Thanksto.com Social Enterprise Challenge

I'm taking a brief break from the "12 entrepreneurial lessons I learnt from 2009" series to tell you about a fantastic opportunity to win an entrepreneurial internship! But you'll have to be quick, deadline for entries is this Monday!

Do you have an interest in business and enterprise, helping your community and developing your entrepreneurial skills? The Thanksto.com Social Enterprise Challenge provides a fantastic opportunity to empower young individuals (18+)  in the London region - and best of all, the winners have the chance to win exclusive internship opportunities with some of London's most successful entrepreneurs (as well as £5000 of sports equipment and £500 cash!). The deadline to sign up is this Monday January 25th so hurry and send an email with your details to a.dundas(at)thanksto.com or click here

Good luck if you're entering and we'll be back with the "12 lessons" next week.

Thank-you & Happy Holidays

In the course of this year I have been deeply fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet a huge number of amazing and inspiring individuals from all over the world: entrepreneurs, business people, world leaders, designers, humanitarians, activists, scientists, engineers, free-thinkers, change-makers ... overwhelmingly smart, determined & formidable souls who rendered almost insignificant, the naysayers, bullies and worse.

So to everyone who inspired me in 2009; those who listened, shared their advice and their experience, to any who encouraged and all who spent their time, I'd like to let you to know that I'll be thanking each of you quietly by making every effort to spend 2010 mindful of whatever lesson you had to share.

Thank-you for your support. We, truly, couldn't do without you.

“Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us, but because they will laugh at us. Through them we learn a little objectivity, a little modesty, a little courtesy; We learn the rules of life and become better players of the game”
- Will Durant

Happy Holidays everyone. x

Red Button Design appoints new non-executive director

Internationally award-winning social enterprise Red Button Design announced on Nov 27th 2009, the appointment of Peter Corke, MD of the marketing agency Willoughby Stewart and founder of The Ketchup Group, as its Non-Executive Board Director.

Pete has 10 years' industry experience covering a broad range of disciplines including new product development, sourcing, production and logistics management, marketing strategies, branding and design. His clients include large multinationals such as Costa Coffee and Fairline Boats, as well as start-ups and SMEs.

Announcing the appointment, Amanda Jones, Red Button Design's Chief Executive said:

"I'm thrilled to announce that Pete will be joining the board of RBD. He brings a vast amount of relevant experience into the company along with the capacity to both challenge and support the business while providing a great deal of enthusiasm on the way. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have found an individual who not only has the breadth of skills we were looking for but whose ethics and ideals match those upon which RBD was founded."

Pete added:

“I thrive on working relationships with companies and individuals with industry leading propositions, but the day Red Button Design walked through our door I instinctively knew it would be the start of something quite extraordinary! To be an integral part of Jamesʼ and Amandaʼs relentless pursuit of finding innovative solutions for humanitarian markets is an honour and one of my most exciting challenges to date.”

In his new role of Non-Executive Director Pete will actively participate in the work of Red Button Design, leveraging the diverse talents of the component companies within The Ketchup Group to make a creative contribution towards the launch of Red Button Designʼs flagship product and bringing an independent view to the table.

For additional information please view the full release

Give me half the money I asked for and an advisor who can save me the other half…

So there’s a rumor I keep hearing in certain circles; that whilst starting a business will take time, it needn’t take much money.

And I agree. Kind of.

Starting up a business is expensive only when you’re spending money on things you don’t need and, broadly speaking, I would claim that startups only need two things: ‘Stuff’ and ‘Understanding’

“Stuff”: Capital expenditure, physical things have a natural expense to them. The cost is usually linked to the wider world, abundance or scarcity of resources & the state of the planet in general, which is is all fine and rational by my account.

“Understanding”: Knowledge, however, has no such natural price point. As long as our accountant costs us less than the price we'd pay for getting the accounts wrong, and as long as getting that test verified earns us more than the certification cost us to get, it was the correct course of action. These experiential things aren’t justifiable or tangible costs but they’re also a bulk of our expendature.

Now, depending on what you’re starting, you’re going to want these at different places in the startup cycle and in different proportions. If you’re daft you’ll start a business that requires a vast amount of ‘stuff’ early on, pre-revenue even, and whatismore you might choose to do so in a recession.. y’know.. Just to make your life really complex but I digress..

At RBD we’re just putting the finishing touches to a £110k funding package. It has been an insane amount of work to push though, and as the money isn’t in our account yet there’s not even a guarantee that it won’t still all go awry, but it’s £110,000. I’m guessing it’d take me 3-4 years to earn that - so what is 3 months buried under a forest of paperwork of loan / equity agreements, tech docs and grant applications in comparison?

Nothing really, until you seriously consider the fact that we don’t need £110k.

We probably don’t need half of £110k,

What we need is a mentor / non-exec / advisor type bod.

Mistakes are expensive; without a mentor we have to budget for them, and so do you, and so do the vast majority of young start-ups with high growth potential who haven’t found adult supervision yet.

The lovely souls at the banks, grant making agencies, government and such would do well to realise that if they started training and encouraging mentors they could save themselves a bundle in cash. By all means buy the stuff, but ought we really to be buying in the understanding?

I, for one, would certainly rather have less money wisely used than a heap of cash with which to outsource my companies knowledge at the expense of my personal learning.

Come on guys, give me half the money I asked for and a mentor who can save me the other half…