“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.

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:

• Far longer than it should
• They make a lot of unnecessary and avoidable mistakes along the way

 
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:

• Thinking about and exploring the problem they intend to solve
• Considering how to solve it
• Carrying out market research and analysing market size, consumer and market trends
• Conducting customer interviews, and doing a range of other tasks relating to thinking, planning, research and discovery
• Creating a business plan and business model which helps the aspiring entrepreneur to carefully examine all aspects of the business; digging into the details of who the business will serve and how, defining customer, partner and supplier relationships, considering how the products or services will be consumed by customers and how they will be priced

Businesses at this stage are sometimes called “pre-seed” businesses, and although it is not always the case, some objectives for entrepreneurs on an incubator may be to complete the programme with a newly formed business - either with or without customers, or at least to have progressed through the stages of validating the idea, testing it, and deciding if it is even worth pursuing or not.
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:

• Blockchain accelerators
• Fashion accelerators
• Property accelerators (property startups driven by tech may be referred to as being in PropTech) 
• Fintech accelerators (Financial Technology) 
• HealthTech / MedTech accelerators (relating to health and medical innovation and related services)
• Climate / GreenTech or Clean Tech accelerators
• FemTech accelerators (relating to female sexual, or reproductive health and well-being) 
• Transport accelerators (relating to Smart Cities and sustainable ways to travel, live and work in cities)

 
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...

​Techstars
​6% equity investment.
Source: https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/investment-terms.

​​
​Seedcamp
​6-7% equity investment.
Source: https://seedcamp.com/faq/ 

​
​Y Combinator
​7% equity investment.
Source: https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/ 

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.
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​
​“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:

• Research
• Planning
• Product design
• Building
• Launching and
• Marketing

 
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

• Rapidly kick start your business, and move from employee to entrepreneur and idea to functioning business
• Create a prototype or first version of your product
• Avoid the pitfalls, problems and pains that come with getting started
• Work with a company that has helped household name corporate giants take tech products to market - we’ll help YOU do the same!
• Valuable practical, insider knowledge of essential DO’s and Don’ts
• Gain insider knowledge, give you a framework and structure and a plan to follow

 

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.

1. Our popular and highly-regarded content
2. We're specialists in helping early-stage digital and tech startups to get their businesses off the ground
3. The creator of our content has been recognised by the Financial Times as being a leader in the tech sector and has won an award for her services to the sector
4. Our founder, who delivers our content is a multiple bestselling author who has written highly rated books on the subjects of entrepreneurship and technology entrepreneurship
5. We hold qualifications in performance coaching, and professional business mentoring is what we do week in, week out. It is our “day job” and not something we do on an occasional, or volunteer basis and we’ve spent hundreds of hours supporting founders on a 1-1 and group basis
6. marketing and technical project management and worked with household name companies for over a decade to create professional, commercial grade digital products
7. Our multiple award wins and additional award shortlists and nominations
8. Flexibility in terms of the times we run our sessions
9. We welcome and support entrepreneurs of all types and backgrounds
10. We're on the government’s official list of adult education training providers. 
11. We offer accredited programs with the option to gain a Diploma. 
12. We are entrepreneurs AND we are qualified in what we do!

​
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.

If so, there can be a lot to consider.
It is common to see articles, blog posts and the like, which immediately launch into comparisons between different types of software.

I believe this is a mistake which can mislead businesses.

Although these comparisons are useful, initially, try to take a step back from this sort of information, and first look inwards, before looking outwards.

Your starting position should always be your specific characteristics, and requirements as a business, or department.
From this point, with a clear picture of what you need and why, you are simply following a process of elimination, based on your business drivers and commercial needs.
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Following this approach is far more likely to lead to a positive result.

Assuming that you've assessed the specific needs of your business, and the activities that you would like the software to perform for you, let’s take a look at 4 questions that you can ask yourself when thinking about purchasing software:

1. Do you wish to be able to “own” or adapt your software? 
Do you want the freedom to use the software “for life,” potentially holding it for as long as 3-10+ years?
Is it important to have the scope to adapt it now, or in the future, or to be able to connect (i.e. integrate) it with other systems?
If you wish to extend, or flex a product to meet your needs, this is less likely to be possible with “rented” SaaS products, (although moving up to a higher pricing tier may allow you to access a wider range of options.)
On the other hand, "ownership" (via a license that allows you more flexibility to modify the software, or the ability to hold it for a longer period) may not be the best option if:

• Your business is growing or changing quickly, and it might be better not to commit to a system for the long-term.
• You want to keep your options open. Better software is constantly coming onto the market via innovative vendors; many of them providing “free” software upgrades via the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.
• The cost of "ownership" is prohibitively expensive. (In chapter 5 we’ll discuss the point at which leasing may become more expensive than "owning" your software!)

2. How urgently do you require the software?
If a short sales cycle is needed, consider that for larger and more complex software systems, it can take weeks (or even many months) to:

• Assess and gather together requirements
• Research the software available on the market
• Co-ordinate product demonstrations and trials
• Address outstanding questions
• Confirm details of financing
• Review contracts and terms
• Carry out testing (user acceptance testing, or UAT) to confirm that it supports your key business processes in the way(s) that you expect
• Get staff trained up, and able to use the software correctly and to its fullest extent
• Install / implement the product and get it “set-up,” including any modifications to the software that you require. You may also need to factor in time to set up the hosting of the product and the transfer of data into the new system as part of your wider rollout plan.

In this case, “plug-and-play” cloud-based SaaS software that is hosted for you, or easy to install desktop products, will be much quicker to implement than self-hosted software, enterprise software that may require adjustments; usually referred to as customisation (code changes), or configuration (manual adjustments to fields, label names, menu options etc.) before you can use it, or bespoke software built for you from scratch. (We’ll explore these options in some detail later in this chapter.)

3. Is convenience, or control most important? 

• How critical is the software to the day-to-day running of your business?
• Are there legal, or regulatory requirements that you are bound to comply with? How severe would the consequences of non-compliance, hacking, or data theft be in terms of fines, loss of reputation, loss of business or compensation costs?
• What are your company’s data security requirements?
• Do you have the in-house expertise to host the product yourself so you can control your security and data storage and backup arrangements, and manage compliance measures internally? Will you need to outsource the job and find 3rd party suppliers to manage hosting for you?

If you are looking to buy business critical-software and have lots of data protection or other regulations to consider, then self-hosting or private cloud-based managed services will give you more control than outsourcing to 3rd parties, or using SaaS based software.
However, if you are less concerned about these items, then SaaS products are generally more convenient, with fewer set-up tasks required.

4. Do you seek highly-specialised functionality? 
How niche are your requirements?
If you are unable to find functionality that meets your needs on the open market, or you have masterminded a process, or technique that you want your software systems to reflect, you may wish to consider software that can be altered by a software provider, or decide to have a product built in-house, or by a 3rd party. (In the next chapter, we’ll cover some key points to review if you are thinking of having software built, including options that could expedite the build of your product.)
Copyright 2017 © K.N. Kukoyi. Purposeful Products.

This content was taken from the software buyer's survival guide: 
Don't Buy Software For Your Small Business Until You Read This Book:
A guide to choosing the right software for your SME & achieving a rapid return on your investment.

Now available on Amazon and featured on Kindle best-seller lists in Australia, Canada, France, the UK and US: bit.ly/SME-guide
Print versions of the book will be available from 18th June 2017.

You can access a free Business Requirements Assessment document in Word and Excel formats (1 of the 7 free resources provided to readers of the book) here: http://bit.ly/resource1-assessment

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