Think Enterprise Publication | February Edition
READ INSIDE
BREWDOG
CRAFT BEER COMPANY BREWS UP SUCCESS
ANNOUNCING
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY REAPPROVAL
IOEE CAMPUS
LAUNCHES WITH A BANG
Vol. 5
MAGAZINE February Edition Vol. 5
CONTAC T US 53 Coniscliffe Road Darlington DL3 7EH 0845 467 4928 newsletter@ioee.uk ioee.uk
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SARAH TROUTEN, IOEE CHIEF EXECUTIVE Welcome to the February edition of Think Enterprise. Winter is nearly over at last and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing some colour in the garden and the promise of new life and the opportunities it brings! I’m delighted to announce a number of exciting events and collaborations coming this Spring, including an event in partnership with Higher Education Academy exploring how HEI’s can embrace entrepreneurship to develop their culture. Another interesting event which should appeal to our members is being held at Northumbria University and provides a unique opportunity for small business owners to shape and contribute to future research being undertaken by the world class research team at Northumbria University - developments following the event will be featured within Think Enterprise. We envisage this event having a really positive impact on the future of small businesses globally. March sees an important collaboration with Enterprise Educators UK to conduct a survey across all enterprise educators in the UK. This will provide a valuable opportunity to identify the requirements and demands of practising educators as well as those new to enterprise education. I would like to encourage anyone involved in the design or delivery of education to take 10 minutes to complete the survey. Your input will be invaluable in the creation of a newly designed international development programme for enterprise educators and will result in development opportunities alongside professional recognition. February saw the launch of our online campus, so a big thank you to all of our members who kindly provided feedback to us. I am also very proud to announce the re-approval of Anglia Ruskin University as a Centre of Excellence, the work being done there to support both students and the wider business community is truly inspiring. So pop your feet up, get in the enterprising spirit with a craft beer (Brewdog, of course) and enjoy this months Think Enterprise!
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Content 08 IOEE Honorary Fellows brew up success
10 Anglia Ruskin University reapproved as an IOEE Centre of Excellence
12 IOEE Campus launches with a bang
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13 Creating impact through enterprise education - what works?
14 Green Entrepreneurship Training
16 Spotlight On ... David Bozward
18 Women Business Owners Make it Work for the Long Haul
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19 SMEs face uncertainty over business rates changes
20 Spotlight On... an Enterprising Learner
22 Coming up: Newcastle Startup Week
24 So, what is marketing?
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27 Join us this May to shape the future of people development in small business
28 Business Clinics for UK Businesses
29 Understanding and Supporting Your Professional Development
30 Interested in finding out how mentoring can help your business?
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IOEE Honorary Fellows brew up success James Watt and Martin Dickie are the founders of Scottish craft beer megabrand BrewDog. In one short decade, the pair have taken BrewDog from a shared passion for good beer to an international enterprise success story. The business now has a staggering 55,000 shareholders, and has orchestrated the largest equity crowdfunding scheme ever, worldwide. It has hundreds of employees, almost 50 bars located in cities around the globe and an ever-growing number of fantastic beers.
other people as passionate about amazing craft beer as we were. We wanted to break the monotony of the mass-produced market. What was the turning point for BrewDog; when did you realise you had a winning formula? Producing the UK’s strongest beer sparked a crazy media storm, but there was an appetite for all the beers we were making – they were instantly making their mark. Punk IPA has always been upheld as a brilliant example of an amazing IPA with heaps of flavour, which has acted as a flagship for the craft beer revolution. In 2009 our recordbreaking crowdfunding scheme, Equity For Punks was launched, and we have amassed 55,000 investors globally since then through our anti-business model.
Last November, we were delighted to award James and Martin with IOEE Honorary Fellowship to acknowledge their inspiring enterprising achievements and this month, James generously took time out from his super-packed schedule to answer a few quick-fire IOEE questions about BrewDog’s extraordinary journey. So, how did it all begin for BrewDog? We initially met at school in Aberdeenshire, before going on to share digs at Edinburgh University. We’ve both had our fair share of jobs; as teens Martin flipped burgers in McDonalds, and I worked as a postman, and went on to be a sea captain in the North Sea but it was beer where our ambitions aligned. We were both bored of the industrial, bland and boring excuses for beer that dominated the UK market, so in 2007 we decided the best way to fix this was to brew our own. BrewDog was born. You say that back then you were ‘bored of the industrially brewed lagers and stuffy ales’ but where, at such a tender age did your taste for great beer come from? My beery awakening came from a slightly old Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Even with a little age on it, it still put the overwhelming majority of UK beers to shame. From that, we set out on a mission to make
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Equity For Punks gives people the chance to buy shares in BrewDog online. Can you tell us why this ‘anti-business business model’ is so important to you? Equity For Punks is the reason that BrewDog is now backed by 55,000 loyal investors, great people who care about great beer. Our awesome army of Equity Punks are the lifeblood of BrewDog, we wouldn’t be in the position we are without them and they continue to be the focus for every decision we make. They’re not just the people who have backed us with their own hard earned cash, but they’re our community. They care about what we do, and they influence every decision we make. Is there something essentially rebellious in one / either of you that drives BrewDog’s maverick branding and outlier reputation? BrewDog is built on punk mentality. Punk is about going against the grain, being individual and doing things on your own terms, and BrewDog’s maverick marketing strategy is a manifestation of that. One unusual initiative you’ve recently introduced is Puppy Parental Leave, giving employees a week off to bond with their new canine offspring. Can you tell us about the thinking behind this animal-loving idea? It’s not easy trying to juggle work and settle a new dog into your life, and many members of our crew have four-legged friends at
James Watt and Martin Dickie, Founders of BrewDog
home. We wanted to take the stress out of the situation and let our teams take the time they need to welcome their new puppy or dog into their family. We always want to raise the bar when it comes to offering our staff the best possible benefits. At BrewDog, we care about two things above all else: People and beer. We also just really, really like dogs. When you look back over the last decade, how do you feel about how BrewDog has grown, the direction it has taken and the successes you’ve enjoyed? It’s huge, we’re very proud but we’re just getting started. BrewDog is continuing to grow, continuing to bring the best beer to the paws of as many people possible. If you had to choose one personal highlight from your BrewDog journey, what would it be? I’ve always been passionate about beer but a chance meeting with legendary beer writer Michael Jackson led to Martin and I deciding
to take the plunge, follow our dreams and start our very own craft brewery. Michael, upon tasting one of our home-brews, told us to quit our jobs and start brewing full-time. It was the last bit of advice we ever listened to. Beyond that, our AGM provides an annual highlight when our Equity Punk community comes together to talk about BrewDog, and enjoy some of the world’s best beers from amazing breweries! What was it like to get an MBE? It was pretty awesome to visit Buckingham Palace. The last award I got was 100 metres swimming so this was quite a step up from that! What’s next for BrewDog? What’s next remains as it was since day one; to make as many people as passionate about craft beer as we are. To find out more about BrewDog, click here to visit their website.
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Anglia Ruskin University reapproved as an IOEE Centre of Excellence
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This month, following a comprehensive re-accreditation visit, we’re delighted to announce that the outstanding Anglia Ruskin University has been reapproved as an IOEE Centre of Excellence. Anglia Ruskin University’s Centre for Enterprise and Development Research (CEDAR), as part of the institution’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School, originally achieved IOEE Centre of Excellence status in late 2013. Now, the centre has been replaced with a new facility, the Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy (AREA). AREA has a more comprehensive reach than its predecesor. The new centre delivers an enhanced programme of activities related to enterprise and entrepreneurship, taking learning beyond the business school and into every corner of university life. As well as introducing entrepreneurial thinking to different parts of the formal syllabus across faculties and campuses, AREA also facilitates links with the Students’ Union and the Student Enterprise Society. When re-accrediting an IOEE Centre of Excellence, the team sets out to achieve several objectives. As well as defining new opportunities for the IOEE to add value to the enterprise and entrepreneurship activities of the university (and vice-versa), the review process also presents the chance to reflect on past developments in the enterprise arena across the Centre of Excellence. Additionally, re-accreditation helps us all look ahead and consider future plans. At Anglia Ruskin University, as well as meeting up with key staff like Vice Chancellor Professor Ian Martin and Professor Gary Packham, Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Lord Ashcroft International Business School, we also looked closely at how enterprise and entrepreneurship activity have improved and developed at Anglia Ruskin since the first accreditation visit. For example, in the time that’s passed, the university has received many external awards, including the prestigious Times Higher Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award in 2014. Additionally, real inroads have been made in an endeavour to upscale previously existing enterprise and entrepreneurship activity, both as part of structured learning and research programmes, and as a more significant element of
extra-curricula provision. Perhaps the most important change to take place in relation to Anglia Ruskin’s enterprise related output, has been the transition from the Centre for Enterprise Development and Research (CEDAR) as the University’s hub for enterprise development to AREA. Talking to those running AREA and reviewing documented evidence, it’s clear that this change has led to a far more diverse range of staff, students and external stakeholders becoming involved with enterprise and entrepreneurship activity. One of the main objectives for AREA’s introduction has been to provide students with real-world experiences of enterprise activity, encouraging them to develop entrepreneurial thinking and behaviours that will be invaluable as they move into the workforce. Marcia Baldry, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Support Manager at Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy said: “Receiving re-approval of the prestigious Centre of Excellence Status from the IOEE recognises the already excellent work that we undertake within Anglia Ruskin University and our Enterprise Academy. We established our Enterprise Academy as a distinct ‘hub’ where all enterprise / entrepreneurship could be promoted, facilitated and coordinated across Anglia Ruskin’s five faculties and four campuses. Working with the IOEE will further support and develop entrepreneurial learning and skills development as a source of competitiveness for our graduates and make an ongoing contribution to the communities we serve in terms of wealth and employment creation.” SFEDI Group’s Executive Chair, Ruth Lowbridge MBE, said: “Anglia Ruskin have embraced opportunities to integrate enterprise and entrepreneurship into provision, both within the curriculum and extra-curricula resulting in a wide diversity of staff, students and external stakeholders being involved with enterprise and entrepreneurship activity. We look forward to working with the team at ARU to support their success through IOEE.”
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CAMPUS
Campus launches with a bang Last month saw the launch of our new member community, the IOEE Campus. Thank you to everyone for making the first month such a success. In just the first week we saw as much traffic as we usually get in a month! It’s good to know that members are so engaged in developing their enterprise skills and networking with each other. The new online modules have proven to be very popular with marketing being of particular interest (nearly half of all learning accessed since launch has been marketing). With this in mind we’ll look to add additional marketing content as the year progresses. The Q&A section has attracted a few questions (and a few answers) but we’d love to see more so if you have any pertinent questions about enterprise and entrepreneurship,
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or if you’re an expert in any specific areas, please log in and contribute to the community. Now that the campus is up and running we have plans for more exciting content and would welcome your suggestions and feedback as to how we can make it even better. If you have any thoughts then please let us know by emailing campus@ioee.uk Again, many thanks to everyone who has logged in and contributed so far. We were really excited to launch our new platform and the feedback so far has exceeded our expectations. If you haven’t yet had a look then drop by to http://campus.ioee.uk and see what the fuss is about!
Creating impact through enterprise education - what works? Thursday 6 April 2017 9.30am - 4.30pm London South Bank University Overview Join the Higher Education Academy on Thursday 6 April at London South Bank University – the Times Higher Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2016 and an IOEE Centre of Excellence – for a one-day workshop on Enterprise Education. The event will consider institutional approaches to developing enterprising pedagogies. As well as focusing on how to transform institutional culture and create an enterprise education strategy, the event will also explore ways to recognise and reward enterprise and entrepreneurship. In particular, it will provide an opportunity for University leadership teams to reimagine their approach to employability and develop an enterprise education strategy through pedagogies that nurture the student as entrepreneur.
Aims & Outcomes • • • •
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Explore current thinking on approaches to enterprise education Develop institutional strategies to promote enterprise and entrepreneurship Consider models of good practice and the Enterprise Framework Gain insights into the work of the IOEE
Educators need to support students in an ever changing world. With increasing numbers in the graduate labour market graduates need to be able to compete. Enterprise education can help develop a number of qualities and characteristics to enable students to succeed. Not only are these qualities and characteristics attractive to potential employers, they also act as the foundation for developing the student as an entrepreneur. Delivered by IOEE, the sector skills council for enterprise and entrepreneurs, in partnership with the HEA, the event ‘Enterprise Education’ will give you the opportunity’ to consider your approach to entrepreneurial education.”
Stuart Norton, HEA Academic Lead for Employability
For more information or to secure your place and book now, please click here. Think Enterprise | 13
Green Entrepreneurship Training WRITTEN BY LEIGH SEAR
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The green economy A brief review of reports produced by bodies such as the European Commission, United Nations and World Bank over the last five years or so have highlighted that there are a number of challenges relating to the sustainability of current modes of production and patterns of consumption. They suggest that there is an urgent need to green our economies and that ‘sustainability and the green economy is the next transformational business mega-trend comparable to mass production, manufacturing quality movement, IT revolution, and globalization’ (Harvard Business Review, 2012). This has prompted national governments to introduce a range of policies and programmes to support the development of a low carbon or green economy. In the United Kingdom, for example, we have seen the introduction of initiatives by successive governments such as the Climate Change Levy, capital allowances on energyefficient items and the DECC Innovative Low Carbon Technologies Fund. At a local and regional level within the UK and other EU Member States, there has been the introduction of specific programmes of business advice, coaching and mentoring to assist existing businesses to exploit opportunities in the green economy. In comparison, however, there has been less focus on the development of education and training programmes to provide individuals wishing to start a business in the green economy and/or existing owners looking to green their business with the appropriate understanding and skills to put ideas into action. This may reflect the relative newness of green entrepreneurship, as a label for describing individuals starting and growing businesses in the green economy, as well as the lack of agreement over the scale and scope of the green business sector. The GET-UP Project SFEDI is currently part of a new European-wide Erasmus + project, Green Entrepreneurship Training (GET-UP), which is seeking to address this gap in learning and skills development for green
entrepreneurs. The overall aim of the project is to design and develop a bespoke green entrepreneurship training curriculum to foster the business skills and understanding that will support longterm business development and success. The project consortium consists of 8 partner organisations from 7 different EU member states led by the University of Paderborn (Germany). The other partners are University of Pitesti (Romania), Meath Community Rural and Social Development Partnership (Ireland), European University Cyprus (Cyprus), Future In Perspective (Ireland), Fundacion Universidad Empresa de la Region de Murcia (Spain) and Innoventum Oy (Finland). The GET-UP project started in September 2016 with a completion date of August 2018. GET-UP partners will use their expertise in designing business and enterprise curriculum and their knowledge of on-line learning systems to generate demand-led and engaging learning content for green entrepreneurs. Getting involved If you are interested in starting a business in the green economy or you are looking to green the processes and practices of your existing business, it would be good to hear from you and learn about your story and experiences. There is an opportunity to profile your business, as a case study, through the project and exchange experiences with other businesses like yours across Europe. If you would like to hear more about the development of the training materials, you can register on our e-learning portal at http://www. green-entrepreneurship.online/en/home/. You can keep up to date with developments on our project page on Facebook. For more information on the project please contact Leigh on 01325 468 017 or leigh.sear@sfedi.co.uk.
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Spotlight On ...
David Bozward
David Bozward is Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Worcester’s Business School, which is an IOEE Centre of Excellence. We shone the spotlight on him this month to find out about his own entrepreneurial past and the work his pioneering department is doing in the field of enterprise education. In 1995 David Bozward (then aged 29) achieved his PhD, a study into 3G mobile phones, before working for the Japanese Company OKI in Singapore, and in Norway as a self-employed consultant to Telenor. After a few years doing this David set up a number of successful enterprises of his own in the games industry,
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cutting his teeth as an entrepreneur. It was this experience that led to a significant opportunity working for the government, as he recalls: “In 2009 I was offered a job with the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship in Birmingham. That put me in a position where I was working with virtually every university in England, supporting them on their student entrepreneurship programmes.” At that time the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship had a complex remit. As well as working with senior university staff to help them develop entrepreneurial universities, it supported other educators to
embed entrepreneurship into the curriculum. David’s specific task was to work with students themselves. He says: “I was the director of Flying Start, a National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship initiative that helped students to start their own businesses, running programmes and workshops at different universities.” Having fulfilled this role alongside work as a consultant for the National Association of Colleges and University Entrepreneurs, two years ago David secured his current position as Senior Lecturer at the University of Worcester’s Business School to which he brings a rich and diverse set of skills and experience. David teaches entrepreneurship within the Business School, specifically on the Business Management degree as well as on the Entrepreneurship degree, of which he is also course leader. Additionally, students from across the university can choose elective entrepreneurship modules to complement their non-business related learning programmes. David says: “We work with students from every discipline – sports and arts students in particular. Everyone is welcome to come and have a go.” David is also Strategic Lead for Entrepreneurship within the Business School, facilitating events like summer boot camps for students who want to start businesses, as well as overseeing the university’s start-up incubator. Speaking about the students who enrol on the Business School’s Entrepreneurship degree, David explains that there’s a variety of starting points from one individual to the next, but that the programme is designed to accommodate all of their needs: “We have students arrive who already have a business started up and running. We also have those who come with a business idea they want to follow. Then we have students who know they want to start a business but they’re not sure what they want to do. When that’s the case we begin an ideation process – getting them to generate thinking around what running a business might meant to them.”
The Entrepreneurship degree also stands out because learners come from a multitude of different backgrounds and span numerous ages. This has influenced the way the programme has been developed by David and his colleagues: “It’s not like a not like a normal degree where you just assume everyone is 18 years old and train them all in the same way. This is very much about individual learners, which is why we keep the group quite small. With just 15-20 students we can dedicate a lot of time to helping each person move forward with their enterprise and their learning.” Aside from running the dedicated BA in Entrepreneurship, the Business School also attracts students from other parts of the university keen to develop their enterprising skills and add a commercial edge to the subjects they’ve chosen. David says: “Worcester has a lot of sports students and arts students, so we get those coming to us, as well as a few psychology and education learners. Sports students tend towards sports coaching services or wellbeing-focussed businesses and we have a lot of art students interested in the making, buying and selling of jewellery online or off.” For David, formalising entrepreneurship into academic learning gives those with the spark of an idea or the dream of entrepreneurship a fighting chance at success. By preparing students for the demands of running an enterprise before they set out alone or in tandem with their journey, it’s possible to dramatically improve the chances of a thriving business being born. He says: “A hundred years ago we never had formal driving lessons or tests. People could still drive – they’d get in the car, crash as few times but eventually figure it out. Of course, with driving lessons they hopefully make fewer mistakes and learn to be better drivers more quickly. Teaching entrepreneurship is about giving students the processes and methodology, the knowledge and the skills to mitigate risks and recognise opportunities.”
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Women Business Owners – Make it Work for the Long Haul! 09.30 – 14.00 on Friday 31 March 2017 Clayton Hotel Cardiff, St Mary Street, Cardiff, CF10 1GD
As we all know, people start up businesses for lots of different reasons and, although important for some, it is not always about aiming for fast, high growth. Through the “Women Business Owners – Make it Work for the Long Haul” event in celebration of International Women’s Day 2017, the aim is rather to explore longevity in business. Leading women business owners will present their experiences of sustaining a business over the long term. This will include reflecting on how they have navigated their way through changing business and personal life-cycle stages. In addition to generic issues, the event will also focus on those that are gender specific. For example, if a key motivation towards business ownership for many women is the search for flexibility, how can this be reconciled with the ‘24/7/365’ approach often associated with early start-up and transition phases? As well as considering highs, lows, challenges and opportunities that arise over time, speakers and delegates will discuss strategies they have found beneficial including access to role models, mixed and gender specific business networking and mentoring. These and other ideas will be debated in roundtable discussions and will result in the production of a report from the day to capture the essence of “How women business owners make it work for the long haul!”
Speakers include Linda Narbeth who established her business in 1994. She was a finalist in the Welsh Women of the Year Awards in 1995 and won the ‘Effective returner’ category of the Awards in 1996. After gaining many business accolades over the years, Linda was named South Wales Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2012. As well as being Managing Director of Cherryblue, a leading training and personal development company, Linda is a highly regarded business coach and mentor.
This collaborative event is being jointly organised by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub: University of South Wales, the FSB, Chwarae Teg and Pinkspiration and is Lottery Funded. For further information or to book a free place, please visit the Eventbrite page.
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Above: Helen Walbey, Recycle Scooters and FSB Diversity Chair, and below: Lisa Marie Brown, Pinkspiration will both be speaking at the event.
SMEs face uncertainty over business rates changes If you’re a business owner with premises separate from your residential address, you’ll most likely have to factor business rates into your monthly outgoings. Business rates are the business version of council tax and, across the UK, around 1.8 million commercial properties are eligible for the property tax. The amount a business pays is calculated according to the property’s annual market rent, a figure determined by the Valuation Office Agency, which uses other local rents to arrive at an average. Every five years these calculations are reset and, from 1st April 2017, the most recent business rates revaluation will come into effect. Various national organisations that advocate for SMEs have come together to protest against a particular clause in the newly updated tax legislation, which will make appealing against the rate more difficult to do. The thirteen organisations, which include the Federation of Small Business, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Association of Convenience Stores, have written a joint letter describing the updates as ‘outrageous’ and demanding that the revised appeals clause should not be implemented. What does the new clause mean? When the business rates on commercial properties were last revised in 2010, almost 50% of businesses appealed against the sums they were asked to pay. To reduce the number of appeals made, and therefore bolster the amount of money it can demand, the government has made provision to allow itself to dismiss appeals against incorrect valuations if they fall within a certain margin of error, or the limits of ‘reasonable professional judgement’. What exactly the margin of error will be has not been published but experts have estimated it may be around 15%. This allowance of 15% ‘reasonable professional judgement’ will let the government rapidly dismiss many business rate appeals, meaning that businesses will have no recompense should their rates suddenly increase in the new round of valuations.
based on rentable values as of 1st April 2015, so why have they taken so long to come into effect? In fact, the government was attempting to avoid ‘sharp changes’ at that point in time, perhaps mindful of the general election just around the corner. However, in waiting to implement the new valuations the government has thrown some SMEs a major financial curveball. That’s because property prices have shifted dramatically since the previous revaluation, with some rising exponentially (particularly in London and the South East) and some falling dramatically. This means, when it comes to this latest change to business rates there will be winners and losers. There is some protection in the form of a cap to prevent rates rising or falling beyond certain thresholds over the next few years. However, despite this safety measure, some businesses will be looking ahead to the next few years with a degree of financial trepidation. Find out where you stand If you haven’t already looked into the business rate relief changes, now is the time to do it. Use the government’s online support information to find out where you stand and whether the changes will impact your bottom line. Remember that the way this property tax is handled varies depending on whether you trade in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Also, look into the different types of relief that may be available to you. As well as small business rate relief, there is relief for some rural traders and charities, plus those operating in specific enterprise zones. As business rates are paid direct to your local council you can also contact the team there for support. Let us know how your enterprise is affected If you run an small or medium-sized business, we want to know what you think of the changes to business rates. Please take a look at our short survey here.
The revaluations (which were published on 17th February 2017) are
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Spotlight On... Enterprising Learner Peter Oboko
Peter Oboko, London South Bank University second-year Architecture student.
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The IOEE’s close links with IOEE Centre of Excellence London South Bank University (LSBU) continue to grow and strengthen. To showcase the sterling work being done there in the field of enterprise in education, by students and staff alike, we’re running a series of case studies letting you know about various LSBU projects and people. This month, we met Peter Oboko, a secondyear Architecture student who has started his own ambitious printing company, which he runs in parallel with his learning. Like many solid enterprises, Personal-Printers was developed in direct response to customers’ needs. Peter Oboko realised that industrial printing companies servicing his fellow students weren’t quite meeting the mark. Along with fellow young entrepreneur Amir El Harbe he set out to seize the opportunity circumstance had presented. The pair bought their own printer and set out to offer a new way for students to print their work. We asked Peter what sets his business apart from its competitors: “We deliver prints directly to our customers and pride ourselves on being both convenient and flexible with regards to the customers’ needs. You could almost call us the Uber of printing. I understand the stress of printing and how ease can play a big part in the company you choose. As students we work until all hours of the night and trying to find a company to accommodate our unpredictable schedule can be difficult to do.” Personal-Printers mainly print for architectural / design students and professionals in those industries, with the prints hand-delivered to each customer. Because the entire business is based online, the students upload their work and place their order, letting Peter and Amir know where they’re based. Simplicity is key to PersonalPrinters’, as Peter explains: “We’ve stripped down all the jargon other printing companies use. Industrial printing companies often deal with bulk orders and tend to have more options than necessary - we’ve narrowed the service down to exactly what students need.” As an entrepreneurial student, Peter has become involved in LSBU’s Spark programme. This initiative was set up to support students who have either the bare bones of an enterprising idea, or who have already made moves to establish their own small enterprises.
Spread across two university semesters, Peter is currently in his second Spark stage. He says: “The group gets together and discusses ideas around how to reach target audiences, different ways to expand our businesses or how to put the right groundwork in place before officially starting out.” Different members of the Spark group take from the process different types of learning. For some it’s about clarifying business ideas, for others it’s a fresh take on finance or cash flow; for Peter the initiative has brought new perspective to marketing. He explains: “For me personally Spark has been helpful in learning about good marketing. The group has poked a few holes in our business setup, which we needed because when you’re in the business you see things completely differently from those outside. Speaking to the Spark group has highlighted ways we can improve and how we can market ourselves differently.” Personal-Printers isn’t Peter’s first foray into the world of enterprise. For him, making money on the back of an inspired idea is a way of life and even as a child his entrepreneurial streak was showing itself: “When I was young, around 13 or 14, I used to sell ready-made Scoubidou Strings, the knotting craft for children. I’d buy a bulk of strings and make them into a popular style then sell these at double the price as I knew fellow students were too lazy to make their own!” The future too looks full of entrepreneurial endeavour. When Peter’s course ends in 2018, he plans to combine the professional training he’s gained as an architect and the entrepreneurial flair that is obviously part of his nature. He says: “The goal is for Personal-Printers to continue to grow and hopefully become independent of my participation. Myself and Amir would like to incorporate our architectural skills into a new venture in the near future, we have a few ideas that we are working on at the moment so look out for us!” To find out more about Peter and Amir’s business you can visit www.personal-printers.com
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Photograph taken by Christopher Owens
Coming up:
Newcastle Startup Week The very first Newcastle Startup Week is only a few months away and it promises to provide the people of Tyneside and beyond with a rich and diverse programme of networking events, talks and workshops. We caught up with the man behind the event, Paul Lancaster, to find out more about his own experiences in the sector and the launch of this ambitious brainchild. Having only been self-employed himself for around a year, Paul Lancaster of Plan Digital is launching an event unlike any seen before in Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle Startup Week is a fiveday festival of enterprise held across multiple venues and boasting a top-drawer line-up of speakers and events. The build-up to making the event a reality has been long and began way back in 1998 when a youthful Paul took a job at Sage in Newcastle, providing tech support to SME customers. He told us:
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“I liked working for Sage and I liked helping people in enterprise – that’s what I enjoy. However, even back then I could see that websites and the internet were going to be really massive so I started teaching myself basic website design in my spare time.” Having upskilled, Paul secured himself a job as graduate web developer and web editor at British Airways. There he further finetuned his skills, focusing on content creation and management, copywriting and blogging. Unfortunately, just 11 months into Paul’s role at British Airways, 9/11 hit and major redundancies were made across the airline’s workforce. At this point Paul turned to another long-time passion: “I’d always been really into music and I’d started DJing while I was at university. I began taking my music more seriously and had my first
record signed to a local independent house and dance music label.” A wild twelve months of travelling and performing followed but, although his music was critically acclaimed it wasn’t hugely successful commercially. So, Paul found work with Generator North East, a music development agency based in Newcastle where his role there involved offering help and advice to those starting out in the music industry, signposting young people to the support they needed. After a few years Paul made the move to Project North East (PNE), an enterprise support agency in the heart of Newcastle. During his seven years at PNE, Paul provided start-up and growth support to not-for-profit enterprises and the community sector, running a website called voluntaryskills.com. He says: “That was where I really got into social media and marketing because I could see the power of it as a tool for sharing information and connecting people.” Having accrued experience in the technology sector, the aviation industry, the music industry and now the enterprise support sector, Paul’s next professional move was to Shell LiveWIRE. The UK’s longest-running youth enterprise scheme, Shell LiveWIRE helps young entrepreneurs (aged 16-30) across the UK to plan and establish their own start-ups. It was while employed by this organisation, in 2012, that Paul first caught the start-up bug himself. He says: “When you’re hanging out with young entrepreneurs you can’t help but want to do something yourself! I wanted to work for myself but I hadn’t hit on the big idea. But I’d been to all the events and conferences, I’d read all the books and met loads of entrepreneurs, and interviewed many great people so all that experience was giving me the best possible training to start my own business.” Around this time Paul became involved with the Newcastle-based tech and digital community, including the fledgling Ignite100 tech accelerator programme. Individual developers from the North East were holding informal monthly meetups in various veues across the city to exchange ideas on web and app development and startups. Paul realised that there was a need for a regular home for these events and obtained access to the old PostOffice on Pink Lane which was owned by PNE. He recalls: “It soon became a hub for entrepreneurs, developers and startups. Along with other projects and meet-ups being run locally, it
helped grow what was already becoming a thriving cluster of tech and digital activity. In 2012, the team behind Ignite100 brought everything (hot-desking, co-working, meetups and their accelerator programme) under one roof with Campus North.” At this point in his career, Paul returned to Sage as a Content Marketing & Social Media Specialist’ for their Sage One cloud accounting profuct which is aimed specifically at start-up businesses and then as Community Engagement & Partnerships Manager for Tech North (part of Tech City UK). However, in April 2016, Paul finally started his own business, Plan Digital – offering a range of business development, marketing, events and mentoring services. The repertoire of services Paul has delivered over the course of his career but now delivers independently. Speaking about becoming self-employed, Paul says: “Last year was all about making that transition from employment to self-employment. Even though I’ve wanted to do it for a long time and feel like I’ve had the best preparation, to make that mental shift into self-employment can be very tricky.” Now, Newcastle Startup Week is Paul’s priority. He sees the event as a huge opportunity to tell potential start-up owners about the support available locally, the people willing to help them and the events taking place all year round. He says: “It’s going to be amazing. Everyone seems genuinely excited that there’s going to be a week-long event that will shine a spotlight not just on Newcastle but the whole of the North East of England. It is such a great place to start and grow a business.” The line-up for the Monday – Friday event includes motivational speakers, academics from the field of enterprise, the MDs and CEOs of myriad companies, and even a best-selling author. The programme itself is also very varied, with Q&A clinics, workshops, lectures, exhibitions and networking events all thrown into the mix. Speaking about the people he’s enlisted to take part, Paul says: “There are tech and digital speakers lined up because those areas are part of almost every business now. However, there are also speakers from many other sectors and all but one of the speakers are either from the North East, have relocated or has a very strong presence here. With this event we are reminding people you can build innovative, world-class businesses in this region. I’ve wanted to do something like Newcastle Startup Week for a few years but I’ve always had a day job. Now, this is my day job!”
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So, what is marketing? Husband and wife, Richard and Clare Talbot-Jones run Talbot Jones Risk Solutions, based in Felling, Gateshead. In this month’s blog, Clare explains to us the marketing strategies they have used, and found to be successful, to promote their business.
So, what is marketing? This isn’t a rhetorical question. This is the search terms I fed into Google when I was told the theme of this magazine! I thought it was best just to check what is means! So, evidently, we are by no means marketing experts, but in just over a year, our two man band team has developed what has become a recognisable brand, which punches above its weight in terms of reach, influence and acquiring new business. In this article, we’ll explain not what should be done (check out one of the many successful marketing manuals, websites or professionals for that), but what we have done, and found to be successful, to promote our business.
Find your voice From the outset, we were keen to use quite an informal, personal voice for our business. As our business’ core values include integrity, honesty and transparency we felt that it was important to speak naturally, rather than putting on a forced tone of ‘corporate speak’. We are small, approachable, flexible and we know our clients- these are things that make us stand out from our larger competitors, so we can let that shine through, rather than try to copy their style. Letting people get to know us and trust in our competency, expertise and care is our objective- we don’t need to sound like a robot to get people to trust that we’re professional and expert at what we do!
Pre-start Preparation Market Research Before we launched, Richard sat down and did some market research. Was there an opening for the services we wanted to provide? It takes a lot of money and a lot of effort to break into a crowded market. We identified a gap in the market that matched our niche specialism of insuring in Charities and Start Ups that made us stand out from other Commercial brokers. We made that our target market, rather than trying to grab every piece of business that we could.
Face to Face networking We love getting out and about to meet people, and there are so many fantastic groups in our area. We attend a mix of free, lowcost and paid groups, but have a policy that we don’t tie in to any groups that require us to refer solely or predominantly within the group. There are lots of insurance brokers out there, and we want people to refer us to others as they believe that we are the best match for that organisation, not based on any other reason. This may mean our business grows more slowly than it might, but it has firmer foundations, so growth is steady, we are well-suited to our clients and they stay with us year after year.
Branding, logo and website Although we are a ‘lean’ business that tries to keep unnecessary spending to a minimum, we dedicated a reasonable budget to branding and website. We paid an expert to bring to life our branding ideas and marry our concepts with best practice in design. This finished product reflects our ideals of professionalism and a high-quality service. Having a personalised domain name for an email address only costs a few pounds per year and suggests an established, committed business that is here to stay.
We always make sure we get a card from those we’re keen to connect with, rather than relying on them to get in touch. In this way, we can be proactive and engage with them within 24 hours, when the meeting is still fresh in our minds. We try to connect on all our different platforms and send a message, perhaps connecting them with a useful contact, sharing a useful article on a topic we discussed or arranging a meeting. This strategy has proved very useful, helping us to build and maintain relationships that can otherwise quickly be forgotten, with lost opportunities.
Business Cards We always make sure we have a stack of cards about our person, wherever we go. With local independent printers only charging around £25 for 500 good-quality printed cards, there is little reason why any business person need go without. They show we are professional, invested in our business, proactive, organised and engaged.
Social media We gain several warm leads most days from our social media platforms and have built some really strong relationships from people we have connected with online.
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We try to connect and network online in just the same way as we do in real life- we’d never just step into a crowded room and start
Written by Clare Talbot-Jones
shouting loudly about what we do. No, we introduce ourselves, we ask others more about themselves, we introduce new connections to other contacts that they might find interesting and helpful, we share our expertise and experiences…and then, when a relationship has been established, we might offer our services, when appropriate. By taking our time, we build up strong and established relationships, we develop an understanding of our client-base and we build trust, respect and friendship. We find out about a lot of exciting and inspiring initiatives that we can help to promote and that encourage and inspire us. Focussing on relationships rather than sales has served us well. It’s important to note that this can take a lot of time and effort and can sometimes feel like an uphill struggle. After discussing the frustrations of online marketing with a group of local business owners I decided to write a blog outlining how we can support small businesses online- it was the least-read article that I posted that month! But, with time, persistence and consistency, the hard work has been paying off. Our name, faces and brand are becoming more widely known and we’re starting to find when we meet someone in our target market for the first time, that they may already have heard good things about our services. This is a great position from which to start a conversation! Twitter We built up around 2000 followers in 10 months working quite hard to connect with relevant people and engage with them personally. Every 2 weeks we schedule 14 days’ worth of tweets, using a mix of blog content to add value, recommendations from clients, insurance
tips and the odd ‘salesy’ post. Where possible, we add links back to our website as well as relevant hashtags to increase the reach. As tempting as it might be, we don’t use our account to vent frustration or leverage influence when we’re disappointed with a product or service in a personal capacity, as we don’t feel that this is appropriate or looks professional. Throughout the day we supplement our scheduled tweets with posts to promote services we have enjoyed or appreciated- checking in at a local restaurant or showing gratitude to a local service provider. Not only does this encourage and reflect well on them, it builds good, positive working relationships and helps to generate a culture of gratefulness and appreciation. We use national and local hashtag hours (search online to find upto-date lists) to build relationships and make connections. When we have a few minutes to spare we’ll log on to retweet a post or two that we think would be of use to our followers. If someone retweets one of our posts, we will go to their profile and find one of their tweets to repost- much more useful to them, we believe, than tweeting them “thank you”. When retweeting, we always try to think in terms of how we’d interact in real life. If someone comments “Hope you’ve had a great week at the office!” I would thank them, and assure them that I had. I certainly wouldn’t shout the question loudly to the rest of the room and then ignore my original contact. In the world of Twitter, we wouldn’t retweet such a comment, but we’d reply to it. We only
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retweet pieces of information that we think are of use or interest to our followers, for example not-for-profit grant fund applications, charity events or small business training. Facebook For a long time, we didn’t focus much on our Facebook page. The following and reach was small and primarily made up of our friends. People, we mused, don’t want to be reading about insurance on Facebook! They want to be looking at videos of cats and finding out who’s getting married or found a new job! Despite our small following, we started to notice that posts on Facebook were actually driving more traffic to our website than Twitter. And then we discovered Facebook groups! A blog shared in the right group can generate upwards of 1000 visits in a day to our site- small fry to a lot of industries, but significant for ours. As well as generating traffic for our website, this also produces a few extra good-quality followers, slowly but surely, who are beginning to turn into clients and referrers, too. LinkedIn After a year of trying, I still find LinkedIn quite unintuitive and stale, however as Richard uses it to great advantage, I can see that it is an indispensable tool for business marketing. He posts something useful daily, connects with others to celebrate their anniversaries and new positions with a personalised note, joins in discussions and makes useful contributions. This keeps him in people’s mind as an active and expert professional, and has helped him maintain relationships with longstanding clients. Youtube Marketers have been telling us all year that video content is the future. As Richard and I are both pretty camera shy, we have been content with the excuse that our product isn’t really one that people want to watch videos about. But, then I made a very quick little animation just to check…and it was extremely popular and got lots of people talking and engaging! Since then we’ve had video content in the back of our mind. We wasted about a whole day and a half trying to unsuccessfully film the first of what would have been a series of videos about the Insurance Act 2015. It was a very
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frustrating process and we didn’t manage one single cut without a massive blooper! Not ones to stay within our comfort zone, we’ve decided to try again with video content, filming a Facebook Live on Thursday 2 March at 1.30pm to introduce ourselves and give a guided tour of our office. By starting with a personal topic there’s no worries we’ll make a mistake and give wrong advice because we’re so horrified by the pressure of live screening- but once we press ‘record’, there’ll be no chickening out! Hopefully it will give us the confidence and encouragement to make more videos on topics within our areas of expertise. Good marketing isn’t always comfortable and it must never stay the same. Analysis So how do we know what’s working and what’s not working? We use Google, Facebook and Twitter Analytics to see what’s working and what isn’t. What content engages people? What parts of the site are people visiting or not visiting? Where are our visitors coming from? Who is our audience? What are their interests? What do we need to do to get people moving around the site? We also talk to our audience and ask them what they found useful and of interest, and if they have any ideas for future content. Although we have a great deal to learn about marketing, we are very pleased about what we have achieved in our first year of business. Is our marketing strategy successful? Well, how do you define success?! If your definition is producing a campaign that allows us to buy a yacht and spend 6 months of the year working from the Bahamas sipping on a Pina Colada, our marketing strategy sucks! But by our definition- connecting with our target market, finding the kind of clients we want to work with, winning business from a variety of avenues, meeting our financial targets, building strong relationships, developing a strong brand and good reputation- we are doing just grand.
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Call for participation Join us this May to shape the future of people development in small business Thursday 4 May 2017 Northern Design Centre, NewcastleGateshead, UK Free registration IOEE members and newsletter readers are invited to participate in an event that will shape the research agenda around people development within small businesses across the globe. On Thursday 4 May 2017, the IOEE in a consortium partnership with Northumbria University and the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), will be hosting a one-off event at the Northern Design Centre in NewcastleGateshead. Created to bring together policy makers, key academic researchers and business owners, the event represents the opportunity to explore the most pertinent and important issues surrounding the employability and management of graduates particularly within small businesses. Northumbria University will lead the project, which it is hoped will have a significant impact in shaping future policy and practice in the area. This unique event will see people from a wide array of stakeholder groups come together to scope out defining research questions and practical matters, and to create lasting links between communities. The voices of three specific stakeholder groups will be heard at the forum; higher education institutions as the educators of the future, employers as wealth-creators of the future, and students / graduates as employees and entrepreneurs of the future. All these groups will be invited to have their say, sharing their perspectives on the talent management issues that will arise and develop as the next few decades unfold. This is an open forum event and the IOEE is encouraging its members to contribute to the project’s aims where they can. Registration is free. Following the event, there will be an evening drinks reception with a high profile keynote speaker and the opportunity to network amongst fellow IOEE colleagues. If you’d like to get involved, get in touch via info@ioee.uk
Business Clinics for UK businesses Last year we spoke to Nigel Heald about his enterprise support business, Build a UK Business. This year we’re catching up with his business partner Matthew Clayton to talk about Business Clinics an exciting new initiative the team has recently launched.
Since the IOEE last checked in with Build a UK Business around a year ago, the enterprise has seen huge growth. It now has over 1000 clients who work across business support, training and third sector services for start-ups, SMEs and social enterprises. There has been growth too in the number of associates Build a UK Business works with. These individuals act as an extended team, offering an incredibly diverse range of specialist business advice and support services to an increasing client base. Matthew says:
Once at the event, individuals will find Build a UK Business representatives and associates, advisors from Yorkshire Bank, and even a few current Build a UK Business clients keen to share their own enterprise experiences. Everyone who attends a Business Clinic will receive a complementary business assessment developed by Matthew and the team in-house. The type of assessment they receive will vary according to their specific circumstances. Matthew says:
“We now have eight associates, each of whom brings their own skills to our team. For example, one is a social enterprise expert, another is a communications expert and a third is a marketing expert.”
“For start-ups, that would be a Business Readiness Assessment, for established small businesses we’ll do Business Health Checks and for third sector enterprises there’ll be a specific assessment. That provides everyone who attends a Business Clinic with a tangible, working tool for the future.”
In the short time since we interviewed Matthew’s partner, Nigel, Build a UK Business has also struck up fresh associations with organisations including accountancy firm Certax and Yorkshire Bank. One things that remains the same is the sheer diversity of the businesses Build a UK Business helps. “The businesses we work with are all very different and they operate across a broad range of industries. We’ve got dog-walking sole traders and at the other end of the scale we’ve got an aeronautical composite plastics manufacturer! But, to be honest, the challenges and the questions asked at our Business Clinics can be very similar across sectors and sizes.” The Business Clinics are the latest Build a UK Business offer and these bi-monthly events promise to deliver an entirely new take on business support during 2017. Initially taking place in Stoke-onTrent and Birmingham, the events are open to all and completely free. Matthew outlines what takes place at a Business Clinic: “It’s an informal drop-in session, not unlike going to a GP’s surgery but for businesses! Designed for start-ups or SMEs, people come along from 10am to 4pm having booked online through EventBrite, and share their questions, challenges, or business areas they’d like support with.” The Business Clinic officially opened in mid-January and already awareness is growing. The sheer accessibility is key - no matter what stage their business is at, everyone is welcomed. Matthew says: “You could wake up on a Monday morning and think ‘I don’t want to go to work anymore, I’m going to pursue that brilliant business idea. I’ll go to Birmingham instead and talk to Build a UK Business at the Business Clinic.” 28 | Think Enterprise
Of course, as well as reaching out to a broad range of enterprises, the Business Clinics are also about pushing Build a UK Business into the enterprise spotlight and generating greater awareness of its unique services. So, after an exceptionally fruitful 2016 and with plans in place for an equally busy 2017, what does the future hold for Mathew and the team? “We’re keeping our focus fairly simple. We want to build our business subscriber numbers. It’s a simple proposition – clients can subscribe on a Prime subscription or a Premier subscription. We’re looking to boost numbers by about 20% and the Business Clinics are one way we’ll be reaching out to new subscribers.” As well as this, plans are afoot to expand Build a UK Business’s third sector involvement and, towards the end of 2017, there will be moves to inject new life into enterprise networking in the West Midlands by partnering with charities and other organisations. “In our experience, people want something different and new from business networking events. We’re looking at new formats and focussing on communities rather than profits. There’s a real air of positivity around this and we’re an organisation with experience – experience we’re willing to share in a new model. We want people to walk away with a real value-add. People who attend will genuinely do business on the day and any money generated will go to a local charity. To read more about Build a UK Business and its Business Clinics, go to www.buildaukbusiness.co.uk or click here.
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Educators Survey Understanding and Supporting Your Professional Development Are you a Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Educator? If so, we are keen to get your views on understanding and supporting professional development amongst enterprise and entrepreneurship educators. Your contribution will help to shape the work being undertaken by the IOEE and EEUK to promote, support and recognise enterprise educators across the UK. The survey should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. All responses will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be used to identify you or your institution.
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INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT HOW MENTORING COULD HELP YOUR BUSINESS? Mentoring has a strong track record of helping businesses meet their objectives. The Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) helps match businesses with mentors from the banking industry, who are able to give an hour of their time per month, across the following regions:
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North East
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Yorkshire
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West Midlands
Central London
The volunteer bank mentors offer a wide variety of business experience and expertise with small and micro businesses, social enterprises and creative businesses. Are you interested in meeting a mentor? For more information contact Christine Dryden christine.dryden@ioee.uk or 07720 681591 if you are based in the West Midlands or Central London, and contact Paul Harper paul.harper@ioee.uk or 07715 905638 for the North East or Yorkshire. * To be eligible to receive support you business must be established and begun trading. Our dedicated volunteer mentors are passionate about helping their mentees.
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The key skill I have taken from this experience is true active listening. I have applied those skills at home and at work and I am finding the results are having a lasting impact. The reason I continue to mentor today is the positive feeling I get when I help others achieve their dreams and ambitions. It’s a great way to give something back to the local community through sharing my knowledge and experience.”
Carl Beardon
IOEE Volunteer Mentor IAB Small Business Mentor of the Year 2016 award winner
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My mentor’s support and level of understanding has been exceptional, which was the key in identifying and overcoming issues as they arose. With his experience I have become self sufficient working through the challenges my business faces and to identify new business partners who have exporting experience.”
Dorota Grabkowska
Founder of Fanatic House
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