margin (the value you are adding).

Turnover is vanity, what is important is profit.

The presentations were followed by a varied set of questions:

What happens when a business fails?
The main cause is lack of focus. Manager think they can do anything and fail when they diversify beyond their competencies.

How should businesses use the web to market the products:
Google Adwords are the place to start. Find the right company to help you navigate your way for very little money. Big companies are getting ripped off. Doug Richards – Search Engine Optimisation is not rocket science. You can spend a boring weekend learning enough to know what you are doing.

Heather Gorringe – the web is a bit like your local pub – whether you are there or not people may be talking about you – online is the same – you need to be there to listen and respond to your customers.

Free guide to creating a brand

Thanks once again to the EnterQuest team for pointing out this guide to creating a brand.

It is a short but effective free pdf leaflet on brand creation, if and why you need one, tips on researching brands, and guidance on brand management and extension.

The only slightly odd aspect of the guide is the noticable lack of branding by its authors GREEN Communications. As you can see from this cover shot, their name is barely visible in the bottom right hand corner. You have to read all the way through to the end of the guide before coming across their logo and contact information on the back cover.

Complete our small business information survey and win an iPod Nano

I’m not normally one for offering inducements to read my blog… but, for a limited time only (July 17 2009)… you have the chance to win an iPod Nano courtesy of the British Library.

My colleague Nigel Spencer has created a 5 minute online survey giving participants an opportunity to help shape the future of information for small businesses.

The survey is part of a major study into how small businesses get the information they need to develop and grow. It is being carried out by the British Library on behalf of JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee).  The questions look at how and where you get information now, the problems you face and changes that you would like to see in the future.

The findings from this online survey will be published in the form of a statistical analysis and no responses will be attributed to individual businesses.

Survey Link:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=FNU3R5eZlMTE7KhpyzcdOQ_3d_3d

Beginners Guide to Business Finance with Johnny Martin

From time to time I take time out to attend one of our partners workshops. This enables me to recommend them to clients and visitors to the Business & IP Centre from personal experience and hopefully to learn something new and useful.

I have been aware of my lack of understanding of business accounts (despite having spent 16 years working for an investment company in the City of London). So although familiar with the terms gross and net profit, cash versus accruals, assets versus liabilities and not forgetting the many and varied ratios such as: Liquidity, Asset turnover, Financial leverage and of course Profitability, I wasn’t confident about what they actually meant.

If you had watched the semi-final of the latest BBC Apprentice series, you would have seen the eventual winner get in something of a muddle about the difference between net and gross profit for the business she had been successfully running for six years.

Now, thanks to attending our Beginners Guide to Business Finance course run by Johnny Martin I am feeling much more confident about how to create a set of management accounts (both for before and after a business starts). And I am now more familiar with these important business concepts. I particularly liked the way he used live spreadsheets to show the impact of a change in price or order volume on the profit (or loss) for the year.

My favourite quote from Johnny after explaining the roles of various accounting jobs from Book keeper to Financial Director was, ‘you can delegate but DON’T abdicate’, financial responsibility for your business. The experiences of both Elton John and Leonard Cohen are salutary reminders of this point.

The courses cost just £18 and are run at regular intervals here in the British Library.

Visit to the new Guardian newspaper building in Kings Place

The same evening as the The Social Media Exchange – For the Cultural and Heritage Sectors event, I hobbled over to Kings Place to visit the shiny new Guardian (and Observer) newspaper offices.

As it was evening, we were able to see the journalists hard at work creating the next days newspaper. The building itself is amazing, with lots of glass and open spaces, making for a ‘transparent’ working environment. But as the building is also partially open to the public, the journalist are even more open to scrutiny.

Our guide, Luke Dodd, the Guardian’s project manager for the building and former Director of the Newsroom, explained the background to the move. In particular the bringing together of several disparate offices into one space. As well as merging the paper and digital activities, so that content for both media is produced by one extended team instead of separately, as before.

As a bit of a techie, I was most impressived by the  sight of literally hundreds of uniform 24 inch iMac computers on every desk. Each floor was filled with these very desirable pieces of kit as far as the eye could see. Again, the move gave an opportunity to equip all the staff with a same technology.

Many thanks to the Association of UK Media Librarians (AUKML) and SLA Europe for organising such a fascinating visit.

New Business & IP Centre website went live today

After many months of patiently waiting, I was glad to see that our new website went live today at www.bl.uk/bipc.

It has a much cleaner look than before and is designed to simplify what we offer to entrepreneurs, business start-ups and inventors.

The sections are divided into :

• Business networking
• Business planning
• Protecting your ideas
• Researching markets

I would be very interested in any comments you have on the website (both positive and constructive criticisms).

Learn the basics of copyright in less than 7 minutes

This is the enticing title of a recent email video campaign aimed at information professionals.

Given the level of confusion around copyright, and the fact that librarians and information specialists are often in the front line, I was pleased to be able to increase my awareness.

In fact even though the legal aspects cover US law and includes the their concept of Fair Dealing, it covers a very complicated topic in surprising detail in a short space of time. I like the way they include sources of content that are not covered by copyright, such as ideas, facts, data,  and publications created by the US Government.

Needless to say, given the source of the video (the Copyright Clearance Center) the information tends towards compliance and the reasons why.

Sadly, they don’t make any reference to Creative Commons and the choice of licences available there.

Corporate workers share information every day, but what percentage get copyright permission?

Most people don’t knowingly violate copyright law, they are simply unaware of their copyright responsibilities. To help increase awareness, CCC has created a FREE video that provides the basics of copyright in a fun and informative way.

In less than 7 minutes, Jim T. Librarian explains why copyright is important, what is and isn’t covered
under U.S. copyright law, and why attribution isn’t always enough.
Copyright Basics – The Video
Thank you for your interest in CCC’s
Copyright Basics

This Program is made available for your use by the rights licensing experts at Copyright Clearance Center. We welcome you to view the video here and/or download it for non-commercial use in your organization (terms and conditions apply).

Today my bins are ‘wheelie’ clean

It is becoming a common complaint that too many of us are bringing work home (the almost ubiquitous spread of Blackberry devices is a factor in this).

However, this took an unexpected turn for me this weekend, as I ended up cleaning my two large local authority wheelie bins as a result showing a colleague around the Business & IP Centre on Friday.

I was demonstrating the brilliant Cobra database and the thousands of Business Opportunity Profiles it contains. As I mentioned in a previous blog (Wheelie cleaning up in business), I like to surprise my visitors by pulling up the Wheelie Bin Cleaner report.

So when emptying my re-cycling boxes into the wheelie bins I realised today was the day to clean them out.

On the topic of unusual business opportunities, one of my colleagues stumbled across a Business Opportunity Profile for Life Model, but I have no plans following up on the advice in this guide at home.

The World Bank ‘Doing Business’

A recent special report in the Economist on entrepreneurship included an article on the World Bank annual Doing Business report.

I have to confess to not having heard of this before. It is a ‘naming and shaming’ report which rates countries for their business-friendliness, by measuring business regulations, property rights and access to credit.

Since the first edition in 2004 it has resulted in more than 1,000 reforms across the 180 countries on the list.

Most of these have been in developing countries, with the top reformers of 2007-8 being Senegal, Burkina Faso and Botswana.

However, the developed nations have not stood still either, with efforts to make it easier to start a new business. In Canada it is now possible to start a business using just one form.

According the the Economist article, Robert Litan of the Kauffman Foundation, suggests the World Bank may have done more good by compiling the Doing Business lists than a significant part of the enormous funds it has lent over the years.

Sources of funding for small businesses

The biggest cause of concern for entrepreneurs I meet is finding a source of finding now that banks are so reluctant to lend.

Here in the Business & IP Centre we have access to the subscription part of GRANTnet (6,000 grants, loans, awards and other assistance). GRANTfinder gives access to detailed information required to make an application.

However BusinessZone.co.uk have also created a Grant Watch service which acts a  guide to small business funding. Definitely worth checking out.

Looking for new business finance? There’s lots of free money out there! A range of small business grant schemes, awards and other initiatives are available to entrepreneurs. Read our latest guide to what’s on offer.

time4change is offering Train 2 Gain funding for leadership and management training to business owners based in London, with a workforce of between 9 and 250 employees, volunteers or associates. Train 2 Gain will provide funding where the first £500 is 100% reclaimable. Thereafter, you can spend up to another £1,000 and reclaim £500. More details.

Innovative London-based small businesses are being offered R&D grants of up to £10,000 as part of the London Development Agency’s Knowledge Connect scheme. The initiative aims to put SMEs in touch with universities, further education colleges and private sector specialists to develop new business opportunities. More details.

To stay up-to-date with the latest from Grant Watch, follow us on Twitter.

Striding Out is offering entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 30 who are at the pre-start or early stages of running a company £500 and training from business experts in its Big Leap competition. 10 finalists will take part in an Apprentice-style business boot camp in April and compete for the overall prize. Deadline: 06/03/2009. More details.

Barclays is offering cash prizes totalling £17,500 to the UK’s most enterprising family businessses in its Family Affair competition. Eight regional winners will win £1,500 and the chance to compete for the overall prize of £5,500. Deadline: 31/03/2009. More details.

The Crisis Changing Lives Awards is offering grants of up to £2500 for single homeless people or for those who have experienced homelessness in the past five years to find a work-related course or fund tools or equipment to carry out a job or become self-employed. Deadline: 13/03/2009. More details.

Make Your Mark in the Markets is giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to turn their buisness ideas into reality and start trading at a local market for free. The winner of the competition will receive prizes including £1,500, six months free market trading and free business mentoring, marketing and advertising. Deadline: 20/03/2009. More details.

Lancaster City Council is offering local businesses grants towards the cost of renting premises. Finance to cover 50% of the first year’s basic rent can be claimed. The maximum grant is normally £2,500 but this may increase to £5,000 if rapid expansion and significant jobs growth is projected, requiring larger scale premises. Deadline: 31/03/2009. More details.

The Welsh Assemby has created a new £4.5m fund to help sub post offices in Wales to improve and diversify during the economic crisis. The money can be used for areas including business and marketing advice, advertising, training, improved security and upgrading computer equipment. Applications can be up to £20,000 capital funding and £15,000 in revenue costs. Deadline: 30/04/2009. More details.

Dell is seeking entries for its 2009 Small Business Excellence Award. Entrants have the chance to win £25,000 in Dell solutions and a meeting with company founder Michael Dell. The UK winner will receive £15,000 in Dell products and services; a day of best-practice sharing with Dell executives, including Michael Dell, and a 10 year membership to an Accredited Chamber of Commerce. Deadline: 03/04/2009. More details.

Winweb is offering £10,000 to new and existing entrepreneurs in its Business ‘09 competition. Deadline: 01/10/2009. More details.

Protect your content against online plagiarism and theft

Many of my Business Advice clients are concerned about rivals stealing their on-line content, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across the free Copyscape service whilst researching a replacement mobile phone on the Mobile Phones UK: Reviews & Best Buys website.

All you need to do is post in your website address and see where (and how much of it) is appearing elswhere on the Web. Needless to say Copyscape offer a premium service with no monthly limit and batch searching for a fee.

Copyscape recommend you put a warning notice on your website to help scare off any potential content theives.

Defend your site with a plagiarism warning banner!

A full house for Blueprints for Business

Last night’s Blueprints for Business: A proven route to success, the latest in our Inspiring Entrepreneurs series was a full house, including some very young aspiring entrepreneurs from BBC Dragon Peter Jones’ new National Skills Academy for Enterprise.

As in previous events the speakers provided some fascinating and inspiring insights into starting and running a succesful business. In this case the subject was franchising, an often neglected area of business opportunity for entrepreneurs. As several of the panellists pointed out, joining a franchise is probably the lowest risk route to starting your own business, as the product or service and brand has already been established.

As Atul Pathak currently running 15 McDonald’s franchises put it; here was a business where the product and customers were delivered to the door for him. All he had to do was ensure he ran the restaurants efficiently and provided excellent customer service. The fact that he was required to spend nine months working in a McDonald’s branch covering every job, from cleaning the loos to cooking and serving burgers helped ensure he knew how to those things when it came to starting his first restaurant.

Atul divides his customers into two sets; internal and external. The internal customers are his staff, and the external customers are those who consume his restaurants products. He is also passionate about working with the local community, which he said was in line with the corporate McDonald’s ethos.

Sophie Atkinson managing director of Autosmart, the car-cleaning firm that was crowned “Franchise of the Year” in 2008, was clear that the franchising route was the way to ensure stability and loyalty. Her franchisees remain committed to the business and often stay for ten or 15 years, compared to around 24 months for employees in sales roles.

Toni Mascolo OBE, the man behind Toni & Guy who starting with one salon in 1963, has built probably the world’s most successful high-street hairdresser brand using franchising. He doesn’t need to advertise for franchisees since almost all his applicants come from existing staff, or in the case of Japan the children of the original franchisees. For him the key to business success and surviving four recessions is love what you do and express that in your customer service. The fact that Toni still regularly cuts customers hair is testamant to his dedication and commitment.

Update:
Cmypitch.com have also written a review of the evening on their blog, Why franchising appears more attractive to both parties in a recession.