Angel investing came accidentally to UK-based Permjot Valia. As the sales and marketing director of Ernst & Young, he became involved in their entrepreneur programme, which in turn led to his new career of investing in startups. By his own admission, Valia’s success rate is a statistical anomaly: while an average of only 3% of [...]

Entrepreneurship is not about startups! That may sound surprising but right at the beginning we need to make something very clear. Entrepreneurship is about tackling unknown problems or unknown solutions. In contrast, more traditional management deals with known problems and known solutions. While startups often wrestle with unknown problems or solutions, startups aren’t the only [...]

In businesses of all sizes, reputation is a crucial aspect in the level of success you can expect to achieve. A good reputation generally takes a long time to build but can be ruined very quickly. Having in place strong environmental controls and policies can enhance your reputation in a variety of ways. As environmental [...]

Starting a business is a lot like becoming a parent. Not only do you have to prepare for your start-up emotionally and financially, but you have to be committed to its constant needs until it’s mature enough to hum along on its own. And even then (much like a child) it will always need you [...]

For an entrepreneurial start-up, landing that first check from an investor is a milestone. What many start-ups don’t realize is that the seed capital they raise – often from friends and family – is just the first step in a fundraising journey that can drag on for months or even years. My client, John White, [...]

So you have downloaded a business plan template and you have sharpened your pencils and got out your calculator. If you go ahead and fill in all the boxes, will this plan be the foundation of a great business? “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy,” said Colin Powell, former US secretary of state [...]

You don’t have to break the bank to start a business. For many would-be entrepreneurs, money is the insurmountable hurdle. They hunger to strike out on their own, but don’t have a big pile of cash to invest in a start-up that might not churn a profit for years to come. And they’re reluctant to [...]

The corporate world has protected and sheltered many for years, however, there are no certainties any longer. Multi-billion dollar industries, like the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and the automobile industries, which once employed hundreds of thousands are now truly diminished in size, and find themselves back pedaling (if they exist at all anymore) for the bad decision [...]