In the last 12 months alone, businesses being incubated by a partnership of five UK universities have raised some £30m in investment.
The figures have been unveiled by SETsquared , a collaboration between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. The organisation partners in enterprise activities and collectively supports the growth and success of new business opportunities through its five incubation centres.
SETsquared’s Partnership Director, Graham Harrison, shared the partnership’s latest success figures with MP David Willetts as he visited...
Of all the arrangements people use to conduct their business, none is more fraught with danger than the simplest: partnership. The problem is that the basis of any partnership is sharing.
That should be easy. Two partners, two shares. Generally fifty-fifty.
Well, it isn’t so easy. In the burlesque era, comic teams used a different formula. The straight man got 55 percent, the funny man got 45 percent. Why? The straight man was the agent for the team, responsible for getting the bookings, negotiating the b illing, all the nuts and bolts stuff.
How important is it to you to have a really good experience when you go out shopping, to a restaurant or at any time when you buy products or services? If you’re anything like us, the answer is – Very Important!
The whole experience means the difference between using a company once or returning several times for a repeat experience. How important is a friendly face, helpful advice or a pleasant telephone manner? And how objective are you about your own business’s image? Do you know what customers think of the experience your company offers? If you don’t you need to find out quick!...
The ability to listen to others is not, typically, the entrepreneur’s greatest strength. If you’re the oldest guy in the shop, if you’re the one others turn to when they want to hear about the “old days,” it’s time to find yourself an even older grizzly. When I first bought Mackay Envelope, I was twenty-six. My lawyer, the one I hired after I fired the young hotshot who told me not to buy the envelope company, was sixty. My accountant was fifty-eight, and my banker would admit to being seventy, but I think he was closer to eighty....
Apprenticeship completions over the next decade are forecast to contribute £3.4 billion a year to the economy through productivity gains by 2022. That’s according to a new report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) released today to mark the start of National Apprenticeship Week 2013.
The report, Productivity Matters: The impact of Apprenticeships on the UK economy, presents Cebr’s analysis of the contribution of Apprenticeships to the economy, examining current trends and future developments and exploring the productivity impact of Apprenticeships. Key...
Small firms' confidence has increased, but their investment intentions have fallen as the domestic economy and access to finance act as a barrier to growth, show the results from the quarter one 2013 ‘Voice of Small Business' Index from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The report, which surveyed 2,686 people in the first quarter of 2013 showed a welcome increase in confidence, moving from a negative reading of -5.6 in Q4 2012 to +6.3 in the first quarter of 2013. However, this optimism was tempered with caution as fewer businesses expect to grow this year – down from 56 per cent...
Ex- Dragons' Den panellist Doug Richard was on hand to give business advice to entrepreneurial University students on Friday. The event was held at the University’s Great Hall and was facilitated by Unite, their entrepreneur support unit.
During the workshop, which ran all-day from 9.30am until 5.30pm, Doug gave a series of talks which aimed to build up a ten-question-toolkit that students can use to help turn a brilliant idea into a success. To Richard, success is just about doing ‘a series of actions in a certain order’. He believes ‘entrepreneurship is learnable’ and wants to...
It was exciting to hear that the great and the good ventured up to London recently to see the launch of Exeter’s Triple Crown status on Bill Boards and in Underground Stations, maximising Exeter’s profile to London businesses who may be contemplating doing business with the region or relocating to this beautiful area of ours. BUT, what about the businesses based in Exeter that would also like to shout about Exeter’s buoyant, trend bucking successes; something all of us based in Exeter are part of?
A little while back we raised the idea of a Triple Crown logo to be developed for...
As part of its ongoing Business Transformation, Thomas Cook Group plc has announced that it has began a consultation process to restructure its UK business, which would see the Group's UK workforce reduced by 2,500 full-time roles. Job losses would mostly be from back-office functions and its retail network, including some store closures. However it has not yet been revealed which stores are to close.
The Group currently employs 15,500 across the UK & Ireland. The cost benefit of these changes, and the costs of achieving them, have already been included in the cost-out numbers...
‘Business Biscotti’, an informal gathering with no restrictions, is free to join online and free to attend the meetings.
Jacqui Shaw, owner of Coralline Health and Steve Bulman of WBW Solicitors, are launching the new group to bring professionals from Newton About and the surrounding areas together to meet, to talk and network to build business relationships.
The philosophy of Business Biscotti is to network within neighbourhood communities, and to make a commitment to help other members, by offering advice, sharing tips and building strong meaningful business relationships...
