29 July 2014
Book review - The Directory of Grant Making Trusts
This is the 23rd edition of a book that is invaluable to fundraisers, charities, social entrepreneurs, community groups and anyone seeking funding for their project. The directory is annual and lists details of all the grant making bodies in the UK.
The organisations listed range from the small trusts set up for good causes to large funding organisations such as Children in Need.
Each entry outlines what is funded and not funded, ranges of grant available, sample grants within the last few years, names of trustees and the finances of the organisation. Guidance is also given on how to apply.
The directory in very comprehensive as it also includes organisations who say they don’t want to be contacted on spec. The compliers leave them as it is a good indication of which organisations not to contact.
There are indexes of areas of funding (e.g. educational, special needs, arts, housing, health, recreation etc.). Also types of support (e.g. building, salaries, vehicles, equipment, project finance) and organisations that cover certain geographical regions within the UK and overseas.
28 July 2014
Review - Luxury Briefing - the quarterly bulletin for the luxury industry
Luxury Briefing is a quarterly bulletin for the luxury industry. It includes articles on trends in the industry, news of new luxury products and services, interviews and company profiles and the ‘TAG Luxury Stock Index’.
Although the Business & IP Centre has some market research from for example Verdict, on luxury goods, this makes an excellent edition in background reading for anyone researching this industry.
"Luxury Briefing is always a pleasure to read. It is well edited and filled only with interesting and relevant information and comment. Whilst primarily aimed at the luxury market, it is also relevant to the wider world outside." Sir Terence Conran
The website includes a sample issue and a complete index.
25 July 2014
Book review - The Name of The Beast by Neil Taylor
Naming your business, brand, product, company etc should be an easy and simple process but getting it right seldom is.
Neil Taylor, the author of The Name of The Beast, was a senior naming consultant at global brand consultancy Interbrand - the company behind such household names as Prozac, Expedia, Hobnobs and Viagra - and states that the name is the one part of the brand that you hope will never change as it is the primary means of identification for a brand.
Brands change logos, straplines, headquarters, people – some of them even dramatically change what they do (Nokia started off making forestry products and rubber boots). But often the name is the one common thread that runs throughout the entire history of a company or product. So getting the name right is imperative and most hope never to change the name.
That means that when brands do change name, it’s a big and often costly deal. Remember when Opal Fruits became Starburst? When Marathon became Snickers? Oil of Ulay became Olay? Jif became Cif? All names that are still around today.
But what about Consignia – the new name that The Post Office-Royal Mail opted for? There was such a public fuss about the name – “Doesn’t sound like the national institution that Royal Mail does”, “Sounds like a brand of anti-perspirant (Insignia)”, “Consignia means (appropriately) lost luggage in Spanish”, “Unfortunately they forgot that a more common use of “consign” is to consign to the rubbish bin” - that the name Consignia has now been consigned to history as a massive failure.
The Name of the Beast (The perilous process of naming products, companies and brands) looks at the practical aspects of naming. How do you come up with names in the first place – what sort of name should you go for, what makes a good name etc? How do you make sure it doesn’t mean something awful in another language? How do you make sure that you don’t steal someone else’s name by accident (and then get taken to court)? How do you convince cynical colleagues, customers and journalists that your name isn’t worthy of the usual frenzy of devilish derision?
Within this humorous and easily readable book are tales of big brands, naming disasters, a smattering of insider knowledge and how 21st century super-brands like Google and Starbucks have built their empires on names with strong stories behind them.
Ziaad Khan on behalf of Business & IP Centre
15 July 2014
What’s new on... Keynote
One of the resources we provide here at the Business & IP Centre is free access to a number of business and intellectual property databases; helping entrepreneurs and businesses to research trends, markets and companies, and to utilise and protect their IP.
If you’ve ever wondered what the market trends are in a particular industry, how to write a business plan, or where to search for trademark registrations, then you can use our databases to find out. The databases are regularly updated and in a monthly blog series, we take a look at what’s new.
This month, we’re looking at the Keynote database. Keynote is a renowned provider of market intelligence, supplying businesses, libraries and academia with market analysis reports for more than 30 years. The database contains more than 1,000 reports covering a variety of industry sectors from IT and computing to food and drink, and is a very useful market research tool for business start-ups and SMEs.
Combining secondary and exclusive primary research gathered from industry analysts and data from nationally recognised sources, Keynote reports are designed to help users examine markets, assess customer needs, forecast future market demand and trends, identify new growth opportunities or keep a close eye on competitors and industry leaders.
They usually have a UK focus, but many also contain a global perspective chapter. Reports often include PEST (Political, Economical, Social and Technological) or SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis.
Keynote is very easy to search and navigate, and readers can download up to 10% from up to 2 reports per day (limited to once a week from the same report, and no more than 30% of a report in total.)
There are a number of new reports available on Keynote this July, including benchmarking reports, which profile the main competitors in a specific industry, and market reports, assessments, and updates, which provide detailed analysis of issues and trends within markets.
Those disappointed with England’s recent World Cup fortunes may want to console themselves with a benchmarking report on Championship Football Clubs, whilst food or drink entrepreneurs can research the current state of the coffee shop or beer industries using the market reports and updates.
New on Keynote this July:
- Chemical Distributors Benchmarking Report
- Cash & Carry Benchmarking Report
- Refrigeration Equipment Industry Benchmarking report
- Championship Football Clubs Benchmarking Report
- Rugby Clubs Benchmarking Report
- Stationery Manufacturers Benchmarking Report
- Defence Equipment Market Report
- Trends in Leisure Activities Market Assessment
- Jewellery & Watches Market Report
- Coffee & Sandwich Shops Market Report
- Breweries & the Beer Market Market Update
Sally Jennings on behalf of the Business & IP Centre
Photo Credit: Joel Olives via Compfight cc Photo Credit: marcp_dmoz via Compfight cc Photo Credit: Linh H. Nguyen via Compfight cc
11 July 2014
How to avoid business failure
The statistics for small business failure make for grim reading. It’s a fact that fewer than four in ten businesses survive past the first critical three years of trading to become sustainable. That’s a lot of time, money and ruined dreams that could so easily have been avoided.
I’ve worked with many businesses here at the Business & IP Centre from early stage to high growth and have found that there are some key things to do at the early stage that will significantly reduce the odds of failure and even grow to real success. In fact our research has shown that using our resources and networks will reduce the chance of business failure to less than one in ten.
Firstly, one should remember when starting that the most important asset in the business is you. So it’s vital that you’re realistic with yourself and have your feet firmly on the ground. No matter what type of business you start or invention you want to exploit, it goes without saying that just because it’s your idea, it doesn’t mean it’s a commercial idea and will make you money.
So you need to be vigilant and do everything you possibly can to minimise risk, but how?
There’s no shame in knowing what you don’t know. As a business owner you will need to wear so many hats and have a wide skill set that it can feel daunting. But being an all-rounder doesn’t mean you have to be brilliant at everything either (not everybody with sales skills makes a good marketer) but you sure need to understand some basic principles and practice for a lot areas.
A keen desire to pick up as much information and advice along the way is crucial. Thankfully you aren’t alone. Many at the Business & IP Centre have benefitted from accessible, down to earth workshops that tell you the most important things you need to know, be it marketing or finance.
You can Get Cashflow Confident or grow your business online with our Marketing Masterclass Perfect for anyone exploring the possibility of a new business is our Start-up Saturday workshop too.
Workshops are great opportunities to share experience and meet others too. You can start to create your own network of contacts to help you in all the areas you need to know. It may well become your lifeline.
Secondly one should find out as much as you can about the market you’re moving into. Proper research is your gateway to better opportunities. To have a serious business someone needs to buy your dazzling new product or life enhancing service and it sure helps to know whom. Market research does just this by identifying consumer profiles, average spend, size of the market place, threats, opportunities and forecasts. All this is information gold-dust at an early stage that will save you so much time and money in the long run, even if it’s as simple as helping to guide you on the right marketing strategy.
Published content by some of the larger researchers out there is beyond the budget for most early stage businesses. The Business & IP Centre has taken this problem out of the equation by making freely available to its walk in users over £5 million worth of quality research on all major sectors and a good many small ones too. What’s more our Information Specialists in the Centre will point you in the right direction and show you what you need to know.
And thirdly one should ensure your new venture will need to be as safe from risk as possible. Getting the right legal structure and necessary insurance in place at an early stage will save you huge bills and endless stress later. Understanding what you need to do doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. A database in the Centre called COBRA (Complete Business Reference Advisor) tells you in plain English many of the legalities and insurance issues you’ll need to address among other topics.
One should always consider what Intellectual Property there may be in the business too. Our Intellectual Property workshops and advice help to break down and explain how you can address this important asset in any business.
So addressing these issues will ensure your first step is a sure one. Of course there’s much more to build on from here but these issues are absolutely fundamental to the viability of any venture.
Finally, I would suggest not throwing all your eggs in one basket. Don’t quit your job just yet especially if you haven’t even had a single sale! It’s good practice to test and refine your proposition with a few customers that helps to prove the concept.
Remember, there’s never a shortage of help and advice to guide you, so help yourself to reduce the odds of failure.
Jeremy O’Hare is a Relationship Manager for the British Library’s Innovating for Growth programme, which provides £10,000 of fully-funded and tailored advice for businesses looking to grow programme.
10 July 2014
Make a Date with Business
A few months ago dating business Lovestruck was headlined in the business news for winning Best International Business at the British Young Business Awards. Lovestruck was not only a success in the UK but their Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder is quoted as saying “Many felt that the odds were far too stacked against us when creating a new premium online dating brand to challenge the entrenched, resource rich competition, so we are delighted that our growth abroad in particular Hong Kong and Singapore has been recognised”.
Soon after this award announcement I noticed Business & IP Centre customers looking for this topic in our collection and it seems our customers also have ambitions to create dating businesses. I too began to investigate the subject on our resources and databases for news and market research that are available free in the centre helping me to understand the industry and landscape for dating and matchmaking businesses.
The dating and matchmaking business is not a new business idea and old adverts in printed format and business models have been around as long as the classifieds in newspapers. In this BBC article there are examples of dating sites going way back in history. As recent as the late 1990’s , I saw in printed copies of Your Dog magazine held at the British Library that pet owners advertised details of their dogs – but with the owners personal details for a match made in dog harmony. However, with the growth of the web, there have been many changes both on setting up dating businesses and on using the sites in the dating game. There is little or hardly any stigma left for using sites and services. The current market is prolific and was valued at £170million in the UK by Swedish company Metaflake. This is a trend that is also replicated in other regions of the world as demonstrated by this world map.
Source: Wikipedia Online Dating Services
Dating service businesses are formed usually on their own genre, with a unique selling point (USP) based on clientele, such as Lovestruck, eHarmony, Match.com, My Single Friend and Christian Connections. Newspapers and even radio stations aim for their own readership and audience with their sites such as Guardian Soulmates by the Guardian and ‘The Dating Lab’ by The Telegraph. Some of these businesses are steering an industry on issues for the benefit of their customers and their own future standards. There are two main bodies that are a good starting point for researching the industry and they are the Association of British Introduction Agencies (ABIA) (see also their directory) and Online Dating Agency (ODA). Some of the concerns are authenticity and fake profiles, data privacy and security and consumer protection. The associations are set up to be used by premium brands to put together a code of conduct to protect the industry against poor practices and to uphold high standards of behaviour by the dating service providers in the UK. If you are thinking of setting this type of business, these two sites are useful for tips and best practices for consumers and providers.
In terms of the market research available into this sector, there is a useful Key Note Singles Market report in the Business & IP Centre – produced a couple (no pun intended) of years ago but the analysis, facts and figures are still insightful for understanding customers behaviour. For example, I discovered that 11.7% of the surveyed Singles Market confirmed that they had met their partners online. Regionally, those in the North (27.2%) were most likely to have met dates or partners online, while there were no respondents living in the East Midlands, South West or Wales. Personally, I find this is hard to believe!
When asked ‘What is the worst thing about being single?” they provided amusing answers which in highest ranking are “No one to talk to”, “Having to Do the Household Chores all by Myself”, “Having to Go to Places on my own”, “Lack of Physical Contact” ,“People assuming you have a Partner”, or “Money Worries”. With answers like these, there are 32.2% of the single population actively dating.
Another interesting fact is where people like to meet. When asked the question “Where have you met potential dates or partners?” the respondents gave the following answers in ranking order – Place of Education, Pubs and Bars, Club and Work with the least favourite places for meeting people are surprisingly Online, Dating Agencies and Speed Dating. This doesn't actually distract from the fact that the dating business can be profitable and online with people still using these sites. Speed Dating may not be popular according to this survey but in this similar format, we hold regular events at the Centre called ‘Speed Mentoring’ sessions with experts to give you advice on the topic of day. This works really well for networking and making contacts.
If you use the London Underground trains, you cannot avoid noticing the ‘Tube’ adverts aimed at this same single market in the city. You can see advertisements with various agencies vying for the competition to gain some market share with some eye-catching adverts appealing to commuters. The adverts also show the various brands on the market, the differences in their target audience and inner aspirations in a partner such as the Christian Connections advert tailored for Christian customers.
Source: London Underground Advertising campaign by Christian Connections
Big Data generated by online business are also used to market businesses and to understand client preferences and behaviour. Data can be useful to push adverts, to create apps and for further innovations but they don’t seem to guarantee success in relationships as mentioned in this BBC article.
In a discussion with one of our Innovating for Growth delivery partners, Christopher Pett, who is a Product Development Consultant at Makerco, observed that "this is a great example of a service offer that is expressed from the customer's point of view, which people so often forget to do. In one advert, the guy was saying how he listened to his prospective partner's favourite album before their first date. That's such a simple way to demonstrate that users will establish meaningful relationships with each other before they meet and take time to get to know each other. It's a tacit offer that has an emotional impact on potential customers”.
The customers are at the core of these businesses. Their buy-in to your service or product will help you gain more of the market and in turn, run a successful business. Don’t waste anytime – make a date to use the resources such as the Cobra reports on Dating Agencies or Speed Dating Organiser in the centre to research about your particular idea. The British Library is also an ideal place to spend time socially such as looking at our exhibitions and as a meeting place with someone in our restaurant for a date!
Seema Rampersad on behalf of Business & IP Centre
Follow Seema on Twitter: @SeemaRampersad
08 July 2014
Book review - The New Business Road test by John Mullins
The New Business Road test – What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Launching a Lean Start–up by John Mullins.
The book states that every year two million entrepreneurs actively engage in starting a business in the United Kingdom. However, many do not get the business venture off the ground. For those that do, the majority will fail!
The book suggests that the reason why there are so many entrepreneurs perusing their dream business is one of opportunity: ‘but most opportunities are not what they appear to be as business failure statistics demonstrate...’
To balance this the book instructs the reader on how to road test your business idea first before launching and it provides the toolkits which explain how to do this, as well as supplying useful case studies. Also included is helpful a insight into the ‘live or die’ questions such as:
- Is the Market and Industry attractive?
- Does the opportunity, offer customer benefits as well as competitive economic sustainability?
- Can you deliver the results you seek?
Chapters in the book cover what to do before launching a lean start-up, and focuses on how you can to learn what you don’t know. It offers suggestions on: do it yourself market research for your new business, and covers how you obtain information for evidence based forecasting.
This valuable book is aimed at anyone who would like to start a lean start-up business, helpfully the book also has an accompanying app which is available on iTunes and Android. The app itself makes it easy to assemble all the evidence needed to conduct a road test for your new lean business.
If you would like to learn more about Lean Startup and the techniques used, you may be interested to know that the Business & IP Centre run a variety of workshops throughout the year.
To book your place and to view a list of all the workshops and events for July and August and beyond, please see our website.
Sonya Pinnock on behalf of the Business & IP Centre team
20 June 2014
Book review - Start Your Own Business: You can do it!
Start Your Own Business: You can do it! By Sue Hunter is a practical handbook offering advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the kind of no-nonsense, easily understood language rarely found in the business world.
This book is easy to read and gives you encouragement. It has six clear chapters and is full of really helpful advice. It aims to help you work through the initial stages of starting you own business as a sole trader.
In Sole Trader you will discover why it is important to develop yourself, along with your business; you will learn why market research and your customers are all-important, and how to market your product or service.Business finance, such as keeping records, working out a cash flow and calculating your break-even point are covered using worked examples to clarify explanations.
The final chapter offers an annotated template to get you started with your own Business Plan.
Julie Boadilla on behalf of Business & IP Centre team.
13 June 2014
Race to the finish - building a business in the sports industry
Warren Pole, co-founder of 33Shake shares the story of his business and what he's learnt along the way.
Like many of the best ideas, our natural sports nutrition company 33Shake was born out of a daft bet, painful firsthand experience of a problem, and a good dose of luck.
To start with the daft bet, a friend challenged me to run the Marathon des Sables, a 150-mile, five day run through the Sahara desert. A physical wreck at the time who struggled to run for a bus, this was a tough call. But I accepted and in 2009 crossed the finish line in the Sahara in the best shape of my life. Instead of the end of the journey, this finish line was the beginning – the endurance sport bug had hit hard and I craved more. Ironman triathlons, 100-mile-plus bike races, and mountain ultramarathons all followed.
Which is where the painful firsthand experience of a major problem appeared.
Because to successfully race aerobic events lasting anywhere from six hours to six days, fuelling with the right nutrition is essential. Trouble was, every sports nutrition product on the market tasted foul, made me feel worse, and never delivered anything close to its claimed benefits. Talking to friends and fellow competitors, I kept hearing the same story.
As a journalist of 20 years and writing extensively on fitness and sport, I had unique access to many of the world’s best athletes on assorted assignments. With nutrition my biggest stumbling block, I always quizzed them about what they ate.
Their answers focused on clean, fresh, natural food of the highest quality, often superfoods. This was the opposite of every sports nutrition product out there – the more I investigated these, the more they all turned out to be based on cheap, manmade sugars and additives, ingredients I now knew were detrimental to sustained endurance performance and longterm health.
Here, luck rears its head.
Having junked all sports nutrition and seen an immediate increase in performance I searched for natural replacements. But none existed. Which was when my wife Erica, who had also caught the endurance bug, met a guy who’d studied superfoods for a decade and knew everything about maximising nutrition for a given end.
We explained what we needed for perfect endurance nutrition, and he developed a powerful blend of 33 whole, superfood ingredients that could be enjoyed as a single, tasty, daily shake. What it did for my own performance and health was incredible and with nothing like it on the market the three of us took the plunge into business in 2012. 33Shake was born.
By 2013 our fun side project was a full-time business juggernaut with us at the wheel on the steepest learning curve of our lives. Which is where luck once more entered the frame.
A friend tipped me off about the Innovating for Growth programme, we landed a place, and over the next four months received bespoke, expert guidance, advice and reassurance as well as a priceless opportunity to step back from our growing business and understand our longterm focus.
Since the course, sales are up threefold and we’re now talking with one of the biggest teams in pro
cycling to help with their riders’ nutrition for major races. Our adventure is still only just beginning but Innovating for Growth has fast-tracked 33Shake’s performance by several years while the Business & IP Centre’s resources, particularly with regards market research and IP continue to be one of the most powerful tools in our business toolkit.
Warren Pole, co-founder of 33Shake on behalf of Business & IP Centre
If you are an ambitious London-based business, you can apply for £10,000 worth of funded bespoke advice to help get your business to the next level. Apply today!
06 June 2014
Pop-up Businesses – here, there and everywhere!
There is no doubt that effervescent pop-ups are sweeping across a town near you. I had the pleasure of researching them over the last few months, checking out pop-up shops in many places - from local areas in London to all the way over in France. Most of the pop-ups are surprisingly varied, covering a wide range of different concepts, ideas, services and industries – from yoga sessions, food stalls, technology shops, gardening, community groups, makers, art collectives, artists and creatives.
I live in Waltham Forest, North-East London and I am really pleased to see that my local council aims to catapult businesses by providing dedicated pop-up business spaces in the form of semi-permanent shops in Leytonstone and Walthamstow. Following their award-winning ‘Love your High Street’ campaign, this is a positive signal to budding start-ups, entrepreneurs, community groups and local artists that the council mean serious business! On the high street, they have set up large rooms with plain walls as a blank canvas for selected businesses to participate in and customise for their own purposes. This is one of the few times I have felt compelled to praise my council as they are encouraging something fabulous and entrepreneurial. Personally, I would love to see this replicated across the UK.
The council have kindly provided the following feedback on the Waltham Forest pop-up programme’s progress: “Waltham Forest is home to thousands of small businesses and has a wealth of entrepreneurial spirit. In order to encourage new enterprise, the Council has transformed a vacant shop unit in Walthamstow into a hub for start-up businesses and community groups. Over the last 6 months, these organisations have enlivened the Town Centre, offering fresh and diverse services to residents, including a yoga studio, book café and community arts centre.”
I had the privilege and pleasure of visiting some of these fabulous pop-ups on the high street. Most of them were able to generate interest amongst local residents using social media and good old-fashioned ‘word of mouth’. To give you a flavour of what was on offer, here is a summary of the array of businesses I saw taking part in the pop-up shop:
Massis Tea @Massistea – Redefining and innovating with the Art of Tea to make the ‘Tey Latte’, which tasted very nice. I have since seen Massis Tea popping up in other places - even Westfield Stratford City.
Pretty Please London @PrettyPleaseLDN – Patisserie that shared the space with Massis Tea. It was here that I had my first Crodough, that is, a Croissant-Doughnut hybrid.
All you Read is Love @allyoureadlove – Independent bookshop and Scandinavian-inspired café, serving simple, responsibly sourced cakes and sandwiches, quality coffee and alcoholic craft beverages. They held music and literary events for the community too. I particularly liked how they customised the space to give the feeling of being in a living room …you could stay for hours.
Blank canvas to night time musical venue for the ‘All You Read Is Love’ pop-up
at Hoe Street Central.
Healthwatch @Healthwatch_WF – Health and social care consumer champion in Waltham Forest and also across the UK.
Yoga Me Happy @yogamehappy1 - 'Yoga Me Happy' yoga training and classes with a mission to make Londoners happy …with yoga! There are even classes in a local park.
Amarachi Jewellery @AmarachiJewels – Professional dancer turned jewellery designer who created such a buzz amongst people who came across her designs, she soon started receiving requests for her work.
Good time Girls @goodtime_girls - Retro and vintage clothing and accessories with some photography on display too.
Nicky Carvell @nickycarvell – An artist and designer making items inspired by the pop band East 17. The theme of the exhibition was 'Peace from East 17'. Towels, cushions, T-shirts etc were colourfully designed and made with special materials.
Plantnation @plantnation_e17 - Gardening initiative selling plants, running activities and classes for all ages.
Floor Story Ltd @FLOOR_STORY – Rugs designed in the UK, but handmade in India using Tibetan techniques. I particularly liked the Tattoo range!
Rug from the pop-up Floor Story Ltd.
This flourishing of pop-ups is not just happening in one part of London, but in various pockets across the city. You can find listings, advice and locations with maps on London Pop-ups. Pop-up shops are also soon to be rolled out across underground train stations as Transport for London has signed a deal with online property agency Appear Here,who provide brands, designers and entrepreneurs with access to prime retail spaces in Central London. Both big brands and independent merchants are looking for flexibility in the way that they reach consumers – a fine example is our Innovating for Growth client Squid London, who has been successful in acquiring a place at the House of Fraser pop-up shop. Footfall and market research plays a large part in selecting the location of your pop-up shop and we have a London Business Information Guide to give you some statistics, several global market research resources in the Business and IP Centre and our wiki page - just to get you started.
My colleague Neil Infield has written on his ‘In from the Outfield’ blog about street-food pop-up Kerb and also beat me to reviewing and recommending the book ‘Pop up Business for Dummies’.
Alasdair Inglis, a marketing expert from our partner at Grow, explained that businesses are mainly starting off organically and online, so the pop-up shop model is a great way to test the waters. He told me that “it's amazing to see how fast the London pop-up scene is developing. There's no doubt that it's a tough retail environment for small businesses, particularly with the unstoppable rise of ecommerce. The incredible variety of pop-up experiences in the UK is a testament to the innovation and creativity of British entrepreneurs. I was recently at Fairground, which is a three-storey pop-up in East London. I ate the best pulled pork bun I've ever had. Hung out in the sitting-room styled ‘Granddad Lounge’, heard a great talk from a Twitter expert, took a table tennis class with a professional table tennis coach and played in a table tennis tournament (I didn't win)". Phew! Alasdair also recommends We are Pop-up for more ideas.
Alasdair continued, saying that "many of us may be glued to Facebook and smart phones, and more and more of us are shopping online. However, the thriving pop-up scene shows that people want amazing eating, shopping and entertainment experiences in new and interesting places. The high street isn't dying, it's changing and its risk-taking British entrepreneurs with great ideas who are leading the way".
These are the same ideas we are promoting on an international level with our lean startup workshops, which we are working on with our Open Innovation Partners in Europe, such as the Neoshop in Laval, France. The Neoshop is not just a shop for business start-ups to get to market - it allows you to provide feedback on products too. The Neoshop has also taken part in product testing, in pop-ups in Box Park Pop-up Mall, London; and in Paris recently. Hopefully this post will inspire you to peruse some pop-up shops yourself, or even to start your own pop-up business.
Seema Rampersad on behalf of Business & IP Centre
Follow Seema on Twitter: @SeemaRampersad
Innovation and enterprise blog recent posts
- 2024 at the BIPC: a year of business growth
- A Sustainable Christmas - BIPC Gift Guide
- Why should you attend Start-up Day 2024?
- How to set up a food business: hear from the experts this World Food Day
- National Siblings Day: On building businesses together with Cultureville
- BIPC Oxfordshire – helping young people to succeed in business
- How Do We Sell Sustainability to Consumers?
- A week in the life of Edward Draper, founder of Ortheia
- How entrepreneurs have Reset and Restarted their businesses
- Meet Caron Pollard, founder of Teal and Start-ups in London Libraries participant