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Accelerator schemes can be a great way to fast-track a start-up business. Typically they will invest funds, provide contacts, expert advice and usually workspace. They will take a small amount of equity in your business in exchange. The culmination of the scheme is typically a pitching event, where you pitch to potential investors. Accelerator schemes […]

Firstly, you need the self-belief that your business has the potential to change the world. More importantly your business needs to have the potential to change the world. Ask your target market what products would be useful This sounds obvious but so many start-ups don’t do this. Many successful entrepreneurs carry out detailed market research […]

“50% of all new businesses fail in their first 2 years.”- Former Dragon Theo Paphitis. Working out the right investment option for your new business is tricky. Be selective. Too many start-up owners jump into bed with the first investor who makes them an offer. Don’t do this, but if you do, use protection. It’s […]

We’ve just interviewed laser cutting company Midtherm Laser about the UK manufacturing sector. They gave interesting insights into this robust industry and how the Midlands is a powerful nucleus for it. Midtherm Laser is one of the contributing companies for our programme Manufacturing Excellence, which explores the technological developments within leading manufacturing companies. Midtherm Laser […]

Last month’s Recycling Waste Management Exhibition (RWM) was a platform for 750 innovative RWM companies to share industry advances, best practices and to show off what they do. We interviewed Fireward about their fire suppression systems and how they are advancing the RWM industry and protecting the environment. Their preventative systems are a far quicker […]

Scotland has played a huge role within the UK for all of my lifetime and I’m delighted Scotland voted NO. Their independence would have sparked such a complex policy restructuring that I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief from the admin bods in Parliament. The build up to last month’s independence referendum also […]

David Fincher, director of Fight Club and Seven, brings us Gone Girl, the eagerly anticipated adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel. The plot centres on the investigation into the disappearance of a seemingly normal woman (Rosamund Pike). Under close scrutiny from the Police and the media, cracks begin to appear and people start to suspect […]

Last week I attended the demo-day of Bethnal Green Ventures accelerator scheme. 11 start-up businesses pitched their businesses to a room full of investors. Pitching is a tough thing to get right and many people start sweating profusely just hearing the word pitch. I was very impressed by them all and I wouldn’t be surprised […]

Show, don’t tell. Make it visual. Screenwriting doesn’t have the flee-flowing prose of novels. It’s the blue-print for a visual film and screenwriting is writing at its most condensed and brutal. There should be no unnecessary words and every scene or joke, however good, needs to push the story forward. If not, get it out […]

  Keep challenging yourself I heard Martin Scorsese being interviewed discussing how he wasn’t completely happy with Goodfellas on its general release. Whilst this sounds incredulous it shows that no one stops learning and everyone can improve. Keep challenging yourself and broadening your skillset with new projects that push you out of your comfort zone. […]