Why Start Ups Fail

No one wants to fail in business, unfortunately the majority do. I came across the following ‘infographic’ on why this happens. It was generated as a result of a study of 3200 companies by the Start Up Genome project – it makes interesting viewing.

(Click on the image to enlarge or right click your mouse and use “Save as…” to download to your computer)

If You Were An Entrepreneur – What Would You Do With A Dead Donkey?

I thought you might find this amusing:

If You Were An Entrepreneur - What Would You Do With A Dead Donkey?

Young Johnny bought a donkey from a farmer for £100.

The next day the farmer drove up to Johnny and said: ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The donkey’s died.’

Johnny replied, ‘Well then just give me my money back.’

The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I’ve already spent it.’

Johnny said ‘OK then, just bring me the dead donkey – I’ll raffle him off‘

The farmer said, ‘You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’

Johnny said, ‘Sure I can. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’

A month later, the farmer met up with Johnny and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’

Johnny said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at £2 a piece and made a profit of £898‘

The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’

Johnny said, ‘Just the guy who won, so I gave him his £2 back!’

Millions of pounds lost to Britain’s fear of failure

Research by the newly-relaunched Business Link shows that a quarter of the working population believes there are good opportunities to start up new businesses – but a fear of failure is holding them back.

If only one per cent of UK workers overcame their fear and started up a new business, the UK economy would receive a boost of over £33m, if each individual made a profit of just £1,000. If five per cent overcame their fear and took a leap into entrepreneurialism, then the injection would be £163m – while, if all of them took the leap, the benefit would be £3.25bn.

Read full article.

If you’re looking to start a business, before you do, take a look at our start up page and also consider downloading the free e-book: 50 Essential Business Advice Tips To Prevent Your Business From Failing.

The rise of the older-preneur: It’s never too late!

More than one in four small business in the UK are started by individuals who have either recently retired or been made redundant, according to Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank.

In fact, its research suggests that more than 1 million so-called older-preneurs aged 55 or over have used retirement or redundancy as an opportunity to set up their own businesses.

Findings of the research, which involved more than 500 small business owners around the country, include that nearly a quarter – or 23% – of ‘older-preneurs’ set up their businesses after being made redundant, while a further 12% did so on retirement.

Lord Sugar: “People like me are a dying breed”

Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Sugar said entrepreneurs should fend for themselves, and stop expecting everything to be handed to them on a plate.

“The thing is, people like me are a dying breed.” Lord Sugar boomed.

“When, as a young man, I went to a bank with my hand out, they thought I was part of a Morecambe and Wise team. ‘Do you have any collateral, a balance sheet, some history of profits?’, they asked. ‘No,’ I replied. ’Well then, clear off,’ was their response.”

Speaking out against today’s “expectancy culture”, Lord Sugar said that entrepreneurs need to learn to fend for themselves.

“It has been customary for a person dressed in a nice pair of designer jeans and a nice blue blazer and a white open-collared shirt, a bottle of Evian and a wonderful Microsoft spreadsheet in hand, to walk into a bank, mention the word dotcom and walk out with £5m.

Read more: http://realbusiness.co.uk/management/lord_sugar_people_like_me_are_a_dying_breed

Where are all the British billionaires?

Forbes released its annual World Billionaires rich list earlier this month. Topped by Mexico’s Carlos Slim, whose $74bn fortune put him way ahead of Microsoft’s Bill Gates (number two on the list at $56bn) the list is an impressive who’s-who of the world’s rich.

Perennial Forbes Top 10-er Warren Buffett appears at number three with $50bn of worth, while the world’s richest woman, Christy Walton of the Walmart empire, comes in at number ten.

But, hold on… where are all the Brits?

Sadly for HM Queen, none of her subjects appear until number 57 on the list, when Gerald Grosvenor and family make an appearance with their $13bn of real estate.

While American entrepreneurs feature strongly throughout the 1,210-strong list, British entrepreneurs are notably absent. The Reuben brothers are there (ranked 114th with $8bn) and so is Sir Philip Green (132nd, $7.2bn).

Other notable Brits include Bernie Ecclestone (=254th, $4.2bn), Richard Branson (=254th, $4.2bn), James Dyson (420th, $2.7bn) and John Caudwell (651st, $1.9bn). Even JK Rowling slipped onto the list, with her $1bn Harry Potter fortune.

Read more: http://realbusiness.co.uk/jason_hesse/where_are_all_the_british_billionaires

New entrepreneur training programme launches

A new programme, the New Entrepreneurs Foundation, has launched, giving young people the opportunity to spend a year working alongside top entrepreneurs.

The programme, New Entrepreneurs Foundation, is backed by heavyweight UK entrepreneurs including Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of Invensys and BAA; Lord Davies, a former trade minister; and Oliver Pawle, chairman at Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann.

The New Entrepreneurs Foundation programme will run from September 2011, and is looking for 25 “highly motivated and business-minded young people who have the potential to create and run new market leading businesses”.

Read full article: http://realbusiness.co.uk/management/new_entrepreneur_training_programme_launches

Female entrepreneurship an ‘untapped resource’

Female entrepreneurship must be supported by the government in order for the economy to grow, a leading business group has said.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling on the government to do more to help boost female entrepreneurship, which it believes is an economic resource the government has yet to fully tap into within its plans to grow the economy.

Women’s enterprise contributes around £130bn turnover and £70bn Gross Value Added every year. But if the UK had the same level of female entrepreneurship as the US, there would be 600,000 extra women-owned businesses, contributing an additional £42bn to the economy.

Read full article: http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/female-entrepreneurship-an-untapped-resource-says-business-group.html

Six tips on delivering steady growth

After ten years, Martin Leuw has stood down as group CEO of IRIS Software to give him the scope he needs to focus on new business ventures.

Over the past ten years, the company has grown from 100 employees to around 1,200 and undertook three private-equity backed MBOs and numerous acquisitions, growing our market value from £30m to over £500m.

And the five worse countries in which to set up shop are…

1. Yemen
2. Cameroon
3. Mali
4. Ethiopia
5. Zimbabwe

Source: http://realbusiness.co.uk/jason_hesse/ten_best_countries_to_be_an_entrepreneur