SMALL IS THE NEW BIG
Wednesday 26th September 2012
About the Forum
On the 26th September in the heart of London, The Entrepreneur Country Forum welcomed 400 entrepreneurs and investors to learn, network and engage with high profile speakers and business owners.
We looked at why small businesses are the champions of global economic growth. It is small businesses that are now reaching new markets, enabling the developing world, reviving industries and introducing transformational business models.
We heard from keynote speakers such as Luxury Beauty Tycoon Jo Malone MBE , Lead Singer of Iron Maiden and Airline Entrepreneur Bruce Dickinson and Sir Peter Bazalgette, the man responsible for bringing Big Brother to our screens. Our seasoned line-up of entrepreneurs spoke on how they took their business idea to the next level, whilst delegates were encouraged to share ideas, work collaboratively and boost their knowledge in order to take their business to new heights.
On 21st February 2012 we held our bi-annual 'Turbo Charge Your Business' forum at the Royal Institute to an incredible reception of attendees and keynote speakers. The day was a huge success, providing a rare opportunity for entrepreneurs across Britain to gather together and hear how they can boost the performance of their businesses.
Over 400 entrepreneurs, key influencers and investors from 300 UK companies and SMEs packed the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London on Tuesday 27th September, for the Entrepreneur Country Accelerate Forum to discuss, debate and network around the key theme of accelerating their business growth and revenue.
A dozen of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs, including Lloyd Dorfman, Martyn Dawes, Julie Meyer, Austin Healey, Tim Levene, Tim Leeson, Kevin Godlington, WIll King and James Caan shared their insights and views on growing businesses during tough economic times.
"Irrationally optimistic", that's how Sara Murray, founder of confused.com described entrepreneurs during her keynote speech to the Entrepreneur Country Winter Forum. The warmth, energy and optimism of the sell out audience at the Royal Institution of Great Britain was testimony to the fact that despite the doom and gloom of media coverage of the recession, Britain's private sector is positive and prepared to begin fuelling economic growth, employment and wealth creation.
A stellar list of speakers including TV Dragon Theo Paphitis, international economist Dr Dambisa Moyo, sustainable development innovator Steve Lewis took to the stage, delighting attendees with insights into their personal entrepreneurial journey's, their own 'near death experiences' and what made them stand out from the field.
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How To Push Your Boundaries
Recently I gave a presentation for the Association for Coaching on Pushing your Boundaries. It is a topic that seems to be increasingly popular, perhaps because the economic downturn drove many people to minimise risk taking and focus on maintaining what worked, rather than looking for new opportuntiies. One of the...
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Why Sales People Should Never Demo Their Product
Have you ever been on the receiving end of a product demo that seems to go on interminably until you feel that you have lost the will to live? Ever felt that the sales person is simply lobbing feature after feature at you, desperately hoping that that at least one...
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How To Ruin Your Referral Networks
During a discussion with a group of networking contacts recently, I realised that we all knew at least one person who was ruining their chances of getting referrals just by trying to be seen as a ‘jack of all trades’.It is easy to become unnerved by the slowdown in business...
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Why Start-Ups Need A Well Articulated Strategy
I recommend you read Fred Wilson’s recent blog post about the need for a well articulated business strategy before pushing a particular business model. I found myself in violent agreement with Fred’s blog post(s) and my take on his argument is this.1. You need to first create a compelling product. Compelling in...
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Ingrid Vanderveldt on Empowering a Billion Women by 2020
This month, I spoke to entrepreneur, investor, media personality and Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Dell Inc, Ingrid Vanderveldt. With a mission of “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020” (EBW2020) as well as creating and curating the $100m Dell Innovators Credit Fund to power entrepreneurs worldwide, Ingrid continues to run her own businesses...
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An Interview With Carl Churchill, NetPay
British technology entrepreneur Carl Churchill is still in his twenties and has already pulled off a string of business successes. We find out what prompted Carl to attend as a speaker at a recent Breakthrough Live event in Southampton.In 2003, British technology entrepreneur Carl Churchill was listed at the top...
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Remote Working: The Benefits For Small Businesses
If you run a small business, you’ll probably know all too well about the need to keep every single overhead to a minimum. Scrimping and saving has become a necessity for a huge number of SMEs in the UK, especially over the past years which has seen two recessions, anaemic...
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Leadership Lessons From a Growth Company
Having effective leadership is important for any company on a growth trajectory, and it is no different for Omega Security Systems. The Bradford based company that specialises in designing, installing and maintaining security systems for the commercial sector grew 44% last year, are now expanding into the domestic market by...
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4 Ways To Lose Repeat Business and How To Keep It
‘The customer is king’ is one of the most overused sound bites in business. It’s also one of the most meaningless.Because while companies spend fortunes telling the world how much they value their customers, at the coal face, the customer experience can be something else. Somehow that message about customers...
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What I Have Learnt about Leadership
I have been an entrepreneur all of my life but I think I have only been a leader for the last few weeks. It is a strange shift and one that I think many of us couldn't benefit from understanding.I look back on the last five years and can now...