Startup stumbling blocks: Be sure to avoid these four fatal pitfalls December 14, 2014 The capital is brimming with rising startup stars. Last week, seven up-and-coming fintech firms were selected to join the government-backed Future Fifty scheme, run by Tech City UK. The programme seeks out our most promising high-growth tech businesses and helps them get to market. More widely, the UK was recently ranked the most entrepreneurial nation [...]
Restaurateur Des McDonald discusses the burger revolution, forests and what it means to have cooking in your blood December 7, 2014 Sitting in your own month-old restaurant would be extremely exciting for most people. It is for Des McDonald too, except this is one of six – and they’ve all opened within the last two years. His second branch of The Fish & Chip Shop is the latest, and it’s bringing the City what McDonald describes [...]
How government is opening its supply chain – to small business’s benefit December 7, 2014 If you’ve never considered government as a potential client for your business, think again. Government spends £230bn every year on products and services across all layers – from central and local government, to the police, NHS, and emergency services. This may not previously have appealed to the small business owner, as the perception has always [...]
Gimme 5: Christmas books for entrepreneurs December 7, 2014 Business Adventures by John Brooks Bill Gates’s all-time favourite business book, these twelve short stories narrate turning points for some of the world’s largest companies, providing salient lessons on money, ethics and the corporate world. From £10.13 (Open Road Media) Zero to One by Peter Thiel The visionary PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist explains [...]
Born to win November 30, 2014 SPONSORED CONTENT BY SANTANDER McLaren tests a new piece of equipment every 20 minutes. “We have a different time frame compared to the real world,” says Sam Michael, sporting director of McLaren, speaking at Santander’s Breakthrough Box last week (see right). The British Formula One team is one of the most successful in F1 history. [...]
Interview: Santander managing director Carlos Portela November 30, 2014 SPONSORED CONTENT BY SANTANDER What is Santander’s Breakthrough Moments Box? The Box is a dynamic space created to bring businesses together. Ambitious, growing companies from McLaren to Muc-Off can showcase their “breakthrough moments” to other entrepreneurs and mid-sized companies, so that they can take this intelligence and advice and use it within their own companies. [...]
Is Latin America the next step for your business? November 30, 2014 SPONSORED CONTENT BY SANTANDER Look south west, and there is a vast, untapped export market. That’s the message of Canning House, Britain’s leading forum and contacts hub for Latin America, and a participant at Santander’s Breakthrough Box last week. “Companies are being held back because of a lack of familiarity and a fear of engagement,” [...]
Staff perks: It’s the little things November 30, 2014 What do you do to incentivise your staff? With today’s average worker staying in a job for just 4.4 years, how can you retain a valuable team? Employment law specialists Peninsula took to the Breakthrough Box floor to talk businesses through the ins and outs of boosting employee productivity. Realising that low-cost incentives can be [...]
Gimme 5: Upcoming events for entrepreneurs November 24, 2014 TEN Power Lunch with Nick Hungerford How tech entrepreneurs can disrupt financial services Free event with The Entrepreneurs Network and the co-founder and chief executive of Nutmeg. 4 December, 12.45pm to 2.15pm www.tenentrepreneurs.org UCL Advances Sales Strategy Workshop Teaching the crucial steps you must take to create a powerful sales strategy for your business, [...]
Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer Elizabeth Emanuel talks Catch-22s and Richard Branson November 23, 2014 You'd be hard pressed to get one up on Elizabeth Emanuel when it comes to heydays – and the fashion designer hasn’t just had one. At the age of 28, she designed the wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer – a day she wouldn’t trade for the world, she says. And ten years later, [...]