Posted on June 14, 2010 by Nick
Is business the province of the Suits on Dragons’ Den, or is business actually an opportunity for many more people than you might think? I spent the first week of June in Barking, East London, finding out. I have been involved for three years now with a company called Yoodoo, whose website gives people bags [...]
Filed under: current affairs, marketing, retail | Tagged: Barking, business, business advice, business skills, economy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, run a business, running a business, small business, start a business, start your own business, Yoodoo | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 8, 2010 by Nick
It’s that time again. For four weeks, you can’t move for footie. Now, as it happens, I’m not a huge football fan. I’ll be reasonably interested in the England games, and I’ll almost certainly watch the semis and final games. But I wouldn’t break into a run to get anywhere in time for a match, [...]
Filed under: current affairs, marketing, sales, service, technology | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 31, 2010 by Nick
New entrepreneurs, on the cusp of starting their own businesses, generally fall into two categories: People with no idea what to do, but the urge to try something new People with a brilliant/hare-brained idea, but no idea how to execute it In the second category are a fabulous breed of people: the hobbyists. Turning a [...]
Filed under: finance, marketing, sales | Tagged: banks, business, business advice, business skills, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, fun business, hobby business, low-risk business, run a business, running a business, small business, start a business, start your own business, turn your hobby into a business | Leave a Comment »
Posted on April 26, 2010 by Nick
Off to Leicester last week for my annual pilgrimage to DeMontfort University, where the business studies courses include a ritual called Fox’s Lair – a thinly disguised version of TV favourite dragon’s Den. Teams of students put together a business idea, draw up a plan and present it to the Dragons – no, I mean [...]
Filed under: finance, marketing, people skills, presentation, sales | Tagged: business, business advice, business skills, demontfort university, DMU, Dragon's Den, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, finance, Fox's Lair, invention, leicester, market research, marketing, run a business, running a business, small business, start a business, start your own business, students, teamwork | Leave a Comment »
Posted on April 12, 2010 by Nick
Look at this merry lot. Is it the last day of the Oktoberfest? A leaving party, perhaps? No – it’s the London Area Communicators Group monthly meetup (run by the inestimable Matt O’Neill). Every industry has networking groups, and I truly believe that these gatherings are the lifeblood of business. When I first started out, [...]
Filed under: marketing, people skills, sales | Tagged: business, business advice, business networking, business skills, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, LACG, matt o'neill, networking, networking skills, people buy from people, run a business, running a business, sales, small business, start a business, start your own business | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 9, 2010 by Nick
Without “The Apprentice”, there’s far less in the way of business telly around these days. Which is why it’s nice to see a brief slice of entrepreneurship TV on Wednesday, on BBC2. It’s going to be a look at the inner workings of the John Lewis Partnership; a rather marvellous institution amongst retailers because of [...]
Filed under: marketing, retail, sales | Tagged: john lewis, business, entrepreneurship, start a business, run a business, entrepreneur, jargon, buzzwords, buzzword bingo, john lewis partnership, inside john lewis, bbc2, the office, ricky gervais, yuppie, imagineering | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 1, 2010 by Nick
A very amusing story caught my eye; covered in the business pages of several newspapers today. A property company called Drivers Jonas has been ordered by a French court to pay damages to the organisers of a property conference for what has been deemed to be ‘parasitical’ behaviour. Basically, rather than buy a stand at the [...]
Filed under: PR, current affairs, marketing, presentation, sales | Tagged: business, drivers jonas, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, exhibition, marketing, new business, run a business, sales, start a business, trade show | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 22, 2010 by Nick
Corporate reputation matters (just ask Toyota!). It takes very little effort to keep customers happy; yet many companies seem to have such disdain for their clients that they just can’t be bothered to solve little problems effectively. But the customer is fighting back. Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, blogs (like this one) and [...]
Filed under: PR, current affairs, finance, marketing, people skills, retail, sales, service | Tagged: blog, brand values, branding, business, crisis management, crisis PR, crowdsourcing, customer service, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Facebook, KwikFit, PR, public relations, reputatin management, reputation, run a business, social media, start a business | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 8, 2010 by Nick
When did being green suddenly start being cool? Correct me if I’m wrong, but for most of my life, green sympathisers were beardy sandals-and-socks types who rode tandem bikes through hedges and sang ‘Kum Bay Yah’ a lot. And then something changed. Anya Hindmarch brought out her ‘I am not a plastic bag’ carrier bag [...]
Filed under: current affairs, marketing, retail, sales, technology | Tagged: al gore, altrusim, business, business advice, business skills, curb, curb agency, disco fungi, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, environment, green, green business, innovation, natural media, rationalism, run a business, running a business, small business, start a business, start your own business, zac goldsmith | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 25, 2010 by Nick
There’s a war going on out there. And it’s happening right in front of your eyes. Strangely, the main protagonists of this epic battle are, amongst others, an opera singer and a family of russian meerkats. I’m talking, of course, about the insane level of competition between price comparison websites. Ask yourself this: when did [...]
Filed under: marketing, retail, sales | Tagged: advert, advertising, branding, business, business advice, business skills, differentiation, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, marketing, price comparison, price comparison site, promotion, run a business, sales, small business, start a business, startup business | 1 Comment »
