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 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 15, 2010 by Nick
I’ve just read this interesting piece from the New York Times, and I’d like you to read it before you carry on here. It’s an interview with George Cloutier, renowned in the US as “The Turnaround Ace”. I think some of what he says is true, and other points are so far off the mark [...]
Filed under: finance, people skills, sales | Tagged: business, business advice, business skills, economy, employee relations, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, fear, finance, george cloutier, invoicing, marketing, motivation, payment, run a business, running a business, sales, small business, staff relations, start a business, start your own business | Leave a 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 »
Posted on November 30, 2009 by Nick
Did you know that the war in Iraq has so far cost fifteen times more than Africa’s entire debt to the West? Or six times more than it would cost to feed and educate every child on the planet for five years? These are the statistics posited by David McCandless’ “Billion-Dollar-O-Gram”, which I found thanks [...]
Filed under: PR, marketing, presentation, technology | Tagged: better business, better presentations, billion dollar gram, business, business presentations, business skills, colour, communication, david mccandless, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, graphics, iconography, marketing, powerpoint, presentation, presentation skills, presentations, sales, start a business | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 9, 2009 by Nick
I got an interesting piece of mail last week. My bankers, NatWest, have invited me to apply for the NatWest “Black” card. Ooh, lucky me! If you’ve never brushed shoulders with the Monaco set, or spent your summers at The Hamptons (as indeed, I certainly haven’t), you probably won’t have been exposed to the mythical [...]
Filed under: finance, marketing | Tagged: black card, business, credit, credit card, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, exclusive offers, exclusivity, finance, marketing, natwest black, personal finance, run a business, start a business | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 30, 2009 by Nick
Now then; here’s another unlikely facet to my personality. I have a love of horror movies. So does my friend Claire – about once a month of a boring evening we are likely to be found on a sofa with a bottle of something red; glued to a horror classic. So, last week, we were [...]
Filed under: PR, marketing, sales | Tagged: advertising, business, buying, buying advertising, creative, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, marketing, ratecard, run a business, start a business | Leave a Comment »
Posted on September 28, 2009 by Nick
If, like me, you’re doing your best to run a business under difficult economic circumstances, spare a thought for Songbird, the majority owner of that mighty symbol of capitalism, Canary Wharf. Last week, Songbird pulled in the largest ever equity raising in the British property industry in order to stave off bankruptcy: tapping new investors [...]
Filed under: current affairs, finance, sales | Tagged: business, canary wharf, commercial property, depression, discount, discounting, economy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, marketing, pricing, recession, run a business, sales, setting prices, songbird, start a business | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 11, 2009 by Nick
I had an interesting night last night – I went “proper” networking for the first time in ages. I’ve been so busy that I’ve forgotten how important it is to get out and meet new people. It should be in every single “Business 101″ course that if you’ve got nothing better to do, you should [...]
Filed under: current affairs, marketing, people skills, sales | Tagged: business, depression, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, linkedin, marketing, meetup, networking, recession, recovery, run a business, start a business | 4 Comments »
