De-mystifying finance and making money

To make a fast entrepreneurial fortune in business requires the right mindset If you want to make a fast entrepreneurial fortune today, buy a lottery ticket. But if you possess some skills, resilience, patience and a preparedness to read the rest of this post, there is an alternative... Read More

Crowdfunding challenges banks. Can banks compete with crowdfunding? Following a short interview at Cumbria's 'Wasdale Head Inn' I secured my first-ever paid job in 1984 as a kitchen porter. Fresh out of school, my new hotel home was at the end of a long valley, 8 miles from the nearest shop and another 3 to the nearest town. And that's where I found myself 2 week's later having hitched the 11 miles so I could open my first bank account... Read More

Business Startup Insurance. What protection do you need? As my first year of business in York neared its end I arrived at work one Monday only to discover a ransacked office. Cables were ripped out of walls, paper covered the floor and my only computer was gone. Pants. Read More

Recommended top 10 entrepreneur websites To discover the top 10 entrepreneur websites, I polled the views of over 500 people involved with the industry. All respondents worked in an advisory/business support capacity in academia, and/or the public/private sectors. Some people ran their own businesses. To keep things simple, I asked the single question: "What websites do you recommend entrepreneurs use..?" Read More

How does money motivate you? Salespeople regularly offered me lifts back in the eighties. It's fair to say I enjoyed the banter. Their cars went faster too. London bound, one bright weekday winter's morning, I was hitching a lift onto the M1. Without warning, a car was jamming on its brakes and pulling into the empty slip road ahead of me. The smart-suit in the driving seat said he could take me 60 miles. In no time we were doing 90+ in the outside lane. All was good with the world... Read More

Avoid guesswork when figuring out pricing Many start-ups wrongly copy the hitchhiker when it comes to figuring out pricing. An outstretched thumb works by the road, but a finger in the air almost always plucks financially flawed figures. Pricing products or services (especially the first time) isn't easy, but considered calculation based on some key principles can make all the difference between business success and failure... Read More

Entrepreneurial, independent and self-reliant? Why not consider startup business bootstrapping your venture Failure has a wonderful capacity to reveal opportunities that otherwise remain hidden. Disastrous 'A' Level results in 1984  forced me to take a gap year. Whilst I envied friends destined for university, part of me delighted in the chance to step off the education treadmill... Read More