So you’ve made the decision to launch an ecommerce business? Congratulations – you’ve chosen a great path for your new business. But like every new venture, if you want to give yourself the greatest chance of success, you’re going to need a solid plan. Everything from the style and tone of your content, to your [...]

Over the years I’ve talked to many entrepreneurs who started with a great concept and high energy yet failed to launch a successful business. I’ve also seen people who only had modest ideas and yet went on to establish large profitable companies.     These are my conclusions and top tips for a successful start-up:  [...]

Investors have a lot of choice and you are in competition with all other investment opportunities, the final decision on which gets investment will be those with the best combination of good sustainable profit and lowest risk. That may not be the highest profit, or the least risk, but an acceptable (to that Investor) mixture [...]

Business Partners can be a help to every business from start-ups to established companies. A Business Partner will: Bring additional or complementary skills Have ideas that when added to your own create new opportunities Provide support and motivation when times are tough Share the workload May have contacts and some funding to grow the business [...]

Business ideas are like freshly buttered warm toast, they look wonderful. But if put to one side for long enough they get cold, stale and uninviting. The first surge of excitement at discovering an opportunity needs to then have action to build a momentum, which in turn drives further action. If the initial process of [...]

Working for a company can bring security (less now than in the past) and for those that are fortunate, job satisfaction. However it also can bring the stress of not being in control of your own destiny and there is nothing like creating your own business, perhaps following a passion and using fully your skills. [...]

Running a business is a lot easier when you have a business partner to share the highs and lows, as well as all the work. You may of course have all the skills needed for your business, but have you the time? Or are there some areas that you love doing and excel at, but [...]

Do you need funding? Start-up businesses often think that they need to find an investor. We only have to read in the papers about the latest internet billionaire to know that big funding means big success. Yet most businesses can get going, or even grow without external investment. It depends on the amount required to [...]

Small businesses can have great products and services but struggle to get sufficient customers to allow them to expand. Often this is because the owners of the business are too busy dealing with day to day activities to have time to plan or initiate the marketing activity. Yet it need not be an overly arduous [...]

One of the key bits of information that Business Angels or Investors into a venture will want to see is how the funds are going to be used. I’ve seen every possible use given, from the perfectly sensible – “product development”, to the unlikely to succeed – “no one will lend to me any more [...]