6 Top Tips for success from those who know
We all want to be a success. We all have different ways we think we can achieve it. There’s no right or wrong answer but what about those who have already proven their success? Here’s six top tips to making your start-up business a success from those in the know: Simon Hughes MP Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and MP for Bermondsey & Old Southwark “Work with somebody from your area who is five or more years older than you and is doing the sort of thing that you want to be doing” Lee McQueen Winner of BBC The Apprentice 2008, entrepreneur and founder of Raw Talent Academy that provides SMEs and corporate organisations with the vehicle to build internal sales academies into long term staffing plans. “Get as much critique as possible about your idea. Don’t just ask friends, family and those sort of people, they are just going to tell you what you want to hear. Do go and ask the sort of people who are likely to tell you the things you don’t want to hear. That’s how you are going to hone your idea. That’s how it is going to get much better.” Ketan Makwana A self-made serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Youth Enterprise Live and Enterprise Labs. He is a special advisor on youth employment & enterprise to the UK government and contributor to Parliamentary workgroups. “Believe in yourself and even when the going gets tough just keep pushing through. If you believe in what you are doing and you keep pushing you will breakthrough.” Claire Young Runner up of BBC The Apprentice 2008 and serial entrepreneur specialising in the area of social enterprise “Before you dive off and start spending any time or money make sure you do your homework. Research your market. Know who your competition is and take the time to have a plan in place because without a plan you will have no idea of where you are going. Naomi Timperley Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Enterprise Lab who once with a previous very successful venture turned down an offer of investment on BBC Dragon’s Den “Use and build your network – you never know who someone knows – treat people with respect and how you would like to be treated yourself.” Michael Sani Teacher, actor and founder of apolitical movement Bite the Ballot an organisation engaging young people into thinking about politics. “My top tip….well it’s right to say that I have not gone into this to make money…To be faced with the challenges of setting up and running your own business is a great thing. It means your doing something that has the ability to take you on a roller coaster of ups and downs, questioning what your doing whilst constantly redefining your desire to achieve and if you are the one at the steering wheel of the business, then you are the one that has to ensure it does not fail. But in between, that feeling of sinking deeper and deeper you see the landmarks of achievement that you know, one day, have the potential to be spoken about as examples of success, long after you are gone!” So that’s your six top tips from those at the top of the tree and now here’s a bonus one from this entrepreneurial blogger. My business background is nothing if not varied and coming to the party with many different hats on, I like to think I have a few valid points to make. So what is my tip for success? “Read, listen and absorb. Information is your weapon, your shield and should be your inspiration. Read words of wisdom (such as this) from those who have already lived it and hopefully you will avoid many of the pitfalls that can de-rail your plans for success. Listen to podcasts, attend conferences and network with those who hold golden nuggets of advice. Even friends and family running small operations will have knowledge that may come in useful. Don’t expect all that information you take on board to be of immediate use either. It may be years down the line but every snippet of learning you absorb will one day pay dividends.” 123-reg caught up with all our top tipsters at Youth Enterprise Live 2012 an event focusing on employment, education and enterprise for 15-30 year olds. The event hits the road in 2013 visiting 12 different cities in the UK.
Tips for your content – in a monetary sense
There are a growing number of bloggers across the globe earning a proper and respectable wage from their online writing projects and understandably more and more bloggers or would be bloggers or content creators are keen to collect their slice too. Until now that has been a bit difficult. Positive comments are nice but don’t pay the bills and pushing a link towards a paypal donation is never looked upon as the most professional approach to ask for some reward. A number of microdonation services have sprung up in recent years, claiming to hold the answer, some have been and gone, others appear to have more longevity. One that appears to be getting a foothold is Flattr. A service aimed at all those positive comment leavers to leave a monetary tip for the content creators too. This week they have announced a deal that could at least put there service under the noses of more and more potential users, and they hope, lead to a groundswell and movement towards tipping for online content your have enjoyed. The deal is with Dailymotion, the biggest video portal behind the giant that is YouTube. Those uploading to Dailymotion now have the option to include a Flattr button onto their channels and on the credits of each video, so you can appeal for donations or tips to earn money from your shared content without the need for a pre-roll ad that so often frustrates. The concept behind Flattr aims to avoid the barrier of constantly re-entering card details or the like, and takes on the strength of the like button of Facebook by tipping from a pre-paid ‘pot’ with a minimum of just 2 Euro investment per month of which Flattr takes a 10% service fee. A relatively small investment but in the world of social media, becoming known as the person doing good deeds and genuinely rewarding others could have almost unquantifiable long-term benefits. Whether this latest move by Dailymotion will kickstart the concept remains to be seen, but in a world where the debate over paid-for-content still rages, this may be the next ‘acceptable’ step for many, especially if the correct ‘well-meaning’ spin is put on the regime. Are you using Flattr or any other micropayment service? Are there enough ‘good-hearted’ people about for the scheme to ever take off?
6 New Year’s Resolutions for a successful 2012
So the year has settled in – too quickly for our liking – and no doubt you’ve already broken all those resolutions you made on December 31st. So we thought two weeks in would make a time to set some more resolutions to keep this year and some that are more business specific and designed to make your business more successful in 2012. So here’s six from us: 1 Make contact with an old client Don’t do the hard sell, just see what they are up to and say hello. It may come to nothing but in two, three even six months time when they need some help or perhaps somebody they know needs help of the kind you can supply, you are more likely to feature in their thoughts. 2 Only hold meetings when needed Not every problem deserves a meeting and far too often not every meeting deserves a meeting. So be strong, be realistic and ditch the meetings that you know aren’t likely to move anything on. Calling a meeting to solve a problem is the easy way out, solving it is the hardest bit. Instead of all that wasted time to create space for a meeting, spend the time productively trying to solve the problem. 3 Re-tweet two articles per day Not only will it help your own Twitter presence and following – although only if it is relevant and interesting information you are retweeting – but it will also encourage you to read a bit more and widen your own knowledge. 4 Join a new business group or networking organisation This could be signing up to a trade or industry organisation or it could just be signing up to an online group such as the many thriving on LinkedIn. It is a great way of keeping up with the buzz in your industry but also of making new contacts who you can bounce ideas off of or learn from. 5 Learn when to move on If a project keeps stalling or a product just isn’t moving, stop and take a step back. Putting more and more effort into solving the issues may be making it more diffuclt for you to see the whole picture. If you can put it on hold, or pass it to a colleague. A fresh set of eyes can be the fastest way to solving consistent stumbling blocks and more effective and efficient in the long run. 6 Manage your finances better Invest in a suitable accounts package and put it in the hands of somebody suitably qualified to use it. Then make the most of it. As well as tracking all the ins and outs – make sure you chase invoices as they become overdue – us it to plan properly too. Look at cashflow and projections and flag up early any potential issues. That’s just six from us what are your resolutions?
Video interview with Laura Rigney co-founder of MumpreneurUK
If you read our blog of yesterday you will know that we attended the very successful MumpreneurUK annual Conference and Awards over the weekend. While we were there, we caught up with co-founder Laura Rigney and asked her what MumpreneurUK is all about, why mumpreneurs are overcoming the current economic crisis and what it takes to be a successful mumpreneur. Don’t forget to check out the other videos on the 123-reg YouTube channel too.
SEO direct tips from Bing
However good your SEO, the key aim is always to get a higher listing in search engine directories. So when one of those search engines shares tips on optimising your site for SEO, it’s worth taking notice, after all they should know what works and what doesn’t. On the Bing Webmaster Centre Blog last month Duane Forester who runs the public outreach side of the Webmaster program for Bing gave 18 tips on how to best optimise your website. The 18 points are not comprehensive apparently, but designed to cover “the important aspects you should look at addressing”. Certainly worth a look and if you are designing a new site from scratch, well worth using as part of your template. We suggest you read the full blog but if time is short make sure you memorise these 8 definite no-nos: cloaking link buying like farms link farms three-way linking duplicating content auto-follows in social media the thin content approach Have you seen any other SEO tips direct from search engines?