In through the outfield

25 January 201325 January 2013

Spring Market 2013 competition: Made with the British Library

Our Spring Market in 2012 was such a success, we decided to run it again (surprise).

So if you are a designer or maker and you have used the Library to develop your idea, why not apply?

The prize is a stand at our Spring Market on Monday 4 March 2013 on the British Library Piazza in London. The Market is part of our Spring Festival and will show off the work of ten of the most innovative jewellery, fashion, homeware and craft designers who have used the British Library. If you have attended an event, used our Business & IP Centre, seen an exhibition or have a Reader Pass you are eligible to enter.

We have up to 5,000 visitors at any one time. You’ll be able to exhibit and sell your products to our visitors for the day, get experience and training in running a market stall, gain free business advice through our Business & IP Centre, plus lots of marketing and press exposure.

See the winners of last year’s Spring Market competition

Your prize

A market stall during the Spring Market. We will provide a stand, fabric covering and basic staging.
A workshop on how to dress your stand and gain the most out of the opportunity.
Your work featured on the British Library website.
We will promote your products via the British Library’s marketing channels including Twitter, Facebook, blogs and our website.
You’ll be included in a British Library press release sent to major national and local publications.

Competition criteria

We are looking for designers and makers who:

Produce fine art and photography, graphic art, jewellery, crafts, home-ware, fashion or other products.
Have been trading for at least six months in the UK.
Have a product range which has potential to make a fantastic visual display on a market stall.
Can sell the majority of products for around £30 or less (so that it is affordable for passing trade). Although it is fine to have a small range of high-end products to show the full range of your work.
Are able to attend the workshop for competition winners on Friday 8 February 2013.
Have used the British Library e.g. for events, exhibitions, our collections and Business & IP Centre.

How to enter

Complete our word document form and email it to springmarket@bl.uk by midnight on Sunday 27 January 2013.

Download the application form

Read our competition terms and conditions

Key dates

Midnight on Sunday 27 January 2013: Deadline for the competition
Friday 1 February 2013: Winners announced via email and on our website
Friday 8 February 2013: Workshop for the winners
Monday 4 March 2013: ‘Made with the British Library’ Spring Market

23 January 2013

Web in Feb 2013 is nearly here

Our annual Web in Feb will be here very soon so have a look at what we have on offer and start booking up before they sell out.

Search Engine Optimisation for small businesses workshop

Tuesday 5 February 2013, 10.00 – 14.00

Learn how to improve your website so that search engines, like Google, list or rank it better and higher.

Science and technology information for the business user

Tuesday 5 February 2013, 14.00 – 16.00

Get a competitive edge by exploring our incredibly rich resources on technology-based products.

Social media for business innovation

Wednesday 13 February 2013, 10.00-12.30

Learn how to improve your products and services by using social networks including: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Marketing masterclass for small businesses

Wednesday 13 February 2013, 14.00-18.00

This workshop will introduce you to new ways to think about how your online marketing and will give you the opportunity to apply these marketing strategies directly for your business.

Insider trends: The future of e-commerce

Monday 18 February 2013, 18.00 – 20.00

Get the latest trends to get a head start on the social media revolution.

Manage your business on the web

Tuesday 19 February 2013, 18.00 – 20.00

Save precious time and money by learning about the different web applications out there which can help you run your business, many of which are free.

Introducing copyright workshop

Thursday 20 February 2013, 14.00-16.00

Find out how copyright protection is different from other forms of intellectual property and why it is essential for your business to protect the works created online.

What next for your invention? Plan, prototype or protect?

Thursday 21 February 2013, 13.00 – 17.30

Join this practical workshop to learn all the key issues that need to be covered when you plan, prototype and then protect your online or digital devices.

How to crowdfund for your business

Tuesday 26 February 2013, 18.00 – 20.00

Explore the latest Crowdfunding trends to raise capital and discover an approach to Crowdfunding that works best for you.

Managing money and saving time with Sage One

Wednesday 27 February 2013, 18.00 – 20.00

Find out about the online mobility of the cloud-based accounts and payroll software.

Mobile Marketing Demystified

Thursday 28 February 2013, 14.00 – 16.00

Get an introduction to the next frontier of marketing – apps and mobile websites.

Writing about ‘Web in Feb’ on Twitter? Use our hashtag and see what everyone else is saying: #webinfeb

1 December 20121 December 2012

Eat Street is dead – Long live KERB – for the best street food in London

My beloved Eat St. is no more. But this is a good news story as it has been replaced by KERB, and all the great pop up shops are still there at lunch-time, sandwiched between Kings Cross Station and the University of the Arts.

Since I last reported on this lunchtime wonder (The Apprentice hits the mark with gourmet street food) I have tasted the best burger of my life at Tongue ‘N Cheek, and the most incredible sandwich courtesy of Gurmetti.

Now that I have wetted your appetite, perhaps I can interest you in the latest book to grace our Small Business Help shelves in the Business & IP Centre.

Another in the successful Dummies series, Pop Up Business For Dummies by Dan Thompson has condensed 12 years experience of using empty shops and managing pop up projects to provide an in-depth guide to devising, planning and delivering a pop up shop.

Whether you’re just starting out and want to test the viability of your business, or you’re an established business looking to expand your reach, pop-ups offer an exciting and flexible opportunity. They’re a great way to try new business ideas, experiment with a new product, location or market, gain exposure, and learn about your customers – all with limited risk and financial outlay.

Inside Pop-Up Business For Dummies, you’ll find:

Planning your pop-up venture – whether it’s a shop, studio, gallery, or community hub.
Finding the right space for you.
Negotiating with the landlord and sorting out the legalities.
Fixing up and fitting out your space on a budget.
Pulling in the punters – advertising and marketing your pop-up.
Managing a successful pop-up business day-to-day.
Closing up shop efficiently.
Lots of case studies, checklists, tips and hints from experienced pop-up people!

24 November 201224 November 2012

Apple is the most successful brand in history because it is meaningless

During this years Global Enterprise Week I finally had a chance to catch-up with Guy Jeremiah one of our Success Stories.

Although his collapsible bottle was becoming a great success in the UK under the brand Aquitina, Guy was advised he should change its name before taking on the United States market.

Unfortunately Aquatina is quite similar to Aquafina, a brand of bottled water owned by PepsiCo. Naturally Guy’s advisor was concerned that the cost of going through the courts would bankrupt the business, even though he would win the case.

So a new name was needed for the brand, and the advice was to use a made-up word. By definition, no one would be able to claim ‘prior-art‘ with a newly invented name. After much experimenting Guy and his team came up with the name ohyo (pronounced yoyo).

We had a chat about the importance of the Ronseal (says what it does on the tin) approach to a name, versus the advantages of using anonymous name like ohyo. My feeling is that a descriptive name is great when you are starting out, such as Man and Transit Van. But you never really know where your business will go, or how diversified it will become. In which case your expressive name can become unhelpful. For instance Carphone Warehouse, is no longer a warehouse and doesn’t sell phones for cars.

In the case of Apple Computer, the name was effectively pulled out of a hat the day before it was needed for company registration. Its generic nature meant that once the Computer bit was dropped, the company was free to make anything they liked and stick an Apple logo on it.

According to Walter Isaacson’s recent biography of Steve Jobs, “I was on one of my fruitarian diets,” he explained. “I had just come back from the apple farm. It sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating. Apple took the edge off the word ‘computer.’ Plus, it would get us ahead of Atari in the phone book.” He told Wozniak that if a better name did not hit them by the next afternoon, they would just stick with Apple. And they did.

You may notice a similar looking collapsible bottle at the checkout of you local Marks & Spencer branch, as ohyo have licensed their product to M&S.

22 November 20124 February 2013

Making your website mobile friendly with Telnames

Once again the Business & IP Centre had a stand at the Business Startup Show (this year bigger than ever and moved to Olympia). Although not quite the same draw as Caprice Bourret or Brad Burton, the session I ran with Julie Hall from Women Unlimited was full to bursting.

I always try and find some time to get around the exhibition and see what catches my eye. This year it was Telnames, a new service that claims to ‘create a mobile site that you own and control within minutes’. With the rapid take-up of mobile internet use, I can see the potential for a service like this. According to their website, by 2013 more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online, and research indicates that 6 in 10 visitors will leave a mobile-unfriendly site.

The man I spoke to was an ex Yell employee, and explained that Telnames has ambitions to become a big player across Europe. I wondered how they would convince small business to pay for an additional service. His answer was simple – £14.95 a year all inclusive. My response was at that price it is a ‘no-brainer’, which by coincidence is the term they use on their home page.

It will be fascinating to see if this service really takes off in the way the salesman predicted.

20 November 2012

St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance – Entrepreneurship: Starting from point zero

Recently twenty students from St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance (FINEC) came to visit the Business & IP Centre. This was a follow-on from a smaller group who came to see me last year, led by Elena Orlova, Associate Professor and Project Coordinator at FINEC.

Her aim is to create a centre for entrepreneurship within St. Petersburg, based in part on our Business & IP Centre, and inspired by several UK universities’ enterprise support activities.

I was happy to have Elena back, as I had strong memories of her enthusiastic students, and this larger group proved to be equally passionate about introducing enterprise to their university. This year their programme of visits has been expanded to include London Metropolitan University, London School of Business & Finance and University of East London Knowledge Dock. They also travelled outside London to Judge Business School Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (part of the University of Cambridge), and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Entrance to the university, with Bank Bridge in the foreground — Entrance to the university. Source Wikipedia

As well as giving the students a tour of the British Library and the Business & IP Centre, and a talk about how we help start-ups and growth businesses, they also gave presentations to me about their projects.

Not only was their grasp of English excellent, their plans to create a University Centre for Entrepreneurship and an interactive map of entrepreneurship opportunities in St. Petersburg were impressive.

It came as something of a surprise to me to discover their biggest challenge is not finding financial support, as they already have sponsorship from SBERBank. But is the cultural challenge of persuading fellow Russians to consider starting their own business as a realistic life choice. Although traditional state Communism ended many years ago, it seems the attitudes that went with it are harder to shake off. Individuals remains cautious when it comes to investing their time and money in a business venture.

One encouraging sign was the fact that just two of the twenty students on the programme are men. If this is representative of the rest of the population back home, then we can expect to see plenty of female entrepreneurs in St. Petersburg over the next few years.

Today I received this lovely letter from the students:

To Neil Infield.
“You need to be pathological optimist”

Dear Neil,
We’ve returned to Russia, to Saint Petersburg from London and Manchester. And we are still excited by our visit to the British Library, especially to Business and IP center. Thank you so much for organising such an amazing meeting. We’d like to share the most interesting moments from our visit.

First of all, your library impresses by its extensive collection of rare books, recordings and other sources of information. We loved Jack Kerouac’s 120-ft-long manuscript exhibition. The book “On the road” and the movie are really popular in Russia.

Secondly, you gave us a really good presentation of your business and IP center. It is the right place for every person who wants to get help in starting their own business. There are no barriers to be involved in the centre activities. Besides you encourage young entrepreneurs by using swap skills desk. And now we are more enthusiastic on creating our own center. We’d like to include the following services to our center as well as you do: consultations about intellectual property, networking with start-ups and mature entrepreneurs. But there is one thing that’s not common to Russia – exchange of business ideas. That’s why it is necessary for us to make a platform for trainings, workshops and meetings for peers. Entrepreneurs-to-be need a place where to go and the right people to talk to.

You told us about the cultural challenges we would face while implementing our project – we will try to forsee them. Thank you very much for this advice.

The diversity of opportunities and ideas that can come from one particular thing is another idea that you discussed with us. The way you introduced it – with your “Water presentation” – is a brilliant idea how to tell people not about “water things” but very, very important issues.

So, we want to thank you for all your patience and interest that you listened to us to.

We hope we keep in touch with you and continue our collaboration.

Best wishes, students of FINEC.

13 November 201230 November 2012

Inspiring Entrepreneurs: Question Time for Entrepreneurs 2012

Tonight we hosted another of our Inspiring Entrepreneurs evenings as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). This time we had successful entrepreneurs from a diverse range of business sectors, from home wares to plumbing.

Once again our moderator and all round business expert was Matthew Rock, Real Business Co-founder and Editor.

First up was Charlie Mullins who said he wanted to be a plumber from nine years old. And from very early on was out on the road working with plumbers. He doesn’t believe in a magic formula for business success. He didn’t have any set plans when he started out, just hard work and dedication to be successful. The harder you work the luckier you get.

His is a family business with children and in-laws employed. Pimlico plumbers is now the largest independent plumbing company in the country, and the most recognised in the country. And they now employs 200 people, but the hardest thing is finding the right staff.

Second was Orla Kiely who knew by the age of twelve that she wanted to work in fashion. She applied to the one good art college in Dublin and there discovered textiles. She left Ireland in the late 1980’s as there wasn’t much going on there at the time. After four years working as a textile designer she went back to college at the Royal College of Arts which she considers essential for creatives.

From there she started making a few hats and bags with fax orders from the UK to Monaco. On moving back to London to expand the business with her partner Dermott Rowan she began by freelancing for M&S and creating her designs at weekends. Their first office was their flat which became crammed with boxes. The move to prints was the way they were able to differentiate their brand, and since then they have grown organically.

Next was Sam Hargreaves who credits his sister with starting his business when she turned down an iPod he had bought for her as a present. At 16 Instead of spending £5,000 on a car as agreed with his parents, he bought 50 iPods from the USA and doubled his money overnight, but was grounded by his mum.

His Gadgets 4 Everyone now has eleven staff and a million pound turnover, and recognised as the number one gadget recycler. Sam puts his success down to a personal touch, following up with customers over the phone and making use of social media. He tests his ideas on his friends who are brutally honest and will throw any bad ideas back into his face.

Finally Stephen Fear who grew up with virtually no education, and used to read the newspapers he was delivering. At fourteen years old he began using his local phone box to contact American suppliers with help from a friendly phone operator. He settled on trainee salesman as his job title after rejecting Chairman and President, in order to get in the door at big companies who wouldn’t see a teenage child.

The evening ended with a lengthy question and answer session:

How to grow your business?
Spend your profits on your business not on holidays or expensive presents for yourself. Find the right partnerships who can help your business grow. Partner with your customers and your suppliers and ultimately with your financier.

Mistakes
Mistakes are how you learn, and you come out a lot stronger. You always have to watch your own business regardless of who you employ to look after it for you. You have to keep focussed on your business at all times. Plan ahead. Example of a five year plan to choose between menswear and home-wear for Orla Kiely.

Funding
Finance means everything must have a margin (40% in the case of Orla Kiely). Stephen Fear covered the funding options of Crowdfunding, personal investors who will take a percentage of the business, BBA website for grants. Charlie reckons friends and family can be the best source of funding for startups.

Business plans
Don’t need to be too detailed, but must be a credible road map for your business.

New markets.
Sam is expanding into European markets through connections and other people’s successes. The UK DTI help exporters expanding into new markets.

All of the speakers stayed on well after the 8pm close for some serious networking in the bar of the conference centre. It was great to be able to chat to Orla Kiely, Stephen Fear and Charlie Mullins over a glass of wine and nibbles.

30 October 201231 October 2012

University College London Enterprise, Camden Council, Citrus Saturdays and Circalit

An interesting event this evening at University College London Old Refectory for a talk about the partnership with Camden Council business support and UCL Enterprise.

Timothy Barnes, the Director of Enterprise Operations at UCL gave an energetic talk about a selection of UCL activities to support entrepreneurs from within their 25,000 student body as well as entrepreneurial Camden residents.

Perhaps the most surprising and certainly the most youthful project is Citrus Saturday, which from small beginnings has spread across several European cities:

Around sixty 11 to 14-year-olds, drawn from a range of schools in the borough, will run stalls selling lemonade and other citrus products such as orange smoothies and lemon ice cream. The stalls will be located in ten prime locations, for example, Euston Station, Tavistock Square Park and Brunswick Centre. The children will be supervised by a trained volunteer drawn from the UCL student body, who will have acted as a ‘business mentor’ throughout the training programme.

Citrus Saturday is designed to infuse children with a spirit of enterprise. It aims to teach them the basic business and, indeed, life skills necessary to become successful, contributing members of their communities.

It’s also an opportunity for families, schools, businesses, students and even members of the public, to unite for a common purpose – to train the next generation of entrepreneurs through a free, enjoyable, engaging activity. Children will learn how to set goals, create budgets, secure investors, select a site, purchase supplies, serve customers, make a profit and repay investors.

Citrus Saturday offers many of Camden’s young people their first experience of these life lessons. It may be some time before they are thinking about going out into the world and making a living, but in the meantime we aim to boost their confidence and instil self-esteem – all while making sure they have fun, of course.

By chance I found myself sitting next to Raoul Tawadey the founder of one of UCL ‘s success stories Circalit.

Circalit is the best place to discover new authors and share stories online. You can read thousands of fantastic stories on Circalit for free by visiting the hot reads section.

Circalit aims to be the YouTube or SoundCloud for new writers. As Raul pointed out to me, there are many more writers in the world than video or music creators, but they don’t have a place to get exposure as the traditional publishers are swamped with manuscripts. The website also includes writing advice from professionals such as Sopranos scriptwriter Nick Santora. Circalit looks like a really interesting service to aspiring writers.

24 October 2012

Computing in the Clouds for Small Business

Many thanks to business and technology writer Carlo Pandian for contributing this post:

Everyone uses cloud computing services and many of us have been doing for some time – even if we weren’t entirely aware of it! From Hotmail to Facebook, cloud computing has been a helpful tool for millions of people the world over to manage their personal lives and communicate with friends across the globe. Cloud computing solutions for small businesses have however, been taken up more slowly, despite offering huge benefits. Small firms in particular have most to gain from “the cloud” So what is cloud computing and how can you benefit?

What is Cloud Computing?
Hotmail is a good example; it offers online access to your email account and allows you to access emails from any computer with an internet connection. Unlike a desktop email software package all the data and any updates are dealt with remotely. This is cloud computing in a very small nutshell. New services, deliverable via the cloud, have been developing rapidly in the last couple of years or so. Now, most software that you can install on your own computer can be found in cloud form. From online accounting software, to media applications, the range is growing every day. This has, in large part, been thanks to the rapid improvements in broadband capability in the last ten years and also to the explosion in popularity for mobile computing. These days, if it can’t be done on the go, then it’s probably not worth doing!

File Share and Back Up
Data back up and online document storage is essential tools for most businesses and is now available in cloud form. In the old days, data back-up meant a memory stick, or even (the horror, the horror) a floppy disk. This type of storage was extremely vulnerable to loss, theft or damage. Remote back up via an online platform removes these risks at one simple stroke. There are an increasing number of providers who can offer online document storage and sharing options; Google Docs is one well known and well trusted brand, but there are other choices. Check out Carbonite for a low cost and flexible option or Dropbox, which has been established for a number of years and is a firm favourite with many users.

Money Managing
Online accounting software offers incredible flexibility to small firms and the services on offer from Intuit are worth looking into. Intuit is a world leader in providing small business solutions and the company’s range of accounting software is available in the old fashioned desktop variety and in the cloud version. The latter allows small firms to keep records up to date and produce invoices on the go. Most small business owners will immediately see the advantage of secure, online storage for their accounts along with the huge benefit in terms of time saving that cloud computing offers for those whose business keeps them out and about.

Small Screen Solutions
Online video conferencing facilities have been with us for some time now and there are a number of different providers. SKYPE is well known and established in the field, although it has been designed specifically with the personal market in mind. GoToMeeting is a good example of a more business focussed product in the cloud conferencing world. There’s a free trial on the system and a range of different options to fit the needs of small, medium or larger businesses. The basics package allows you to work effectively with colleagues or clients across the globe, while additional packages include one specifically designed to deliver training online, live and interactive.

The majority of cloud software available online comes with a free trial period which will allow you the chance to assess the usability of each system. For many small businesses using cloud computing solutions will free up not only space on your hard drive but the most essential asset you have – time. From online accounting software to video conferencing the world of cloud computing frees up time for small businesses to grow.

Author Bio
Carlo Pandian is a business and technology writer and blogs on entrepreneurialism and latest technologies covering everything from user manuals on QuickBooks Online accounting software to tech driven organisational change. In his free time he likes cooking Asian and Italian food and inviting his friends for dinner.