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Top 10 startup gurus (and why they’re successful | part 2)

Mon Oct 30
Author: Marketing Team

A guru, from the Sanskrit, ‘master, teacher, and expert’.
We’ve been in business for over five years but we still call ourselves a startup. We take a great interest in the business of all types and thought now would be a great time to share our interest in some of the most exciting startup entrepreneurs of 2017. So without further explanation, this is our list of startup gurus.
Updated: 30/10/2017

Part one here.

5. Andy Rubin

Andy-Rubin

Founder and CEO of Essential, formerly of Google, Apple Inc and Danger Inc. Andy left Google in 2014 and later launched his startup, Essential, a competitive smartphone company backed by a $330 million dollar investment. The phone, simply named the ‘Essential’ phone has been designed by Rubin and co to undermine the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy.

The Essential phone is the first step towards a larger goal of Rubin’s. Rubin has said he wants to launch multiple products in direct competition with some of the most hardcore tech companies in the world. The next product of the Essential Products line is rumoured to be a smart home-hub, similar to Google’s home and Amazon’s Alexa.

It may seem like a monumental task in today’s competitive market but Rubin is well qualified for the task. In 1989 he was nicknamed ‘Android’ by his co-workers at Apple due to his love for robotics. Android stuck and it became the apt name of his open-source operating system, a name that has now become synonymous with the smart-gadget industry.

After leaving Google’s Android program in 2014, Rubin focused much of his time on his startup incubator program, Playground Global, which he launched in 2015 with Peter Barrett. A tech-focused incubator that provides mentor-ship and funding via Redpoint Ventures, Rubin’s venture capital firm. The program is specifically focused around furthering developments in artificial intelligence (AI).

Despite Rubin’s rich tech background the competition he faces from the likes of his former employers at Google and Apple is overwhelming. However, he is determined to succeed. He claims via the Essential Phone website that he wants to take a simpler and more elegant smartphone to the market. He’s brought hangups about innate design flaws of Android to his engineers, with an aim to focus on craftsmanship and simplicity, that he believes the likes of Android and IOS have so far failed to do. Rubin has real doubts about closed ecosystems, like Apple’s IOS. He maintains that Essential’s OS will ‘play well with others’ and will aim to be open-source.

Rubin clearly has chip on his shoulder when it comes to innovative tech and he shows no sign of slowing down either. Thus he has made my list at number five.

4. Shradha Agarwal

Co-founder of Outcome Health. A startup focused on helping patients with chronic diseases. Outcome makes use of the latest innovations in tech to help doctors deliver the best treatment for their patients.

The company is helmed by CEO Rishi Shah and together with Shradha they have managed to bring in $500 million dollars with a valuation of more than $5 billion dollars. According to Fortune, Outcome has already fitted over 40’000 doctor’s offices with touch screen and tablets that aid doctors with their workflow and help to deliver valuable insight to patients.

Outcome claim to bring health intelligence to more than half a billion patients and just under a quarter of a billion health care professionals each year in the US. Since launching in 2006, Shradha and Shah have managed to get their technology into almost 20% of doctors offices in the country.

This work is somewhat pioneering. Their aim is to further digitalise the way we treat health problems and in doing so to provide healthcare professionals with insight that they have previously been unable to make use of.

However, upon increased investigation into their website it becomes clear that Outcome’s goals are less to do with health information and more closely related to advertising. There tech not only aids doctors and patients, but it also sells to them and this is the crux of Shah and Shradha’s business plan.

Despite these entrepreneurs clearly prioritising money making above techy health benefits they are still contributing to humble cause and succeed where many greedy startups fail, which is why they have made this list at number four.

Check out this video of Outcome Health.

3. Brian Chesky

brian-chesky

Co-founder at AirBnb. Ranked number 4 this year on Fortune’s 40 under 40 list. Brian Chesky and his co-founders, Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia, have been navigating their fly-by bookings platform Airbnb through one of its most turbulent years yet.

Brian has already come a long way. He previously worked as an industrial designer and was born into a poor family. His list of accolades, however is still growing and in 2015 he was named by President Obama as an Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship.

A grand title for a young man who was once quoted in his school yearbook as saying “I’m sure I’ll amount to nothing”.

Chesky graduated from RISD and shortly thereafter moved to San Francisco with his to be co-founder, Gebbia. They attended a design conference there and found that all the hotels in town were fully booked. It was that same year in 2007 when Gebbia pitched Chesky the idea to rent space for people who couldn’t find a place to stay and thus Airbnb was born (initially Airbedandbreakfast.com).

The founders joined by Nathan Blecharczyk, have since shortened the name and have expanded into more than 34,000 cities. The company is current the second-highest valued startup in the US, valued at $31 billion dollars as of March 2017. That’s almost twice the value of the Hilton empire.

Brian, having been named in Time’s ‘100 most influential people of 2015’, has since been working hard to expand his business into China, under a new company name.

In January this year Brian tweeted that Airbnb would be giving free housing to refugees and any others who have not been allowed into the US as a response to President Trump’s Executive Order earlier this year.

The company is expanding rapidly and since becoming a profitable business in 2016 their revenue has grown by 80%. Chesky and his team have gone about acquiring multiple business in their niche, including a booking app, Resy, and a Canadian-based villa rental company named Luxury Retreats International.

Brian’s humble beginnings means he has come a lot further than most of the other entrepreneurs on this list and that’s why he claims the number three spot.

2. Mark Zuckerberg

mark-zuckerberg

Co-founder and CEO of Facebook Inc (worth $71.5 billion as of September 2017 – Forbes). Love him or loathe him, Zuckerberg’s name is as famous as his creation. Previously known as TheFacebook, Mark’s social network has become one of the highest valued ($500 billion dollars) and most certainly one of, if not the most influential media sites in the world.

I had just finished reading ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich when the film ‘the Social Network’ hit cinemas. A creation adapted from Ben’s book, concerning the life and rise of Mark Zuckerberg, the now infamous creator of Facebook Inc. Infamous because Mark is often portrayed as the bad guy, a typically ruthless entrepreneur with a sharp eye for predicting trends. He is well known for making use of the latest psycho-analytical techniques to further the development of his renowned and vastly ‘liked’ (pun intended) social media site.

The story of Facebook is well documented but if you don’t know the rough details of how it came to be then make sure to check out ‘The Social Network’ starring Jesse Eisenberg as the bright college dropout.

It’s hard to talk about Zuckerberg without harping on about Facebook, but it’s not actually Facebook that ranks Zuckerberg so highly on my list. Much like Bill Gates and his spouse, Zuckerberg and his partner, Priscilla Chan, are dedicated to benefiting the world on humanitarian grounds. In 2015 the pair announced that around 99% of their shares in Facebook would be donated to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative – a limited company set up to “advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy”.

Original article here.

But it’s not just this initiative that makes Zuckerberg so influential. He is now consistently ranked as one of the most powerful people in the world. My studies of Zuckerberg have lead me to believe that power is something he values highly. This control over Facebook gives him the power to determine the success of people’s businesses, influence elections and completely undermine well established news networks. However, despite Zuckerberg’s enormous power and combined wealth, it stands as a testimony to his character that he maintains his humanitarian beliefs. A belief system that so far, has kept his potential abuse of power in check.

  1. Jeff Bezos

    jeff-bezos

CEO, Amazon. According to Money this July (27th), Jeff Bezos became the richest person in the world with a net worth of more than $90 billion dollars. This July he surpassed his residential neighbour, Bill Gates.

O.K, this is post about startups and Amazon has far surpassed its humble beginnings as an online book store 23 years ago. But I wanted to mention Jeff and Amazon because of their consistent ability to innovate. Together Jeff and his team are surely one of the most interesting companies to watch in the near/distant future because of this.

Amazon is currently the world’s largest internet sales company and it’s closest competitor, isn’t really close at all (Alphabet Inc, almost $45 billion dollars behind in revenue). In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the US.

There is plethora of information on the internet concerning this retail giant but it’s certainly the past couple of years where we have seen Amazon fulfil its market potential. In June this year, Amazon broke the news that they would be acquiring Whole Foods, a high-end supermarket chain and therefore provided a confirmation that Amazon is no longer an online only business empire.

With consistent innovation and expansion, such as Amazon prime and Amazon’s drone based delivery service, Amazon now owns over 40 subsidiaries. And that’s why I had to absolutely put Jeff and his business empire at the top of this list.

If you made it this far thanks for reading and be sure to check out part one if you haven’t already.

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Top 10 Startup Gurus (and why they’re successful | part 1)

Wed Oct 25
Author: Marketing Team

A guru, from the Sanskrit, ‘master, teacher, and expert’.
We’ve been in business for over five years but we still call ourselves a startup. We take a great interest in the business of all types and thought now would be a great time to share our interest in some of the most exciting startup entrepreneurs of 2017. So without further explanation, this is our list of startup gurus.
Updated for: 25/10/17

10. Justin Rosenstein, Co-Founder of Asana.

Justin’s startup is Asana, a project management tool used by businesses to plan and track their work. It was launched in 2008 and is now valued at over $280 million dollars.

Having previously worked at Google, it was when Justin was working at Facebook that he met Dustin Moskovitz, one of Zuckerberg’s famous co-founders. He left Facebook with shares worth over $730 million, which he deposited into a trust.

Rosenstein now leads product and design at Asana and along with Dustin they have recently celebrated reaching a milestone of over one billion users since launch. An impressive feat for any business.

“Success is a long series of problems” – Says Justin. He believes that CEOs are always working on problem solving. Call it what you want, solutioneering is what Justin has become master at managing. He says the path to success is a series of problem of solving tasks that get more and more difficult to manage as a company or business grows in size.

“It’s hard to maintain your focus on one thing at a time”. Justin tries his hardest to work with his team and uses a buddy system in his workplace to optimise the speed at which tasks can be completed.

Tips from Justin – clarity of purpose, clarity of plan. Don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed, maintain a large perspective and take each problem as it comes.

9. Elon Musk, PayPals creator, Co-Founder/Founder of Space-X, Hyperloop and Tesla motors.

Elon is one of my favourite CEOs of all time. Fearless, determined and passionate. Elon has been told no a million times, yet he always gets up and gets on with it.

It doesn’t seem like that long ago since Tesla motors, Musk’s electric car company, was receiving a bad wrap from a number of influential people in the automotive and energy industries. The same is currently happening for his Space-X program, with many claiming that Musk is either delusional or simply mad to perceive that we may be landing commercial spacecraft on our desolate red neighbour, Mars in the next 20 years.

I however, maintain support for Elon on his quest to better humanity. I often think I’m mad to be in support of his commercial space program when so many disagree, usually with the claim that ‘it’s a waste of money’ and that we should be focusing our efforts on the maintenance of this planet rather than trying to expand into the interstellar nether.

However, no matter what you think of Elon and Space-X it’s not so much his goals with the company that are worth debate, whilst his mission to better humanity in someway or the other is fundamentally his biggest win. By embarking on that fantastical and improbable mission, Elon inspires us all to reach for the stars.

His ethos is surely backed up by his venture into electric vehicles. This year Tesla skyrocketed in value, with wall street ramping up the value of shares within the company. Musk claimed that he believes that value to be higher than Tesla deserves. Modest he may be, but Tesla shows signs of picking up the pace. With a manufacturing deal outside the US, Elon will see his cars produced in Shanghai, China. The first factory of its kind outside the US.

Despite continued scrutiny, Elon Musk’s companies continue to thrive and inspire. That is why he has made our list at number nine.

8. James Heller – Co-Founder, Wrapify.

James is one of those talented individuals who sees the world from a lateral perspective. His company, Wrapify, makes use of one of the last frontiers of ad space. Automobiles. Obsessed with cars from a young age, James managed to find $2.9 million dollar investment to start his car wrapping company. Drivers are paid, on average, $350 dollars a month to wrap their cars in clients adverts.

Yes, O.K, we have seen adverts on cars before but not quite in the way that James and his team have engineered. Wrapify is fundamentally a digital company and has only been around since 2015, it sits in a market worth over $7.5 billion dollars.

“Their app automatically alerts drivers to new ad campaigns and provides brands with a dashboard that tracks how many people in real-time are seeing the ads”. – Forbes

Wrapify gives customers the chance to choose the advertiser and then have influence over the look of the advert, after all they are the ones who have to drive about with them.

At only 30, James has made Forbes 30 under 30 list. A decadent accolade to add to his success and a great reason for him to be on this list at number eight.

7. Jas Bagniewski – one of 5 Co-Founders at Eve Sleep.

Eve has recently turned 3 years old and although still a young startup it shines as one of the most promising hailing from the United Kingdom in recent years.

Jas, having studied an MBA at Cambridge University, went on to work for Rocket Internet, based in Berlin and it now has several thousand employees compared with the 40 odd before Jas joined. Having launched a successful price comparison website in Poland which he sold to Groupon, Jas has become a guru of the startup.

Specifically, Jas has become a master at efficiency. When he founded Eve, he realised that the mattress industry as a whole was deeply inefficient and so went about designing an up to date and streamlined business plan based around what he had learnt from his previous businesses.

In just two years Jas and his team have launched six products in 12 countries. In May of this year, Eve announced its first IPO on the London Stock Exchange. A phenomenal indication of growth and potential for investors. Customers can see the benefit too, with more efficient advertising and faster delivery times, Jas and his company are surely on a path for further success.

Although inundated with an influx of competing brands, it’s stands as a testament to the Eve team that they have been able to brush aside competition and come out on top with increased revenues of up to 355%. They went from an initial £2.6 million investment in 2015 to now showing capital of over £12 million.

The team said it took great branding, a great team, a great product but most importantly, a little bit of luck.

6. Emily Weiss – Founder and CEO of Glossier

Emily started Glossier via her blog ‘Into the Gloss’ a beauty blog that she launched in 2010. Into the Gloss became very popular and Emily worked hard to build a following of avid readers. The blog quickly grew into a huge internet community.

Just four years after starting her blog Emily had launched her campaign into the world of fashion. She now employs over 45 individuals from all over the world and resides in NYC where she spends her time trawling social media for inspiration.

Emily still promotes her business via her blog and content marketing. With interviews from the likes of Kelly Rowland and open thread discussions, Emily closes the gap between her business and her customers. Furthermore, she allows her customers to influence the products she develops and promotes.

“Glossier is a new way of thinking about (and shopping for) beauty products” – Glossier website

Through years of reviews and product testing, Emily and her team have become experts on beauty products and thus have built their brand through their own material learning. They claim that there top shelf products are ‘distilled’ from years of recommendations. It’s this ingenuity and unique approach to marketing that lands Emily at number six in my list.

Thank you for taking the time to read our list of Top 10 Startup Gurus

Part 2 (5 -1) to come soon..

In the meantime check out our Top 5 Business Tips for Startups here.

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9 Tips For Company Formation in 2017 (for the UK Business)

Mon Oct 23
Author: Marketing Team

Company formation can be cheap and you shouldn’t have any trouble getting set up. We’ve written 9 top tips to help you with the formation of your new business.

I have previously spoken about top tips for those who are interested in starting their own business. You can read that article, Top 5 business tips (for Startups) here. Although those tips are focused around new startups you may still be wondering about the initial phases of company formation and you may it find it surprisingly easy. So let’s get started.

1.Contact HMRC

If you are a UK business, your first point of call is to get set-up with HMRC. Signing up with HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) is a necessary step to let the British government know that you; want a personal tax account, are an individual who needs to send a Self Assessment tax return or that you want to set up a limited company or other organisation that, by law, needs to pay tax. By signing into the .gov website you will be able to access additional information and register yourself as a UK business.

It’s also a good idea to complete HMRC’s free online training course that will give you great advice on record-keeping and filling in and filing your tax-returns.

The site will also offer you advice if you are planning on taking on employees as there is additional law surrounding employment, that must be followed if you want to avoid being penalised.

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-register-hmrc-online-services/register

This formation process is known as incorporation.

2. Get insured

Insurance can be a costly minefield, but it’s wise to get this set-up. There are a number of business out there that sell insurance and most of them will provide you with a free consultation or advice on which kinds of insurance you should get for your business.

When starting a business you will want to keep things lean and spend as little as possible so there is no need to rush this step. Shop around and find the best deal, either have a look around different sites manually or use a price comparison website to find yourself the best deal.

If you are interested to know what kinds of insurance you might need then check out the link below. Axa offers a great tool for doing this.
http://www.axa.co.uk/insurance/business/business-insurance-wizard/

3. Get a business name

This is the fun part. You may already have a name for your business, but you will need to check the name is free and then register it. Go to Companies House to see if the name you have chosen is available. Once you know it’s available it’s time to register at companies house. You can do this yourself but if you are unsure with the procedure then we will be happy to do this for you!

Check out our registered office address and company formation services.

4. Get a business bank account

Getting a business bank account can be essential to your startup. You will want a way of managing your finances that is separate to your personal accounts.

There are a number of reasons you may want to use a business account.

Most banks will offer you some form a consulting to help you with invoicing, grants and forms or short-term and long-term borrowing.

Where business and personal accounts differ, is generally to do with transaction fees. As such, it would be best to consult with your bank branch, or the bank that you intend to open an account with, to see which type of account may suit your personal and business needs. Handling a lot of cash and cheques may persuade your bank manager to give you a business account.

As a sole trade you may find there is no use in setting up your own business account. Many freelancers will have checks or BACS payments going to there accounts and opening a business account could be expensive and be more trouble than it’s worth.

As with any type of new deal it always best to shop around so go ahead and visit a price comparison site, such as Moneysupermarket.com.

Setting up a business account is the first step to managing your company’s finances however, you may require the help of an account to get up and running with other legal requirements such as VAT registration and corporate tax registration.

5. Educate yourself on compliance law

Make sure you educate yourself on the As to Zs of running a LTD company. If you live in the UK take the time to visit the government website here: https://www.gov.uk/browse/business/limited-company

There are number of tips from FAQs listed here, such as audit exemption for private limited companies, company tax returns and corporation tax.

Wikipedia defines compliance as the means to conforming to a rule. These may include, standard, law, policy and specification.

A term you may also hear is regulatory compliance. This refers to a goal that a company should take steps to achieving. For example, ensuring that they are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and regulations.

6. Hire professionals

You will need to file your company’s accounts and tax returns and may need additional software to help you manage these files.

Depending on the size of your business and its locality, you may also need to file for additional documents, especially if you plan to operate part of your business from abroad, I.E an export business.

If you are still unsure of which laws you need to be adhering to and to which, if any laws you think you need protecting against, then it would be best to hire a business lawyer from the get go.

Entrepreneur has a great article on why you should hire legal advice.

Your lawyer should know how to register your business for your relevant countries law standards, this will include tax ID numbers and an understanding of the tax consequences of common business transactions.

In the uk, compliance law is covered for all organisations large and small. This includes the Data Protection Act 1998 and, for the public sector, Freedom of Information Act 2000.

7. Keep Records

Following on from our last step, it’s absolutely necessary for a any business, young or old, to keep records of all receipts and invoices for a company’s expenses. Keeping a record of everything from travel expenses, earnings and tax is required for protecting yourself in the future, you may be audited or caught out for any number of reasons, so keep records of everything you can and keep it organised. If you decided to hire an accountant make sure they are aware of your record keeping and ask them for advice on what you need to be keeping track of.

8. Be aware of pre-trading expenses.

You may be subject to a number of fees to get yourself set up. These may include.

Marketing costs; purchasing of domains, web-hosting, web-design and printed assets such as business cards and flyers.

Professional fees, for lawyers and accountants.

Costs of company formation and registration.

Office hire and equipment. Including broadband, telephone and fax.

Insurance for both public and employee liability.

9. Company formation agents

If you are still concerned about setting up a company by yourself you may require the services of a company formation agent. Agents are licensed by companies house to help form your company. They will deal with the necessary legalities and documentation required for registering with companies house.

Company formation sometimes requires additional documentation, such as a memorandum of association, in which a new business owner declares information about their business, how it will be run, what might be sold. All important information if you need handle any tax disputes or run into any legal difficulties.

LowCost LetterBox offers free consultation on company formation and we can help you with those early stages of setting up. You can check out our company formation packages here.

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Top 5 business tips (for Startups)

Wed Oct 11
Author: Marketing Team

We have all had that eureka moment, “That should be a business” you say. Or “I could make millions with this idea” you think to yourself. “I could do better” you shout at the TV whilst watching Dragons Den.

However, the main reason most of us don’t act upon these thoughts, no matter how good the idea, is that we all know the complexities and all demanding necessities of starting a business, giving it all up to work for yourself can seem both exciting and also very terrifying. So we have shared our top 5 business tips for startups!

The reality is that now one in ten people in the UK own their own business. With the difficulties induced by a turbulent economy. The necessity for self-employment and new business opportunities has become more and more pertinent in recent years.

However maintaining an encouraging outlook on starting a business is often overshadowed by overwhelming statistics. The majority inspiring pessimism.

More than 50% of startups fail in their first year and become redundant.

The leading causes of startup failures include:

Incompetence – 46%

Lack of managerial experience – 30%

Neglect, fraud – 13%

Lack of industry experience at 11%

Credit to smallbiztrends

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/11/startup-statistics-small-business.html

Having said that, there is a plethora of information out there for those of us who are brave enough to take the plunge and start up our own business doing what we love.

Here are our top 5 business tips for startups!

1. Learn your craft

We all learn on the job from time to time but this is not the right ideology when it comes to running your own business. Many successful business owners spent years perfecting their craft before they invested any money into their potential business. Invest in yourself first, your skills, knowledge and expertise will take you a long way towards your business goals and will be the perfect foundation for your new career.

 

Nothing you do goes to waste. We are instinctual creatures and actually learn much more from our mistakes than our successes – you wouldn’t eat a poisonous berry for a second time.

2. Understand your customer

Going into business without sufficient market research can be a killer from the get go. I’ve seen it before and I will see it again. If there isn’t a demand for your product then why waste your time.

You may think you are onto something, or be so confident in your designs that you know it will sell. The reality is that most of us aren’t blessed with a commercial and psychological understanding that is sufficient for overnight success.

Even someone as gifted as the designer Tom Ford will have done his market research or been aware of a demand from his previous roles.

Spending your initial investment on designs to hand over to manufactures, without market research, is like going in blind. You need to know what your customers need before they want it, and before it gets anywhere near launch.

Yes, market research can be hard to do when you don’t have any customers but there are a bunch of businesses out there that are set up to help with this process. They can provide you with willing applicants (Guinea pigs) that are willing to test your product and give (startups) life changing feedback.

Alvin C. Burns and Ronald F. Bush highlight the steps to performing excellent market research in their book ‘Marketing Research’. These include;

 

  • Establishing the need for market research
  • Defining the problem
  • Establishing research objectives
  • Determining research design
  • Identifying information types and sources
  • Methods of accessing data
  • Designing data collection forms
  • Sample plans and sizes
  • Collecting data
  • Analyzing data
  • Preparing and presenting the final research report

Again, there is plethora of information and books out there that can help you with this absolutely fundamental step.

There is another method that I think is a magical method for budding entrepreneurs..it’s called growth hacking.

3. Growth hack

Growth hacking. A term you may well have heard of.

Wikipedia defines growth hacking as ‘a set of both conventional and unconventional marketing experiments that lead to the growth of a business. Growth hackers are marketers, engineers and product managers that specifically focus on building and engaging the user base of a business.’

Growth hacking is generally a term that applies to marketers, but the same techniques can be applied to those who are designing both product and service type businesses.

Let’s jump into an example. Say you are designing an online platform that connects users X to customers Y. Your initial design phase is complete, you know who you would like to use the service and are close to launch.

STOP. You aren’t ready.

The product needs testing. It needs to be optimised before launch. This is where growth hacking techniques come into play. Start by testing your platform in a closed environment.

Get 10 – 20 users who are interested in the service and allow them to run riot. Get them to give feedback and monitor them closely – then optimize. (You can inspire people to sign-up by offering exclusivity, a technique used by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Exclusivity in itself can create demand).

These initial samples can be in the form of focus groups but must remained closed and exclusive to a small number of participants.

Repeat this process with the same users whilst adding an additional sample. Already, you have 30 – 50 people actively using the service and you are yet to launch.

Repeat the process over and over, moving through Alpha and Beta stages, filtering in more and more users. By the time you come to launch your product/service will be optimised, tested and most importantly you will be launching with a customer base!

This is common technique used by video game manufacturers who usually launch their new games with player bases made up of thousands of players.

4. Write a business plan

A business that intends to return a profit will make use of a well thought out business plan. You can download a template for a business plan from the princess trust. Their site is a great resource and provides great tips on writing a business plan. When it comes to investment it will be important that you can present a well written and polished document.

A business plan will help you to determine your company’s objectives. If this is clearly laid out, then when you inevitably come to find difficulties – the plan will stand as a resource for you to refer back to and may help you to maintain your focus through difficult and challenging times.

https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-for-young-people/tools-resources/business-tools/business-plans

A business plan isn’t just a tool for investment it’s a tool for understanding how your business is put together.

5. Find mentoring and free consulting

A final tip would be to seek free help and advice, and there are many ways of doing this;

Firstly, there are number of online resources available. Blogs, magazines and free consulting can be found in the most unusual of places. Sign-up for services and await a sales call. You don’t need to pay for a service but in selling you their product a sales person may impart great advice or knowledge that you can apply to your business. Many business will do free audits of your site in order to persuade you to pay for their service, more often than not this information can be incredibly useful.

6. Bonus

Why not join a shared work-space? You will meet a bunch of entrepreneurs, many of whom will be happy to help you and impart free advice and consulting. They will be more experienced than you and will help instantly ad they will have already overcome the issues you are facing and yet to face.

We hope you found our business tips helpful! You can sign-up to our newsletter to receive more free articles for startup advice.

 

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Why work remotely? (11 Top Tips)

Wed Oct 11
Author: Marketing Team

Remote work, freelancing, flextime and zero-hours contracts offer a wide range of adaptable work. In any case, it’s remote work that is upsetting the customary tech industry 9-to-5 crush.
Here are the reasons why..

At the point when representatives divert out their obligations from the workplace, that is remote working — otherwise called working from home and telecommuting. It’s not a win or bust definition. Some telecommuters, such as voyaging business people and call focus specialists, are forever far from their offices. Tablet employing centre chiefs consistently appear at the workplace. A few representatives, however, work remotely, mainly when the workplace is ablaze.

The conventional office is under assault, thumped by remote video calls, outsourcing, and labourers in coffeehouses. It’s a danger that the CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer, broadly endeavoured to stamp out by driving all representatives to work nearby. In any case, who needs to work in the old central hub? “You know what I need to do today? Drive to the workplace!” Said, nobody. Ever.

What’s more, remote working is on the ascent. A US government report said that 47% of its representatives (that is 1,020,034 individuals — no, truly, more than a million people) were qualified to telecommuting — a major increment throughout the prior year.

So is the workplace biting the dust? Is the fascination of working from the couch wearing a nightgown just excessively sold, making it impossible to stand up to? Two years ago, a British industry board drove by national newspaper, The Guardian and telephone call organisation Powwownow led a round-table exchange to handle the issue of remote work. Among their worries: Can you believe it, a remote worker? Does non-attendance trump attendance? What will occur next? Here are some of their decisions.

1.Become less stressed.

Daryl Wilkinson, assemble head of computerised advancement at Nationwide Building Society, said he needed to urge remote attempting to enable his staff and as a show to whatever is left of the organisation. “There’s less worry in the workplace and the working environment — individuals feel engaged to work in a way that suits them and suits their business.”

2. Become well connected.

The pervasiveness of cell phones and web-based social networking mean you don’t need to be alongside somebody to impart viably. What’s more, new business patterns like remote organisation, cloud-based undertaking administration, video conferencing, and BYOD are expanding the adequacy of remote work.

4. Save on spending.

Empowering diverse methods for working enables organisations to lessen their lease and property costs, as per Ian Adams, head of strategic marketing development at outsourcing organisation Mitie.

5. Absenteeism is good.

“The capacity to work remotely wipes out the need for “presenteeism” — being in the workplace however much as could be expected,” said Jonathan Swan, arrangement and research officer for Working Families, a charity that specialises in work balance.

6. The new nimble working environment makes new occupations.

Better approaches for working require new parts in the organisation. “We’re seeing more prominent joint effort between HR, IT, property and offices administration and occupation titles like ‘work environment executive’ influence this light-footed work environment to happen,” Adams said.

7. Remote working gives decision.

As indicated by Robert Gorby, promoting chief of Powwownow, remote working gives decision. “Decision is critical. There shouldn’t be an innovation driven impulse to work unquestionably.”

8. Organisations take benefit from more joyful remote representatives.

Take a stab at crushing 40 winks into your office day. The truth is stranger than fiction; it’s inconceivable. “It’s tied in with working with the grain of individuals’ lives,” Swan said.

9. Telecommuters are more immersed.

Wilkinson stated, “When you’re tweeting with individuals in your group near midnight, it brings home that individuals are encountering something past ‘doing work’ — they’re occupied in an alternate way.”

10. Remote settings are superior to the workplace.

We’ve all caught wind of how J.K. Rowling composed a great deal of Harry Potter in her neighbourhood café. Presently office specialists can get some of that activity. “Adaptable working isn’t simply office or home — there might be some place close home with better offices,” said Celia Donne, worldwide operations chief of Regus, an office facilities supplier.

11. Driving is awful for you.

Indeed, even before the workday begins, working from home is an ideal situation and preferred to driving. As indicated by the UK Office of National Statistics, “Suburbanites have brought down life fulfilment, a lower sense that their day by day exercises are beneficial, bring down the levels of satisfaction and higher nervousness all things considered for non-workers.” Driving also means a higher carbon impression, making tree-huggers less joyful.

Thanks for reading, if you liked this post feel free to let me know and share it about.

Here is another great article about remote work – from onstartups.com

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Designing a stress free office (5 Top Tips)

Tue Oct 10
Author: Marketing Team

The office space can be a place of focus and calm. We all get stressed at work sometimes. Whether it’s working on a new project or a tight deadline, stress can hold workers back from reaching their full potential! Here are our tips for a stress free office..

1. Quiet work-spaces

A quiet work-space can be the number one tool to help your employees optimise their concentration levels. In a post on ‘Hackernoon’, William Beck who works as a software strategist, conducted a survey and found that 58% of high-performing employees preferred their work-spaces to be silent and private for problem solving. He also found that 62% of employees, from his anonymous survey, said that their office space was too distracting. His work is contributing to an on-going series to help find the most optimal environments for high-performing employees (HBEs).

So far his findings go against the open-plan office spaces that are so common today.

2. Maximise natural lighting

A study by the Northwestern Medicine and the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign found that office workers who had more exposure to natural, white light had increased productivity. Mainly due to better sleep cycles.

Natural light, as opposed to artificial light can maintain these health benefits. Being exposed to natural light throughout the day can help an employee’s natural body clock, ensuring that when they put their head down at the end of the day, in darkness, their body is aware of the change in light and can produce those all important hormones that induce sleep.

“Light is the most important synchronising agent for the brain and body” – Ivy Cheung, co-author and Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience.

Keeping workers desk spaces near to natural light sources, at least 20 – 25 feet away can make all the difference.

The study was reported in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine in June 2014.

3. Designated relaxation areas

This one is much more simple than our previous tip. It’s requires a lot less work and you may not need to get your architect involved.

Designating areas within your office where employees can relax in quiet and comfortable spaces is certainly not a revolutionary idea, however it may be something that gets overlooked from time to time.

Assigning part of your office floor to become a ‘chill zone’ or break out area can make all the difference to your employees outlook and productivity.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has become well known for making use of this technique. Here is a video on YouTube, credit to Times Now. Zuckerberg explains his office set-up and covers some of the important design features of his work-spaces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZR_lWoTQX8

Some companies have even gone as far as to make designated meditation rooms, full of plants and zen inducing ornaments.

If you would like to do the same, here is great place to start.

4. Establish collaboration spaces

Along with great places for workers to relax, it’s important to encourage great work-spaces for when employees are actually doing there jobs! Working together is essential and group exercises may already be encouraged in your office but, how about those all important meetings or collaborative group projects. Cramming round desks or piling into private offices is never ideal.

Impromptu meetings may be a regular occurrence in your office so having an inspiring work-space for employees to get together and combine their creative assets can only be seen as a plus. Having a collaborative space in your office makes sense when it comes to creativity so why not make that space as interesting and inspiring as possible.

In the past, scheduled meetings have many employees, and are set-up in formal work-spaces called meeting rooms, but with the recent changes in communication technology and conference calling it’s become more necessary for offices to provide creative spaces for those unexpected collaborations.

5. The cost of stress and employee voice.

Research from EnMast, which is an online community for business owners, found that almost $300 billion dollars was lost in revenues due to employee absenteeism, and loss of productivity. Almost 40% of workers, in their study, said that they were less productive because of stress related issues, such as loss of sleep and lack of appetite.

With a recession on-going, or round the corner, the majority of us worry about our job security and the longevity of our work. This overshadowing issue combined with increased work-load can prove to much for many of us.

By giving employees a voice, holding weekly meetings with HR and providing counselling sessions within the working week, you can create an environment where employees can feel comfortable with there work load as long as open communication is maintained throughout the business. Allowing employees to share ideas for improvement can be a positive step to stopping things spiralling out of control.

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