New Business Idea
Written by James Barlow | Chief Executive, SIE Thursday, 01 October 2009 07:38
In the last five years, I’ve probably looked at business plans for, or heard pitches for, over a thousand ideas. The one thing I know for certain is that there is no magic formula or secret recipe to a successful business other than, when all is considered, you need to bring in more money than you spend.
There are however, a spectrum of factors that can greatly influence the likely success of a business, and factors that businesses ignore at their peril. These are the things that set apart a sensational business from the ones that never get off the ground or fall at the first hurdle.
Putting the Meaning Back Into Value
Written by Paul Sturrock, Director of Slingshot Ventures Thursday, 01 October 2009 07:42
Valuing customers, value-added, value chain, value proposition. Sometimes, we hear some words so often that we stop listening; and that’s what’s happened with “value”. We’ve heard it so often that we’ve forgotten what it means.
In the case of a business, value is important in two ways. First, ‘making value’ is by definition what a business does. It makes a product or delivers a service which its customers value enough to buy. Second, when the time comes that you want to sell a business you’ve built, the price or ‘value’ is mostly determined by its reputation and track record for developing products and services its customers’ value.