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Yesterday I attended the “AI Standards - Benefits and Support for SMEs” event led by BridgeAI and The British Standards Institution (BSI), the UK National Standards Body.
Lots of developments are in the works in terms of new regulations and principles, and the necessary resources and support for businesses - essential if we want compliance to be as simple as possible. The session was valuable for business leaders, technical leaders, investors, accelerators, and NEDs / board advisors interested in promoting and supporting good AI governance practices. The session reviewed: - How AI standards support innovation, good governance and trust - The support available to startups and SMEs - The role of the upcoming ISO/IEC 42001 AI Management Systems Standard 👉🏻 The new ISO/IEC 42001 AI Management Systems Standard will ensure that companies develop and use AI responsibly in alignment with their business objectives, whilst meeting regulatory requirements. Benefits of the standards include: increasing investor confidence, and consumer trust, productivity and efficiency gains, cost reductions, improved sustainability, development of a common level of technical understanding, risk management and compliance, and better opportunities to trade internationally and with larger companies. The Latest News on AI Regulation: 👉🏻 One of the world's first AI regulations, the EU AI Act becomes law this year. You can find out more about the EU AI Act here. 👉🏻 The UK government has just published their 5 key principles for regulators, which are: - Safety, security and robustness - Appropriate transparency and "explainability" - Fairness - Accountability and governance - Contestability and redress Click to read more about the government's new principles. Communities for AI Standards & Best Practice: 👉🏻 The new BridgeAI Standards community is launching this week to support players operating in the AI space. Interested parties can register and access advice and read-only documents. The community will feature access to online training, communities grouped by areas of interest, publicise live in-person and online events, case studies and examples to bring the new AI standards to life, and will also facilitate Q&A with experts. Here's where you can sign up for the new Bridge AI community. A side note: 👉🏻 The Alan Turing Institute is also taking a leading role in guidance around AI, ethics and safety. You can find their latest documentation from the Alan Turing Institute on the topic.
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7/1/2024 0 Comments It's all about the 20! how to carry out strategic thinking & planning to boost your business & productivityI recently spoke at the first national Help To Grow Conference in London sponsored by HM Government in collaboration with Small Business Charter.
My talk was part of the digital adoption and transformation track at the conference, and included a panel discussion. Here are a few takeaways from my talk... As we hit 2024, as a leader, or business owner, be sure to: 🔎Clarify - what do you want to achieve, and by when? Quantify and clearly describe your goals - don't be vague! 🤔Question - are you consistently; effective - choosing the right things to do, and efficient - doing things the right way(s)? Simple questions, HUGE payoff when nailed... 💪Leverage - using Pareto's principle (a.k.a. the 80/20 rule). Consistently dig into your data and analyse where your results are coming from. Never forget that 80% of your results come from just 20% of your activities. Train yourself to regularly "look for the 20", focus your efforts in the right places, and you'll be set for success. All that excess graft you were putting in? You can now distribute this time and energy elsewhere... 😎 💬Communicate - your success as a leader depends on your ability to communicate your expectations and to motivate, empower and inspire your team to execute! Give staff simple but powerful digital tools to help them do their best work and to encourage best practice across every area of your business. ⏳ Is it time to simplify your entrepreneurial life? On the day of writing, we had hit the 310th day of 2023 and I recently reviewed the processes within Purposeful Group's business. As the CEO and founder of PG, my number 1 goal this year was to work smart, rather than just working hard, my go-to behaviour. (There’s nothing wrong with hard graft, especially if it's targeted, otherwise it can be like trying to bash a door down with brute force, instead of getting a screw driver and removing it from the hinges!) To me, working smart means: 🎯 Increasing focus: I’ve cut back my activities to the most fundamental ones needed to produce results. Once you know what they are for your business, schedule and do them consistently, and then ramp up activity to supercharge your results. (🤔 These are often the tasks that fall under the “Important, but not urgent” quadrant on the Eisenhower Matrix.) The image below (bottom right) shows where time should be best spent if you want to maximise your efficiency.  Source: Jobcanada Working smart also means:
🌪️ Simplicity: Simplicity will keep you sane! This year, I've really embraced this. As a result of stripping things back, the path ahead may seem clearer and less stressful. 🔧 Systems and Processes: Setting up and optimising your internal systems makes any business “assembly line” run more smoothly! - Create systems to support your fundamental activities, and to make sure you carry them out consistently and well. - Create templated documents for repetitive tasks to save time, so you’re not reinventing the wheel Every. Time. You. Need. To. Do. That. Task. Again! Templates should be set up to contain all the main elements to set you up for success, and they can be copied, completed, and used again next time. 📝 Process documents which set out how to carry out a specific task (and importantly where to QUICKLY find all the elements needed, including links to relevant content, documents or project folders) will save so much time. ⚠ If process docs are vague, they'll be of limited value. It should be possible to follow them step-by-step. 🧑🏾💻🧑🏻💻🧑🏿💻🧑🏼💻 As your team grows, templates and process docs will remove chaos from the equation! You’ll save time playing hunt the [insert item] and it'll be easier to maintain standards of quality when getting things done, whether you’re arranging an event, pitching to new customers, preparing a proposal, creating content, booking meetings (or anything else for that matter) - life is just better with templates! If you discover a way to do something which is faster, smoother, or otherwise achieves superior results, don’t forget to update your templates and process docs! 📈 Experiment with business software to streamline / automate your operations. Tools for quick content creation and posting to brand social media accounts are no-brainers, as is software for invoicing and billing, customer relationship management, and task management. What could you do to make your entrepreneurial life easier before the end of this year? 25/10/2023 0 Comments Are you starting a business? No doubt you're already discovering that there's just SO much to think about!🤯
I recently spoke to BoardShape's Nick Holder about lots of topics affecting early-stage entrepreneurs - including avoiding common traps, financial planning, market research, MVPs and spinning all those plates, juggling all those balls, wearing all those hats 😅... and some actions you can take to make life easier (and keep track of what's important.) Here's a taster: Q: What common challenges do most startup founders face in the early stages, and what strategies can you suggest to overcome them effectively?There are so many steps in the entrepreneurial journey from initial idea through to launching a business, hustling for those first customers and then focusing on growth! First and foremost, you’re getting a solid grasp of the problem that you're trying to solve, and marrying that up with the best, and most appropriate solution for the customer group(s) that you’ve decided to serve. The business won’t survive if there aren’t enough interested customers continuing to pay for the product or service, so carrying out market research is critical. Q: What form should this market research takeConsider not only qualitative research in the form of questionnaires, but qualitative research in the form of discussions with people who experience “the problem” that you’re trying to solve. The information gathered will not only clarify whether your business idea is worth pursuing, but can generate so many valuable by-products, including testimonials, anecdotes and verbatim quotes that can be used on a website, included in pitches and even in marketing campaigns. You can find the rest of the article here: https://boardshape.com/blog/master-startup-success-interview-with-kay-kukoyi. The Road to Wisdom
The road to wisdom? — Well, it’s plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less. Piet Hein (1905–1996) With a few gentle words this poem reminds that chasing perfection is NOT how we grow, and that patience and persistence can work together in harmony. In other words, keep going, keep improving and you'll get there. So, how does anyone err "less and less"? Through *iteration* - popular in software development and business /entrepreneurship. To *iterate* is to: - Take the most sensible action(s) based on what's known at the time - Observe the outcomes and seek feedback - Learn by analysing the outcomes and feedback - Take further action(s) based on what worked (and what didn't) and then repeat the cycle again. Iteration works, whether we're considering: ✅Entrepreneurship and aspects of your business ✅ Career and work ✅A sport or hobby ✅Personal goals Until you get the big win, welcome each small one, and keep going, one step at a time 💪! You're already on The Road to Wisdom... 🎉 Do you have a poem, phrase or mantra that motivates you and helps you maintain your perspective? Drop your thoughts in the comments! Here's a new use for AI that may reduce the environmental impact of air travel. ✈ Every day's a school day... We think this is really interesting! In summary: ❗The aviation sector is responsible for around 2.4% of global CO2 emissions. 😒 A single flight can emit as much CO2 as many people do in an entire year. (Source - BBC News) Contrails,🤔 are line-shaped clouds made from the water in plane engine exhausts. They account for between approximately 30-57% of the entire climate impact of aviation. (Estimates on impact seem to vary a lot between sources 🙄.) ☄Contrails don't always occur during flights - the air needs to be both very cold AND humid, but they trap and absorb heat which would have escaped into space, this contributes to global warming. 🌃 The effect is worse at night when it's colder and contrails have a longer lifetime. The win: 🙌 American Airlines partnered with Google Research and Breakthrough Energy. They used AI to predict where contrails would be formed so flight paths could be re-routed to avoid them. ☑ During a 6-month study, 70 pilots reduced their contrail formation by 54 per cent, according to satellite imagery. 👏 This is one of the first examples of commercial flights being able to avoid contrails, reducing their impact on the environment. ❓Have you come across any new uses for AI that are applicable to the lifestyle or habits of the masses? Chat GPT has been discussed to death, but we'd love to hear about other advances affecting large segments of the population... Please pop your thoughts in the comments!  💡 🤔 Small Things and Great “He that lets the small things bind him leaves the great undone behind him.” Piet Hein Let's talk about perfectionism and its impact on another P - Productivity. 🔎 Personally I've found that the big downside to perfectionism is the rumination over small details, or spreading myself too thinly to try and attempt "everything". - Whilst attention to detail is very important and a superpower in the right scenarios, it’s also a BIG distraction in others. - If you want big results, smart prioritisation and consistent laser focus beats the scattergun approach! ✅ Knowing “when to move on” and when “good is good enough” are instincts that every entrepreneur, CXO, and business leader must develop if they wish to be effective. It's essential to untangle yourself from the weeds and those activities that, in the big scheme of things, won’t *really* make much of a difference. ⤵ In the meantime, the actions that will really move the needle for you suffer! 😲 I’ve heard of very successful founders literally throwing out to-do lists when they get too long (oh, the horror!!!), but the thing that I’m focusing on more than ever right now is consistently focusing on the big things first. ❓What are the things to focus on so that if these few things were kept on course, everything else by default would be o.k. In your world? ❓What are the things to work on so that if you did nothing else, your life, your career, and your business, would grow and thrive? 📈 Big questions, big impact! 💪 Place your energy and activity where you can get the best return on investment. High value items come first! 🙏 Please share your thoughts and comments on this topic below. The photo below is of me enjoying speaking to a group of female entrepreneurs about creating a digital MVP or prototype using code-free tools or by hiring a developer to help them. Understanding how to create tech products is so important a microphone would not do, I needed a MEGAPHONE! 😄  “There isn’t a person anywhere who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can.”
Henry Ford A powerful quote! Super inspiring and also gives you a bit of a mental kick in the pants, doesn't it? (It did us, anyway! 😅.) You have been given strengths, resources and gifts that are your personal superpowers 🎉. Do you know what yours are, and are you maximising them? What's that thing that you’re NOT totally sure you can do? Maybe it's something that you really want or aspire to, or could make a big difference in your life or business... C’mon, you know, *that thing*! 😉 It could be something you've been skirting around, or dismissing and pushing to the back of your mind. Next steps: 🧠✍ Brainstorm at least 5 ideas that will bring you closer to achieving your goal and write them down. 1️⃣ Pick at least one that you can commit to taking action on. 🚶♀️Taking small steps forward can be more effective than trying to take large ones if it leads you to feel burned out, procrastinate or feel overwhelmed. This is counterproductive, and you'll be less likely to follow through. (Remember "The tortoise and the hare" story?) 💪 Take action! (Even if it's learning about a new topic to build knowledge and confidence, that's a valid action.) 📈 Keep pushing forward. If you can't take daily action, can you schedule in consistent action weekly, fortnightly, or monthly?📆 Forward motion is forward motion. This will change the world!” “We're going to make a fortune!” “THIS technology is the answer we’ve been searching for!” Hmmm. Maybe, maybe not! In that case, how exactly should we decide where we should focus our time and/or our money as the pace of innovation continues? The Gartner Hype Cycle is a useful tool to assess tech advances, and shows the journey that tech trends take over time. The cycle has 5 phases: 🔵 Phase 1: Innovation Trigger 🔵 The Innovation Trigger is when a new technology emerges. The tech makes headline news, and people get excited. Expectations surrounding the tech start to grow. 🔶 Phase 2: Peak of Inflated Expectations 🔶 This is the peak of the rollercoaster.🎢 Suddenly EVERY problem will be solved using this tech! (This is where the "hype" comes into it.) Caution is key - this is where investors and startups can make the wrong decisions, and may end up "backing the wrong horse."🤔 🟡 Phase 3: Trough of Disillusionment 🟡 Reality sets in. Erm, maybe the tech isn't that amazing after all... Problems and barriers to usage become more obvious. Ventures may fail, or lose value, and confidence dips as flaws with the tech's reliability, security, accuracy, safety, or its impact on people, the environment or other issues come to light. 🟢 Phase 4: Slope of Enlightenment 🟢 Consumers and/or businesses start to find affordable, practical uses for the tech, and access spreads beyond scientists, elite innovation teams, or people with specialist skill sets. We start to understand how best to use it, and there are clear wins and benefits. At this point, it could be fairly save to say that the innovation is here to stay and as user adoption grows it could well be a sound investment (after completion of some careful analysis and due diligence, of course!) I think this is where ChatGPT (openai.com) and Llama2 (ai.meta.com/llama) have brought us to with generative AI. Let me know in the comments if you agree with this, or not! (Other major players include Google's Bard and Anthropic's Claude.) 🟠 Phase 5: Plateau of Productivity 🟠 The tech matures, and becomes part of everyday life. For example, smartphones!📱The tech is reliable, easy to use/access, and adds real value.  The Gartner Hype Cycle. Source: Gartner Tips & takeaways: 1️⃣ Understanding where tech trends are on the Hype Cycle can help with good decision-making in terms of investments, study, adoption of tech for business, and generally knowing when to get involved. 2️⃣ Not every tech advancement will reach stages 4 and 5. Some will stay niche, and some will die altogether. 3️⃣ Research examples or "use cases" for how tech may impact your industry or profession. Check for new advances through content from futurists, podcasts, webinars and tech blogs. 4️⃣ Start experimenting with new/unfamiliar tech via free accounts, software demos, or training. You're unlikely to "break" anything, and the more you explore, the more normal this will become. As a result, it will be easier for you to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise! Updates come out each year as Gartner reviews the latest tech advances and where they sit within the Hype Cycle. You can see an example from 2022 below.  Source: Gartner If you're starting an business with an AI component, in addition to getting to grips with software, data sets and understanding how to "train" your AI to deliver the desired results (or finding a team to do this for you!), standards and ethics must also be considered.
From medtech, to insurance, to fintech and beyond, ethical considerations will include understanding the risks and downsides to using AI, how to use it responsibly, how to make sure it is safe and causes no harm, and how to identify and eradicate bias from the equation where decisions or recommendations are being made. Last week I was excited to attend the launch of the Alan Turing Institute's AI Standards Hub. This is a brand-new resource that will offer a great deal of support to businesses and startups and will pave the way towards setting global standards for AI, including common use of terms and definitions. The aim of the Hub is to promote the responsible use of AI, and the event explored the concepts of public trust and the inclusive development of standards. Speakers from the British Standards Institution, Digital Catapult, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Digital Standards Office for AI spoke about striking the right balance between implementing industry standards vs. stricter regulation, and protecting the vulnerable whilst not unnecessarily restricting the commercial activities of businesses. There are many different types of standards, but examples include standards related to product testing, performance, and regulatory compliance. Diversity in tech helps to ensure that teams consider a wider range of cases and scenarios as they develop AI-powered products. Having documented standards as a reference will also increase safety, quality, and increase the benefits of AI for all. You can visit and sign up for the AI standards hub here - https://lnkd.in/eEdfVxUp You can watch a recording of the event on YouTube here - https://lnkd.in/evbEMPg7 Where to next? Bodies involved in AI and the development of AI standards that you may wish to bookmark include: Alan Turing Institute - https://www.turing.ac.uk/ Office for Artificial Intelligence – https://lnkd.in/ezDDTeMr BSI (the UK’s National Standards Body) – https://lnkd.in/eEf8E76a National Physical Laboratory (NPL) – https://lnkd.in/e9H5NeyQ The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) – https://gpai.ai/ International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – https://lnkd.in/ewyXQAHr European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) - https://lnkd.in/e-mdyjAW Digital Catapult https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/ They are sometimes known as Super Delegators… They are the opposite of founders who do everything themselves - but hold on! ✋ I’m not saying that this is a good thing. 🤔
I’m talking about founders who don’t really know how their back-office operations work... or how to coach staff, or "right the ship" when things go wrong because they’ve skipped over all that head busting and challenging stuff by delegating very early, removing the need to dig into the details. There's a right time to do everything, but it's a hell of a job getting that timing right! Of course it’s right to delegate as a startup founder / business owner, BUT if you do this too soon (or to avoid learning about things you really should know about) you could end up making bad business decisions, effectively shooting yourself in the foot. So… that leads me on to introducing our Tech Startup Interview video with entrepreneur Justin Chen, co-founder of PickFu and Menuism. You can find the video here. We cover a LOT of topics relevant to tech founders in our video in just over 3 minutes, including: 👶 How PickFu got started (born from a frustration related to user testing with his FIRST business) ✅ How Justin nailed his marketing strategy for reaching a number of different customer segments 👩💻 Where Justin hires his developers, and 💭Why Justin and I both believe that delegating 👉 and “offloading” tasks too soon is a dangerous game 😱. 🙂 “Delegate responsibility, but don’t abdicate it.” is my motto on this one. What do you think? Do you believe that it’s never too soon to delegate? Or, have you been caught out by delegating too early – what happened, and what advice would you offer to others in retrospect? Author biography. Kay Kukoyi CSM FITOL is a multi award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, digital skills advocate and speaker. She has written 5 books for entrepreneurs and SMEs, including the Amazon international bestsellers, Don't Hire a Software Developer Until You Read this Book and Entrepreneurial Espresso, and Don't Buy Software for Your Small Business Until You Read this Book. She has been recognised on the #IB100, the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards list of the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in the UK Technology Sector. She was the winner of the 2022 BTA Lifetime Award for her outstanding work within the technology sector, and has been a finalist for a number of other awards, including Digital Woman of the Year, Digital Entrepreneur of the Year, Role Model of the Year, Best Small Business Owner, and Best Service Based Business. Kay is the CEO and Founder of Purposeful Group, an award-winning online centre for learning and community focused on entrepreneurship, technology and digital skills training. The company supports and empowers the next generation of entrepreneurs and digital learners around the world through its bestselling books, professional business and career mentoring, and specialist workshops and programmes. Once upon a time there was an entrepreneur that was struggling to find a co-founder and was feeling deflated that he hadn't found someone as passionate about the creative element of his business as he was.
He was using evidence of this shared passion as his no.1 criteria for assessing the perfect co-founder. So, what's the problem with that? It took me back to a conversation I had with a wise work colleague some years ago. I said I'd prefer a partner just like me. His feedback was simple: "You don't want someone like you, you want somebody who's going to complement you." He was spot on. That co-founder that you thought was a kindred spirit could lead to a disastrous pairing...
You need someone who looks at things from a different angle, who will challenge your perspective and broaden your horizons, and in turn you will do the same for them. In practice, this means: If you're good at starting. Find someone who's good at finishing. If you prefer to be the creative person and innovator, find someone who's great with figures, data analysis, organisation and dealing with the day today but critical details and "boring stuff". Distracted easily? Find someone who's laser-focused. Not a great people person or networker? Building those skills is important as an entrepreneur, but if one of you has a natural flair and gift of the gab it makes sense to utilise this. You get my drift - find the yin to your yang! Develop some insightful questions that help you to establish a picture of the person, their mindset, and their tendencies. Humans are creatures of habit, and the way someone has lived and managed their life to date, will give you at least some indication of how they might handle things in future. Here are some quotes from tech start up founders that we've interviewed: "I think we get along well because we have compatible characters, and try to maintain a constructive spirit. In many years of working together tensions can rise at times, but when this happens we both try to "steady the ball", empathise with the other's point of view and not let the situation spiral out of control. Mutual respect is a prerequisite." Matic Bitenc, Cofounder, Toshl. "I met Mark, my cofounder at Snappa, at work. I discovered that he did some programming on the side, and started becoming fascinated with the whole online world and online business. The two of us became really good friends, and we started launching side projects while we were both working our day jobs. We had a few failures... then eventually we had minor success, and then some decent success with Snappa, and then we both quit our jobs to go full time on it." Chris Gimmer, Cofounder, Snappa. "We work based on different fields of responsibility and divide the work accordingly. My cofounder is in charge of product development, whilst I handle the marketing and growth of the business, which suits both our natural strengths. Having a complementary skill set between co founders when building a startup is way better than coming from the same backgrounds in my view. Disagreement in itself shouldn’t be a problem and is necessary to grow. Also, founders should openly address and share what’s bothering them with their business partners, instead of letting it stay in their minds. This way you can avoid a lot of problems in the first place. These are some of the principles we have that have helped us in our business." Chris Lier, Cofounder, Lead Gen App. Articles about cofounder challenges and how to deal with them from Sifted.eu. Cofounder walk out. Should I fire my cofounder? My cofounder left. What should we do regarding their equity? Dear Sifted: I don’t agree with my cofounder. Should I leave? What are your thoughts about this? Have you found the perfect partnership, or chosen the wrong person in retrospect? Happy hunting! Written by Kay Kukoyi. Biography Kay Kukoyi CSM FITOL is a multi award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, digital skills advocate and speaker. She has written 5 books for entrepreneurs and SMEs, including the Amazon international bestsellers, Don't Hire a Software Developer Until You Read this Book and Entrepreneurial Espresso, and Don't Buy Software for Your Small Business Until You Read this Book. She has been recognised on the #IB100, the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards list of the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in the UK Technology Sector. She was the winner of the 2022 BTA Lifetime Award for her outstanding work within the technology sector, and has been a finalist for a number of other awards, including Digital Woman of the Year, Digital Entrepreneur of the Year, Role Model of the Year, Best Small Business Owner, and Best Service Based Business. Kay is the CEO and Founder of Purposeful Group, an award-winning online centre for learning and community focused on entrepreneurship, technology and digital skills training. The company supports and empowers the next generation of entrepreneurs and digital learners around the world through its bestselling books, professional business and career mentoring, and specialist workshops and programmes. If you want the best possible results when starting your business, we don’t believe in a "Just do it" philosophy (sorry Nike!) Seeking some form of support as you start your business is highly recommended. You'll need a strategy and a plan to follow, THEN you can move onto execution! That's how you make well-informed decisions, achieve better results and increase your chances of success. We put this post together to provide you with an overview of some of the organisations that you may come across in the entrepreneurship space, and how they can help you, beacuse it’s not necessarily a badge of honour to go solo! Starting a business is a complex matter, and finding people to support you will make your life easier. Of course there are startups that go it alone, but the impact of this is that it takes them:
As a result, they experience more stress and “drama” - ups and downs, unexpected and unwanted events arising from decisions made, or actions taken with the best intentions (that a pro would have known to avoid), needless detours and misadventures, and wasted time, money and energy along the way. "Doing things the SMART way is recommended. Working in an inefficient manner is NOT the best way to start a new venture!" K.N. Kukoyi CSM FITOL, 5x author, award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, speaker and CEO & Founder of Purposeful Group The reading, courses and study I have done in starting a range of businesses has absolutely saved me. I once spent a week virtually chained to my laptop watching a global conference for authors. I attended every seminar including those by multiple best-selling authors and I created an entire playbook and strategy for writing and launching my book based on their lessons. The advice given was not what my “logic” as someone new to the industry was guiding me to do. I had to completely reframe my thinking. The reality of what I needed to do to be successful was not what I had envisioned. I also pivoted and decided to go with a different concept for my first book. There is no doubt I would have bombed completely without this insider knowledge, and because my business started through the readers of that first book reaching out to me and asking me to be their mentor, Purposeful Group wouldn’t be here today! As it was, I have used the model that I created from learning from so many seasoned authors, and have now published 5 books, 4 of which have been Amazon category bestsellers in more than 7 countries including the UK, US, Canada and Australia. A very good way to scare myself is to reflect on what I’d be doing now if I’d tried to just “wing it, and do what was in my mind as a rookie author, rather than spending a lot of time researching, reading and attending that conference, which was the gateway to everything that has happened for me and Purposeful Group as a result. “What you KNOW (and don’t know) What you DO (or choose not to do) How you do things (EXECUTION) Can make a HUGE DIFFERENCE to the results you get!” K.N. Kukoyi CSM FITOL, 5x author, award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, speaker and CEO & Founder of Purposeful Group Let’s break down some of the support available for entrepreneurs, in particular from incubators and accelerators. What are Incubators? Just like a baby incubator, startup incubators support newly born, fledgling businesses and help them to survive during the delicate early stages of life. To ensure that all the relevant organisations are on your radar, it is worth knowing that incubators are sometimes called pre-accelerators. At this stage the business is far from fully formed, and many elements will not yet exist. Entrepreneurs may still be in the process of “working on” their ideas, including:
Other positive outcomes include making progress towards developing a core product or service, and getting the infrastructure in place (website, basic branding including a company name and logo, business email, social media accounts, a customer service plan and a marketing plan as a few examples) in order to be ready to attract and serve the businesses first customers. Incubators are often funded by larger organisations. Sometimes these are corporates who provide the financial backing for programmes run by smaller or local organisations as one of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitments and may set up funds - pots of money which are allocated to different enterprise-focused organisations. An incubator may take part in a range of fundraising activities, also applying for government funds to keep the organisation running. As a result, Incubators will exist for as long as they can secure and retain funding or sponsorship, or donations of practical support from mentors or workshop facilitators who may come from the private sector or from self-employed business owners. Most incubator programmes are free to join and often last for about 12 weeks or so, during which time you’ll join a group of peers who started on the programme at the same time as you, often called a “cohort” of entrepreneurs or businesses. An incubator may run multiple cohorts per year, depending on demand and funding. A programme may include a range of business workshops, networking events, talks, and in some cases one-to-one mentoring and support for cohort members. On some programmes, workspace may also be available for free, or provided at a reduced price. Incubators exist in most regions, and most are open to a wide range of business types. You can run a simple Google search for incubators in your local area - try entering incubator as a “keyword” plus your town, city or region to see what support is available locally. As spaces are limited (usually around 10-25 places per cohort), you will be expected to pitch your concept to them and convince the admissions team that your idea is sound enough to justify a free place. Incubators usually do not request a stake in your company. This means that no equity, which refers to the amount of shares (or level of ownership) is taken as a form of payment for the support received. I’ll discuss equity in more detail in the Accelerator section below. What are Accelerators? As a new business, aside from “validating” that your idea is sound and that your product or service is wanted by a particular group (or groups) of people, you also have to survive “the valley of death” to move forward! The valley of death is a bit of a terrifying term, but just describes the period where a company is making a loss. If you can’t move your business out of the valley of death and into profit quickly enough, or don’t have the money to bankroll your business to cover your expenses for as long as it takes to win enough customers to cover your costs, the business remains forever trapped in the valley of death - in other words, it dies. If you can hit break even and are able to generate enough revenue to cover your business expenses, hurrah! You move past the valley of death, and the next step is to hit profitability and then to grow, increasing your revenue and ultimately, the amount of profit generated by your business. Startups (defined as businesses that are intended to be fast / high-growth businesses from the start) and small businesses on accelerators are generally more advanced than businesses on incubators. They are clear on the problem they are solving, who their customers are, and have already created their service or product. They will either have some customers, or be well on the road to winning their first customers. In other cases they will be generating at least some income, even if they are not yet breaking even and fully out of the “valley of death” and turning a profit. For this reason they are often called “seed” businesses, still tiny, but there is something tangible there to be nurtured! Accelerators exist to “speed” up the process of growth through workshops, access to mentors and in many cases, access to investors. Winning a place on an accelerator programme is a competitive process involving an application and interview with the team responsible for admissions. Accelerators are often very selective, and winning a place on one of the top “major league” startup accelerators, such as Techstars, Y-Combinator, or SeedCamp can bring a startup a certain amount of kudos and prestige because of the stiff competition faced to make it through the selection process to win a place. The more well-established accelerators will have quite structured programmes. They usually provide workspace and access to a network of mentors able to support high-growth businesses. Most accelerators will help you to connect and network with investors, often through a “pitch day” or “demo day” at the end of the programme where founders showcase the progress made on the accelerator programme. Most entrepreneurs will create a pitch deck which they will present, including their ”ask”, which is where an entrepreneur or founding team communicate the support they require. An ”ask” may include information on how much investment is sought (and what it will be spent on), plus requests for specialist support, advice, or even connections and introductions to networks or industry contacts to help a business clinch its first deals. Types of accelerator Accelerator programmes may accept a range of different businesses, but there are also highly specialised accelerators for example:
If what you do is specialised, you may consider applying to both “open” and more specialist accelerators. Do accelerators provide funding? In some cases, yes. Some accelerators do give startups on their programmes “seed money”. At this point, the accelerator makes an investment in the business in exchange for equity. Some organisations do not provide funding, but will ask you to agree to give them the option to be among the first to invest in your business. These accelerators are looking for businesses that it thinks have great potential or could be “the next big thing”, cherry picks the best ones and becomes an early investor. In this way, they hold shares in a number of promising startups. If you accept funding you will give up a percentage of your business, which will be owned by your investor(s). Here are some examples of how some of the bigger accelerators in the tech startup space that take equity in exchange for funding operate... 
Exploring the intricate deal terms and conditions related to each accelerator’s investment is outside of the scope of this post, and terms may be subject to change. Venture builders bring together smart people with expertise from different industry sectors to connect, build relationships and develop business ideas which will solve a specific type of problem. The Zinc VC / Venture Builder Programme If you’re interested in developing a product or service to solve societal problems with the potential to support young people, our older population, or the environment, then social entrepreneurship may be the right path for you. Zinc offers a program called the Venture Builder that brings people together to create new ventures from scratch. Working with up to 70 individuals, the program last for 9 months and is split into 3-month phases. You will have office space available and be paid £12,000 over the nine months to replace your income while you build your business full time, with an 8% equity stake as a Founding Shareholder in exchange. Congratulations! You now have some investment to grow your business, but have new commitments and responsibilities to those who own a stake in your company. Be sure to reach out to organisations of interest to confirm how each incubator or accelerator works as a key part of your research. Ensure that you fully understand each investment model works, and the do’s, don’ts, obligations and expectations associated with your commitment before proceeding. There are a range of Venture Builders covering everything from corporate-run outfits to those focused on very specific topics such as businesses created to solve environmental issues. “Bootstrapping” vs. taking investment We often refer to self-funded startups as being bootstrapped. In this case, when asked how they are funding their business, founders may say “I'm bootstrapping”. Some business owners are wary or uninterested in taking investment for a number of reasons. This may be because they want to leave a legacy – they want to build a business that remains in the family, generates a healthy profit and increases their wealth and standard of living. Others are building local, or national services which may not be well suited to investors that are looking for that big pay out in approximately 7-10 years. There are also those that value their freedom and flexibility and do not want the burden of being responsible to others or the risk of being steered away from their original vision by investors. Of course, there are many entrepreneurs who see raising investment as being 100% worthwhile if it will help them to propel their startup forward. We sometimes call investors that give money but nothing else “dumb money” and an investment that comes with “domain” knowledge or experience, mentoring and guidance, connections, or other useful resources or forms of support, “smart money”. ("Dumb money" is also a term used for retail, or individual investors considered to be uninformed by investment professionals.) A founder who accepts funds to build their business will be expected to use the investment received to build the company to the level where they can: a) “Exit” the business because someone wants to buy it, which results in a pay-out for the original investors b) Take the business through to IPO – Initial Public Offering, where the company eventually floats on the stock market and all the players involved get a big payday. Of course, if managed and invested wisely, this money can also create a legacy and generational wealth. The legacy is no longer the actual business, but the wealth generated from it. Please note that a bootstrapped business may still apply for bank loans or raise money through rewards-based crowdfunding (if crowd funding is equity based, then there are investors). They may also have raised capital through what is sometimes (rather harshly, in our opinion) called FFF – “Friends, Family and Fools.” Because money may be even tighter with a bootstrapped business, the founders may need to be especially creative in terms of how the business is run and how their product is marketed This can be a good thing, because every unit of currency spent will be very carefully considered, leading to them having less regrets than funded startups about investing in expensive forms of marketing which "seemed like a great idea at the time"… What about VCs (Venture Capitalists)? Unless they are specifically what are known as early-stage VCs, then at this stage your business is still too small in terms of revenue generated, too new, and too risky to excite Venture Capitalist Firms! Investing in pre-seed / early-stage ventures is more risky for investors as they are buying into an unproven concept. If you have no customers, are not turning a profit, or don’t have a “real” product yet, an investor is taking a much bigger gamble than if they were to invest in a startup with a customer base that has a “track record” and is consistently making a profit every month, or can demonstrate that they are beating a clear path towards profitability. It is understood that some startups will take longer to reach profitability if they are working towards building a large, multinational, high-growth business that is expected to be valued in the hundreds of millions. (If it reaches a valuation of $1 billion US Dollars it will reach Unicorn status) Take a look at this article: https://www.purposefulgroup.com/blog/2-minute-tip-how-to-pitch-to-the-right-investors to read about some of the big mistakes that new startups make when considering Angels and VCs. Before we move on, let's look at another type of accelerator programme... NatWest Incubator and Accelerators NatWest Bank has a business incubator (Business Builder) for early-stage businesses and two accelerators - a general “Accelerator” and “Fintech Accelerator.” The Accelerator program is 6 months long. It is open to fast-growing existing startups and small businesses with no industry restrictions. Alternatively, the NatWest ‘Fintech Accelerator’ is for startups developing financial solutions and lasts for 6 months. NatWest has 12 hubs across the UK for cohort members to attend and no equity is taken in your business. We have heard of startups from abroad being accepted onto the accelerator, so if you're not UK based, get in touch with them to see what your options are. In some scenarios, you don't even need an idea to start your entrepreneurial journey. The logistics of being part of an incubator or accelerator cohort You’ll usually need to be available on weekdays for at least a few hours a week in order to get the best from your incubator or accelerator experience. Events and workshops are generally run during the week when the incubators or accelerators management and support / administration teams are available and when mentors and workshop facilitators can be present to offer support. This can be tricky if an entrepreneur does not live near to the place where the cohort is expected to meet, or if the entrepreneur still has a full-time job and the business is still a “side-hustle” being worked on during evenings and weekends. Some incubators and accelerators are now virtual, so you may be able to watch pre-recorded workshops at a time convenient to you. Purposeful Group mentors at a number of incubators and accelerators and once a person has been on one programme, we sometime see them move onto other accelerators to continue to develop their network. There is nothing at all wrong with this, and you can apply to join multiple programmes one after the other. Sometimes this may simply be a matter of timing and choosing the best fit for you at your current stage. Are there other organisations that support new entrepreneurs? Absolutely. This can be a bit of a postcode lottery, but put those keyword searches to good use again on Google and search for “entrepreneur support” or “startup support” or “small business support” or “support services for entrepreneurs”, “enterprise support” or combinations of these terms, plus the name of your town, city, or region to see what’s available. How do these services compare with what’s on offer at Purposeful Group? Purposeful Group is an award-winning online centre for learning focused on entrepreneurship, technology and digital skills training. Our awards track-record stands at 2 wins and a further 5 awards shortlists / finalist lists: Award wins (2) BTA Awards Lifetime Award, for outstanding service to the tech profession SME Business Elite Awards Best London Digital & Technology Skills Training Service, 2022 Shortlisted / finalists (5) Small Awards - Best small service business - Best small business owner Digital Women Awards - Role model of the Year - Digital Woman of the Year - Digital Entrepreneur of the Year We’re early-stage entrepreneurs and specialise in supporting non-technical entrepreneurs creating web and mobile apps to start and launch their digitally-driven businesses from scratch. We support the next generation of tech and digital entrepreneurs, and our mission is to help you get started the SMART way and put you on the fast track towards achieving your business goals, so you can make progress and get rapid results! So, if you want to transform your idea into a web or mobile app, you’re in the right place! Our customers find that our understanding of the practical elements and the nitty-gritty details required to do this successfully are invaluable to them. Our popular and highly-rated workshops and programmes were designed by 5x author and multi award-winning entrepreneur Kay Kukoyi specifically for new and aspiring startups. Kay is a qualified tech professional recognised by the Financial Times as one of the 100 most influential BAME leaders in the UK technology sector. Kay has worked in the tech sector for over a decade creating digital products and working with household-name companies to deliver multi-million pound web and mobile apps from a basic idea through to build, launch and beyond used by hundreds and thousands of users and we’ll help you do the same! She has also written a bestselling book on the subject. Today Kay regularly judges at local and national startup awards and pitch competitions. She has been a judge at Startup Magazine’s Hustle Awards and TATA Varsity pitch competition, as well as a number of other startup events. 
Who have we helped? To date we’ve supported more than 8,000 entrepreneurs around the world through our books, business mentoring workshops and programmes and we work with people who have a basic idea and want to develop it, to those who are ready to build a prototype, or create the first version of their product - their MVP, Minimum Viable Product. We also support founders who are intending to build high-growth startups as well as small businesses that operate on a local or national level. To put this into the context of this post, our services range from incubator / pre-seed level, through to accelerator and beyond for more mature businesses that have been running for several years. We partner and deliver services to a number of well-known institutions, including The British Library, and the European Institute of Innovation & Technology. We also work on a number of local and national projects sponsored by local councils, DCMS and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities and mentor at a number of the accelerators mentioned in the section above! Attendees who experience our workshops repeatedly tell us in their own words that our sessions are "brilliant", “amazing” "excellent" “insightful” and "comprehensive." Our model We don’t take equity in exchange for our mentoring or programmes, and we don’t receive funds from other organisations to support our community of entrepreneurs. As a result, we charge for our services. Businesses that take on investment and those that bootstrap will have different challenges and trajectories, but we support all founders in working smart, and thinking creatively. We are known for showing people who thought they had a year of product development ahead of them how to get started in a matter of weeks or months. Taking on funding is not always necessary, and in the early years when the value in what you’re creating is still becoming clear, it is not always a good idea to take on funding until you have genuine clarity on where you are going (and should be going) with your business. The reality is that true understanding of the elements that will lead to your success does not arrive like a lightning bolt at the beginning of your journey. Your initial business idea is a hypothesis, not fact – https://smallbusiness.chron.com/hypothesis-important-business-34382.html this actually emerges over time with data collection, continued real-world observation and some careful reflection and analysis. Therefore, going all-in on the finance front early on is risky. It is wise to be aware of low-risk ways to get started, test your hypothesis and build. “We're known for showing people who thought they had a year of product development ahead of them how to get started in a matter of weeks or months.” K.N. Kukoyi CSM FITOL, 5x author, award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, speaker and CEO & Founder of Purposeful Group Services We offer professional business mentoring from a qualified coach and run 2x 90-day programmes for tech startup founders. We are tech specialists and our 90-day quick start programme is a paid programme for founders planning to transform their idea into a web or mobile app, which is called Tech Startup Academy™ (TSA). The programme is delivered live online and supports non-technical founders, guiding them through the stages of:
Our specialist content is extremely detailed and comprehensive. We only have tech founders on the TSA programme and therefore our content is not general so that it supports any kind of business, but is designed to provide the real, practical, “nitty gritty” details for tech entrepreneurs on exactly HOW to get an app built. Because of the challenges of creating a tech business and the range of mistakes and pitfalls that inexperienced founders are caught out by on regular basis, our priority is properly educating tech entrepreneurs, so they can better support their businesses, themselves and their teams through the knowledge gained. “Purposeful Group offers clarity and detail for tech founders. We provide the practical “nitty-gritty” details on exactly HOW to get your app built. We focus on properly educating tech founders so they can better support their businesses, themselves and their teams through the knowledge gained.” K.N. Kukoyi CSM FITOL, 5x author, award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, speaker and CEO & Founder of Purposeful Group On the other hand, we also cover the topics you might generally find on incubators and accelerators such as marketing training, but we provide practical, in-depth information on tech related topics too. "The Tech Startup Academy™ is an additional reason to choose one tech startup over the legions of others out there 'just giving it a crack.' It shows they're serious and they have some idea of what they're doing." Angel Investor / High Net Worth Individual, UK Our programmes Cohort members can choose to take our “Classic” programme which includes 6 workshops and 6 group mentoring sessions and access to our community of 1,500 entrepreneurs, technologists and investors and our private community for cohort members. Our “Diploma” programme is for those who’d like to receive an internationally recognised certificate as a record of their achievement. The Diploma is awarded after entrepreneurs successfully pass two assessments. Timings and availability Our 90-day programmes usually take place once each year during the autumn, and are run on weekends because we know that most entrepreneurs are part-time in the early days and are holding down day jobs, which makes day-time commitments difficult or impossible. We are currently considering running the programme twice a year in April and September. Come on a startup journey with us and transition from being an employee to a strategically-minded entrepreneur with a plan. The good news is that no technical or business knowledge is required to work with us. You’ll focus on strategy, and getting the first version of your product or service planned and created, rapidly get your business launched and win your first customers. For most entrepreneurs, that will involve creating a prototype, and then an MVP, your Minimum Viable Product - the first version of your product that offers value to your customers AND helps you to learn more about the market your serve and its needs so you can meet them more effectively. We’ll help you to get your prototype or MVP built, navigate challenges, avoid business startup pains and pitfalls, minimise risk, and increase your chances of success
We work with entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping their businesses, as well as those seeking investment from Angel investors or early-stage VCs to get their ventures off the ground. Fast track your business and make real progress to a prototype or MVP in just 90 days. Don’t miss the next programme, sign up for the waitlist now! Find out more about receiving professional business mentoring with a qualified performance coach, or register your interest. Find out more about Tech Startup Academy™ (TSA), orjoin the TSA waitlist. In Summary Support can be invaluable for entrepreneurs and there are a range of options available. Ask questions to build a complete picture of the support available. There is nothing wrong with attending multiple programmes, if you are able to secure a place. Because of our in-depth practical experience of creating digital products, our insights as entrepreneurs and our specialist content for tech and digital entrepreneurs, we receive excellent feedback from founders who need a more detailed level of understanding and support in terms of the quality of mentorship received, and the focus on tech workshops designed specifically for them.
Sometimes industry sector professionals offer guidance have never built a business themselves from scratch. On the other hand, you may find entrepreneurs who are offering guidance and advice after working things out themselves. The combination of fully understanding the theory behind entrepreneurship as well as the practical work involved to build a business from scratch is really important - especially as you'll need to fully understand WHAT you need to do, and importantly WHY. We believe it is about more than just “copy me and it’ll be o.k.” Every entrepreneur’s path is different and different people can get wildly different results following the same guidance. Understanding WHY something should or shouldn’t be done is a true skill for life as it will equip you as an entrepreneur to make better decisions in the future. Learning by yourself is not the same as having professional training in a subject. There will be gaps in your knowledge that you are not aware of, and you may not have picked up all the fundamentals or smartest ways of doing things, which can lead to problems later. We have the deep insight of how to build an app exactly as a professional wood this gives us a 360-degree of the problem not looking at it just from one and one side is a professional or on the other as I'm just as an entrepreneur it is THAT which helps are are entrepreneurs to be truly well prepared for what is ahead! Find out more about receiving professional business mentoring with a qualified performance coach, or register your interest. Find out more about Tech Startup Academy™ (TSA), or join the TSA waitlist. Make it easier for your business to grow with this productivity upgrade for startups and small business owners!
Creating SOPs, Standard Operating Procedures will increase productivity in the daily working lives of both individuals and teams. SOPs are step-by-step instructions for teams, departments and organisations. As you review your business activities and create SOPs across the board for team members to follow, they will improve the performance, efficiency, quality and consistency of your business operations. There are many benefits for businesses of all sizes. SOPs are proven to:
Here’s a short guide to creating your first one! Which activities do you perform daily or weekly? These are prime tasks for review. Because these tasks are more frequently executed, they will give you the best return on investment in terms of the time initially spent to create them. To create your first SOP, pick a task (ideally the most annoying, painful or frustrating) and ask yourself: 💭 What's the quickest, most effective route between point A and B to get this done... and done properly so no mistakes or errors arise? ✍️ Write down the steps. 🧐 Review the steps. Keep updating / reordering them until you've captured the complete and correct process. 💡 Innovate! Can you improve the process? Can you adjust your approach, or cut out any steps? What about risk management? What can (and does) go wrong in this process? How might you eliminate or minimise these risks? If tech is involved, can you introduce better software into the mix? ⌨️ Document the optimised process in a cloud-based tool. 📑 Give the activity a title and add it to your new Standard Operating Procedures document under the department that the activity belongs to e.g. HR, Finance, Sales, Marketing etc. (Even if you're a micro-business or solopreneur, your business still has departments, you're just the head of all of them!) 🖺 Create a contents page in your document, and set it up so your first SOP appears on the contents page. Pat yourself on the back and give me a virtual high-five ✋🏽! Now do it again. Rinse and repeat 🔁 for your most commonly executed activities and keep your document close by for quick reference - no more: “O.k. what do I need to do here again?” or “Where did I put that darned link?!!!!” This will save you time and energy, and reduce your stress levels. I create SOPs for my own business and they make a HUGE difference. SOPs increase quality standards and your ability to delegate, outsource and scale as you create more replicable systems, and structure your activities. Do you use SOPs? If so, how? Not using SOPs? Tell me which business activity will become your first SOP. Written by Kay Kukoyi. Biography Kay Kukoyi CSM FITOL is an award-winning entrepreneur, global tech startup mentor, digital skills advocate and speaker. She has written 5 books for entrepreneurs and SMEs, including the Amazon international bestsellers, Don't Hire a Software Developer Until You Read this Book and Entrepreneurial Espresso, and has been recognised on the #IB100, the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards list of the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in the UK Technology Sector. Kay is the CEO and Founder of Purposeful Group, an international community and centre for learning focused on entrepreneurship, technology and digital skills training. The company supports and empowers the next generation of entrepreneurs and digital learners around the world through its bestselling books, professional mentoring, and specialist workshops and programmes. Whether you're part of a business, or a business owner, there's still plenty of time to apply for a business award or two this year.
I’ve been a “grand finals” judge for both local and national pitch competitions and startup awards, and as someone who’s been in the shoes of both the applicant, and the judge, I wanted to share my thoughts on key things to consider when writing an awards application, and what turns judges on (and off) as they read through your application! As a startup / small business mentor and provider of entrepreneurship workshops and programmes, I make sure that my mentees and attendees know that if they want the best possible results, it is never "Just do it" (sorry Nike.) It's create a strategy, then execute it! I hope this post can be used as an overview that breaks down the process and helps with your execution! Let me know if you have any further questions after reading it! Why apply for awards? There are a vast number of benefits that can come with winning an award:
However, benefits are not only limited to the award winner. Depending on the competition and the terminology used, being “nominated”, “shortlisted” or named as a “finalist” can also attract press, and raise your profile. Reaching this stage of an awards process is public confirmation that you are among the front-runners in your field. Once you’ve decided to go ahead, let’s put first things first. Pick the right awards… The awards that you decide to enter will play a big factor in your success. Try to even the playing field for yourself by competing in the right arenas. Businesses vary wildly in their characteristics, so you’ll need to be savvy and take this into account. If your business has been going for 6 months and you feel you’re going to strike it big, then focus on rising star, best newcomer, or “One to watch” awards in competitions that are aligned to your size, industry and company type. If you’re a company of 5 people doing amazing work across a single region, don’t apply to awards that attract high-growth startups who have raised millions and doubled their headcount three times last year! If you're a different type of business, trying to go toe-to-toe with companies like that is not a sensible strategy. Know your strengths and weaknesses and understand where you can (and can’t) compete successfully. If you’re an apple, you must firstly recognise that you're an apple, and then focus on competing with other apples. Now you’ve started, go all in! I’d suggest applying for multiple awards if you can. Once you’ve decided to put the effort in to make one application, applying for others will increase your overall chances of success. It also allows you to leverage the effort you put into applying for the first award, so have a look through all the categories on offer, and see if there’s an opportunity to apply to more than one. Award applications may be accepted at any time of year depending on the organiser, but February to June seems to be a particularly busy time with lots of awards opening and closing for applications during this period. This gives you a good window of time to get your head in the “awards headspace” and to submit several applications. The first time we do something, we will rarely be at our best. As a result, you may have some regrets about your first application, BUT now you can take the lessons learned, and make each application better than the last. If you only apply for one award, you won’t benefit from this phenomenon! You will have gambled everything on your “best worst” application. Next, to get off to a good start with the judges, some context is useful! Before launching into answering the questions you need to answer for your submission, take a step back and briefly explain what your business does, the problems it solves, and who it solves them for. When applications lack this, for the judge it feels a bit like starting to watch a film after the first hour has passed! A little background information helps to tie things together and helps your whole application to make more sense. Given that word count limits can be an issue, you’ll need to be creative to ensure that you’re able to include all the key points! Errrm, cut the BS! We have “highly engaged,” “satisfied customers”, “we’re an innovative company…” On the surface these sound o.k., but in terms of substance, they offer little value or reason to give you a “tick” in the box and move you into the “shortlisted” pile. Steer away from bland, commonplace language that says nothing very distinctive or exciting about you, or your business. Judges want to see energy, enthusiasm, dynamism and personality! Remember that your application needs to stand out enough to make it onto a shortlist if you’re to have a shot at winning, so think hard about exactly what your USPs are and how you will describe your business. Every entrepreneur has to work hard to keep the physical (or virtual) doors to their business open, and this almost always requires facing challenges, sacrifice, dedication, and creativity. Also bear in mind that good customer service should be a given, and not a bonus. So, consider what it is that makes you and your business stand out above all the other great businesses that have also applied! (If you’ve gone above and beyond, then give us the details… and if your customer service is truly exceptional, demonstrate this by explaining “how” and “why”.) Proof, proof, and more proof! Stats, revenue, reviews, testimonials… Whatever you do, don’t forget your evidence. Invariably, winning entries tell a tale of success and are usually filled with so many examples, they simply cannot be denied. Without this, applications fall by the wayside. I strongly advise that you start collecting “impact data” as soon as you start your business and if you haven’t up until this point, start today! Review what you’ve achieved so far, gather your data and commit to tracking it on an ongoing basis. For example:
On reflection, exactly how are you making a difference? What progress have you made? You’ll need this data to understand how well your business is doing, and what it’s achieving, and judges need to see this too. Next, you'll want to cherry pick the most impressive information and communicate this to the judges. If you can, weave all this impressive information throughout your entire application. (You'll also want to make sure any new “killer stats” that you uncover are also showcased on your website and in your marketing materials!) Become a perfectionist Perfectionism is the enemy of many an entrepreneur because it results in procrastination, so when I say perfectionism, I don’t mean the type that causes paralysis (otherwise you’ll never actually submit your application) BUT if you’re in it to win it, your inner perfectionist will make sure you bring your “A game”. I started my applications some time in advance of the submission date, then put them down and picked them up again at least 20 times. Seriously! I’d do something totally different, come back to them in a few hours and rip them apart (again.) A hurriedly “fired off” application that would have benefitted from additional drafts and more time to improve it won’t do you justice. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well! Ask for feedback and consult the experts where possible Ask for feedback from multiple people several weeks in advance of the final submission date to avoid stress, as people may not have time to respond immediately. Choose people who are honest and “harsh, but fair”, have some knowledge of business and entrepreneurship, and are eagle-eyed and will pick up on weaknesses in your application. Sending out my 2nd draft, I was told that the info I’d put together was impressive, but not engaging or compelling. I was also treated to a few choice analogies to explain the oomph that they felt was lacking. So… it was back to the drawing board, where I spent time trying to figure out how on earth I could action their comments to improve my entries. In summary, have I “walked my talk” and applied all this advice myself? Yes! Here’s my story: In 2021 I decided to attend training to better understand how to apply for awards. (I tend to come at most challenges like I’m studying for an exam. I immerse myself, read everything I can on the topic, buy books, go on courses or watch videos, then go at it.) In 2022, it was time to take action and to apply the knowledge I’d gained. I researched many awards, and got a massive spreadsheet built which helped me to decide what I would apply for. I am planning to update this post with a link to the spreadsheet I put together in due course! What were the results? I did well, but some final results are pending, so the jury is still out! I applied for multiple awards with 3 different awards organisers and received either a win or a finalist result in one or more of each organisation’s award categories. If you class becoming a finalist as a “result”, that’s a 100% strike rate across the 3 awards. The outcomes were:
Was this time consuming? Yes, but it has been absolutely worth it. The Small Awards, organised Small Business Britain announced that they had received a record number of entries this year, so I felt especially proud of making the finals in two categories. The great thing about the effort expended is that these results and organisations will now be positively associated with my business (and me) forever. Best of luck on your awards journey! “While most startups who set up pages on Kickstarter, Indiegogo or a host of other crowdfunding sites are looking to hit a specific goal and then get started making their project a reality, a new crop of businesses are using the platform as a wholly different business model: selling their product before it exists.” Harvard Business Review In this post, we'll cover several topics.
Once you’ve identified your target customers and have them at the heart of everything you do, let’s look at how you might further increase your confidence that your product idea is attractive to your target market and that you’re “on to something” good! At this stage, your focus should be on ensuring that you've done all you can to avoid wasting time and money in creating a product that the market does not really want or need. How do you find out whether your product idea is a “no”, a “maybe”, or a resounding “yes!”? There are many smart businesses and business people that do not advocate spending a penny on product development until they are confident that:
But how do they measure genuine interest? If you progress on to reading Don’t Hire a Software Developer Until You Read this Book, we'll be working on creating and testing prototypes in chapters 9 and 10 and talking about running user tests and customer interviews as methods to help you assess interest in your product idea. These activities can also help you identify target customers who will pay for your product in advance by identifying the "essentials" needed to ensure that your product is seen as being valuable. Which of these 5 stages would you like to be at and which one would make you feel most secure about spending your money (or other people’s money) in order to pursue your goals? Every one of these stages may need to be revisited and fine-tuned many times, but it's still very useful to have clarity on what you are aiming for. What are presales? Presales can refer to a technical type of sales which covers an analysis of the customers needs before they purchase a product, presales, preselling, or preorders also refer to the sales of services or goods before their release date which allow a business or entrepreneur to assess the market’s willingness to buy the product. This is done in order to minimise the investment risk in creating the product, as we know that it can be risky to create an "all singing all dancing" product until we know more about how well it might be received. Presales can also be used to fund the creation of the product in full or to contribute towards development costs. Do you think that the odds of success would be in your favour if you were able to achieve this? Here are a few examples of companies and industries who use the presales method all the time:
There are also a number of online shopping sites which allow traders to put their products up for pre-order and crowdfunding sites use this model too. This is seen everyday on Amazon where you can order books months in advance in some cases. There is nothing “scammy” or dishonest about presales or preorders as long as you:
If you’d like to investigate pre-selling in more detail, here are some ideas:
Other finance options As an alternative to traditional bank loans, there are a number of organisations that may be able to help you obtain finance for your business. Take a look at these option(s): For government funded loans: https://www.startuploans.co.uk/ Angel Investors and venture capitalists: https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk/entrepreneurs-home http://www.ukbusinessangelsassociation.org.uk/services-for-entrepreneurs/ http://www.venturecentral.co.uk/finding-investment/4583889654 Peer to peer (P2P) lenders are an alternative to going to a bank for a loan. The larger players in the market include:
Equity crowdfunding allows startups and growing businesses to find investors and raise funds. In return, investors receive shares in the company.
For an overview of the options available, The Business Finance Guide offers a comprehensive table of lending options for businesses at all stages of growth, with further information and videos available for you to explore each option: http://thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk/finance-options/. Always check the small print before making any commitments! Other options... The next best thing after having advanced sales under your belt, is to set up a Coming Soon landing page. This isn't as good as having pre-orders because you won't have generated "hard cash" in advance, but if you can get a large number of people to sign up to your Coming Soon website or landing page this can give both you, or any potential investors evidence of the level of interest in what you are offering. A landing page is a one-page website designed to convert people to take a desired action. (In this case, people will be providing their email address as the desired action, in order to be among the first to know when your product or service is about to go live.) You will need to set up the page, create some compelling copy outlining what you will be offering, and how it will benefit your target market to excite and inspire them enough to want it, and to care enough to request a notification about when it will be ready for them to use. A percentage of people who sign up will be your very first customers - if you are able to sell your concept and its benefits, and create a build up to your launch which prepares people and gets them ready to buy when the time is right! Wix, Weebly, ConvertKit, LeadPages, and Carrd are just a few of the no-code / low-code website and landing page builder tools that you can use to create one. You can find an article on the core elements of a successful landing page on ConvertKit's website. Take a look at the Wix template below - this example is for a bricks and mortar service, but you can choose an alternative template, or edit one like this and include a mockup of your website and app, along with some key product benefits. You can see the blue button to the top right, which will allow you to copy and then edit this template with your own brand fonts, colours, relevant images, and marketing copy. I chose this example because the Are You Ready? message is quite eye-catching - however an even better structure for the page would have your number 1 Unique Selling Point front and centre, along with your brand tagline, and the classic Coming Soon message (as an alternative to the Are You Ready? text) big and bold so it is unmissable when people visit your landing page. Make sure that what you are offering, and its usefulness is crystal clear to your target market in order to maximise the effectiveness of your landing page. There should be zero ambiguity and no guesswork required! Once you have your landing page up, you will need to drive traffic to it via social media marketing, ads, or other marketing tactics.  Originally published as a free resource offered with Don't Hire a Software Developer Until You Read this Book and adapted for the Purposeful Products blog and published on the Purposeful Group website. Copyright. Purposeful Publishing, K.N. Kukoyi, All Rights Reserved. 23/12/2021 0 Comments 9 Reasons Why Startups And Tech Entrepreneurs With A Mentor Are In A Different LeagueIf you are a startup founder, or tech entrepreneur, do you have a mentor?
Is it REALLY true that startups and tech entrepreneurs with mentors are in a different league? This article will explore 9 reasons why this is the case! #1 The Statistics Extensive research has been carried out and the jury has delivered the verdict - entrepreneurs with mentors do better. We’ve included a few pieces of research here: “Mentored startups grow 3.5x faster and raise 7x more money… The experience and connections of the mentor provide entrepreneurs with a roadmap with a higher probability of success.” Forbes magazine “70 percent of small business owners that receive mentoring survive for five years or more, double the rate of those who do not receive mentoring.” Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative #2 Fresh Perspective A mentor gives you an outside perspective. A startup is a lot like a puzzle, and as the founder, you are the one who has to put all of the pieces together. This can be difficult when you’re too close to the puzzle pieces to see the bigger picture. It's also more complicated if you've never put together a "business puzzle" before! Having a mentor gives you an objective point of view from an experienced person who is likely to have seen similar scenarios play out and can offer you unique insights and raise points that you might not have considered. They can help you identify your blind spots and make better decisions based on other people’s experience and knowledge. #3 Support And Guidance A mentor provides guidance and support at times when it can become easy to get overwhelmed, anxious, or discouraged. As an entrepreneur, there will inevitably be times when things don’t go as planned and you hit a rough patch. This is when it’s helpful to have a mentor who can offer support and guidance. They will share their own experiences of how they, or others overcame and navigated their way around similar challenges and give you advice on how you might move forward. A mentor can provide encouragement when things get tough and offer helpful advice, suggestions and options when you need them most. They will also keep you accountable, which is crucial for success! #4 Time and Energy Savings A mentor has been there before and starting and running a business becomes SO much easier when you are not constantly reinventing the wheel at every stage of building your business! As an entrepreneur, freelancer, or tech startup founder, you will face challenges that your mentor has already faced and overcome, or seen other people experience. This can be extremely helpful, as they can share their wisdom and advice on how to best approach these situations. They may also have a wealth of business tools and resources at their disposal that they can share with you! This is one of the major reasons why Purposeful Group’s tagline is “Start your business the SMART way!” Starting your own business from the ground up will be far quicker and easier if you hitch a lift up the mountain by tapping into existing knowledge, instead of walking the whole way up. Those that get a helping hand will reach their destination faster and will be far more efficient in doing so. #5 Connections And Network This leads us neatly on to benefit #5. A mentor can be an excellent source of connections. One of the most significant benefits of having a mentor is access to their network of contacts. Your mentor has probably built relationships with other successful entrepreneurs, investors, and business experts over the years and can introduce you to them. This can be extremely valuable for growing your new business. The people you know can make a BIG difference in how fast you are able to move forward. Things will be easier for you when you receive help at the times when you need it most! #6 Knowing what to say (and who you should say it to) A mentor can help you raise money. One of the biggest challenges for technology startups is raising money. Still, a good mentor can help make this process much more manageable. They will know who to talk to and what to say to get the funding you need. They can also introduce you to potential investors and provide guidance on negotiating deals and creating a credible pitch that will not “turn off” investors, or raise red flags that will put you in the “no thank you” pile. #7 Credibility A mentor can also give you credibility. Having a mentor lends credibility to your startup and shows potential investors that you are serious about your business. It also demonstrates that you have taken the time to invest in yourself and are committed to learning and growing as an entrepreneur. This can be key when trying to attract top talent to your company. Investors want to know that you have a support system because building a successful business is hard. Someone with no help or guidance and no connections may be a less attractive prospect for some investors unless they have the time to mentor you themselves. #8 Growth & Expansion Advice A mentor can help you expand your business. A mentor may have experience in running a successful business and will be able to share their knowledge with you. In addition, they can provide advice on things like marketing, sales, and operations and help you grow your digital business into a thriving company. #9 Accountability, and someone to “Bounce” Ideas Off A mentor can act as a sounding board. When you’re starting a company, it’s important to have someone to talk to and get feedback from. A word of advice at the right moment can be critical and we see entrepreneurs all the time that have gone off track because there was no-one around to give them the right words of advice at the right time. There is absolutely no substitute for honest input which helps you make better decisions for your business. Accountability is critical in helping you keep up the pace with the things you need to do. Simply knowing that you will be speaking to someone to update them on what you've achieved since your last conversation is great for maintaining focus and staying on track, and on target! Many entrepreneurs find this invaluable as without this resource, it can be easy to get lost in the weeds, or to feel adrift without the structure that regular accountability can bring. What should you expect from a "good" mentor? A good mentor will also not just "tell you what to do", but will collaborate with you and help you gain clarity around what your priorities should be, and will work with you to solve problems, and to figure out the best way(s) to execute on the actions that you need to take, so you are clear and confident about exactly how to move ideas and plans forward. We are often told that this level of very practical help is what differentiates Purposeful Group from mentors who provide less detailed guidance. Ideally your mentor will have mentored a lot of other businesses at a professional level. This will give you confidence about their experience and that they have a breadth of experience that will add additional value to the advice that they give you. Naturally, experience within your sector, or industry could be an added bonus. Finally, a mentor should genuinely care and want you to win! You should feel encouraged, and the mentor should feel like an extension of your company or team - someone in your corner to help you grow from strength to strength who will celebrate your wins, and help you get back on your feet when things don't go according to plan. In summary Purposeful Group was formed by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs and we understand exactly what it's like trying to start a business from scratch! Now we’re motivated to help others to get started the smart way. We've supported thousands of entrepreneurs and delivered professional business mentoring funded by local and central government, including DCMS and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. Andrew Paradise writing for Forbes says it very well: “You can ignore the rules and tear up blueprints all you want, and many disruptors have become legendary for doing just that. However, even disruptors need a compass to traverse unexpected peaks and valleys.” A good mentor is a valuable resource, and is one of the best things an entrepreneur can have to take their business to the next level. If you don’t have a mentor, now is the time to find one! Contact us to find out more about our mentoring services.  Welcome to this Founder Spotlight interview with Christopher Lier, cofounder of the SaaS startup LeadGen. We met when I was running Office Hours mentoring sessions at Techhub, a coworking space for tech startups last year. In the interview Christopher talks about communicating with cofounders, funding his startup, GDPR compliance for business owners, and working with developers in remote locations. Hi! Please tell us a bit about you, and what you do. My name is Chris, I am a digital marketer and cofounder at LeadGen, a web app to empower marketers in building online lead capture forms to improve their campaign performance. I also run a digital marketing consultancy business which specialises in digital strategy development and lead generation for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies. I grew up in Germany, studied in the UK and now I am based in Shoreditch in London’s Tech ecosystem. I’m passionate about entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and personal development. Thanks Chris. How did you first come to recognise that there was a problem that you could solve? We had been managing landing page campaigns for businesses and realised that there weren’t great solutions for building custom multi-step forms, so we decided to build a tool for our own business and clients. Gradually, we realised that there is a tremendous need in the digital marketing space for creating more effective lead capture forms which made us start LeadGen. How did the business develop from that point? Initially, there was slow progress as we didn’t aim to make a business out of it. Slowly but surely, we decided that this was the SaaS business that we wanted to grow. I also realised that building a product business is much more suited to my strengths, for example in comparison to running a service agency. Today we are getting found online and generating new users everyday. The images below illustrate how LeadGen can be set up to create a user journey that supports the capture of new leads.  Lead capture form and user journey for enquiry form, built with LeadGen How has life changed since you started your business? Building a business is a commitment. I learned that one has to take full responsibility for whatever is happening. I was always an active and ambitious person, but running a startup demands a lot more follow-through and critical thinking to be sure your actions are pushing you in the right direction. Many people think that running a business takes a toll on other aspects of your life. For me, the opposite is true. You have a lot more flexibility and get to do more things. The trick lies in not trying to compromise or balance what you do, but to just go for whatever is important to you. Before I started my digital agency Leadcube in 2017, I was still studying. I gradually found my path and a business partner in the following months after University when I joined a local co-working space in Essex where I used to live at the time. So you started quite young! It also sounds like you’ve also figured out how to work productively so you can get some form of work life balance. The eternal struggle when your business is your baby... You have a co founder at LeadGen. How do you divide work between you? We work based on different responsibility fields and divide the work accordingly. My colleague is in charge of product development, whilst I handle the marketing and growth of the business, which suits both our natural strengths. Having a complementary skill set between co founders when building a startup is way better than coming from the same backgrounds in my view. I agree! The benefit of having a co founder is an alternative perspective and a different set of skills, among other things. How do you work through differences of opinion? It’s actually not too hard when you have a culture of open communication. It’s very important to have the ability to think rationally and aim to keep any personal biases out of discussions. That’s not always easy for sure and requires work on yourself. Disagreement in itself shouldn’t be a problem and is necessary to grow. Also, founders should openly address and share what’s bothering them with their business partners, instead of letting it stay in their minds. This way you can avoid a lot of problems in the first place. These are some of the principles we have that have helped us in our business. It’s an excellent basis for all relationships, and a very healthy way to deal with concerns and disagreements! What else can you tell us about your app? What we want to achieve with LeadGen is to build a tool that marketers can’t live without. The web app is built for marketers to build custom lead capture and multi-step forms for improving lead generation performance. Online forms are essential for web-based businesses. They are the key interface for potential customers to get in touch with companies and their offers. Marketers can use LeadGen to build lead forms, branded in their own company style to match with their web content. This creates a better user experience. LeadGen Forms can be embedded into landing pages and websites to start capturing leads. The forms can link to custom Thank-you messages and can be integrated with any kind of other marketing tools, including CRM systems and email marketing software. There are other cool features like displaying LeadProof messages with the most recently generated leads on landing pages as pop-ups. This creates social proof and helps in capturing more leads by enticing people to fill in the LeadGen form on your page. We also generate stats for our customers using the LeadGen metric dashboard:  LeadGen form embedded on website contact form and LeadGen metric dashboard So..., GDPR! Many email capture forms are no longer compliant and do not cater for the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) laws, which is a nightmare for companies trying to stay compliant and operate within the law. It's amazing how many lead capture forms and landing page builders STILL have not been adapted to accommodate the new rules. (Rant over!) Can you tell us how companies can make use of your product and still remain compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations? Sure. Many marketers get overwhelmed or intimidated by GDPR. This shouldn’t be such a big problem to spend time worrying about. It should be easy for marketers and companies to cope with the changes that GDPR has brought. In LeadGen forms, marketers can easily enable tick boxes for obtaining the user’s consent to subscribe to newsletters or lists as part of lead offers. In this part of the lead form, links can be added to refer to legal agreements, including privacy policies and terms and conditions. Lead forms can also be customised with text sections to specify the offering and a note about opt-ins for email marketing. That's really great to hear as it means that your clients have one less thing to worry about! I also wanted to ask you about your involvement in startup competitions. Have you taken part in any pitch competitions? What was your experience like? I’ve taken part in a few competitions. Right at the start of my entrepreneurial journey, I managed to win a startup grant from the University I studied at, which was nice in the early days. I also participated in Techhub Demo night at Google Campus in London, where startups present in front of an audience of tech enthusiasts and investors. I can recommend pitch events and startup competitions to gain experience and get feedback in front of audiences. The more you practice, the more likely you are to “nail” it when you have to do a really important pitch, so I’d advise readers to practice whenever you can! How are you currently funding the growth of your startup? We haven’t raised funding, we’re using the profits from providing digital marketing and web design services to cover R&D investments. My best tip for fundraising is to go through connections and introductions rather than pitching directly to the investor. And obviously be extremely well prepared and able to answer any type of question about your business. Let’s talk about product build and developers next! Your development is done from India, correct? Can you tell us more about this, and about what your experience has been like? Yes, we have developers based in India. I can say that having remote staff is a great way of growing a business. I can’t see much of a difference vs. having everyone together in one place. Regarding the Indian market, it’s mainly my co-founder dealing with it. He knows the local market which is a tremendous help. For a founder from Europe with no background or experience in this market, cultural differences can be a real challenge and it might be better to start building the business from other locations initially. What stage are you at with your business today? We are still at an early stage. The product is live and we’re continuously building a bigger user base. The main priority will remain the improvement of the product, and the user experience until we can concentrate more on marketing. We have close contact with users and also have a Facebook group where we gain a lot of insight into the experiences that users have with the tool and what features they request. Feel free to join at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadgenapp. Thanks for sharing! What’s been the best thing about your journey so far? Without doubt, the people I get to meet on this journey. I really enjoy building a team and striving towards goals together. But even beyond that, as a founder you can get to know many entrepreneurs and interesting people to learn from and work with. What has been your biggest challenge so far? Balancing short-term and long-term results. On the one hand, you know that you need to build a great product, but that doesn’t happen overnight. Sales do not come quickly in a product business when starting it from scratch. Since we are self-funded, we need to find other ways to provide value to the marketplace with services. Balancing those two goals and activities is difficult. What would you do differently if you could go back in time and give yourself some advice? To start earlier while I had more time available, e.g in University. Ideally, getting a mentor early on in the journey and also finding the right environment to work from. What’s next for your business? A lot of work on the product, improving the user experience, and hiring more staff so we can grow. Where can people find you online? For marketers and anyone interested in digital marketing, the best place to go is our website www.leadgenapp.io where you can start testing our tool LeadGen App for free. The Facebook community Lead Generators https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadgenapp is a great place to connect with us and other digital marketers. Thanks Christopher! We wish you, your cofounder, and LeadGen all the best for the future. 12/4/2021 0 Comments Founder's Spotlight with Miriam Pierre: The lowdown on hiring and managing interns! Our latest Founder's Spotlight interview features Miriam Pierre from Nurture Collective. Miriam and I met through We in Social Tech - a tech for good accelerator for female-led businesses where we provide our mentoring services and deliver our Tech Startup Academy™ workshops. Miriam was selected as one of twenty entrepreneurs to join Cohort 2 of the programme. Hiring interns is a popular way to get much needed help with building startups, and Miriam gave us the scoop on her first experience with hiring and managing an intern. Hi Miriam! How’s it going? Please tell us about your business. Nurture Collective is an online marketplace for ethical children’s clothing, toys and gifts for those aged 0-12yrs. We want to empower mamas to make informed choices when buying products and make it easier for them to shop more consciously. What is your opinion about the value of hiring interns? For my business I would see the hiring of an intern as being super positive. It gave me what I was looking for – freeing up some time to work ‘on’ and not ‘in’ the business, but equally led to some things I wasn’t quite expecting. It’s lonely being a founder and it was great to be challenged and to be able to talk through proposed approaches with someone else. For my intern, hopefully it was positive in building their CV and enabling them to be right at the heart of a growing business. I’d love you to tell us about some of your highs and lows with working with interns. What have you learned, and what would you do differently if you were starting again from scratch? The highs have been: 1) the challenge and companionship 2) having taken the time to hire a really high quality intern, spending the time to nurture them, and now being in a position where things are happening in the business and I’m not always having to do it – it sometimes it feels magical! I guess there haven't been many lows but there are times early on where you are investing precious time when you are hoping the returns will come – for me it certainly worked out. One of the lows which is yet to come is when my intern has to move on to a permanent role – I will miss her as a person and for her support, but I will be so grateful for her contribution to Nurture and hopefully we have helped on her journey as well. I hear you! Things happening that you didn't have to do yourself? It's almost luxurious after the slog of pushing the rock uphill all by yourself! It's a great point. You have to invest, to reap the benefits sometimes. Often interns may not be productive from day 1, and entrepreneurs that expect this can end up frustrated and disappointed. Founders should expect to provide training, and very clear direction… You need to be able to communicate effectively remotely - there are some great tools to plan and organise and I personally recommend Google docs and Trello. It’s so important to be really clear on what you want to achieve with your intern and then how they are going to complete tasks within a realistic time frame. Specifically, if it's a marketing role you need to be really clear on your brand guidelines and then have it written on a doc you can share. I recommend Trello. Then your intern has this as a reference to better understand your brand. Absolutely. I'm delighted to see you're doing so well with that. It's something I always talk about in our Marketing for Tech Startups workshop. It's an approach which prevents a lot of confusion and wasted time. Coming from a corporate background I see no reason why small businesses and startups should not develop systems and frameworks as soon as possible to keep things organised. Miriam, what kind of work did you hire your intern to do? We hired an intern to help with our digital marketing which can definitely seem overwhelming - particularly as we are on 4 platforms! It’s great to have fresh eyes and input into the planning and creating of our content. Can you share your top tips on how and where to hire interns from? I think treating it like a normal recruitment process is really important. I prepared a job specification, interviewed candidates, gave feedback and set a task for interviewees to undertake. It really gave a strong framework to assess people fairly. In terms of the actual platforms, I used Indeed, which is a well-known job site. It was free to place the ad and quite straightforward to post it. You can even talk to a recruiter to help you with wording and placement and I had a really good level of interest. Thanks, that's a great tip to end on! Having a recruiter to advise is extremely helpful, especially if you're new to hiring staff. Thanks for sharing your experience Miriam, and best of luck with your business. You can find out more about Nurture Collective here: https://www.nurturecollective.co.uk/ Before you go, I'd like to share some more information about interns. Internships usually run for 4-12 weeks. You will need to observe the minimum wage based on the intern's age, and even charities may need to cover travel expenses and lunch for interns as a minimum. Please take a look at the latest guidance from the government on these matters on the Gov.UK website. Work placements may be quite short, and be paid, or unpaid, and run for between 1 and 4 weeks, however, some industrial placements that take place as part of a higher-education course may continue over a longer period, often up to a period of 1 year. Indeed was mentioned as a place to hire interns in this post, however you might also consider Workinstartups.com, and contacting local university career and employability teams. These department(s) will discuss your role(s), explain how they can help, and let you know how much you will need to pay to hire students. In addition to explaining your requirements, you may need to complete paperwork related to student risk assessments, and health and safety (in the UK you don't need to have a written health and safety policy if you have five or fewer staff), and to confirm that you have employer's liability insurance, which may be required if the university itself does not provide this cover under its own insurance policy. We recommend that you request access to forms and paperwork up front so you can look it over, make sure that you can comply, clarify requirements, and ask questions before you attempt to start the hiring process. Work experience gives young people exposure to the world of work for a shorter period of time, and may be paid or unpaid based on the nature of the work, and the young person's age. Getting access to advice about hiring Understanding all the terminology, and do's and don'ts associated with hiring can be a minefield! We have briefly discussed internships, work placements, and work experience, but these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. There are a huge number of "work statuses" that can be assigned to people who work for you, and it is important to understand the implications associated with them. You may find it helpful to get some free advice from Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (UK) based on your own specific circumstances. According to the Gov.UK website: Acas provides free and confidential advice to employers, employees and their representatives on employment rights, best practice and policies, and resolving workplace conflict. The helpline has a free translation service for over 100 languages. They can be reached via telephone, or contacted via email. You can find information about the Acas helpline here. If you are looking for interns, Purposeful Group is currently powering Capital Enterprise's Talent Incubator to support students and recent grads with upskilling and finding positions as interns this Summer. If you'd be interested in interviewing any young people to work at your business who are highly motivated and have undertaken a number of practical assignments and attended live online workshops to develop their workplace skills, please contact us at [email protected], or contact Capital Enterprise. Author: K.N. Kukoyi Last year was an eventful year for Purposeful Group (formerly Purposeful Products).
I'd like to say a huge thanks to all the clients we worked with in 2019, it was an a pleasure to work and collaborate with some amazing pre-accelerators, accelerators, universities and enterprise hubs, and other organisations supporting entrepreneurship, along with an incredibly diverse and impressive range of founders. In 2019 we:
In 2019, we launched our international Community and Centre for Learning for non-technical founders, our Tech Academy™ business school offering professional guidance to tech startups, and had over 100 software entrepreneurs progress their businesses with our tech specific workshops and programmes during our pilot phase, with more entrepreneurs giving our content an excellent rating than any other score. We are recognised and registered as a provider of adult learning and education. Our content has also been certified, and we are able to offer accredited diplomas to entrepreneurs that wish to have an official record of their learning. In November 2019 our CEO & Founder, Kay Kukoyi CSM FITOL, a software delivery specialist, global tech startup mentor, speaker, author, and lecturer was recognised by the Financial Times, Inclusive Boards and Tech Alliance on the #IB100 list of the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in the UK Technology Sector. In 2019, Kay also had the honour of being a grand finals judge at the national pitch TATA Varsity Pitch competition, deciding the winner of a £15,000 equity-free prize along with Tim Jones CBE - Executive Director of Tata Ltd, and Angelica Malin Editor-in-Chief of About Time Magazine and Founder of the About Time Academy. If you are interested in accessing specialist, quality content for your cohort of tech startups, we have over 60 hours of content to support tech founders, small business owners, and freelancers in achieving their desired outcomes. To join our fast-growing public-facing community, you can join us here: UK / Europe: https://www.meetup.com/techstartupacademy/ North America, Rest of the World: https://www.meetup.com/techstartupacademy-intl/ |
WHAT INFORMATION WILL YOU FIND on THE PURPOSEFUL GROUP BLOG?Want to build a mobile, or web app to offer to your existing customers? 
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