Business Opportunities Digest - May 2014

Opportunities Digest

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Ideas Inspiration Innovation Ingenuity

e, s in ea nu id ge ng of i s ak ar ym ye ne o m

BizOppDigest.co.uk

Issue 388 May 2014 ABOUT THE EDITOR To m L ew i s i s a s e r i a l entrepreneur who’s been starting businesses since he was at school. He says he was inspired by the Lazy Man’s Way to Riches and believes that the ‘buzz’ he gets from setting up successful companies should not be the be all and end all of his life. He enjoys finding ways to work smarter and enjoying the money he makes rather than working 24/7.

Success is in the Details Thanks for your positive feedback on the online BOD test. We have decided to move BOD exclusively to online and will be building many more new features into the online version over the next few months. We have been told that the basic format is one you like so I will be retaining my front page editor’s letter. Here goes: Many great motivational speakers will advise students to find successful people and mirror them. While I agree with this strategy, to a point, you can’t follow it blindly. For instance if you tried to mirror Bill Gates and launch another software company you would have to go back to the 1960’s and spend years in a garage tinkering with a very basic early computer. This is patently not going to work.

I once worked for a client who advertised his business opportunity in the national press. He generated 200 leads per week and from those sold up to 20 at £100 per sale. People saw his ads, thought he was making a fortune and tried to copy him. Each year he saw off four or five of these copycats. What the copycats soon discovered was that they could only convert 5% of their leads into sales rather than the 10% my client was getting and quickly gave up.

My client knew that as it cost him £5 to generate each lead he was happy to chase the non-responders to his first letter up to 4 times to make the sale – even his last reminder pulled in half of one percent – so at the cost of the £350 per 1000 mailed, pulled in £1000 in revenue on the final chaser.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE FEATURES BOD Clinic: Brace for change

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Hong Kong: Small Business Paradise Destination?

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Starting up a...

Mobile Catering Business

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Starting an app developer business 8

CASE STUDIES App developer success story: From food stamps to Billions

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The Juice Truck

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Mobile food success story

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Estee Lauder: Woman of vision

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Another college dropout?

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The Ideas Man

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Tina’s Lawsuit

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THE PUBLISHER Anything in connection with the content of BOD, e.g. letters, photos, new business ideas, advice

With his five letters he achieved a 10% overall conversion and pulled in £10,000 sales with each £6750 marketing spend, whereas his copycats only took £5000 from the £5350 spend because they didn’t do any follow-ups. So, if you decide to copy success and expect the same results, make sure that you copy it all down to the very last detail.

and questions, must be addressed to the editorial

So keep your eyes and ears open for successful businesses in your area of interest.

Then research them carefully to ensure you follow their business model as closely as you can. Until next month.

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Telephone: 01474 874888 E-mail: publishing@hilitedms.co.uk Hilite Publishing, Ash House, Ash Road, New Ash Green, Longfield, Kent DA3 8SA

BOD Clinic

BRACE FOR CHANGE In the world of business and enterprise change will always be an influence on growth, success or failure. It’s a sure as the rising sun. Those that survive or thrive in their business ventures owe a lot to how they manage their business riding with change. Dinosaurs become an extinct species.

Changes due to external factors in the business environment as we know can be the one influence that can make or break a new or existing business. Understanding the threats and the opportunities should be a firm part of your yearly strategic plans. Change these days is much more rapid than say, 15 years ago. The agile business people are those that can manoeuvre their operations, sail into the wind and come out favourable on the other side. It is true that inherently, we as humans do not like change. But resisting change can be detrimental to the future of your business. It’s best to plan ahead.

Weathering the storm This brings us to the term ’adaptation’ a word that is most used in evolution and refers to living systems which change so they become better suited to their surroundings. Adaptation can happen in two ways – either proactively – adapting under self/inner direction or reactively – by being forced to change by external factors. Of course, the smoothest way to change is to be self-directed, proactive instead of reactive will enable you to drive your business at your own pace and way, not pushed and pulled by other forces. Proactive and inner directed change is fuelled by innovation. It’s a no brainer, you are better off when it comes to weathering the storms.

We are not just talking about putting aside savings to counter the imminent higher costs of operating your business, for instance, it’s a case of fortification. To weather the storms of negative change you have to keep abreast of what’s on the horizon. Another reason why your change management is so important is the duration or domino effects. You’d need to know when the negative sort of change that directly or indirectly affects your business is likely to come from, end or deepen. Will these foreseeable affect other aspects of your business besides the obvious? It’s no good believing external changes won’t affect the small business that much. There is always a trickle-down effect in any business environment.

instance, one significant change is the consumer’s easy access to finding a better deal. Customer loyalty has changed thanks to instant information technology. We are in an era of consumer endorsement and access to great deals. They are shared amongst friends online and on the go thanks to smart phones. You want to keep selling? You’d do well to invest in discount campaigns on a regular basis. The consumer these days has a greater voice. Your online customer service or sales reputation is crucial; people are warming to the idea of digital referrals.

The days of lacklustre customer services are fast becoming a past practice. You can get a blotch on your retail reputation with the click of a button. Everyone and their dog have a smart phone these days. Word gets around a zillion times faster. Again, don’t be put off by this; don’t do what was done 10 years ago. Connect with your potential market, use social networks to gather feedback on your product or service.

Engage more with your customers; don’t expect them to carry on with you for the sake of it. There is more competition and consumers know it. Tech is usually your friend when it comes to change. It can also be a bad thing if you have not geared yourself to counter the negative aspects of a more aggressive competitor environment.

In the UK and other developed countries, technology has changed the employment or contracting landscape. If your business extends itself as a service contractor, you’d need to consider there is greater competition thanks to the numerous freelancer opportunities thrown wide open to almost anyone from any part of the globe. It’s good for you and its bad for you, try to predict the direction of the trends. Work out a plan to exploit or safe guard yourself against this digital trend. There are facilities to bid for remote work from global customers, many firms big or small are getting much more comfortable outsourcing service jobs remotely, even this trend is prone to change.

There seems to be a preference for higher bids to be one by contractor firms in Western Europe and the US. Some long term remote contracts are aimed at countries with a particular reputation for efficiency in a particular field such as IT by Indians and Journalism by the British. Again,

Keep one eye on the economic influences and one eye on the political response. Don’t just change to adapt, change to grow, even in the eye of the storm.

The influence of tech If your small business deals with selling off or online, then you’d need to understand that digital technology is causing great changes to making a sale amongst other key performance indicators. In retail for

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Business Opportunities Digest

Legislative change These sorts of changes that may affect your business can be reactive or proactive policies introduced to the commercial playing field typically from a new government administration or ones seeking to increase their political influence or agenda. It can be good or bad. Whatever the case, it pays to prepare contingencies for adaptation or exploitation. This as an external influence can be quite significant to the progress or survival of your business. Changes in immigration management or policies can affect the cost of labour up or down, new laws in import/exportation of specific goods or materials, or even legislation around banking practices to mention a few, these are just a few common changes, it pays to look out ahead, as you plan the next 3-5 years or even for the longer term.

There is a skill to predicting political influencers. Educate yourself by researching industry news, business and economy white papers, manifestos and press leaks. There are trends to government policies in which certain outcomes can be predicted. Filter the parts that affect you and work out a plan to move your business in line with the changes.

Consumer change We are living in a rapidly changing world. The British consumer along with other Western countries has adapted their lives to changing technology and attitudes as well as influencing the market. These days, we as consumers are getting used to exploring the next big thing. Traditional customer loyalty is increasingly under threat. The old guard who have built their brands over decades or centuries of brand recognition no longer rest on their past laurels. It’s a young new world were the consumer has learnt to reach out for a new competitor that speaks the right language

k on .u so t.co g in es m ig Co pD p zO Bi

understand the opportunities and the threats here. Find out how you can ensure you meet your targets for winning bids; find yourself a unique selling point that enables you to keep the incoming contracts to a consistent or higher level.

Tech allows us to work better, watch how the work flow has changed, will there be more cost saving devices out there?

Are customers warming to virtual trade, what have you put in place to exploit these changes? How will new competition and ease of market entry affect you? You yourself may Change management plan need the services of 1. Identify all the types of changes that affects your business. a virtual contractor, a cheaper option to 2. Set up choices: Both exploitative and survival. the traditional means.

Look into emerging 3. Identify the costs to implement. technology that may 4. Identify the benefits to your allow you access to adaptation plans. any potential income 5. Define the stages to implement generating work . your change plan.

Consult with Skype, Charge clients with virtual terminals, attend meetings with video conferencing, share your project documentation with open desk top access. Get to know which innovative technology is likely to be widely used in future; these things not only reduce the costs of delivering your service but also how you may be doing so in the near future.

in terms of incentives to buy.

We as consumers live in an increasing ‘throw away’ society. We are impatient, choosy and offer loyalty to anyone.

Each year, consumers have become less interested in collections.

Remember the days when you’d proudly display your fiction collection in the living room bookcase, or your CD collection? These days a lot of our precious possessions are stored digitally. 5000 songs stored on an MP3 player or on the phone, precious photos stored in one’s phone or in the digital cloud, the consumer is fast warming to the virtual life. Companies with digital products are the darlings of the consumer market be it for work or play. This change in consumerism is still going to be an upward trend with a few adjusted changes year after year.

Economic or political change In the new economy, everything changes faster: demand, supply, product prices, employment, production, investment, interest rates and exchange rates. In one quarter the economy may be booming with a higher consumer confidence; the next quarter, it may be on the brink of recession and requiring massive Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

The frequency with which economists adjust their forecasts attests to just how fast things are changing and how difficult it is to be right.

Finance, trade, politics and society complete the change whirlwind.

A blizzard of new securities and portfolio strategies have combined with 24-hour-a day, worldwide trading and instantaneous information to make financial markets more efficient and much quicker to adjust, but also more volatile and more focused on the short term. Global trade growth is breathtaking, trade rules are steadily easing, and countries are opening up in exchange for reciprocal access, international alliances included. Everyone in a global industry is everyone else’s competitor. In politics, anything is possible: Free market/private ownership principles are increasingly popular.

In western countries such as ours, it pays to see how economic policy and politicking drives the negative or somewhat positive changes that can be an opportunity waiting to be exploited. Over the past 8 years, there has been a realisation in the tech or digital industry for instance, that it is one that would bring massive economic benefits if supported or enriched with funding and partnerships. From Silicon Roundabout in East London to Incubator Lane in Cambridge, corporate and government support is on the increase, as a small business, you’d need to understand how far these changes are likely to go or last. It suggests opportunity or a shift in commercial focus.

Final note A few years back, the construction industry was facing near collapse thanks to a banking fuelled economic mishap. People simply couldn’t afford to play in the property bubble any longer; banks were no longer handing out mortgages like candy. The small time sub-contracting construction business suffered along with the bigger players, some at the same time thrived. They are the ones who predicted there was an opportunity to compete against the more expensive construction giants when it came to large scale development. Suddenly, in a bid to cut costs, larger firms increased their subcontractor sourcing rather than recruiting permanent staff. The same in other industries. The agile change responsive businesses reaped the rewards while the dinosaurs closed shop.

Keep one eye on the economic influences and one eye on the political response. Don’t just change to adapt, change to grow, even in the eye of the storm.

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 3

Hong Kong Small Business Paradise Destination?

Sometimes in order to grow your business, you need to look further afield. We live in a brave new world where geographical boundaries are no longer a limitation to the reach of the small business. Places like Hong Kong remains an attractive destination to kick start your ambitious business venture.

The climate for rapid business growth and opportunities in Hong Kong is most attractive to the small business. It has a reputation for being an attractive prospect not only to the corporate giants but the small business. It is true that emerging economies are the places for the go getters; the adventurous entrepreneur should consider making a pilgrimage to this place of fertile opportunity.

Hong Kong has lead by example; it remains one of the many regions waking up to the importance of wooing the foreign small business to its expanding cities.

The government’s idea is to help support the growth of the foreign business person in the hope of reaping the financial and development rewards of growth. The state knows only too well that creating fertile ground for small business development brings with it massive benefits and that’s beginning to benefit districts cultivating organic business growth by supporting entrepreneurs and SMEs, Hong Kong is no exception. With stagnation in Europe and other developed markets causing some SMEs to look elsewhere for growth, the citystate is making a play for a share of these potentially lucrative businesses. And it is enjoying considerable success. It’s a win - win situation with a need for continuity. The state simply laid the foundation for other business and industry groups to build upwards. There are now several private networks, funding bodies and investors looking to gain a share of rich and fertile business acreage. UK business owners are particularly welcomed.

Ease of access The state city’s free port status and taxfriendly economy means the region will be the vanguard of the future tech, agriculture, manufacturing development for instance. Hong Kong represents a unique blend of the east and the west, providing access to China but retaining western laws and access to capital – the ideal conditions for startups that seek access to the whole globe. The carpet has

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been laid out and the sharp minded ones are taking the pilgrimage. There is now an average of 300 mid-level startups from the UK alone migrating to the city. A good number are making the best use of the opportunities to forge business relations, share resources and engage in lucrative commerce.

Hong Kong is the world’s freest economy with no restrictions on the movement of capital or people. At the core of this free-market mechanism is a level playing field for business – there are no foreign ownership restrictions, a strong belief that such a business-friendly environment allows companies large and small to succeed, which is in the long-term interests of the city-state’s continued competitiveness and overall economic development.”

Hong Kong’s relationship with mainland China also provides a huge draw for investors.

Schemes such as the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), which provides Hong Kong-incorporated companies with preferential access to the mainland Chinese market and various tax waivers, can be highly lucrative to businesses looking to tap into China’s large domestic market.

Who is invited?

Don’t be mistaken, while the region continues to be a big pull for wealth management, finance companies, and corporations, the government have sensibly started a campaign to have Hong Kong labelled as the small business paradise.

The level of support for the small domestic or foreign start up is absolutely huge. Aside from your usual incubators and start up backers, investment support working in tandem to outside finance organizations is on the increase.

PIP Studios, Clickshop and Archer Resources are all foreign micro businesses that started off in the UK and moved on to Hong Kong with just their skills and knowledge.

Companies like these in the IT, tech and services industry have gone on to benefit from the ease of free market and regional assistance from the government support schemes.

Springboard to China The region is a recognised spring board offering commercial proximity to the ever expanding Chinese market. For the small business, it appears to be a sort of test ground or an intro before executing various strategic attempts at the huge market, a market filed with ever increasing high earners. Some say, why make your products in China to sell back home when you can sell to these band of new Chinese?

While Hong Kong acts as a gateway to the Chinese mainland for non-Chinese companies, there are also companies from mainland China Business Opportunities Digest

that are interested in tapping the city-state’s considerable domestic market.

Recently, Hong Kong embraced its fastgrowing entrepreneur community with the first StartmeupHK Week – a major project backed by the Hong Kong government and its inward investment arm, InvestHK. The project like others before it has done well to cement the region’s image as a global entrepreneurial hub. A series of events have been taking place throughout the week to encourage capital investment and to convince entrepreneurial talent to consider setting up base in the city.

Retail and services For the startup retailer, around 48 million visitors to Hong Kong from mainland China confirmed Hong Kong the main ideal testing ground for smaller retailers to test customers’ acceptance of their brands before targeting the Chinese market.

The past few years have also witnessed an increasing number of companies from mainland China using Hong Kong to reach out to the world. This is where you may get our business connected. These mainland firms need professional help to ‘go global’, hence there are ample business-to-business opportunities for overseas entrepreneurs that offer professional support services such as law, accounting, technology, design and branding,”

There are portals where these business oppor tunities have been verified, the government also lends good support by making information readily available. From startup opportunities involving one or two individuals, to mid-size startups, there is a wealth of finance, people and infrastructure serving as resources to help start and grow your business.

Another major boost to retail business opportunities results from the trickledown effect. With a 14% increase in corporate migration to the fast developing financial and tech hub, there has been a much higher population of expats or higher earners who are only too happy to use their low - taxed wages within the local markets. Though the cost of housing is on the increase due to demand, it is also a clear indication of how big the retail market is getting, coupled with that, it also means the market largely consists of individuals on the higher income bracket adding to China’s growing middle income earners.

Word of caution As with most attractive ventures, it pays to get your house in order, it is not the same as panning for gold, armed with nothing else but a determination to succeed. The business support network is there, but only so for those worthy of it. You need to research your business venture, plan the set up stages and how you intend to market your product, finance your business or who you aim to partner.

You’d need a short and long term plan that works in parallel. Decide why you are choosing to move your business there and that question extends beyond the fundamental questions.

Off the shelf opportunities

Resources and further information

Over the past 4 years there has been a growing trend in Hong Kong, and that’s the buying and selling of small businesses or opportunities.

Mid-size UK firms are now becoming experts at setting up trade ready concerns in retail, micro manufacture, tech services and a high number of internet businesses.

www.hongkong.geoexpat.com www.asiabusinessinvestor.com Offshore incorporation offshore-company-incorporation.co World SME Expo HongKong www.hongkongpost.hk/eng/ sme/latest/interaction/index.htm Detailed startup guide also available from the Chinese embassy London (business and trade department)

Final note I

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 5

Starting up a...

Mobile Catering Business Besides lower costs of set up and being able to service different locations, the mobile food business can be just the ticket If you are not afraid of hard work and planning, you can be on the way to starting your own small food empire.

The recipe for success We have two types of business minds in the mobile catering business. You have the operators who intend to keep it Simple Simon, relying on passing trade in a fixed location, or travelling to events where hungry customers can be found in mass, and there are the business types who intend to forge a branded service eventually setting up multiple units in various locations. It all depends on how ambitious you wish to be. Most people start off with setting up in markets, boot fairs or a fixed location paying a rental fee on space just to test the waters or start a modest revenue generation.

Personally, I wouldn’t’t wish to start a mobile food business without selling a product that stands out and I‘m not talking about the taste of the food alone. There is a vast difference in the rate of success when it comes to those who set up in a view to branding their food business.

There are countless operators here and in the US for instance, that have earned themselves great rewards by selling food products creatively. The key to repeat patronage is the way the service is packaged or presented, and the type of food or drink you are selling. Think differently, sell something beyond the usual burger and chips and you might find yourself a bit of a following. Be as adventurous as you dare with the design of your trailer. Grassroot Drinks operating in Leeds started from one van creatively decorated with artificial grass all over the vehicle, an eye catching concept that suggested healthy beverages straight from the farm. Brien Seawell opted to sell fruit smoothies along with light nibbles. Over the last 3 years

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he has moved from local markets to 9 replica vans all across the north of the country. His business brings in 4 million pounds in clear profits; the business is operated like a franchise where the founder concentrates on getting lucrative pitches for the paying operators. He also sorts out the supply of product and the build of the mobile vans.

The choice of food can also make the difference. Think wide and broad, what would most people like to eat on a day out? If you intend to market the food at events there are lots of options, but it’s best to go with a food or drink that you are familiar with, something you can put together as a great tasting product, especially if you are looking to build your food business as a brand.

The setup The all-important start to the business is to acquire a trailer or truck to house your mobile operation. The trailer makes more sense when it comes to ease of set up. You get a wider choice in regards to putting together your area of operation and it’s easier to build in your own creativity with the look. Think second hand, the money saved compared to a new trailer can be put back into the decorative aspect, plus, buying a food trailer from a former operator means you get most of the equipment ready to use. Remember that it’s quite a challenge to get the cooking /storage units set up for business.

You have things to consider such as ventilation, extractor units and refrigeration. If you do buy a used trailer you also get the benefit of first hand advice from someone who has actually been in the business. You get to not only access ideas for operating your business, but also details on legal responsibilities and pitch application processes with various local authorities.

Average price for a fully equipped used

trailer comes between £2000 - £4000 depending on the size and standards of equipment. Average price for a used shell without the storage and cooking units comes to £1200 -£2000 for a large space.

Check second hand private sale on Ebay, Gumtree or Craigslist, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you find. You can also go for the trade companies that sell refurbished trailers or trucks. www.catersell.co.uk www.caterbids.co.uk If you have the budget to cover the costs for the buildup of the trailer or van, by all means go for it. Forking out more money should only be done if you are pretty sure of the venture, or if you know how you can sell off the vehicle should you wish to close the business and call it a day.

There are numerous catering trailer builders with different charges depending on what designs you have in mind.

Expect to pay £6 - £13,000 for a fully equipped trailer with all the units in new working order. www.arwilliscateringtrailers.co.uk www.ajcretailsolutions.co.uk www.ggmgastro.com You may wish to consider your cash flow, on a smaller budget without the hassle of building a new trailer or buying a second hand one. It is possible to hire. Makes sense, but you may be limited in applying your own designs and branding. To counter this issue, you may invest in removable vinyl banners or wooden signs and adhesive stickers. Average hire charges are between £110 -£150 per week. For longer periods, the price begins to drop significantly.

It’s probably best to hire on a monthly basis. www.ajcretailsolutions.co.uk Business Opportunities Digest

Another way to get yourself up and running faster without having to go through too much planning is to buy an existing mobile catering business outright. You get access to supply and operator advice. The benefits to having access to an existing or past supplier deal may make the process much easier. Be sure to understand the deal and have yourself alternative suppliers that may offer a better deal.

A lot of second hand trailers are being sold for a reason, buyer beware. There are legal requirements for trailers and for the way they are kitted out, and you will need to be sure that it can pass a gas and electrical inspection as well as meeting other recognised standards and unfortunately the majority of second hand catering trailers won’t. It could cost you thousands to get the faults put right and legal equipment installed.

In some cases, you pay more buying the vehicle and the business as some actually come with the pitching licence for it’s previous location. It’s then just a case of running the business in your own better way. Don’t be put off by hearing reasons why the past owners are giving up the business. There are so many reasons besides the possibility of the business not being worthwhile. So many people choose to sell for personal reasons.

The marketing This once again, requires a different approach with the small time operator and the ambitious brand mogul. It’s all about the scope of business being targeted. If you like the idea of building a dream brand, you need to copy the franchise model to a high extent. Be professional minded.

If you are doing the selling yourself or even if you are hiring staff, use uniforms tastefully designed to fit your colour scheme. Perception goes a long way. If you look like a branch of a large food business, you tend to get more patronage; your food will most likely be seen as safe and managed with quality control in place.

Even if you operate as a one man band, try to look professional and do consider wearing some sort of branded apparel as a top or hat.

Get the word out; don’t just rely on passing trade. Try to set up a website with information about where your trailer/trailers are located.

Get Tweeting and use social network to shout about your business. If you are in the position of multiple site locations chasing event or centres where families go for a day out it pays to get the word out. Organise some sort of discount voucher campaign with the event organizers or as a purchase incentive in conjunction with local traders at a boot sale or market for instance .

The key to a successful trailer-based operation like all others is down to having

somewhere decent to trade and the first decisions have to be based on just that:

Launch checklist

a a a a a a

Insurance needs Employee pay and contract legislation Be clear on pitching fees and licenses in different locations Get your equipment and setup certified where needed Invest in a food hygiene licence Sort out the parking needs for closing time

Licensed pitch – These can be anything from a pitch in the town centre licensed by the local authority to a site licensed by a local factory on their forecourt or car park. There are also site concessionaires that operate for some of the larger retail groups who license sites in their car parks; see the mobile catering section in the right hand menu for more details.

Franchise – There used to be many more companies offering franchise opportunities than there are today, from donuts, to Chicken Tikka to Cornish Pasties. However a lot of these have ceased due to the ease of copying. A franchise has to be able to offer something that cannot be easily replicated and that is tough to find in the mobile catering world.

Roadside – Once the choice of all operators, why? No rent, no contracts and come and go as you please and potentially very good margins in the right spot. I remember about 10 units operating on the A34 along the stretch from the M42 to Oxford and they were goldmines.

Open 24/7 they were reported reliably as taking many thousand a week. Sadly the council had a campaign to have them closed down as they said they were a traffic hazard and used a piece of legislation called the Miscellaneous Provisions Act which empowered the council to make trading on all the roads in the Borough illegal. Unfortunately many types of council have followed suit, albeit some have also licensed back certain roads as designated trading areas which has given traders more financial security.

Markets/car boots - Often cited as first choice for newcomers to the industry as they saw a trailer with a queue on the car boot last Sunday morning. It’s highly likely that the pitch has been bought from another trader and to

get a new pitch opened up on a car boot or market is pretty difficult. Good market pitches are highly sought after and often change hands between traders for thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of pounds.

Common mistakes to avoid and things to consider Unprofitable and Impracticable Menu – It’s all about your cost of goods, ingredients, pricing, and labour, coupled with competition and what the market is seeking and willing to pay. If it takes too long to put an order together, it most probably won’t work. It’s not an exotic restaurant; your customers will not be patient with you. Look at how many you need to sell per hour to break even.

Licensing and permits Licensing, Permits, Insurance and Food Laws: Every city and jurisdiction has different license permitting, mobile food ordinances and zoning laws. It’s important you understand the huge differences in various locations. There is also a significant amount of charges and fees, not just terms and conditions.

Physical demands Irregular Business Hours - You might have the burgers in Britain, but make sure you can work to consistent hours. There is nothing worse than a food trailer that may or may not be open. It then means you are totally reliant on passing trade. Make sure you can work out a shift system that allows you to physically put in the hours and not drive you to an early grave Get a schedule and routine going and stick to it.

Get properly insured You may be on the way to building a small fleet of mobile catering units, or you may be operating on your own with help. Whatever the case, you’d need to get yourself and business insured against theft or accident. You are responsible for your own equipment and staff if you have any. Also, the food business is one that exposes your customers to health considerations; there is always the possibility of running into legal law suits while customers are consuming your food at your mobile trailer or away from it. Get yourself some cover against situations such as these. They can be damaging or costly enough to close your business down.

Resources and further information References mobile catering news: www.mobilefoodnews.com

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 7

Starting an app developer business Inspired by the likes of Whatsapp, Evernote and Angry birds, there is a whole new world of opportunity open to anyone with a bit of imagination and business sense. Just like the internet coming of age, there’s a gold rush and lots of room for winners. It pays to know how to gain great financial rewards from your idea, and oh! You don’t need to know a single line of code.

The Apple store and Android app market (Google Play) is filled with great applications that keeps us glued to our smart phone for leisure or work. The reason for such a large extent of success has to do with portability and usage for almost anything. There are however, fundamental rules to the game. Develop an app that works well, set up a monetizing model and get the word out. Sounds easy enough but remember you and a thousand developers all over the world are competing for user time in an already saturated market. Saturated it may be, but there is still and always will be, room for something special.

The set up When we think about apps we mean programmes accessed on portable digital devices such as smart phones as well as tablets. It is important to consider both; the size of the screen determines the appearance and function of your app. This is why some apps have done tremendously well on tablets compared to the same app on smart phones. It really depends on what your app is supposed to do. The magazine apps for instance, have enjoyed great download subscription on tablets be it a free subscription or paid. Private office apps have done much better on the smart phone than on the tablet, so bear this in mind in the planning stage it will determine how your app is designed for both devices.

Your idea should start from sketches and a detailed set up of what the app is supposed to do. Is your app designed for leisure, a useful tool, or work? Whatever the case, make sure the user interface works well. You may have a brilliant idea in an app but if the user process is confusing or unclear you may lose out. Applications that have become a popular downloads all have one thing in common. Ease of use. Most applications get known to the rest of us by social recommendation which is why the ’share with a friend’ button is common

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place. It makes a huge difference if an app has ‘share’ appeal. Apps such as Subway run, Viber and Zoopla for property search have enjoyed great success thanks to the user experience.

Design your app with the user in mind. Create a balance with aesthetics and functionality.

Your mass users are not Einsteins.

The stages 1. Establish product description 2. Define functions and the means to prompt action 3. Apply communication connectivity if needed 4. Design by storyboard 5. Get your game creatively designed 6. Create product plan 7. Decide on how money is made (Free download or subscription) 8. Create marketing plan 9. Get to work

To be an app developer, by no means do you need to come from a programmer background, although you make great savings in costs if you can programme and launch the game yourself. Still, you don’t have to be a techie person with code running through your veins to be a successful developer. Most micro studios are run by two or three people with different skills. Anyone can bring an idea to life as an app developer. The important thing is to visualize and interpret. Create stage pages with sketches and descriptions of what buttons on the keypad does what. Look at how websites are designed.

It’s almost the same process for none leisure apps especially. To get your app coded into working life can cost very little or a lot.

As far as app platforms go, the big two are Android or Apple IOS. Android is an open source where anyone can launch any app without the need for paying royalties or getting officially approved after submission. On the Apple platform, you’d need to submit the app for acceptance and go through some time consuming protocols, but it is worth it in the end when you consider how many Apple Phones

are sold worldwide per second. It is best to get your app adapted to both platforms. Connect with Windows and Blackberry later, they are to be considered, but should not be a first priority.

All the information you need about launching on the operating system can be found directly.

Get an icon An icon which acts as the square symbol we see on most phones and tablets is most important. You need to have your design to appear attractive and symbolic of the app. It’s a bit like an adapted logo. Choose the right colours, be creative, yet simple, as your app becomes popular, there will be a need for instant recognition. If your icon is poor in design you’d be surprised how much that can affect your download numbers. Consider talking to a logo designer or marketing professionals who should be able to suggest the right theme for your app.

How much will it cost?

When the app rush began, the costs to build and launch and build an app were quite an expense. There was no room for the small business or individual to get in early. These days aside from DIY tools that really work without the need to know code, developers are able to work with anybody from any part of the world.

Popular destinations to find tech geniuses at the fraction of the real cost is places such as India, China, and Eastern Europe where you can find yourself gifted students who can write code in their sleep. The differences in the cost of labour are very diverse especially compared to the UK. You can get an experienced app developer in India below £4 per hour or a fixed rate under £1000. Of course there are different grade of apps depending on their connectivity and function. But you can easily have your app developed under £5000, and we are talking about a great looking app and not just some simple Joe contraption. The cheaper foreign Business Opportunities Digest

developers are good enough to design the app to your specification quite efficiently to your small budget. The downloadable tools have also made it easier for almost anyone to learn how to design apps in the shortest of time, hence the reason why we now have a huge competitive environment in the programmer fraternity. This has affected the price settings in a bid to be competitive. Find your developer easily by visiting forums, job boards on portals such as Gumtree or better still, put up your job on any of the freelancer websites. Don’t be afraid to work with a developer 1000 of miles away, communication and remote working have come a long way, most business people are used to it now. www.peopleperhour.com www.elance.com www.odesk.com

Monetise Let’s face it, 99% of app ventures is centred on making money for ones efforts. On top of that, if your app is showing the potential to be the next big thing, the costs to run it multiply exponentially. You are going to need it to pay for itself eventually. You must therefore think about how money will be made.

Now, making money from apps is quite a tricky affair. Ever since the technology to create them became so much cheaper, every Tom, Dick and Harry have launched their own venture. The digital age is synonymous with the freemium model. Aside from the expensive devises to access digital technology, users have grown used to using the working programs for free no matter how good it is. Even top apps like Whatsapp, Skype and Viber can only aim for revenue by miniscule charges or through advertising. They do well by charging a tiny fee from millions of users. Their strength is in the value they hold simply through the sheer number of users. If you have the traffic, you have the value, that’s when you get the likes of Facebook snapping your app up for billions of dollars.

Revenue streams: Sell off Advertising Subscription One charge download Sale as advergame These are the recognised means of making money from your app. Choose carefully, you can mix and match if that works for you. For instance, build a great app game and include streaming adverts, at the same time possibly charge a small fee for the upgraded version which offers greater usage or interactivity by function. One common model in gaming and work related apps is to sell better functions

once the user has started engaging with the app. This is known as in - app purchases.

Many gaming apps will charge you virtual currency to get better equipment that would in turn allow you to go further into completing the harder levels of the game. Work related apps such as Evernote are useful enough with the free versions but offer much more with the priced upgrade. Make sure there is a distinct difference to the basic version of your app and the priced upgrade but be careful to keep the free version functional or entertaining.

Ads on games can be quite annoying to the user when the pop ups become a chore to delete. One way to access advert revenue with less frustration to users who may end up abandoning your app is to introduce a Pro version (no ads, more features) and a free version, but with ads. You can use the free version as a catalyst to boost sales. Have it run ads for users to switch to your PRO version, and list clearly all the advantages of having the PRO version.

Lastly, if you want to opt for the third method (in-app purchases), don’t launch PRO version too soon. Create a free app, and focus solely on in-app purchases to create revenue. Otherwise you’ll only confuse the user. Stay away from in app purchases + external ads. That will only annoy the user and get your app deleted.

Marketing the app Make a video for each app and promote it as much as possible. Be sure to get your user video on Youtube and other high traffic networks.

You’d also need a video to demonstrate the user action for the sake of investor interest as well as a demo to help market the app. There are a number of video review portals that charge a fee to have your reviews done by video. This is all put together for potential users to go through and these websites command great traffic.

Just like the music charts, there is an app chart that gets all the great publicity based on download volume. Compete to eventually achieve a good download rate, it causes a domino effect where user downloads increase in multiple stages.

Try to get featured on your store with services such as AppShout! when launching.

Do some research, look at what similar apps are doing to garner greater download rates, check your keyword description and do some SEO on the web, and this offers a faster way to get more awareness and popularity.

Consider creative marketing where you can create a buzz with competition and attractive prize giveaways. If it’s a gaming app, think up a prize to the first few people to complete the game or reach a particular level. If it’s an office app or non-leisure, you can offer the app as

a free download to the first 100 subscribers for instance. You can always multiply the user volume by offering the app downloads for free or heavily discounted if users use the share button to invite their friends. This usually accounts for a whopping 35% of new users.

Consider having the app run on Facebook, aside from being a stand -alone device in itself, it’s a good way to introduce the mobile version, and sharing by friends invited to play is quite effective. EA’S Scrabble signed up a mouthwatering 30,000 users in its first week when they launched the Facebook version and created a set up where you could compete against many of your friends at the same time from your smart phone.

Translate for world presence Make sure you have a nice, long description for your app to put it up the market place. This is for your clients and for your app’s ranking. You need to invest the time and do this right. Where possible, your description should be localized in most common languages such as Chinese, Korean, Spanish or French. Google Play has a nice feature which will let you do the translation automatically using Google Translate. However, some translations do come up weird, so make sure you double check Google’s work.

For the App Store, you could do it yourself or look into human translation; it’s worth the money, or just use the browser-version of Google Translate.

You can offer your app for free or at half price for a period of time. The ‘use before you pay’ model works well for an app that is actually worth the money. Once users are used to your app, or hopefully get addicted to it, a reasonable percentage of them would be happy to pay for the privilege.

There are some services which can handle press release distribution for you such as PRWeb or MarketWired. Just write your press release and send it out. There are even mobile specific agencies such as AppShout which can help you contact a massive number of blogs and publications.

Final note In conclusion, it pays to have a good team with you. Even if you have hired freelancers to help you put things together, consider finding yourself a partner that is savvy in marketing and PR. You can’t do everything yourself, besides, if your app is primed for world domination you are going to need a whole heap of friends and partners eventually.

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 9

CASE STUDY ONE

App developer success story

From food stamps to Billions WhatsApp’s $19 billion-plus sale to Facebook marks one of the biggest tech deals ever, It’s been a headline story for weeks, especially interesting as it’s a real rags to riches episode. Co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton managed to do it all from the early days of getting by, to watching their product explode globally.

Before WhatsApp was founded, Koum briefly lived on welfare handouts after immigrating to the US with his mother. Both founders eventually found employment with Yahoo as engineers. There, they would gain the skills and knowledge not just as coders, but business men. Whatsapp became their pet project and the reason to go solo eventually. Success didn’t just drop in their laps, it took time. Not too long ago, employees “wore blankets for warmth and worked off cheap Ikea tables” in a nondescript office building. WhatsApp also went through a period where all the expenses were running out of Koum’s bank account, which eventually ran dry, something that was later solved with outside funding and incredible growth. It’s ironic that the deal with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was done in a nearby social services office where Koum used to pick up food stamps. Now that’s rags to riches.

It’s even more ironic when it came to light that the cofounders vacancy application was rejected by the same company that have spent a small countries annual GDP to buy their creation. $19Billion is the sales figure and value placed on their hard work and resilience offered

by Facebook who rejected their application for a job.

WhatsApp has led the charge with the most users for VOIP messaging by smart phone. It’s global usage and appeal has given it a very high value in terms of what could be the next step for the product.

This is why it was bought for such a princely sum. Facebook and the like need to keep being the new kid on the block by buying the new kid on the block, even if the new kid was not generating a fraction of the potential income.

Prior to this deal though, Acton and Koum found a way to make millions of dollars without the need of advertising. The app made money in two ways. On Apple Ios they would charge iPhone users a one-time $.99 charge for the download and instant usage. Android users would pay $.99 every year after the first. It doesn’t sound like much, but when you equate that to 250 million subscribers and rising, it’s a whole lot of millions.

Koum was aware that as people spend more time on their mobiles, the Internet’s biggest players would seek ways to maintain their dominant positions. Given that messaging has emerged as the killer app for mobile, it is little wonder that they would want to own a slice of the pie too. Google search and services rule on the desktop, but mobile is a different game and the company needs ways to connect with the millions of users who are starting to come online from mobile devices for the first time.

The co-founders have managed to get the system up and running with very minimal call for investment. Costs for running Whatsapp is

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reduced highly by employing skilled but cheaper labour from Russia.

There they have been able to recruit the cream of talent for a fraction of the going rate.

According to Koum, revenue through advertising was not a prospect for them. Instead they have concentrated on making a useful and cost saving product available to the world for a very small price, almost a token price which anyone could afford. They were right to do so, Whatsapp has become one of the worlds most appreciated app, it’s almost zero charges has gone on to threaten the messaging market to such a degree. It has been set up to work virally. Users need to use it to communicate with friends and family, to receive messages, the other person at the other end would need to download and install the app to retrieve the message, and that’s how the app became one of the most downloaded programs to date. Koum believes that adverts are cool revenue generators but can be intrusive, and a stain on great user interface and layout. This ethical approach to user interfacing and experience won the app many fans the world over.

Another sure reason for this profound success, which is similar to the Mark Zuckerberg success, is the hands -on approach. Both founders simply live the business, they make sure anyone recruited would actually enjoy their job like some leisurely past time. The salary package was never the main incentive. Though the founders are not given much credit in Silicon Valley until now, they are still admired in the tech world for not being pushed around by prospects of more money.

Their product rather than the initial bank balance does the work for them.

Now they are multi billionaires one can only guess what the next step would be. Whatsapp has moved from being an app used by youngsters to communicate cheaply but has also been a welcome to adults. The team has worked hard to ensure the app worked efficiently enough to carry images, video and audio files. Since such a facility was launched, the app downloads grew another whopping 25% worldwide.

The agenda for the company would be to research other useful applications that promise great savings for the user and a disrupter in the tech industry starting to come online from mobile devices for the first time. Internet via mobile has overtaken internet via desktop. This is why Google actually attempted first to buy Whatsapp for $10billion.

This must have been such a gamble for the co-founders to turn down such a fortune. Again, a good business head on their shoulders enabled a calm resolve to believe they could get more for their business. Then Facebook came calling with the 19$ billion dollar ticket.

Acton and Koum insist they chose to go with Facebook despite Google coming back with a promise to beat whatever Facebook was offering. In their view, Facebook’s business profile and culture was much more similar to theirs. A clear opening and lots of opportunity to make it better than it already is.

Business Opportunities Digest

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CASE STUDY TWO

The Juice Truck Mobile food success story

Meet two friends Ryan Slater and Zach Berman, they brought out a concept for their mobile catering business while on vacation and have been riding the coat tails of fortune ever since.

While on a yearlong backpacking trip the co-founders discovered a mountain town in Nepal. There, they met residents who depended on the juice of exotic berries for their nutrients.

This discovery inspired Ryan and Zach to seek out unique juice blends in every country they visited for the remainder of their trip. Upon arriving home, their juicing ideas were spun into a well-honed business plan and The Juice Truck was born. When the City of Vancouver expanded its food truck licenses in 2011, Ryan and Zach instantly saw an opportunity. The pair had envisioned the whole idea of the mobile business as one of a kind. They applied to become part of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation’s (CYBF) mentoring process and started their journey.

To be accepted into the CYBF program, the pair had numerous meetings with Small Business BC’s own Business Plan Review specialist to make sure they were ready to launch.

A product is born The founders would consume their own product when they got thirsty and were delighted at how much healthier they became. Customers also noticed how they felt much more cleansed on the inside. They duo developed their range to include “The Juice Cleanse.” With the help of their nutritionist, both co-founders focused on health rather than weight loss, and in the process proved that no matter how old the product type, there are always ways to be innovative.

One of the things that they both strive for is to push the boundaries of what can be juiced or blended. They have re-invented the idea of healthy juice drinks. The mobility of their truck has also allowed them to be adaptable: acting dually as a storefront and as a mobile

catering business for events. Being a small business has also served them well, providing them with the ability to adapt new and exciting menu options on a regular basis.

Once their plan was secure the pair took the first step in the food truck application process, which started with a rigorous analysis of their business plan, followed by a tasting panel that included Vancouver favourite, Vikram Vij. Finding Support, Juice is one of the fastest growing food trends in major cities around the world, and Ryan and Zach were determined to be pioneers in this growing health food industry in Vancouver.

The quest for partnerships Both knew they had to keep motivated to work hard and stay adaptable. They also knew that they couldn’t do it on their own, so they reached out. Their support network now includes their CYBF mentor and Blo Blow Dry Bar co-founder Devon Brooks, smoothie chef Aviya Kones, Girlvana Yoga creator Alex Mazerolle, and of

course their parents.

Great partnerships are often featured in our success stories, but the road to success isn’t always an easy one. Finding the right balance of shared responsibility and complimentary skill sets between two people is rare.

But this balance is something that Ryan and Zach have managed to achieve. “Zach is the idea man, and I am the implementer,” explains Ryan. Both young men are personable and good at connecting with their customers and the two have worked hard to become a part of their community.

Local PR for starters Ryan and Zach work hard to establish themselves as an active part of their community.

They continually search for innovative ways to collaborate and work with various local businesses, including participating in weekly food cart events in the Downtown Eastside.

But building their community isn’t Ryan and Zach’s only achievement. Over the last year they have been featured on the Food Network’s Eat Street television program, were listed in Vancouver Magazine’s 101 best things to eat or drink in Vancouver, were rated the #1 Juice Bar in Vancouver by BC Living, and were featured on Shaw Express. They are now enjoying the financial rewards of their hard work as the business expands beyond a single van.

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 11

CASE STUDY THREE

Estee Lauder WOMAN OF VISION

Estée Lauder today, is a world famous brand in beauty and skin care.

This global giant for a business is the creation of one Esther Mentzer, daughter of two hard working immigrants in 1908 Queens New York.

Her success story like others of that era is one of self-preservation leading to extreme wealth and fortune.

Estee was the youngest child of Jewish immigrants with European backgrounds. Her family owned a hardware store which served as home as well as a humble space for her father’s small retail business. Estee’s mother at the time, was quite overly concerned about the effects of the elements on the delicate skin, she’d be known to wear gloves everywhere and protective parasols to protect her from the sun rays. Ironically, Estee would find such behaviour embarrassing growing up in the mostly Italian neighbourhood of Queens New York. It so happened that she lost two siblings before she was born which could have explained her mother’s obsession with health and skin care.

It seems young Estee was also influenced by her uncle John Shotz a chemist who created facial creams in a small self-build laboratory, she learned the fundamentals of dermatology and how to enhance skin enhancement and protection with certain substances under her uncles guidance. It would be a foundation for knowledge and a great interest in skin products that eventually brought about the start of her own cosmetic business from New York and later on Miami Florida.

It seems that personal experience as mentioned in her autobiography prompted her to strive towards fortune and success and not just a passion for her product. She would usually face embarrassment at her families lowly immigrant background, often selling the idea she was from a noble family, she was desperate to enjoy the trappings of wealth which is why she had the audacity to launch her business right in the centre of depression. At that time, people were losing jobs in the thousands, business foreclosures was rife and it would serve as an opportunity for the small brave business to capitalise on lowered business costs.

Estée at the age of 19 met and married Joseph Lauder, also the son of immigrants from Galicia. At the time, Estee was just about

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beginning to make a name for herself in the skin care business, as the economy improved, so did the trend for luxury cosmetics and better living. She’d later on add the Lauder name to her brand, thanks to her marriage feeling pleased that the product sounded better as Estee Lauder. Driven with a huge amount of determination she could not easily juggle married life with her business demands even when she gave birth to her first child Leonard Allen. It’s quite a story how things worked out.

The couple divorced and remarried in a space of four years. All the while, her husband held great admiration and respect for Estee’s hard work and sharp mind. He would support her with his own business input, on marrying her again, he had decided he’d be better off entering her world with her. He quit his own business and the pair became complete partners. He was amazed at the potential of the brand. The brand with a European touch, created and driven by such a sharp mind like Estees had already began to become recognised in the skin and beauty business moving from small local stores to Macys and JC Penny. Estee was not just great at working with dermatologists to create great skin care lines, she was also a great sales woman. She’d pay close attention to doing things in a different way, simultaneously wooing the store merchandisers as well as the consumers, she was one of the first to introduce in - store partnership promotions.

It was good timing for her husband Joseph to join her in running the business full time. As the brand name grew, the demand followed, there was a need for industrial organisation.

Her husband would run the factory and deal with production and the finances, while Estée took charge of the sales staff and marketing.

It became such a family passion, their son Leonard not to be left out would run errands for the business. Estee recalls the miracle of finding the time to have a second child born in

February 1944.

The term “Tell-a-Woman” marketing actually came from Estée Lauder, it was a time when most of the marketing and promotional tactics we see today were introduced for the first time in the US and Europe. Give away packs and referral treats was an idea she risked that brought in great return, customers were turned into walking billboards. Estee had invested heavily in creating a loyalty to the product lines. Word of mouth from the Estee Lauder experience became the norm in other retail sectors. As the years rolled by, Estee realised the US was great as a starting point but the brand was ready to cross the pacific. Again, she gambled bravely with creative but expensive marketing concepts, the brand became synonymous with style and class with the use of handpicked models to sell her products.

Estée would choose the models herself making sure they were not just beautiful women but also elegant. At the time, established competitors would go for the use of movie stars to help sell their products. Estee’s choice worked to the brands benefit by making her products more real and distinct.

The secrets to the Estée Lauder success is the will to take bold calculated risks and a clear vision for how the brand was to be perceived.

Estee worked hard to get her cosmetics sold at the best department stores, her thoughts on going international started when she secured Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City, an upscale store where women could charge their purchases. After Saks came Neiman Marcus in Dallas, and then several department Business Opportunities Digest

CASE STUDY FOUR

Salt of the earth Who says stay-at-home mothers can’t be bread winners or even major employers? Natalie Crayton is one of those who have achieved enviable success with great business acumen whilst fulfilling her duties in the greatest job in the world - motherhood!

stores around the country. Being very hands -on Estée would open each store herself and train the saleswomen who were demonstrating her products.

In 1953, she went into overdrive launching bath oils, scents and fragrances. At this stage, investor interest had bolstered the operating activity of the company. Este was free to experiment exciting additions and pay for more skilled staff to prospect to high end retail stores. She had great success with her entry into male cosmetics 11 years later, by then, even the men were quite familiar with the brand, being used to buying Estee Lauder products as gifts to their wives or girlfriends. She named the male product range Aramis introducing a whole product range. The US was well and truly owned by the brand.

Entry into the European market was quite the challenge, especially Paris, where the countries reputation for luxury goods was a high mountain to climb and the consumer market was traditionally more sophisticated than the US. With the same tenacity and applied knowledge of the industry, Estee Lauder established itself as one of the leading brands in Europe. As for over here in England, it was Youth Dew Body Oil that cracked the market, the Brits began a love affair with the Estee Lauder range. By 1985, half of Estée Lauder and related product sales took place in seventy-five foreign countries.

Lauder has become extremely wealthy thanks to her hard work and high intelligence.

According to the Billionaire - “Measure your success in dollars, not degrees.”

Natalie got the idea for Hebridean Sea Salt when she was living on the remote Isle of Tiree in Scotland. She’d read about Cornish sea salt and how precious the trade and export had become, she on the other hand was looking for Scottish sea salt for her own cooking and realised there wasn’t any. These salts are quite unique and rare. They make a big difference in taste and substance and are used by Michelin star chefs who take taste and healthy ingredients quite seriously. With her free time when not attending to her growing family, Natalie researched the rare salt industry and realised there was a huge business in the sourcing. Locally produced salts in areas such as hers are highly sought after and they carried a premium price tag in retail. She’d realize that there was a 10% market growth for UK salts with a high value, compared to the usual processed salts we get in the shops. The sea around the Hebrides is immaculate and carries a Grade A certification which means it is as clean as you can get.

Success did not come without the challenge. For star ters, there was no infrastructure in Tiree. It’s a quite remote area of great beauty but devoid of infrastructure. She’d need to find a way to get the special equipment in place.

To produce the sea salt was going to require substantial investment. She had faith in her findings and believed that the business was sustainable with a ready market in existence. She’d get her investors in the end.

Hebridean Sea Salt started active business in 2012, Natalie’s detailed research and business

plan earned her start-up support from the technology strategy board and other funding bodies. Their input helped Natalie realise a dream she believed in. Her ambition gradually increasing as the prospects seemed much more of a realization. Natalie’s business received two rounds of funding. An initial £70,000 from the Highlands and Island Enterprise and Princes Trust in 2012 was followed by £85,000 in 2013 from those organisations as well as the local authority and the Scottish Edge Fund. The second round of funding signaled the end of the testing stage and onto to full scale commercial .Natalie was so sure she was on to a winning idea that she moved her family from Tiree to Lewis to make it happen.

Eventual sales for the first year of trading reached £10,000, Small change compared to the potential volume of trade, Hebridean Sea Salt did set up activity to increase revenue ten times over the following 12 months of operation.

As more external funds were released, so the operations increased significantly. More staff and bigger processing facilities meant that by August 2013, Hebridean Sea Salt expanded from one 70 by 2m industrial unit to take up three of the four relatively new industrial units in a small estate, about a mile from her home.

Production expanded by 60%, the company has gone from producing 10 kilos per day to 100 kilos - the production target that enabled the company to meet the supply quota of major supermarkets in Scotland. Natalie aims to add the more Scottish supermarkets to her list of customers in the near future.

Hebridean Sea Salt has already won an Excellence Award from Scotland Food and Drink, for its salt and boasts some top Scottish chefs among its customers. At a specialty food trade fair in London in September it attracted interest from a major UK supermarket and some prospective customers from even further afield.

Natalie is now aiming south with Tesco and Waitrose in her sights.

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 13

CASE STUDY FIVE

Another college dropout?

Mark Zuckergerg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, are all college dropouts that ended up with extreme success. Then you have the likes of Sophia Amoruso a 22-year-old community college dropout.

While we don’t advise this trend to be a suitable option, it works for these breed of go-getters who simply couldn’t wait to unleash their business acumen.

Sophia Amoruso is one of those individuals with a head for business and a craving for selling.

In her college years Sophia earned $13 per hour checking student IDs. It was something to do for income which she found boring, she knew she was bound for better things if she put her mind to it. She’d like to do something she enjoyed, something that may bring her growth in income running her own thing her own way. The first thing that came to mind was making money out of her passion for vintage clothing. Sophia was confident enough to cut herself away from the dead end job as an ID inspector and venture into the EBay gold rush, at least with vintage clothing, she completely understood the market, being an avid fan of the styles herself.

She put her creativity to work designing a logo and naming her small business Nasty Gyal, she’d recognised a trend in vintage styled clothing and was confident the style was going to be around for many years to come. Sophia also had another ace up her sleeve, she was a good copywriter who could post engaging blogs in her leisure time. This was a practice she started three years back, in the theme of a personal diary talking about her personal pastime hunting for rare or bargain vintage wear. She’d grown an encouraging fan base with almost zero effort in getting the blog advertised, it was just postings from a blogger who enjoyed the world of vintage fashion. Comments would be transformed into fans and regular contributors to her blog. For the growth of Nast Gyal as a

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clothing business online, Sophia would use her following to harvest signed up customers by using social networks such as Myspace, and then Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram her company did not make use of a marketing team, it’s a fan base turned customer base made up of over half a million regulars.

The business began with an EBay shop connected to Sophia’s social network account. She built the business by merging the real world bricks and mortar with the virtual world of e-commerce quite successfully. Nasty Gyal has grown from a small business with a tiny amount of stock to a 7,500-square-foot warehouse in Emeryville, California, and also a 500,000-square-foot fulfilment centre in Shepherdsville, Kansas selling almost $100 million of her wares last year. Her start up secret is quite simple, she started the Ebay campaign selling stock from physical shops, armed with her trusty camera, she would take a picture of the clothes, post them on EBay and return to the shops to purchase at a discount to resell with the funds from her customers online purchase, she did this for a year till she could actually start to source wholesale lots from the profits. Since 2005, the business has grown in strength and size.

Collaborating with the right people, the business has used its proceeds to buy into volume stock and quadruple the rate of

daily sales. A major retailer in the US - Urban Outfitters has shown great interest valuing her company close to $250 million. Sophia is a happy seller these days as she remodels her home, a far cry from her step-aunties house where she used to live.

Sophie still continues to keep going with her blogging; it’s an activity she intends to carry on no matter how much time her success demands elsewhere. Her experience is a stark reminder of the advantages of going into business in an area one enjoys.

Business Opportunities Digest

The Ideas Man

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CASE STUDY SIX

Simon Hill is a very enterprising business man, one who demonstrates that success comes easy if you are able to match a creative idea to good business sense with a dash of hard work and salesmanship as seasoning.

His business helps track useful employee ideas on behalf of clients. The company now turns over £400,000 a quarter. Sounds a bit dreamy for a business right? Well, truth be told, it sounds like an idea many of us would have already thought of, but what about how you package such a service into one with applicable benefits that could be sold as an effective product? In 2011 Wazoku was launched, it’s a Swahili translation of ’great idea’. Simon’s great idea was to create a subscription - based company with a client serving software that works as a virtual suggestion box for employee input. The suggestion box is connected internally from the idea generator to relevant staff with authorized access to other members of staff who would be able to contribute their thoughts on improving the idea, or suggest how it could be applied. Idea mining is something anyone could have come up with, but it takes a mind like Simon’s to package it so well making it a tool with great commercial kudos.

Simon comes from a tech business development background, one of the early employees at Huddle, a company that develops business intelligence software working with major corporations and some dotcom giants. He believes he developed a sense of communicating great ideas and connecting himself to innovative people at Huddle. It remains his favourite place he has worked aside from his own company of course.

Investment to fund the venture started with Simon himself, as proof of his commitment to the business idea, he sold his flat and raised £50,000 from friends and family. The rest came from business angels who included Find Invest Grow UK Ltd (FIG) and one of the co-founders of Huddle, Andy McLoughlin. £150,000 was amassed and he got to work hiring great minds in software development. Simon recalls, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) making a massive difference in making early stage investment a reality as a much more attractive prospect to private investors. Funds from the high risk investors has been useful in paying for expensive skilled professionals that have helped make the business what it is today.

Marketing efforts were streamlined; he exploited his positive connection with previous employers, to get in front of essential businesses and garner press attention. The internet was also

used to drive an effective advertising campaign to other businesses large and small. Two years into the launch, the business began to get quite a lot of attention and genuine enquiries. Local authorities and corporate businesses liked the lean makeup of the system which was easy to integrate into the internal intranet portal for easy staff access and usage. New clients included the BBC, Hackney Borough Council, Diageo and The Institution of Engineering and Technology. Spurred on by the growing business, Simon wanted to make sure the tool was on a path of continuous improvement, he made sure there was enough user support and would adjust the interface to suit various types of organisations as opposed to creating one template and hope for the best.

Soon enough, the business began to sign up big name organisations; this helped as a badge of endorsement and continued to woo other large organizations on board.

He’s a happy man these days’ worth up to $6 million and continues to think up new ideas similar to what he runs now.

The UK’s longest running moneymaking newsletter May 2014 15

CASE STUDY SEVEN

Tina’s Lawsuit Lawsuit is a children’s game, a great way to entertain the kids. It has won “Game of the Year”

by Creative Child magazine five years in a row.

It is also the brain child of Tina Nelson who is now a great commercial success thanks to a creative mind and a head for good business.

She thanks her kids for that every day.

Tina had always been quite the creative person, she would show such a side when it came to creating gifts that stood out. On Father’s Day for instance, she’d usually create homemade gifts for her husband.

Things like the kids’ feet imprinted on a t-shirt, or a matching game using family photos, anything that presented the parent or kid’s identity on the surface of a puzzle or makeshift board game was her signature creation. The final game she created that gave her the push to make a business out of her ideas through her eventual company Professional Games, was the father’s day gift she created, a way to teach the kids what herself an attorney and their father did for a living. Her husband was also a practicing lawyer and that’s how Lawsuit the game, was created.

The LAWSUIT!™ board game teaches in a fun way what it’s really like to be a lawyer and run a small business. As players move around the board, they set up and run their own law offices. After first graduating college, and law school, they pass the bar, and then bring and defend cases, decide whether or not to appeal and enter into settlements. The game teaches the legal process and lets players experience many of the issues facing a small business all using attractive graphics and fun involving whimsical legal scenarios. It would be educational of course, but it also needed to be something fun for the whole family to share. She immediately got to work on the homemade game. Eventually there would

be no doubt in making this into a business, it was just her creative spirit being put into the game concept. She even put her kids’ faces on the token money!

While Tina created the game solely for her family, it soon became clear that she had a hit on her hands. Friends would come over to our house, and they would play Lawsuit! with them. Everyone who played the game enjoyed it. Across the board, people would say ‘you should do something with this.’”

After hearing the same message over and over, Tina decided to listen.

But even after deciding to “do something,” with the game, Tina had no idea how to break into the market. Without much knowledge of the industry, Tina dove into learning as much as she could about toy manufacturing so that she could find someone to produce her game. She went to a toy fair and simply asked questions with anyone willing to listen. A helpful couple gave her the entrée she needed by putting her in touch with a Chinese manufacturer who could produce the game quickly and professionally.

Securing a reliable manufacturer was only half the battle. Tina next had to arrange distribution for her game, law school had not exactly prepared her to become a game developer and entrepreneur. But it turned out that the supportive mothers by her side would be a huge advantage to getting the word out and having a badge of approval from real mothers.

One of her fan mums who created game cards suggested reaching out to FAO Schwartz who did game auditions and pitches for backing. She headed to Schwartz in the hope of finding a retail partner.

Founded in 1862, FAO is the nation’s oldest toy store, and arguably one of its most innovative. For a time, FAO orchestrated what it called “Toytown Tryouts,” which were pitch meetings for would - be toy inventors. Tina pitched Lawsuit! at one of those meetings, and hers was one of just a few such products that FAO chose to sell in its flagship New York store. In a town full of lawyers, Lawsuit! proved a bestseller, and Tina was off and running in her new career as a toy entrepreneur.

Lawsuit! is now sold in the gift shop of the U.S. Supreme Court (thanks to the intervention of another mom who showed up to the schoolyard with brochure in hand), as well as the National Constitution Center, The Children’s Museum, and online on Amazon and Tina’s own website.

Business Opportunities Digest is published by Hilite Ltd. Registered Office: Ash House, Ash Road, New Ash Green, Longfield, Kent DA3 8SA. Registered no.

01988590. Copyright 2014 all rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced from any issue of Business Opportunities Digest, or stored in any mechanical or electronic fashion, without the express written consent of the publishers. Printed in England.

Notice: While the Editors have taken every precaution to ensure that all business opportunities presented in this publication are true and as described, the Publishers cannot take any responsibility for any losses incurred by a subscriber or subscribers as a result of pursuing or otherwise becoming involved in any described business opportunity. As with every venture involving investment of time, money or effort we recommend that you seek the opinion of a professional adviser prior to assuming any risk. All opinions expressed in this publication are those of the Authors or individual self-employed Editors who are not employees of the Company and whose opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Publishers, who therefore assume no legal liability for opinions expressed.

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May 2014

Business Opportunities Digest