Event: Are you making a living or changing the world?

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We held our November event last night at IndigoBlue’s wonderful offices in Little Portland Street. We’d like to say a big thank you to our host for an engaging and vibrant event in such a lovely setting.  Thanks also to all our guests.

Topic: Commercial viability.

After a year’s trading, the entrepreneur in our hot seat wanted to review their business. This complex topic involved a tension between a social mission and commercial viability in the future. The discussion was focused on three main themes: identifying your client base, exploring your motivation and re-articulating the remit of your business.

Questions raised by the group helped to clarify our hot seat’s thinking: Can a limited company also be a social enterprise? Is it better to stick to the market you know and understand when other markets might be more accessible? Do you want to make a living or do you want to change the world?

Key insights included:

- Identify the fear and value factors – what do clients stand to lose by not hiring you? What will they gain if they do?

- Consider broadening your remit and expanding your target market(s).

- Define what you want to achieve and why, at the most basic level, then build up from there.

- Work with what you have.

- You can’t do everything. Identify your target market and focus on that market – nothing else!

If you would like to take part in a similar discussion or have an issue you would like to talk about, please join us at a future event or volunteer to be in the hot seat yourself. Please leave a comment below if you have any insights into this month’s topic!

Next Event!

Our final event of the year will be at Devereux Chambers on 14th December. If you can’t make that date  our schedule for 2017 is already up on the website so take a look.

Please comment below with your ideas and advice for our entrepreneur. We always love to hear from you!

Five Things That Successful Entrepreneurs Do Before Breakfast

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Our next event will be at Indigo Blue on 9th November. The topic will be 'Having established demand and support for our product what else should we do to ensure commercial viability?" We hope to see you there!

1. Wake up early. Tim Cook, Richard Branson and Jack Dorsey are famously early risers. By getting up early, before anyone else, you minimize potential distractions and can focus your time on priorities, rather than the spontaneous crises that naturally arise throughout the working day.

2. Exercise. Vogue editor Anna Wintour plays tennis every day before work. During her time in office, Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State, would get up early six days a week to make room for her morning workout. Not only does this help you to fit in exercise before it has a chance to be squeezed out of your schedule, it also helps to focus the mind and lift your spirits before a long day at work.

3. Drink water, instead of coffee. A 2012 study by the University of Connecticut suggested that even mild dehydration could cause difficulties with concentrating. Water helps you to feel more alert, rehydrates your body and kickstarts your metabolism. Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington starts every day with a glass of hot water with lemon.

4. Catch up on the news. Keeping tabs on what’s going on in the world is important so that you know how it will affect your business and to develop solutions. Do this before you get to the office, not before. Online news and 24 hour news channels mean that you up-to-date news that you can actually use is right at your fingertips.

5. Check and answer emails. According to a survey conducted by Robert Half Management Resources, around 50% of executives start the day by checking their emails, compared to just 39% of entry level employees. This allows them to focus on more important tasks throughout the day. Also, it can help with organising their day and ensures that their emails are towards the top of recipients’ inboxes when they get into work.

Read more:

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast - https://medium.com/personal-growth/what-the-most-successful-people-do-before-breakfast-32e3e75de3da#.kb66zskdj

How to be Successful Before Breakfast - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-fox/how-to-be-successful-befo_b_1846255.html

Check out Laura Vanderkam’s successful book: “What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings - and Life” - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AWFEATU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Please comment with your own thoughts on morning routines. What do you do in the mornings that helps you to be a more productive individual? We always love to hear from you!

6 Top Tips to Up Your Company's Social Media Game

1. Try to insert a call to action into the bottom of every post. This won't always be possible – the character limit on Twitter is often a barrier to this and you can't put links on Instagram posts – but the more, the better. Link to your blog or website, ask questions and invite comments. This allows you to generate further interest without coming across as a constant salesperson who's more interested in profit than customers.

2. Schedule your updates to post just before or after the hour. This targets business people like marketers, office workers and managers who check their social media just before or after a meeting. Sometimes it's all about the timing.

3. YouTube users should check out this post on the Gleam Marketing Blog explaining how to add a small light-box pop-up to your page, encouraging visitors to subscribe to your channel. All you need to do is add the following text to the end of your YouTube URL whenever you share it:

?sub_confirmation=1

4. Use aggregator apps like Tweetdeck to streamline your social media experience, viewing multiple accounts simultaneously without having to log in to each one separately. This saves time and helps to keep your content consistent.

5. Visuals are important. This might seem obvious but posts on social media that include some kind of visual element, either a photograph or video, tend to have a wider reach and invite active engagement with content. Make sure your visuals are relevant, consistent and prolific.

Think about optimizing your visual content with links – an image or video can act as a 'gateway' to more valuable content, such as your main website or blog. For example, place a link to your website in the description of a YouTube video or the profile section of your Instagram account.

6. Post with empathy. Be kind, polite and acknowledge others. Make sure to interact with your followers and other businesses – your social media accounts do not exist in a vacuum. Social networking is by nature designed to be interactive and it's most effective when you use it as a networking tool, rather than a broadcasting platform. This means letting them know that you're reading their posts by hitting the link button, sending them direct messages or retweeting/reblogging their relevant content.

More Information

20 Social Media Marketing Tips From the Pros – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-tips-pros/

5 Ways To Cross Promote Social Media Posts – https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/5-ways-to-cross-promote-social-media-posts

3 Ways to Use Google Analytics to Evaluate Your Audience – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-ways-to-use-google-analytics-to-evaluate-your-audience/

11 Creative Ways to Use Live Streaming on Snapchat, Facebook Live & More - http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/live-streaming-ideas#sm.001nxq8xi1ccgcowrmv1pdizwmz22

Click here to see our membership packages or here to subscribe to our mailing list. Leave a comment below to let us know your top tips for a successful social media presence.

Our next event will be next week at TateHindle on 12th October. We hope to see you there!

Company Spotlight – Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young or EY is one of the so-called 'Big Four' audit firms. Founded in 1989 through the merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co, the multinational professional services firm is the third largest in the world by aggregated revenue (2014), after PwC and Deloitte. The organisation operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries.

In 2016, Fortune magazine ranked EY as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and it is now the 11th largest privately owned organisation in the United States. It has at least 212,000 employees in over 700 offices around 150 countries in the world. It provides assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services to companies.

EY Global

EY is the most globally managed of the Big Four firms. EY Global sets global standards and oversees global policy and consistency of service, with client work performed by its member firms. Each member is organised as part of one of four areas, whereas most other professional services networks are more centrally managed.

The four areas are:

• Europe, Middle East, India and Africa
• Americas
• Asia-Pacific
• Japan

Each area has an identical business structure and a management team, which is lead by an Area Managing Partner who is part of the Global Executive board. The aim of this structure is to effectively cater for an increasingly global clientèle, who have multinational interests.

“Building a Better Working World”

EY aims to create what they describe as “a better working world”, by asking #better questions, such as “how do we inspire future entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life”? For them, this better world looks like increased trust and confidence in business, sustainable growth, development of talent in all its forms, and greater collaboration. This includes using their global reach and scale to start conversations about the challenges facing economies and the capital markets. They believe that “when business works better, the world works better”.

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year®

As part of it's goal to recognise, celebrate and nurture the power of entrepreneurs to make a difference and bring fresh ideas to create positive social change, EY started their Entrepreneur of the Year awards programme.

The first programme took place in 1986 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States and by 1987 it was held across 11 US cities, expanding internationally in 1993. The programme celebrates entrepreneurs, giving them the chance to share their stories, inspire others and receive the recognition they deserve.

Over the last five years, more than 6,500 entrepreneurs have become Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni, a veritable “who’s who” of both developed and emerging markets. Over half of today’s top 100 NASDAQ companies have won Entrepreneur Of The Year, and most received the award before they achieved top 100 status.

Click here to see our membership packages or here to subscribe to our mailing list. Leave a comment below to let us know your opinion on this week's company spotlight.

Our next event will be at TateHindle on 12th October. We hope to see you there!

How to Boost Innovation and Problem Solving Through Collaboration

Working together is one of the hardest and most rewarding aspects of our work lives. Different personality dynamics, skill sets and experiences are present in every team and in every workplace. The best teams succeed both because of and despite of this diversity.

When you're working on a project that spans several different disciplines, the ability to consult others who are experts in the core-competencies needed to make the project work is crucial. Not only will they have the required knowledge but they mostly likely look at the project from a new, different angle, seeing things and sparking off ideas that you wouldn't have done on your own.

Building a diverse team is often the only way to assemble the breadth of knowledge and skills required to pull off a complex, innovative project. For example, a film production needs researchers, scriptwriters, producers, cameramen, grips, actors, etc. Each of those people brings specific skills to the table as well as their own ideas, biases and unique point of view.

Even having multiple people with similar skill sets working on one specific aspect of the project can produce unique insights and brand new perspectives as they will come from different backgrounds, have trained at different schools and have different experiences influencing the way they think.

Collaboration Outside Your Business

Collaborating with other businesses provides the potential to experiment with new product areas and ideas as well as introducing both parties to a brand new customer base. It's important to carefully choose who you work with as collaborators who are different to you will often bring the most innovation to partnership.

Working with businesses in another industry or with a different audience in the same industry to pool client and press contacts is often beneficial, but it's also important that you're on the same page in terms of the final outcome and any ethical considerations.

However, it may be preferable to work with businesses with the same goals and customer bases. This helps increase your existing knowledge of your specific area of work as well as ensuring a greater level of understanding within the partnership.

Top Tips

1. Set Goals. Make sure that everyone knows exactly what they're working towards. This helps to keep individuals focused on team goals and provides measurable indicators of success.

2. A good team will share knowledge freely, learn from one another, help one another complete jobs and meet deadlines, and share resources.

3. Communicate. Share your ideas and listen to others. Digital tools such as Asana or Podio can be helpful for staying in contact and sharing information, especially for remote working teams. Podio is also useful for keeping a shared record of contacts and events.

4. Colleagues who focus not just on their own goals and the goals of the team/company but also each other's individual goals, working together to help everyone achieve what they need to in the best possible way, often get the best results.

5. Remember, colleagues should tell you when an idea is great but they should also let you know when it needs improvement and when it's so terrible that you need to scrap it immediately.

More Information

To Build Your Business, Smash Your Silos – https://www.fastcompany.com/1839317/build-your-business-smash-your-silos

5 Reasons why collaboration contributes to innovation – https://www.freshconsulting.com/5-reasons-why-collaboration-contributes-to-innovation/

The unexpected business benefits of collaboration – https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/opinion/unexpected-business-benefits-collaboration-0

5 Reasons Why Collaboration Is Essential in Today's Business Environment – http://www.inc.com/natalie-nixon/5-reasons-why-collaboration-is-essential-in-today-s-business-environment.html

Business Spotlight – London Small Business Centre

Among the attendees of our most recent event at the Brain Exchange was a business adviser at the London Small Business Centre. Formally known as the East London Small Business Centre, they exist to provide help and support for entrepreneurs who wants to start their own business and be their own boss.

Their business support services are open to anyone living or trading within all 33 London Boroughs but they also run specific programmes in Lewisham and Redbridge, aimed at supporting local communities. This includes access to the Lewisham Enterprise Hubs, affordable workspace with business support and access to finance, and support for construction businesses in Lewisham.

As part of a commitment to supporting local businesses, Lewisham Council is working in partnership with London Small Business Centre to help Construction SMEs to access more work opportunities in Lewisham as well as in surrounding boroughs.

Key Areas of Focus

• Education.
• Advice and mentoring.
• Access to finance.

Education

Through a mixture of subsidised events, workshops and other programmes, they aim to ensure that small business owners are fully prepared and confident to start and grow their own businesses. Start & Grow is their three year tailored support business package funded by the Regional Growth Fund. The programme basically provides a step-by-step guide designed to take your idea from a start-up to a growing business.

Mentoring

The London Small Business Centre also providescre one-to-one mentoring services with their team of highly skilled, professional business advisers who have all worked for leading companies and have their own experience of starting a business. They give practical hands on advice about your business objectives, including help with business plans, cash flow forecasts and loan applications.

Once you've secured a start-up loan from the London Small Business Centre, you're assigned an adviser to mentor you through the start-up phase and to continue to review the practical aspects whilst you're trading and growing. If you’re an existing business and looking to grow, you’ll also be assigned a business adviser who will guide you on how to scale up. Businesses and advisers are paired together depending on their business ideas and goals. Sessions are structured dependent on the kind of support needed.

Finance

They also work with various partners and sponsors to ensure that clients have access to the right kind of loan and subsidised programmes to help start and grow a business. Their diverse range of partnerships with companies and organisations ranging from the European Regional Development Fund to London South Bank University deliver a range of pan-London projects.

As well as start-up loans, creative industry finance and RevoLewisham, the London Small Business Centre might be able to provide the following loans:

• Short-Term Loans Against Orders up to £10,000.
• Sharia Compliant Loans For Entrepreneurs of Muslim Faith.
• Gap or Match Funding With Other Lenders.

You can get involved through sponsorship, offering pro-bono support to entrepreneurs or donating to the East London Small Business Charity which runs the centre. The donations are used to help create jobs in London by training ambitious entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.

RevoLewisham

RevoLewisham is the revolving energy fund for Lewisham. It is designed to help Lewisham businesses aquire the skills, knowledge, accreditation and tools needed to put themselves in the best position to develop and benefit from market shifts.

Currently 17% of the total carbon emissions in the UK come from homes, commercial and public buildings. This will need to be substantially reduced in the coming years, offering a massive opportunity for businesses. Between the number of home and business retrofits which are taking place each year, increasingly stretching carbon targets and clear signs from government that most energy efficiency improvements to properties are going to have to be funded by occupants, there is every reason to believe the market for energy efficiency measures will grow substantially.

RevoLewisham can provide support or funding to increase the ability of your business to develop and access the growing energy efficiency market and help your customers make informed choices. The interest-free loan can be used for training, accreditation fees, retrofit equipment, project development and marketing. The programme is funded by the London Borough of Lewisham.

Click here to see our membership packages or leave a comment below.

Our next event will be at TateHindle on 12th October. We hope to see you there!