Small business startup advice – SmallBusinessVoodoo.com

Hot, Flat and Crowded – Thomas L Friedman

The do-gooders have got it all wrong. They have been telling us for eons that we have to save our planet. Rubbish. Our planet is just fine. It’s our ability to stay living on a planet that’s becoming hot, flat and crowded that’s the problem.

You see, the planet doesn’t care if we are here or not. And the bad news is that we are living on borrowed time and not doing very much about it.

“Hot, Flat and Crowded” by Thomas Friedman goes some way to helping us understand this dilemma and puts together a broad template to help get us out of this mess. But it’s not going to be easy and success is by no means assured.

So what does Hot, Flat and Crowded refer to? Well, in a nutshell…

Hot – greenhouse effect, climate change, fossil fuels, rising sea levels and so on.

Flat – An increasingly connected and enabled world through the internet and improved telecommunications where individuals across the globe can prosper as never before. But this extraordinary expansion of the ‘middle class’ brings its own problems.

Crowded – A global population of 6.7 billion rising to 9 billion by 2050, where are they all going to go? What will they eat? How will they (ie we) survive? Read more »

As an intrapreneur, it’s easy to get stuck between the dual roles of corporate visionary and day to day manager. You’re told to “work smarter not harder” and to “work on the business, not in the business”. But how?

The business needs you down there at the coal face right now. There’s not enough staff, you haven’t got time to train anyone else right now and, hell, you can do the job quicker anyway.

The problem with this mindset for the intrapreneur is that it’s not scaleable. You are not creating a framework for your business to grow.

Work smarter not harder. You are simply rushing from one crisis to another like an entertainer spinning plates hazardously on the end of bamboo poles.

With each stage of growth the crises are getting harder for you to manage. You are losing site of the horizon. The plates are about to come crashing down. You need help. Read more »

Did you say “Why do small businesses fail – nearly always?”

Does that really mean that MOST small businesses fail? Ouch.

Like it or not, 75% of all small businesses in the UK fail within their first 5 years. So, why do small businesses fail ? Let’s take a look:

- Lack of experience This is either lack of experience with the main theme of the business or simply lack of experience at running small business.  Or both.  People who have good ideas don’t neccessarily run good businesses. “It’s my train set so I’ll drive the train” tends to prevail. Personally I would rather employ a train driver. a.k.a. The Intrapreneur.

- Insufficient capital This can be expenditure on capital items as well as working capital i.e. the cash needed on a day to day basis to keep the business afloat. Arises from a combination of poor planning, over enthusiastic sales estimates and lack of a contingency fund. Read more »

EIB Loans For Small Businesses…

Alistair Darling proudly announced last week that £4bn has been earmarked for lending by the European Investment Bank to the UK’s small and medium sized business sectors over the next four years as part of a European initiative to support SME’s through the current credit crunch.

His performance reminded me of the old yarn about a company chairman who stood up at the annual general meeting and announced: “Last year I had to report that the company was standing on the edge of a precipice. This year I am delighted to announce that we have taken one giant step forward…………” Read more »

How many employees do I need for my small business startup?

The small business startup process can be a daunting one.  So much to do so little time.  And even less help.

Whether you are starting your business on a shoestring with only a reluctant spouse to call on or an ambitious startup with plenty of shareholder cash in the bank, you will inevitably be shorthanded.  Voodoo’s First Law Of Small Business states that: “No matter how many employees you have, you will always need more”.

Don’t worry though. This is actually a desirable outcome for a number of reasons; Read more »

Your small business needs effective leadership.  Possibly your most important asset besides your product is your intrapreneur.

You have decided that you are entrepreneur not intrapreneur.  Your business needs an intrapreneur – the entrepreneur inside the business. But how can you identify such a key component of your team? You can’t afford to get this one wrong.

To help, I have highlighted 30 ways to spot an intrapreneur, those key traits which mark him out as the special one, the one that your business can’t do without.

An Intrapreneur ……… Read more »

What’s the difference between an Entrepreneur and an Intrapreneur? and why should I care?

“An Entrepreneur is someone who has the skills, passion and financial backing to create wealth from new business opportunities and is willing to take full responsibility for its success or failure.”

“An Intrapreneur is someone who Read more »