Start up business tips from ...
http://www.businesszone.co.uk/blogs/tonyrobbo/tony-robinson-obe-author-039stripping-freedom039-blogs/learning-lord-sugar?ref=ukbf
6. All you need is paper and a pencil and a lot of hard work.
I hope I’ve saved the best and most provocative heading until last. Remember Lord Sugar is no technophobe – he understands ICT and probably likes gadgets too. When I first met him he’d just bought Viglen so he also knows the benefits to business of technology. .
The most important lesson I’ve learned from Lord Sugar, my Dad and my co-owner’s father , who all started and developed very successful businesses is that starting and running your own enterprise is not a complex process. As well as really hard work, a fantastic knowledge of our product and/or service and the market, in order to succeed in our own businesses we must always go back to the basics. That’s good news and is why enterprise is for all and why privilege or higher education are not necessary for your earnings potential as they are for many other career options.
The essential skills will always be the same - just don’t make it complex. You do not need a 30 page business plan – you just need to work out where you’re aiming for and how you might get there and what that means in terms of how you spend your time and money. 90% of start-up plans are likely to be seen as works of fiction within six months. We never really know until we start trading and it’s best to not spend too long planning. Get working, get selling as soon as possible and start earning a living!
It’s more important to find out what will sell and for you to gain the know how to sell it at pre start. We know that with the right support at start up, and some test trading, 85% of new starts will still be trading in 3 years’ time and 6% will go on to be substantial businesses. We’ll never know in advance which the 6% are – otherwise everyone would be falling over themselves to buy a piece of their action – but the reason we formed SFEDI is to do our very best to ensure that there is the right help around to give everyone a good start.
Someone who has started and run their own business can provide invaluable help to you – if they haven’t then beware. There’s something really wrong if you need complex software or finance professionals to tell you how you’re doing. Every successful business owner I know manages cash flow constantly and can write down a very good estimate of all their costs and how much they need to sell in order to cover these costs.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Fun not money drives net millionaire
I've been watching his success. Very interesting young man.
Despite an extortion attempt which led to the involvement of UK police and the FBI, Alex eventually became a millionaire.
But while contemporaries such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg have moved on to making billions, Alex's latest project is a free site that encourages visitors to take a break from the internet.
He created www.donothing for2minutes.com with coder friend Ben Dowling one evening, on a budget of just £70.
In its first month the site was visited more than 2.6 million times.
As the name suggests, users are invited to spend two minutes enjoying the electronic scenery.
Perhaps tellingly, in a world filled with e-mail, tweets, and news feeds, only 54 per cent of visitors manage to see it through.
The average down time of twitchy computer users is just 65 seconds because as soon as the keyboard, mouse or trackpad is touched, the website displays a "FAIL" message.
Alex believes that the site reveals something profound about how we interact with the modern world.
"I read somewhere that our brains are to some extent being rewired by the internet, because every time we check Twitter or Facebook or our e-mail, we get a little dopamine kick if there's a new update," he said.
"Apparently we're all developing shorter attention spans, as well as some anxiety if we feel we are missing out on new information.
"I'm totally addicted to checking Twitter or Facebook any time I have a spare moment, so I thought it would be fun to create a simple website to help people take a brief pause from all the noise of the internet, and use technology to give back what it has taken away: Calm."
Throwing shoes Alex's change of tack comes after developing another site with cash at its heart. In 2006, he launched Pixelotto, an online prize draw, which eventually paid out $153,000 (£94,000) to a single winner in Kenya.
Then in 2008, he founded a social network to share comedy called Popjam.
It spawned a flash-based game based on the President Bush shoe-throwing incident. The game got six million players in its first week and it was later sold for £5,000 on eBay.
His 2010 website onemillionpeople.com aimed to collect the faces of the "digital generation", compiled into a coffee table-style book.
While the venture started out charging users, the site later switched to being funded by advertising.
However, it was with Do Nothing that Alex finally decided to produce something for its social value rather than business possibilities.
There is no advertising on the site and no opportunity to generate revenue.
Users won't earn anything either. Their only reward is a "well done" message and the chance for stressed surfers to share the experience friends via Facebook and Twitter.
Alex said that his change of motivation was driven by a desire to understand what is happening on the internet from a human perspective.
"This project was done purely for fun, the intention isn't to make money," he said.
"I'm an avid internet user and fascinated by the awesome power that technology offers in spreading ideas across the world in lightning quick time."
"My primary motive in life is creative output, and some of that might be profitable, and some of it not. But it's all fun."
'Just launch something' Alex is now thinking of ways to make the site more useful, taking in ideas from users.
These include animated waves, a waterfall, mountain scenes with birds flying, a crackling warm fireplace and a mobile app to relax on the move.
As for his next project, Alex is staying tight-lipped. But he can't hold back his enthusiasm for encouraging anyone to take advantage of the web's potential.
"Social media in particular has increased the speed at which information travels around the globe. So good ideas spread superfast, as opposed to just fast," he said.
"Just launch something, as soon as possible. It's important to get ideas out there into the wild and begin testing them with real users, and not spend ages building something only to realise there's no market for it."
Sumber: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12778322
Fun not money drives net millionaire
As an internet entrepreneur, Alex Tew almost seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
He achieved fame and wealth aged 21 by creating the Million Dollar Homepage, a website that sold advertising space by the pixel on a 1000x1000 grid.Despite an extortion attempt which led to the involvement of UK police and the FBI, Alex eventually became a millionaire.
But while contemporaries such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg have moved on to making billions, Alex's latest project is a free site that encourages visitors to take a break from the internet.
He created www.donothing for2minutes.com with coder friend Ben Dowling one evening, on a budget of just £70.
In its first month the site was visited more than 2.6 million times.
Donothingfor2minutes.com encourages users to take a break from the net. Only a few manage.
The single webpage, featuring a picture of the sun setting behind the sea, is designed to prompt people into taking a "brief pause" from the hustle, bustle and noise of the digital age.As the name suggests, users are invited to spend two minutes enjoying the electronic scenery.
Perhaps tellingly, in a world filled with e-mail, tweets, and news feeds, only 54 per cent of visitors manage to see it through.
The average down time of twitchy computer users is just 65 seconds because as soon as the keyboard, mouse or trackpad is touched, the website displays a "FAIL" message.
Alex believes that the site reveals something profound about how we interact with the modern world.
"I read somewhere that our brains are to some extent being rewired by the internet, because every time we check Twitter or Facebook or our e-mail, we get a little dopamine kick if there's a new update," he said.
"Apparently we're all developing shorter attention spans, as well as some anxiety if we feel we are missing out on new information.
"I'm totally addicted to checking Twitter or Facebook any time I have a spare moment, so I thought it would be fun to create a simple website to help people take a brief pause from all the noise of the internet, and use technology to give back what it has taken away: Calm."
Throwing shoes Alex's change of tack comes after developing another site with cash at its heart. In 2006, he launched Pixelotto, an online prize draw, which eventually paid out $153,000 (£94,000) to a single winner in Kenya.
Then in 2008, he founded a social network to share comedy called Popjam.
It spawned a flash-based game based on the President Bush shoe-throwing incident. The game got six million players in its first week and it was later sold for £5,000 on eBay.
Onemillionpeople.com was Alex Tew's attempt to chronicle the digital generation.
But when Popjam didn't work out, Alex turned to using technology to make social statements.His 2010 website onemillionpeople.com aimed to collect the faces of the "digital generation", compiled into a coffee table-style book.
While the venture started out charging users, the site later switched to being funded by advertising.
However, it was with Do Nothing that Alex finally decided to produce something for its social value rather than business possibilities.
There is no advertising on the site and no opportunity to generate revenue.
Users won't earn anything either. Their only reward is a "well done" message and the chance for stressed surfers to share the experience friends via Facebook and Twitter.
Alex said that his change of motivation was driven by a desire to understand what is happening on the internet from a human perspective.
"This project was done purely for fun, the intention isn't to make money," he said.
"I'm an avid internet user and fascinated by the awesome power that technology offers in spreading ideas across the world in lightning quick time."
"My primary motive in life is creative output, and some of that might be profitable, and some of it not. But it's all fun."
'Just launch something' Alex is now thinking of ways to make the site more useful, taking in ideas from users.
These include animated waves, a waterfall, mountain scenes with birds flying, a crackling warm fireplace and a mobile app to relax on the move.
Now aged 26, Alex is pursuing involved in new projects with less emphasis on making big money.
He said: "I think it's fair to say the site has really hit a nerve. The popularity has got me thinking about ideas for additional tools to aid relaxation." As for his next project, Alex is staying tight-lipped. But he can't hold back his enthusiasm for encouraging anyone to take advantage of the web's potential.
"Social media in particular has increased the speed at which information travels around the globe. So good ideas spread superfast, as opposed to just fast," he said.
"Just launch something, as soon as possible. It's important to get ideas out there into the wild and begin testing them with real users, and not spend ages building something only to realise there's no market for it."
Sumber: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12778322
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Hutton Pension report
It's interesting to follow the thoughts:-
- how much to pay
- how to cover the gap
Lord Hutton publishes his final report on the future of public service pensions
10 March 2011Lord Hutton of Furness today sets out his proposals for comprehensive, long-term structural reform of public service pension schemes.
The final report of the Independent Public Services Pension Commission follows a comprehensive nine-month review. It sets out a number of detailed recommendations to the Government on how public service pensions can be made sustainable and affordable in the future, while providing an adequate level of retirement income.
The main recommendation of the report is that existing final salary public service pension schemes should be replaced by new schemes, where an employee’s pension entitlement is still linked to their salary (a “defined benefit scheme”) but is related to their career average earnings, with appropriate adjustments in earlier years so that benefits maintain their value.
The report suggests that it should be possible to introduce these new schemes before the end of this Parliament, in 2015, while allowing a longer transition, where needed, for groups such as the armed forces and police.
Other key recommendations in the report include:
- Linking Normal Pension Age (NPA) in most public service pension schemes to the State Pension Age;
- Introducing a Normal Pension Age of 60 for those members of the uniformed services – armed forces, police and firefighters – who currently have a NPA of less than 60;
- Setting a clear cost ceiling for public service pension schemes – the proportion of pensionable pay that taxpayers will contribute to employees’ pensions – with automatic stabilisers to keep future costs under more effective control;
- Honouring, in full, the pension promises that have been earned by scheme members (their “accrued rights”) and maintaining the final salary link for past service for current members;
- Introducing more independent oversight and much stronger governance of all public service pension schemes;
- Encouraging greater member involvement in consultations about the setting up of new schemes, and in the running of schemes; and
- Overhauling the current legal framework for public service pensions to make it simpler.
“These proposals aim to strike a balanced deal between public service workers and the taxpayer. They will ensure that public service workers continue to have access to good pensions, while taxpayers benefit from greater control over their costs.
“Pensions based on career average earnings will be fairer to the majority of members that do not have the high salary growth rewarded in final salary schemes.
“The current model of public service pension provision is clearly not tenable in the long-term. There is a clear need for reform. Getting the decisions right on the most appropriate structures and designs will be crucial to making any changes work in the future. This will only be achievable if there is effective dialogue between public service employers, employees and unions.”
The report is available from the Independent Public Services Pension Commission website.
Notes for editors
1. Lord Hutton of Furness was commissioned by the Chancellor, George Osborne, at the June 2010 Budget to carry out a review of public service pensions.2. Further details on the Commission’s proposed Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) pension scheme can be found on the Commission website.
3. The Commission published an interim report on 7 October 2010 which found that the current public service pensions structure has been unable to respond flexibly to rising pensions costs in the past few decades, and that the current final salary design feature of public service pensions is fundamentally unfair to those without large salary increases during their career. It also acknowledged the growing gap between pensions in the public and private sector, yet asserted that public service pensions provision should not become “a race to the bottom”. It recommended long-term structural reform to public service pensions and ruled out traditional final salary defined benefit schemes and funded, individual account, defined contribution models for all employees. The Government accepted the report’s conclusions and affirmed its commitment to maintaining some form of defined benefit pension provision for public service employees. The interim report is available on the Commission website.
4. As regards the cost of implementing the new schemes, the report notes that additional resources – people and money – will be needed to implement these reforms, but the details will be for the Government to determine.
5. Pension Facts:
- About one in five UK citizens has some entitlement to a public service pension.
- Public service schemes paid out £32 billion in 2008-09, about two thirds of the cost of the basic State Pension.
- The average pension paid to pensioner members is around £7,800 per year.
- Around half of pensioners receive less than £5,600 per year.
- The highest-earning fifth of Local Government Pension Scheme pensioners get almost a third more in pensions per £100 of contributions than the lowest-earning fifth.
- Current pensioners can expect to spend about 40 to 45 per cent of their adult lives in retirement if they retire at 60, compared with about 30 per cent for pensioners in the 1950s. If scheme Normal Pension Ages are linked to the State Pension Age as the Commission recommends, the proportion of life in retirement is projected to remain at about a third over the next five decades.
- Around 85 per cent of public service employees have some form of employer-sponsored pension provision, compared to around 35 per cent in the private sector.
More stuffs here: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/indreview_johnhutton_pensions.htm
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Tourism marketing: Ireland 2011
http://www.conference-news.co.uk/news/2011/02/24/Ireland-raises-its-stake-30-per-cent-on-tourism-marketing/2843
***Get back tourist even after Euro increase i.e. more expensive to have holiday in Ireland
Ireland raises its stake 30% on tourism marketing
Despite the recession hitting Irish tourism hard, Tourism Ireland is to increase its investment in marketing by 30 per cent, with social and digital media at the centre of the new strategy.
Tourism Ireland launched its 2011 Marketing Plans for the British market at the Irish Embassy in London, 23 February, and CEO Niall Gibbons reminded the audience, including key UK event organisers, that tourism was worth €3bn to the Irish economy and delivered four per cent of GNP.
Gibbons said that the new marketing campaign would concentrate on differentiating the Ireland offer for tourism. He admitted that the perception of value had deteriorated with the strengthening of the euro by 40 per cent against sterling.
However, a 10 per cent swing back had helped make Ireland’s hotel room stock “some the best value in Western Europe,” Gibbons said, adding that in addition to Tourism Ireland increasing its marketing budget by 30 per cent, there has been a cut in travel tax from 10 to three per cent.
New Head of Great Britain at Tourism Ireland, Vanessa Markey, outlined three more planks to the “return to growth strategy”: creating a buzz; exciting the British travel trade and increased value. She said there would be a less fragmented approach to marketing, with the lion’s share of funding going to the target markets. Britain, she noted, now accounted for half of all Ireland’s tourism business.
“Digital campaigns and social media will play an important part in promoting Ireland as a business tourism destination,” Markey said. A recent Twitter campaign had attracted 33,000 tweets, she noted, and said a 60-second viral YouTube clip was to be released on St Patrick’s Day (17 March).
An iBot called Dara is also promised as part of the campaign to push Ireland’s literary heritage and Markey said a campaign of TV ads would run on ITV for the first time in five years. One million euros would be put into advertising in video on demand channel slots.
The new marketing activity follows last year’s introduction of a conference CO2 calculator iPhone app, enabling organisers to check the carbon emissions associated with their delegate travel; as well as the popular ‘GB Meet in Ireland’ blog.
Counsellor for Economic Affairs at the Embassy, Eugene Forde, said the new campaign came against a background of “very solid relations” developing between the UK and Ireland and he hoped this would be capped off in 2011 with a Royal visit.
***Get back tourist even after Euro increase i.e. more expensive to have holiday in Ireland
Ireland raises its stake 30% on tourism marketing
Despite the recession hitting Irish tourism hard, Tourism Ireland is to increase its investment in marketing by 30 per cent, with social and digital media at the centre of the new strategy.
Tourism Ireland launched its 2011 Marketing Plans for the British market at the Irish Embassy in London, 23 February, and CEO Niall Gibbons reminded the audience, including key UK event organisers, that tourism was worth €3bn to the Irish economy and delivered four per cent of GNP.
Gibbons said that the new marketing campaign would concentrate on differentiating the Ireland offer for tourism. He admitted that the perception of value had deteriorated with the strengthening of the euro by 40 per cent against sterling.
However, a 10 per cent swing back had helped make Ireland’s hotel room stock “some the best value in Western Europe,” Gibbons said, adding that in addition to Tourism Ireland increasing its marketing budget by 30 per cent, there has been a cut in travel tax from 10 to three per cent.
New Head of Great Britain at Tourism Ireland, Vanessa Markey, outlined three more planks to the “return to growth strategy”: creating a buzz; exciting the British travel trade and increased value. She said there would be a less fragmented approach to marketing, with the lion’s share of funding going to the target markets. Britain, she noted, now accounted for half of all Ireland’s tourism business.
“Digital campaigns and social media will play an important part in promoting Ireland as a business tourism destination,” Markey said. A recent Twitter campaign had attracted 33,000 tweets, she noted, and said a 60-second viral YouTube clip was to be released on St Patrick’s Day (17 March).
An iBot called Dara is also promised as part of the campaign to push Ireland’s literary heritage and Markey said a campaign of TV ads would run on ITV for the first time in five years. One million euros would be put into advertising in video on demand channel slots.
The new marketing activity follows last year’s introduction of a conference CO2 calculator iPhone app, enabling organisers to check the carbon emissions associated with their delegate travel; as well as the popular ‘GB Meet in Ireland’ blog.
Counsellor for Economic Affairs at the Embassy, Eugene Forde, said the new campaign came against a background of “very solid relations” developing between the UK and Ireland and he hoped this would be capped off in 2011 with a Royal visit.
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