When I first started my business 5 years ago I was nieve to the world of Business Banking. I knew I needed a business bank account, so I could get the cheque book I needed to pay suppliers, the card to pay for goods online and that I also needed credit card processing services, so I got them all in one from the nearest bank.
My haste perhaps could have saved me a fair bit of time back then, I could have gone with a cheaper bank or thought more deeply about getting Business Funding rather than struggling to survive in the first year. I have since learnt from this but I still am glad I went strait into it. One thing that could have saved me a few grand that year was that the bank I opted for gave me Free Business Banking, but only for 6 months. Whereas now if you shop around you may manage to find 12 months + of free business banking - something which is worth (as I said) upwards of a few hundred quid for most business’s.
Its also important to go with a stable and ethical bank, stability will help you grow your business without worrying about them closing down on you and ethical will ensure that you work with people who understand how business should be done.
As part of a series I intend to give away a business idea once a week for the next month. The pre-post to this is here, essentially the ideas I will provide are ones which I have not personally managed to use yet, and don’t think them personally viable in the short to to long term future - hence I am giving them away to you, for free! ( a link in return wouldn’t hurt :D)
This weeks one I call “Skill Investment” or “SkillVest”
The idea in brief was that there are a huge amount of job sites, places to get jobs doing almost anything. One thing there isn’t is a way people can online easily find start ups in which they can provide their work as an investment in the equity of the startup/fledgling company. The Job sites that are out there do their job well, but allow no room for equity propositions as a pose to wages.This came about because I had a spare day in the week at one point and I considered that if I could provide, say PHP or web development services to a start up company, in return for perhaps 5%, then was I able to do that for 20 start ups, the equivalent in return would potentially be a better gamble than simply filling the time with paid web work.This idea would work - I am significantly sure there are many people willing to work in return for equity in startup co’s. I am also very sure that start up’s need a good way to easily find people to fulfil jobs on the cheap that are willing to give up equity.
It is a lot more complicated than your standard site, with the equity part being a lot more legally confusing, especially across international borders. An Escrow like service would be needed to be established in order to enforce the payment of users. Or perhaps not?
If you think this is a good idea then please feel free to act on it, if you would like to chat about the idea or maybe include me please feel free to email me at woody *at* critix.co.uk.In the mean time if you want to read up some of my other ideas about business please do:
- 5 Startup Business Points - A few pointers that it may be worth refreshing yourself with
- Mission Statements - Important or not?
- Networking - Internet Style
I have noticed over the last year or so a huge boom in online financial comparison services. From the likes of Money supermarket who started comparing loans to confused.com and now gocompare.com that lets you find a range of prices for car insurance. Its a booming market and is effectively just affiliate marketing on a national mass market scale. I like the idea, I mean its a win win deal. All the companies using them to sell get more car insurance sold, the middleman gets a cut and the customer gets cheap car insurance, I mean that’s pretty mutually beneficial for all parties. Its rare that on such a large scale something can work so well. I cant help but think that if the insurance companies were dynamic enough they would have started their own equivalent sites, or sold more successfully to avoid the need to use these middle men sites. But then I suppose they may well do, and even if they do perhaps the extra sales are always welcome so they can never have enough outlets to sell insurance.
In that way I cant see that a well implemented version of a comparison site can fail. Provided it is run well, set up with flare and allows you to easily compare car insurance or another financial product then it cant really fail, the moneys there!
What would you do if you were the richest man (or women) alive? would you revel in the fame or stand back? Personally the latter would be my choice. This week with the growth of my current company increasing I have been largely thinking about exit strategy’s, planning my what ifs and my backup what ifs. A plan is important for me - gives me something to beat, something to surpass.
I suppose provided I make it to the multi billionaire status I will probably split my time between family and sustained growth of my empire. I have plans of space and intend to leave earth permanently before I die, perhaps that ambition is a bi-product of a misspent youth, with first person shooters, star trek games and farscape the igniting flame. But wont it be cool when we make it to proper outer space? Where you could just jet off in a direction and see completely new things unseen previously by any human. In business terms I think space is so inconceivably huge that its the equivalent of 1000 gold mines the size of 134million earth’s in terms of available business pursuits. You could operate a deep space expedition or just farm red sand on Mars, operate a hotel on Pluto or pretend to run a jedi school..(lol)
So maybe we will be the generation to which 80% of exit strategies were underplanned, maybe we will find a trick to an extra 60 years of life or work out how to see Mars in person for under £500. I guess we have to keep at our real world business’s - I just don’t see technology slowing down!
The current buzz around hedge funds is obvious, but a lot of people wouldn’t be able to describe what one is - but do even the investors know?
What comes to mind when you think of funds? Money? Investing? Though there are many types of funds, each has its unique characteristics. Some are made for individuals while others fit large companies. Funds can have both high and low risk. Yet there is one type of fund that is gaining attention that many people have no clue about. It’s called a hedge fund.
Since its start in 1949, hedge funds have been gaining much popularity by investors around the nation. A hedge fund is a “private, unregulated investment fund for wealthy investors (minimum investments typically begin at US$1 million) specializing in high risk, short term speculation on bonds, currencies, stock options and derivatives”. So if this involves high risk, why would anyone want to invest so much money into it? Well, that answer is simple. Hedge funds are out to make profits, no matter what.
They are unaffected by the market. So even if the market was plunging, a hedge fund investor could still make big profit. Hedge funds can usually protect against declining markets by using different hedging strategies. These strategies differ with each type of hedge fund and investment style. But using these strategies would help bring profit even in a bad market.
Another reason for having hedge funds is hedge fund managers are paid a percentage based on the returns they get. This is appealing to them because they would rather not deal with mutual fund fees. Investors in hedge funds have the freedom to invest in stocks, without letting anyone know what stocks they have invested in. This has added some risk to the stock market. But of course how much of the stock market is under the hands of hedge funds, no one really knows. Some have estimated that it is some where near 50%.Others say there are 4,000 hedge funds that have power over $400 billion.
Though hedge funds have much advantages, just like anything else, they also have their share of disadvantages. An investor should not rely on his or her past knowledge of hedge funds and investing. It is imperative to study the field and how everything works.
Some advice can be taken from Kurt Schacht “While hedge funds are growing in popularity, they escape easy definition,” stated Kurt Schacht, executive director of the CFA (Centre for Financial Market Integrity). “While we all may think we are sophisticated investors, it’s imperative that investors make sure they fully understand the structure and attributes of the vehicle in which they are investing in.” Having a good understanding of hedge funds and how to make them work to your benefit is critical to the success of your business. Never underestimate the power of learning about the market in order to benefit from it. Don’t rely solely on hunches or feeling in the game of risk. When you do have a hedge fund, it requires you make an investment in knowing how the game is played. In the end, you’ve gotta give some to get some.
That is the question. Recently as you may have read I have been dabbling with affiliate marketing. From my fortnight of play and testing I have made under $100/£50 (at the current exchange rate :0 @ uk>usa.) Now that’s not a lot of money, but then I haven’t exactly spent lots of time on it (maybe 5-10 hours.) The thing is if you think about it, stand back and objectively look at both sides of the affiliate ideology, there is a fine division between affiliates and sellers.The sellers allowing affiliates to be middle men can’t really loose out as they invest little time setting it up and essentially get the affiliates time spent for free. They do however swap this for commissions and lack of control of the ways in which their products are being sold online (this is also how it works in real life affiliate situations.)
The Affiliates want to make their share, they work hard (or not) and get a small cut - and mark my words it is pretty small. A lot of small cuts do make a large cut, but is it really that possible to become very rich as an affiliate?
In every market, business or field there will always be success and failure, the highly successful and the complete belly floppers. Now the successful in affiliate marketing (notably the big ‘make money online blogs’) do make for quite large payouts, with some bloggers apparently making 25k+ a month from affiliate work. I am sure there are the odd few making even more than that too, but think of how many affiliate marketeers there are making just a bit?
There are aspects of affiliate marketeering that I do like. The hours - suit you, the product - you can pretty much choose - from rc cars to radiators, the tools - payperclick, microsites, forums, redirects, shorturls for affiliates. Its a fun game, mixing in cool opportunities like ebay commissions, widgetised selling blocks etc. easily up-scaleable too.
I suppose acting as an affiliate is the modern day equivalent of door to door salesmen. You get a companies ware’s and try and sell as much as possible promoting it across the world in order to get your cut.
I will probably continue to dabble in affiliate marketing, promoting products I believe in, but as a path to billions I can’t see it being as simply universally expandable as investing or selling your own services and products (and using affiliates rather than being one). I almost would say that you should do 80% of the sales work in house, allowing you to maintain a lot of the control and a fair amount of the revenue. Affiliate marketing from a business point of view should also be thought out before rushing in, as for high high end products with certain aspirations and values - you shouldn’t let just anybody go around selling your products for risk of contamination of brand.
Agree with what I am saying? If not comment below, if you do then why not read something else?:
- 5 Things to know before starting up an eVenture
- Successful Business Strategy
- Hyperlocal - selling to your next door neighbour’s online
Networking is a key business skill, a way that many of the top success stories of our time have played out and highlighted in the saying “its not what you know, its Who you know”. Now I put a fair amount of belief in that saying, primarily because it shows a clear definition between skills and people, that is you could know php in and out, maybe you even know a good place online to sell it, but sooner or later if you completely lack people skills your business will come a cropper.
As with all things it depends on your intention, but if you intend to succeed in business - then in 90% of cases you will need to master at least the basics of networking and people skills. From phoning up a sales lead or calling back an old customer the phone is part of the skill, politeness, charm and a positive distraction from the day are all skills of telephony that will allow you to lure people into maintaining a phone based business relationship. Furthermore public events, promotions, the hard sell are all good skills that you would expect a sales person to have done to the tee, but as an entrepreneur you have to act as a jack of all trades, learning enough of all areas of your business - in this case dealing with potential customers is key. Its worth noting that I have noticed that the people who are good with crowds, the loud ones begging for attention are not always the victors of the social war either. They may appear to be the life of the party, but resist joining in - be a clever people person - learn when to play and when to hold your hand!
Anyway people know about networking in real life - I find it fairly awkward and just have to throw myself in the deep end, and when I am there I am usually more than fine, but what about networking online? How do you develop friendships, business relations and find useful contacts online?
There are both good and bad ways to do it, as well as good and bad reasons for doing it. Finding helpful people sitting on the other end of a laptop or pc somewhere else in the world can be great for support work, online work etc. but the downside is you have to compete with spam and I find that the anonymity of net tends to mean that online workers can take longer to do things, drop projects more, scam you easier, be less answerable (e.g. if abroad.) With this in mind I would advise that if you need work done and you are going to look online for a solution, or if you want to find someone to mutually help you and themselves online then first know where too look:
Forums - A great source of information, connections, discussions, reviews, opinions. The great thing about forums for finding useful people is that good forums (e.g. digital point) have well established rep systems and its easy to find out if most people on there are trustworthy.
Advertise - Don’t forget sometimes the person you are looking for might find you - if you advertise on your site or on an appropriate niche website you will find your man. Key here is detail - lay down exactly what you are looking for - then you will either be able to choose from a list of lots or wont get the man you want because he doesn’t exist (or you are advertising in the wrong place!)
Blog Comments - Comment on peoples blogs you like - and don’t. Its often said this is a good idea - but the dislike is underplayed. Be honest, constructive criticism is 100% better than ass kissing, if the person is real then they will see your comment as what it is, if they just flame back they aren’t worth your time.
Manage your Time without mercy. Its always tempting to burn into the night commenting, posting, emailing - but the best way to build good relations is under reasonable sustainable situations.
What you think about that then? Tell me what you think or read something else from my Archives!
- 5 Startup Points - Don’t let your business be a failure from the start
- Subscribe the Masses - Great ways to get people subscribed to your blog
Roberts Bridge Financial offer quickly cleared Payday Loans - which are essentially a way to get a ’sub’ or a cash advance on your coming wages. This would be a useful service if you are having problems with cash flow as it will free up your wages so when you need to pay that bill or the rent or what have you.
Roberts Bridge Financials site is great looking, with a great British flag and good design. I personally probably wont ever need the service but for quick short term loans and Cash Advance between £150 to £750 they seem to be professional and have good credentials. Salary Advance’s should definatly be not overlooked as a viable option in personal finance.
They ask for your details like name, address, phone numbers and your work details on a single one page form then your done - money can come within 24 hours - salary advances from Roberts Bridge Financials is probably a great way to get matched for a quick term loan - just remember only get a loan that you can pay back - credit is great as long as you don’t take credit you can’t afford out.
Want to read more about finance? perhaps business related? here ya go!
I thought I would throw down a ‘5 things’ relative to starting your first business. I speak from personal experience so they will vary - comments appreciated as ever 
- It will be difficult, stressful and lonely in 99% of cases (at least for the first bit) - be ready for a bit of a slog. If you are really lucky your business will fly quickly and this won’t last too long. But be prepared to give up to 6 months of hard work before giving up on an idea or seeing it really soar.
- You’ll may become addicted - When you first start a business it can be addictive to work - you can spend all day in the office/shop/boardroom then come home and chat about work then go to bed and lay there thinking about work. This is ok but bare in mind this is not sustainable forever so plan your exit!
- You should always have an exit strategy - Having a clear plan about how you will leave the business with profit will give you a good target to aim for and stop you wasting your life chasing dreams.
- Its All in the Planning - As well as an exit strategy, mission statements, month, quarter, year and 2 year plans are also worth doing - whether you manage to achieve or surpass them they will act as a framework freeing you up for day to day business decisions.
- Manage less, Lead More - In an ideal situation you will be able to start a company and employ a manager - but this is not likely when you start out. This means you will have to act as both the director/leader of your business and the general manager. This can be a messy conflicting pair of roles and confuse you and make you act as neither of the two. Define a clear plan as to how you will deal with the managerial roles and allot a time for leadership.
Like these 5? Why not check out some more of my start up business posts:
- Business Mission Statements - A requirement or a waste of time - depends on your market - perhaps?
- Early Starts Late Nights - A look on how we spend our time working on our business’s.
- Hyper Local - A great new way to target people by street - or over the top?
- Organise your online reading - how I get my sites in order - read only what is worth reading!
Some times being an entrepreneur can be a daunting pursuit. Hardwork, lonely and an uphill struggle it can take a lot of work to get an idea off the ground.
I’ve found myself spending little amounts of time on a vast amount of skillsets including video editing, php, graphic design, photography, selling, economics, journalistic writing, development plans, strategy, driving, drawing, seo, sem, printing, training - and that’s just off the top of my head.
This irritates me for two reasons: 1. I could be doing what I am good at, but perhaps doing the above is leadership? and 2. Someone who is more professional could be doing it and getting it a lot more precisely mastered. This however is a toss up. I would always lean towards the professional approach, because someone who has mastered an art is much better at it than an amateur, if even just because of practice.
But with start up companies this is not always possible. To start a small web based firm on a shoe string is possible - but not if you started with a professional marketing manager, accountant, web developer, strategist etc. So on a start up financial basis alone the entrepreneur is almost force to be a jack of all trades. But as the maxim goes - Jack of all trades, Master of none - so attention should be paid to how much of your time you devote to skilled work. After you start getting a little sales in or get some sort of funding - be able and prepared to give up certain control of the business. Be ready to employ a marketing professional - professional designer or what have you.
Half of the art of being an entrepreneur is people, learning when to employ who and for what job, term and intention. So perhaps entrepreneurship, if anything is mastering several skills, just on a different level. We just need to have exit strategy’s, plans for handing down control and progressing onwards. Because we have more important things than mastering video editing!!!