11 November 2015
Top tips for social entrepreneurs from OHYO’s MD Guy Jeremiah
Since Ohyo began trading in 2010, Guy Jeremiah has been through all the snakes and ladders of running a commercial enterprise with a green mission. Having sold 700,000 UK-made Ohyo Collapsabottles across all continents, with clients including Marks & Spencer, Guy has experienced the highs and the lows of running a business.
As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week on 17 November Guy will be sharing his knowledge of running a social enterprise at the Business & IP Centre; in the meantime here are some of his tips for getting started.
Get to grips with intellectual property
Pay particular attention to developing an intellectual property strategy. Is a patent relevant for you? Perhaps design registration, trademark and branding is more pertinent to your plan? The British Library Business & IP Centre has been a tower of strength to me in these areas.
Stay on top of your finances
On a day-to-day basis I seem to have one eye on Twitter, and the other eye firmly on the cash-flow. Financial management is at the heart of any business; whether you use SAGE or Excel, it’s essential that you know when the cash could run out and how to react accordingly.
Get the most out of cloud-based apps
I set up my first business, an Environmental Consultancy, in 1999 when you needed a server, a big printer for mass mail-outs and fax machines. The internet and cloud-based applications have transformed the arena for small businesses to get set up quickly and cheaply.
Start crowd-funding
Drawing on my own experiences of launching the Ohyo Bag with Felix Conran, consider how crowd-funding can get your new product off to a flying start.
Become a marketing whizz
Marketing your products and services is a tough process and you should take all the advice you can get. Balancing PR, advertising and social media on a meagre budget is a skill all entrepreneurs need to learn quickly.
Find out more about how to become an entrepreneur with a social and ethical conscious at Social Entrepreneurship: Theory, practice and what really happens at the British Library during Global Entrepreneurship Week.