In through the outfield

Support for disabled people to start their own business

One of the great things about working in the Business & IP Centre is the chance to be involved in supporting entrepreneurs from minority groups. Sad to say this includes women:

Women are half as likely to be involved in start-up activity as men. Independent start-up activity amongst women is 3.1% of the female adult population but is 6% amongst men, while the equivalent figures for job related start-ups are 1.3% and 2.6%. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)
Key Women’s Enterprise Statistics and Trends

Disabled people actually have higher self-employment levels than their non-disabled equivalents (although it is argued this is in response to lack of paid employment opportunities)

DISABILITY AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE UK, LFS, Melanie K. Jones and Paul L. Latreille∗
WELMERC, School of Business and Economics, University of Wales Swansea, June 2006 (pdf).

So it is good to know we have team up with Leonard Cheshire Disability to run a one-day conference for people with a disability who are interested in setting up a business or working for themselves.

Make your Business Succeed
Tuesday 3 February 2009
10.00 – 16.00
British Library Conference Centre
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB

The Vision Thing

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., in 1963. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration

With Barack Obama’s recent presidential inauguration, and references to Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, in the media, I have been pondering ‘the vision thing’.

So many of the successful entrepreneurs I have met, or heard speak, have had a clear and powerful vision of the future of their business, invention or service.

For me, the entrepreneur with the clearest vision has been Jordan Kensington, founder of Invincible Media who I mentioned back in November 2007. He described in vivid detail how, when starting out he had a film running in his head showing people on the streets reading his magazine (his first product), and the kind of stories it contained. He explained how the power of his vision was so strong it drew people with the necessary finance, and expertise into his network and led to a successful business.

Gerard Burke in his Growing Business column from last November last year describes the concept in more detail. He gives the example of Karan Bilimoria and his Cobra Beer, who even when he was delivering his first cases of beer in a battered 2CV car, had a vision of Cobra as the first global Indian brand.

The BIG and Easy Guide to take a Bright Idea from Drawing Board to Successful Revenue

 

As a librarian of over 20 years there is nothing I like better than a book whose title describes its contents.

The BIG and Easy Guide to take a Bright Idea from Drawing Board to Successful Revenue is nothing if not informative. However, the fact it is written by Rob Lucas who has helped to develop our e-learning courses in Intellectual Property, and more surprisingly, seems to be a unique publication in covering this important topic, gives it even more value.

Certainly, those better informed on this topic than myself are impressed.

“Whether you are an aspiring inventor working from home or in the R&D department of a major institution, this book is an essential read.  I know of no other book like it”
Dr John Beacham CBE; DSc; FRSC
Former Senior Innovation Advisor to the
Department of Trade and Industry (now the DBERR)

Once again Amazon provides the opportunity to have a peek inside, to see that Rob covers the key topics of confidentiality and when to file for protection.

Visit Camden libraries for books and therapy

This weeks edition of the Camden New Journal has a story headlined Free therapy for all to help kick recession depression.

In a first for the UK, Camden are addressing an expected significant increase in cases of depression and anxiety disorders caused by the economic gloom.

“While other areas in the country have piloted the idea of self-referrals, Camden is the first place where the scheme is up and running. Ms Leibowitz added: “We would encourage anyone who feels that their life is badly affected by these problems to contact us to find out what is available to meet their needs.”
Thirty extra therapists have been hired and will be stationed in surgeries, libraries and employment advice centres across Camden.”

What with the British Library offering business advisors, Birmingham City Library record deals for aspiring musicians and Camden libraries therapists, who knows what limits there could be to library services.

Is Creative Commons the future of copyright?

I listened to a fascinating discussion on In Business on Radio 4 recently with Professor James Boyle of Duke Law School.

Professor Boyle is the co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and Chairman of the Board of Creative Commons, which is working to facilitate the free availability of art, scholarship, and cultural materials by developing innovative, machine-readable licenses that individuals and institutions can attach to their work.

Although not arguing for the end of all traditional forms of copyright. For instance the intellectual property within movies will still need to be protected in order to recover the significant cost of production. However, he argues for a much more flexible approach to use of creative output.

In this spirit he has ‘published’ his latest book The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind both in hard copy and as a free download under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License.

Professor Boyle explains his reasons for taking this approach by indicating that the free publicity gained will lead to more sales than those lost to free downloads.

“Why am I allowing you to copy the book for free?  And why is Yale University Press letting me?   To understand why I am doing it, watch this video by Jesse Dylan.  And if you want to  understand why it  makes economic sense to my publisher, read this short article.”

This may seem like a risky or foolish approach to those with a traditional view of Intellectual Property, but there is growing evidence of its success. The latest high profile example is from heavy metal band Nine Inch Nails, who’s Creative Commons licensed Ghosts I-IV was ranked the best selling MP3 album of 2008 on Amazon’s MP3 store.

In other words, a music album that can be legally downloaded and distributed over the Internet for free, has sold more than any others for $5 each, and earned over $1.6 million in revenue for NIN in its first week.

This is all makes fascinating reading given my participation in the next Real Time Club event, Intellectual Property:  Success Story To Be Extended? Just Desserts or Global Gridlock? on 27 January at the National Liberal Club in London.

Finally my mobile works on the Underground

No, it’s not some magic piece of mobile communication technology, instead it’s a free little widget downloaded from the Transport for London website.

It’s a zoomable map for a wide range of mobile phones covering the whole of the underground network. Very handy for those moments when you realise you are on the wrong line, or heading in the wrong direction, or you have to find a new route due to ’severe delays’.

Happy slapping for the Google generation

According to Google there are two definitions of Google Slapping.

The first is what can happen to your site after Google have revised their PageRank link analysis algorithm. Some websites have seen their search results ranking drop through the floor after having been slapped with PageRank penalties, Google slapping PageRank Penalties, and a Wired article.

The second comes from a recent net@night podcast with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. They interviewed Mr. Calzone of http://gog.is who has developed what he calls ‘the simple Google slapper’.

“Ever felt like slapping someone with a Google search, while in an IM conversation, chat-rooms, or on Twitter? simply write http://gog.is and put the keywords in the url, like this: http://gog.is/clerks. This will redirect them to the Google search for clerks.

So the next time someone asks you how to remove spyware on their windows box, tell them to http://gog.is/remove,windows,spyware. Or simply http://gog.is/install+ubuntu. You can even write http://gog.is/what/is/love.”

This is a more friendly variation of what has become a popular response to simple questions between Internet sophisticates. They  create a link to Let me Google that for you, with the topic in question. The site generates an animation of typing the search into Google followed by the patronising message “Was that so hard?”, before producing the search results.

Here is an example for the word library. Incidentally, it is gratifying to see that the British Library comes up at number five in the results. So it looks as though we haven’t been Google slapped (definition one) recently.

“Let me Google that for you
This is for all those people that find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than google it for themselves. Created by @coderifous, contributions by @rmm5t. Inspired during a lunch conversation with @coderifous, @tmassing, @rmm5t, @EricStratton, and @methodvon. Not associated with Google™ in any way.”

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ARK clothing for Acts of Random Kindness

Thanks once again to Springwise for finding a business with a difference.

In this case it is fashion brand ARK from Northern Ireland, founded by 18 year old Cameron, who insists that the wearer of his clothes must undertake an Act of  Random Kindness each time they are taken out of the closet.

I think Cameron explains it better than I can:

So I have this idea. I’d love you to join me in it.

I’ve started a clothing line with a purpose other than profit. The name, the movement, is ARK - Acts of Random Kindness.

The idea - one ARK every time the clothing is worn. That’s it.

Buy someone a coffee, give up your seat on the bus, help a drunk home. Any expensive ideas - send them my way, our profits could help. Just love - love everyone except yourself. You’ll see lives changed, including your own. Just love.

Change your world

The ultimate feel good movie for depressing times

I was amazed to see from the latest edition of 10 things you didn’t know last week, that we Brits have spent £69 million so far on tickets to see Mamma Mia!

This film version of the musical based on Abba music is now Britain’s biggest ever grossing film, overtaking the previous holder Titanic. To add to this impressive feat, over 1 million copies of the DVD were purchased on its release day, another UK record.

Having reluctantly watched said DVD on Christmas day, I have to agree that it has a remarkable feel-good factor. A combination of those annoyingly catchy Abba songs and a cheesy love story for young and old alike. The smile factor wasn’t even badly dented by Pierce Brosnan’s shouted version of SOS and a couple of other songs.

So this could be the next big market for those in creative world for our recessionary times.

Business nightmares and how to recover from them

This is the title of our forthcoming entrepreneurs’ masterclass on Wednesday 21 January featuring:

Rachel Elnaugh, one of the original Dragons’ Den team and founder of Red Letter Days
Gavin Griffiths, writer and ex-owner of the Erotic Review
Bradley Chapman of business networking site Millionaire Impossible
Aamir Ahmed of furniture company dwell

Given the current turbulent economic we thought it would be helpful to hear from a panel who have survived their own roller coaster ride and built business success on the back of the lessons learned.

Rachel Elnaugh has recorded an introductory message below.

More information and booking details for Business nightmares and how to recover from them.