We love start-ups!

March 15, 2011

I put this poster on my office wall today.
Few things beat working with an exciting new start up business.
This helps remind me.
Get more inspiring mind grenades and artwork from gaping void.

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Employee shares headaches for early stage companies

March 14, 2011

Cash is often tight for early stage start-ups.
So often, as well as the founders taking little or no cash out of the business as salary in its early days, the first (brave!) employees also end up having to share this pain.
To help ease this, it is common for employees to be offered shares in the [...]

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EIS and EMI – Whaaaat?!!!

March 10, 2011

I don’t know if there’s something in the water around here right now but I seem to spending a huge proportion of my time advising clients on either:

the benefits (and potential pitfalls!) of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) aimed at tax efficient investments into fledgling fast growth companies and
rewarding employees under an approved HMRC [...]

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Reimagine your business using mobile technology

March 9, 2011

An interesting event this morning on “Redefining the Customer Experience using Mobile” hosted by the Institute of Directors (Young Directors Forum) held at the Alchemist in Manchester’s Spinningfields.
In addition to some mind-boggling stats about the proliferation of mobile connections and apps being launched on a daily basis, the overarching message for businesses is that the [...]

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Finding your true North

February 9, 2011

Richard North, Managing Director of Wow! Stuff, provides some great advice for entrepreneurs:
“You are either an employee and you are prepared not to take risks and end up with a bonus or you become an employer, you take risks but you also end up with the rewards”
Despite selling his first business for a 7 figure [...]

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Preventing potentially expensive business balls-ups!

January 20, 2011

It’s been a busy start to the year so far. It’s nice to see businesses that I’ve been talking to and getting to know for a number of weeks, months (or in some cases years) reach critical points in their business lifecycle in either starting new ventures, seeking and raising funding [...]

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Utilising spare office space across cities

January 19, 2011

We are proud to be hosting the next Techcelerate event on Funding Options for the North West next Wednesday evening.
This promises to be a fantastic event which has been matched by the high level of interest and ticket sales so far. The rising number of attendees means that we may need to decamp the event [...]

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Have you become a daily cyborg?

January 18, 2011

From the second my alarm goes off on my Blackberry at 6am in the morning, my daily “cyborg life” begins and typically ends with a scan through my blog RSS feeds or perhaps a read of a digital book on my iPad. It is amazing to think how much has changed in our use and [...]

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Why 2011 should be a great year for north west entrepreneurs

January 11, 2011

Despite talk of economic doom and gloom, here are just 3 reasons why I think 2011 will be a great year for entrepreneurs and fast growth businesses across the north west:

The North West Fund is here to provide £185m of equity and loan funding making investments of £50,000 to £2m into fast growth businesses across [...]

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2011 New Year’s Resolutions – in February!

January 10, 2011

“Join our gym and kick off your new year’s resolution to get in shape – joining fee waived for January”
No ta.
Rather than join the hoards of folk who pile into their New Year’s Resolutions with gusto before running out of steam about this time in January, I’ve decided to hold back for 2011. I am [...]

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