Blogging for Business

photo credit: Will Lion

Is it worth blogging for business? This article seems to think so, although I'm not sure I agree with the daily updates instruction!

View from the Top

First pictures of our exhibition. If you have any to add, please let me know or upload them to the Facebook group.



More to follow!

Thanks again!

A quick post to say thanks for your support with our event at View from the Top, photos to follow.

If you weren't able to make the awards ceremony and networking lunch and still want to see what we've been up to, take a trip up to the 4th Floor of Waterstones and look at our exhibition. We'll be there until Monday 24th.

Oh and for those of you who took our marketing seminar with Russell Kennard, remember his willow pattern plate exercise??? I think this takes it one step further!

Celebration of SPEED at Nottingham Trent University

To mark the final months of the SPEED (Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in Education) programme, Nottingham Trent University’s business incubation unit, The Hive, is holding an exhibition of SPEED businesses and projects.

The revolutionary programme has provided students taking a placement year the opportunity to set up and run their own business in The Hive, instead of pursuing a standard industrial work-placement scheme.

The event will take place during Enterprise Week at the View from the Top Gallery on the top floor of Waterstones Bookstore in Nottingham, from Wednesday, November 19 to Sunday, November 23.


We are really looking forward to meeting 'The Ideas Man' Shed Simove at our special event on Thursday 20th November, and also at Thirsty Thursday at Oceana at 6.30. Why not meet us there and network, learn and be inspired!

New Pathway To Enterprise Event

‘Pathway to Enterprise’

Forthcoming Events

Wednesday 3 December 2008

12.00 to 2.00 pm

Hive Seminar Room

‘Getting to grips with PR Planning’

Presenter: Vivienne Tregidiga, Managing Director, Impact 108

Vivienne, whose senior management experience working in
newspapers & magazines spanning over 20 years, will deliver this
interactive workshop and will cover topics, such as:-

Getting your business out there
Public Persona
Your image
How do your customers perceive you
Crisis Management

Never under-estimate the value of PR and what it can do for small businesses
– not to be missed!

Suitable refreshments will be provided

If you are interested in attending this event,

please contact Karen Doxey on 0115 848 4354 or e-mail: karen.doxey@ntu.ac.uk

What sets the 'stars' apart?

picture credit: Lily Zhu

We've been thinking about the 'Stars' of our SPEED programme here at NTU in advance of our celebration and awards ceremony in November.

I came across this blog post on Lateral Action which is very relevant to our thinking. Everyone has 'it' in them to be successful, but what have the stars got to set them apart? Mark McGuinness says

"Like many of us, the stars began with a dream. But dreams are cheap. Instead of sitting around daydreaming, they took action. Each of them did something very unusual. Something distinctive, outstanding, unique. They learned their craft. They worked hard. They took risks. They took their craft and transformed it into art. They took kicks in the teeth and learned from them. They got effective people on board. They got the word out. They promised and delivered, over and over again."

Read the rest of this well-written post here

A celebration of the SPEED programme at Nottingham Trent University

To mark the final months of the SPEED (Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in Education) programme, Nottingham Trent University’s business incubation unit, The Hive, is holding an exhibition of SPEED businesses and projects.

The revolutionary programme has provided students taking a placement year the opportunity to set up and run their own business in The Hive, instead of pursuing a standard industrial work-placement scheme.

The event will take place during Enterprise Week at the View from the Top Gallery on the top floor of Waterstones Bookstore in Nottingham, from Wednesday, November 19 to Sunday, November 23.

Please do support the endeavours of our students over the last two years by coming along and networking with them.

Venue: View from the Top Gallery - Waterstones Bookstore, Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham

The Hive has secured the services of a Bentley Jennison a leading accountancy company from within the city, for a series of accountancy surgeries. The first sessions were a sell-out and the feedback has been very positive;

Very useful - I would definitely recommend these - Mandy

Yes, it was great...John’s awesome he makes things very clear and simple - Simeon

Definitely worth it as it offers a second opinion and allows you to ask questions which you are unsure of but don’t want to keep going over with existing accounts – Adam

We are offering 40-minute one-one appointments – bookable in advance.

Next Session planned for:

November 2008

Hive Meeting Room

We consider this service to be a valuable opportunity for your business.

If you would like an appointment, please contact:

Karen Doxey on 0115 848 4354 or e-mail: karen.doxey@ntu.ac.uk

What's the weather like up there?

We are so lucky, we've got the chance to exhibit at Nottingham's creative venue, View from the Top!

The NTU SPEED exhibition will run from 19th to 24th November, with set up day on the 18th. I'd love for everyone to exhibit something, but I guess I'm too much of a realist to think that would happen (Violins please!)

As a reward for all your hard work over the last two years, we're even putting on a SPEED awards ceremony! The special guest star is booked (can't release the name just yet though!), the catering is being sorted and the invites being written.

Will you be involved? Leave a comment and tell me what you'd like to see! Plus, guesses about the identity of the mystery guest are welcome!

The SPEEDy interview AP Photography

–State your name for the record

Andrea Palmer

–Please tell us what problem your business solves in 50 words or less

People have many special times in their lives. They want to be able to store their memories in visual images. Businesses and public bodies are increasingly using visual media to get their message across. Traditionally commercial photography is boring and expensive. I offer competitive but tailored solutions with my commercial packages

–Expand on your idea – how will you make money from it?

I offer all kinds of photography packages from special events to commercial shoots. People can order and pay for their photography online. In fact I see my website www.andreapalmer.com as an online shopfront, where a large proportion of my business takes place

–Explain who your customer is

Businesses, public bodies, such as councils or the police force, and the general public

–Describe where you see yourself in 5 years’ time

I’d like to have a studio and have a business employing staff

Random Questions – choose one and answer

• Who would you most like to have dinner with? Someone who can make me successful, quickly!!

Links for Creatives, but not exclusively!

Fellow Hiver Debbie Bryan told me about the first of these links, Image Loft. It's a website where you can upload photos of your work for journalists to use in publications. Making sure you have your pictures tagged with useful keywords will be crucial, so people can actually find your work. Debbie has since had her work picked up for use in three magazines, including the Financial Times! Click the image or the link above to go there...

Rhea Clements has registered on Indie Quarter, a UK based Designer's Blog. It looks great, for promoting your creative business, for finding inspiration from the other designers, or for shopping! Click the image or the link to visit it...

I subscribe to the EnterQuest Bulletin, which is a weekly newsletter about small business issues, and usually includes great articles about sales, staff, commercial behaviour and so on.

I read this morning's headline article as I sat in a (very) quiet Hive, and thought how interesting it was that the Hive provides just such a workspace to NTU SPEED students free of charge and very few of you actually use it. How bizarre! I reproduce the article below, but if you want to read it in it's original location, click here (actually, I'm hoping they'll have it posted by the time you click it!)

The benefits of serviced workspace

Finding suitable and affordable workspace has always been a major hurdle for people deciding to start their own business. In fact, many individuals who initially go down the freelance route often continue to use their home well into their third or fourth year because of the obstacles in taking on permanent premises.

Business owners are faced with a dilemma because location and the working environment can be the difference between success and failure. Yet property management is not something you'll want to worry about, let alone a long-term lease.

Serviced offices enable businesses to have accommodation that suits their needs without the hassle of leasing and managing a place of their own.

One of the main reasons why many businesses choose to take space in a serviced office is the flexibility it gives them. Conventional leases, which typically last for 10 years or more, tie businesses in to their offices. This means that if during the life of a lease, a business's space requirements change, they are unable to adjust without incurring significant costs, administrative issues or delays.

In a serviced office, tenants are able to expand and contract as they wish, usually at very short notice. This can be beneficial to a business when times are good and you need more space quickly, or equally when times are bad and you need to contract.

As well as flexibility, serviced offices allow businesses to enjoy an all-inclusive service. For a fixed price, tenants can expect to receive everything they will need to run their business, from desks, chairs and telephones to staffed reception desks, cleaning services and refreshment facilities.

The costs involved will vary depending on location, how many desks are taken and the length of stay, but serviced offices should not be thought of as an expensive option once all the associated costs involved in leasing or buying an office are taken into account.

Small businesses can benefit greatly from serviced offices, with the ability to set up quickly (within days) and enjoy facilities they would otherwise not be able to afford.

While serviced offices will never be a solution for every business, the flexibility and convenience of serviced offices can offer a great stepping stone on the road to expansion.

So how about it people, are you gonna take advantage of the facilities offered to you?

The SPEEDy interview- Tribbles Giftstore

–State your name for the record - Diane Ryan

–Please tell us what problem your business solves in 50 words or less

Brings lots of themed ideas together, saving the internet shopper time, effort and money when gift shopping for friends, family and pets

–Expand on your idea – how will you make money from it?

I sell at retail, via my website and on eBay, a wide range of quality animal themed gifts and accessories

–Explain who your customer is

Primarily women, aged 35, looking to spend £25+ per visit, with a keen interst and awareness in animal welfare

–Describe where you see yourself in 5 years’ time

Running the business as part of a larger enterprise, covering holistic animal care. Having the income to enjoy the lifestyle I’ve been working towards – to make a sizeable contribution to animal welfare.

Random Questions –

• Who would you most like to have dinner with? The Dalai Lama

Stats all folks!

Considering these words mostly go unread, I am chancing the hideous pun in the title!

As you know I can't really get enough of the internet. Now I can't stop looking at my blog stats. It's intriguing to try and figure out what caused spikes in the numbers, why there's been no views for a few days and then bam, 20 visitors! I am pleased to know that there's probably max 60 people who know about the blog from me or through the SPEED Project, but I'd say we've had a good proportion of them view it!

It's also interesting to see what people search for...for example SPEED Project blog (pretty obvious) Hive SPEED Project, Coypu Speed (???). But since I put on the post about market research sources, I've had 5 visits from the keyword Silobreaker and funnily enough some of them were interested enough to have a look around!

The key is returning visitors, something I am trying to work on all the time, finding new topics to post about is pretty tricky actually.

Any suggestions?

Go Viral

Another cool article, found and sent to me by Mike Huxley of The Hive@Mansfield (aside- check out their blog, David has posted on setting up RSS feeds, using Google maps for your business and other technical help)

Last time I reproduced a blog post in full- which made for a very long post, maybe this time you could click this link to read it...

Another great link is to the Guardian's Viral Video Chart, check out the MUTO wall painted animation by Blu

Just a reminder, your NTU SPEED team are here to help you go from this...

To this!!

See you soon!

Next Event, book early please!

Creative Goal Setting

photo credit: dogfrog

Wednesday 25 June 2008

12.00 to 2.00 pm

Hive Seminar Room

Presenters:

Adrian Reynolds & Annie Dickinson

If you're going to embrace creativity in your business, start by using it in the way you set your goals. In this session you'll experience a simple way of tapping into your unconscious desires that brings renewed life to business planning, and new perspectives on your priorities.

Annie Dickinson works as an Executive Coach with Fortune 100 companies across Europe, focusing on changes that impact the bottom line. Clients include IBM, Unilever and AstraZeneca.

Adrian Reynolds is an award winning screenwriter with a background in advertising. His clients include HMV, Motorola, and Paul McKenna Training.

Suitable refreshments will be provided at this event

If you are interested in attending either of these events, please contact

Karen Doxey on 0115 848 4354

or e-mail: karen.doxey@ntu.ac.uk

SPEEDy Interview - Fit Brits

www.fitbrits.co.uk

State your name for the record- Warren Paul Nash

Please tell us what problem your business solves in 50 words or less - The problem is that many of us don’t eat healthy; we all have our excuses why this may be; my business solves these for you!

Expand on your idea – how will you make money from it? - My business poses great potential for sponsorship. It provides video-podcasts of cook-a-long recipes. These podcasts will be sponsored by a certain brand of food I am using in the podcast or equipment I may be using. As the website develops, I hope to add a feature where the user can transfer their personal shopping list to an online grocery vendor, I hope to get a % commission from this as well.

Explain who your customer is- Essentially, my customer is anyone who says one (or more) of the following:

‘I don’t eat healthy because:

• I don’t know what healthy food is’
  
• I don’t know the ingredients’
  
• I don’t have time to go shopping’
  
• I don’t have time to cook’
  
• I don’t know how to cook’
  

As you can imagine, this is quite a broad clientele, so, I am initially focusing my business on males aged 20 to 50 years.

Describe where you see yourself in 5 years’ time- I see myself having a mainstream television show on one of the 4 major terrestrial TV channels! Pah, not, have you seen my latest podcast?!!! Anyway, video podcasts are much better because they are far more relevant to the user who downloads them. Sorry, I’m going seriously off topic here. Anyway, as ridiculously over-ambitious as it may sound, I want to get Britain cooking again. People don’t realise how easy and cheap it really is, and if I can say in 5 years time, I made a difference to the health of the nation, I’d be happy with that (how corny!!!). I also want a Maserati (for the record)

I keep seeing so many more ways to lead a healthy lifestyle as well, I was thinking of healthy fast-food restaurants (and no, Subway is NOT a healthy fast-food restaurant!) a while back, how good would it be to have somewhere that sold smoothies instead of Cola and food that actually contained 100% meat. Anyway, that’s a project for another day! When I have my Maserati, I will pursue it!

Random Questions – choose one and answer

• Who is your hero?- Virgil Tracey!

He may only be a puppet but he’s the pilot of Thunderbird 2. Thunderbird 2 is the best Thunderbird aircraft! Virgil always confronts danger head on and it’s because of him that all Thunderbird rescue operations are so successful. Virgil also has great fashion sense and exceptional pianist skills (for a puppet anyway!). Best of all, he gets to see Lady Penelope whenever he likes!

SPEEDy Interview - Go Dine

www.godine.co.uk

State your name for the record - Adam Roberts

Please tell us what problem your business solves - We help people who want to find and book a restaurant in their region, allowing them to see the menus, view photos and read reviews, ensuring they find and book the right restaurant. We are confident that people who are short of time will enjoy our service along with anyone who enjoys eating out.

Expand on your idea - how will you make money from it? It's a free service to both restaurants and diners. The restaurants pay us a fee for every customer we send them. In short, they only pay on results

Explain who your customer is - Anyone who books restaurants and has access to the internet

Describe where you see yourself in five years time - Nottingham, London and Italy...in equal measure!

Random Questions – choose one and answer

You are flying to the moon, what is the one thing you need?

Who is your hero? Sir Alex Ferguson, he's someone I greatly admire!

Do you…Twitter?

Who would you most like to have dinner with?

What is your favourite word?

Which Facebook groups do you belong to?

What’s your special power?

Spot the difference!

What's missing...? You, of course!

Seriously though, we need your help. The Hive has just had new PCs installed on all the HotDesks, we have two fantastic seminars planned for May, and a further one in the pipeline for June too. What else can we do to entice you to use the Hive for your businesS work?

We're going to be asking this question to all our Hive-lives over the next few weeks, have a think and give us your honest opinion.

We miss you, come in and see us.

Intrapreneurship

“ As business in the UK leaves the recession behind and communications technology spreads its wings, companies seek a new breed of manager. They seek him here, they seek him there, they seek him almost everywhere. He is required in product development, in systems development, in market development, or in commercial development. I call him the “intrapreneur”. He is the agent of enterprise development.

The term “intrapreneur” immediately sets up a creative tension. For “ intra” means “going within”, inside of; “preneur” from the French “prendre” means to take, to go out, to undertake. Within this field of tension lies, in fact, not one particular kind of manager, but a whole cast of characters, set on enterprise development. In fact, the intrapreneur is a “holding category” for seven subsidiaries: the innovator, enabler, leader, entrepreneur, change agent, animator and adventurer. How we came to these seven will be revealed in the next chapter. But the reasons why are clear. Firstly the modern corporation requires a more varied cast of characters than either the traditional manager or entrepreneur. Secondly such a cast, as far as I am concerned, should reinforce, rather than detract from, our individuality. As the Chairman of ICI said to a group of managers in a recent speech, contemporary organisations should serve the individual rather than vice versa.

This book is therefore designed to help managers develop such singular and varied attributes as:

• Commercial insight and market awareness


• An ability to work persistently and autonomously


• An innovative and creative mind


• Ability to manage and direct change


• Organisational capacity and analytical skill


• Stamina and staying power


• Ability to get on with people at all levels “

For many of you who will perhaps not at this stage go further with your own business ideas but decide to take a job in commerce and industry, the message is that the skills and attributes you learn and develop with do not go to waste but are valuable assets to take with you. Enterprise and entrepreneurship is not wasted effort.