Meet the business studies student who made £40m from hiring caravans…
Who is this?
- She studied Business Studies at Brighton Technical College
- At 19 she launched her own venture, importing glass and ceramics from Italy
- She bought the family caravan park in 1999 and sold it for £33m in 2005
- She has a tough, no-nonsense approach to business but on the inside claims to be much softer!
Forget consultants - small businesses should focus on DIY strategy
I can recommend Mike Southon’s writing on entrepreneurship in the FT and his piece this week has some interesting things to say about small business approach to strategy…
read more...»Conference Report - Superjam (2) - the Video
Fraser Doherty’s superb video on the Superjam story so far can be downloaded here…
read more...»Conference Report - Superjam (1)
Fraser Doherty’s fantastic session at the Business Teacher Conference last Friday has certainly got people talking excitedly about using the Superjam business with students. Fraser’s superb video is on the way to tutor2u towers as we speak and we’ll make it available as a download as soon as the file is web-ready. In the meantime, here is a download link for Fraser’s PowerPoint presentation…
read more...»Working from home - the cost effective location for a start-up
Reading through the sections on “location” in the growing batch of new textbooks for AQA AS Business Unit, you might be forgiven for thinking that there are only really two locations for a new business - retailing on the high street, or hiring a unit in an industrial park. What the textbooks largely ignore is the choice of an entrepreneur’s home as the starting location for a new business. I have come across a great website that focuses on home businesses - it would make a great support resource for the new AS units on starting a business…
read more...»Who should a start-up employ? Simple - the kids
Child labour. That’s the answer to some (not all) employment challenges facing a small business. A mailing campaign to put into envelopes? Need help with the photocopying or filing? Fancy a cup of tea brought up to the back-bedroom office. Then it makes sense to ask the kids to get involved, and grab a significant tax break at the same time…
read more...»Three years on, three startups tell their story
Catching up on some background reading after a hectic programme of our teacher workshops for AQA Unit 1, I came across a really useful piece by Rachel Bridge in the Sunday Times a few weeks ago….
read more...»Teaching applications of tutor2u’s Start-up Mini Briefs
During our teacher workshops on the AQA Unit 1 (BUSS1) course, we tried out a new resource -a collection of 20 mini (A5-sized) case studies on business start-ups. During the workshops, we’ve asked AQA business teachers for their suggestions on how the mini briefs might be used as part of the BUSS1 course delivery. Here are the suggestions:
read more...»AQA AS Business Unit 1 - Recommended Reading List
With so many books published that provide guidance and insights into the business start-up process, which ones are worth buying and reading? Here are our favourites…
read more...»Starting Your own Business - David Lester
There are dozens of guides to business start-ups out there, some excellent, many awful. However, I can recommend this new entrant to the market for advice to budding entrepreneurs.
read more...»Small businesses shun business bank accounts
An interesting news piece for anyone teaching the sources of finance for start-ups and small businesses. It seems that the business accounts of the big high street banks just don’t compete with the retail (consumer) sector when it comes to savings rates and other services.
read more...»Startups - finding a winning idea
I have been researching the sources of successful start-up business ideas for our forthcoming workshops for AQA AS Business Unit 1. A really interesting exercise, though I’m left unconvinced that the standard textbook answer tells the whole story.
read more...»Start-ups and the confidence factor
An intriguing comment from the CEO of Microsoft in the UK about what is stopping start-ups from getting off the ground in the UK.
read more...»Add flexible space to flexible working as a success factor for a start-up
I’ve been doing some background research on the location issues facing start-ups, as well as considering some of the location issues facing our business. Then I came across a rather unfortunate piece of writing in one of the new AS Business textbooks that brought the issue home to me.
read more...»Fraser nominated to experience the sweet taste of success - again!
Jammy entrepreneur Fraser Doherty is in the news again.. He has been nominated for an award that celebrates Britain’s inspiring young talent.
read more...»Should start-up’s be put off by an economic downturn?
Catching up on some background reading this week, I came across an excellent piece by Rachel Bridge in The Sunday Times. Rachel is a good friend of tutor2u and her writing on enterprise and entrepreneurshp is full of useful insights for us. A couple of weeks ago, Rachel wrote a really interesting piece on the dilemma facing business start-ups right now in the UK. Should they be put off by difficult economic conditions?
read more...»Can Tiffinbites curries take on McDonalds?
Tiffinbites hopes to create 50 potential franchises throughout Britain by the end of 2009. For a fee of £150,000 plus a share of profits, franchisees get prepared food from a central kitchen which they reheat in store. As with most franchises, they also get full marketing and training support as part of the package. One of the Tiffinbites directors, Arjun Varma, is quoted by the BBC: “We are aiming for the young entrepreneurs who want to get into the Indian food industry. Rather than taking on a family-run scenario, they can have a professionally-backed franchise, which they would then build into two or three restaurants depending on their appetite”.
read more...»The business of farm-produced ice cream
I came across a fantastic article on the costs and revenues of setting up an ice-cream business.
read more...»Startups find success with a green ethic
Rachel Bridge writes some superb pieces in her enterprise column for The Sunday Times. I really liked Rachel’s piece a couple of weekends ago which took a look at how a selection of successful startups embraced environmentally-friendly and ethical trading at the core of their activities.
read more...»Invest during a recession - the message from Sir James Dyson
An interesting two-minute clip from the excellent Jeff Randall Live on Sky News today. Sir James Dyson reflects on the lessons he learned when he set up Dyson right in the middle of the last UK recession.
read more...»Coffins fit for the environment
I was intrigued by this opening line in an excellent Independent article on a fast-growing small business.
How do you persuade people to buy a product they won’t need until they’re dead?
read more...»Real Burger World - the Real Life Basis for Mobeen
It is always interesting to find out more about the real businesses that inspire the pre-release case studies for AQA AS Business Unit 2&3. And we’ve managed to track down the inspiration for the May 2008 case study - Mobeen.
read more...»Primitive savages or cool headed risk-takers
Is there a darker side to the entrepreneurial character?
read more...»Latte and WiFi - tools of choice for the “new Bedouin”
The rapid growth of high street coffee and sandwich chains has attracted a new breed of out-of-office entrepreneurs named the “new Bedouin”.
read more...»Most small businesses would reject an offer from the Dragons
An interesting survey of small business owners suggests that investment offers on Dragon’s Den represent poor value for money.
read more...»New profiles of Britain’s top young entrepreneurs
The Daily Telegraph is running an interesting series of articles that profile the 40 richest young entrepreneurs in the UK.
read more...»New estimates of the cost of counterfeit goods
A Money Programme survey, conducted by Ipsos Mori, suggests that the most popular fake product in Britain is the DVD. The British Video Association believes that nearly 80 million fake DVDs are bought each year in Britain, and it appears to be a growing problem. In 2007 the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) seized 2.8 million fake DVDs, a 74% increase on the previous year.
read more...»Small businesses still don’t “get” the web
I’m really surprised, and a little disappointed, by news of a recent survey from Microsoft. It suggests that only half of the 4.3 million businesses in the UK with fewer than 10 staff have a website. The figure is reduced to 28% when sole traders are included, according to a poll by Jupiter Research.
read more...»Glenda hits the finance-raising trail
You may remember Glenn Hoddle as the sophisticated, non-tackling England midfielder who went on to manage the national team (with little success). Now Hoddle has turned into an entrepreneur, looking to raise share capital for his new football academy.
read more...»
