100 Ways to Be a Better Entrepreneur

As a High-Growth Business Coach I’m often asked for those little nuggets of wizdom that come with age and personal experience as a successful entrepreneur. It was therefore pleasantly surprised when I came across the most Comprehensive Do List for Entrepreneurs looking to grow a business more efficiently and efficiently. The list has been published by Entrepreneur.com, which is a resource well worth following for nacent entrepreneurs.

Growing Interest in Growth Entrepreneurship

In early 2007 I was commissioned to write a discussion paper for SEEDA, a UK regional development agency, based on a review of the academic literature on the subject of Growth Entrepreneurship. I subsequently published the paper on Scribd last year (see panel) and to my surprise it has now been read by over 8,000 people and become a ‘Hot Favorite’!

At the same time, I started this learning blog not knowing what sort of interest there might be in my doctoral research into Growth Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Team Dynamics. And, to be fair, no real effort was made by me to actively promote the blog, collect followers or make the site SEO friendly. However, the response to my paper has now encouraged me to get serious with social media and become more active in sharing the results of my research along with my work as a high-growth business coach and mentor.

If you’re interested in aspects of high-growth entrepreneruship I will now be posting or a more regular basis and you can also  follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/johncavill.

Mentoring opportunity for ICT entrepreneurs

Worshipful Company of Information Technologists

ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) entrepreneurs from start-ups or early stage ventures now have the opportunity to be mentored by experienced senior IT professionals who are members of the Information Technologists’ Company (ITC). The ITC (also known as the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists) is the 100th Livery Company of the City of London, which provides significant charitable and educational programmes useing the expertise, resources and networks of its 650 members.

The mentoring services are FREE and can happen face-to-face, over the telephone or by email. Sessions may be as frequent or as occasional as both parties feel is appropriate, and may last as long as both parties agree.

To find out more or request a mentor go to www.itcmentoring.com

Sir Jackie Stewart launches mentoring scheme for Dyslexic entrepreneurs

The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has launched a mentoring scheme, in conjunction with Cass Business School, City University London, and Dyslexia Scotland, to link entrepreneurs with dyslexia with successful dyslexic people who will share the benefit of their experience and knowledge.

Sir Jackie Stewart, President of Dyslexia Scotland and Vice President of the British Dyslexia Association, was key speaker at the launch event and will be a mentor. Other keynote speakers and mentors included Zenna Atkins, Chair of Ofsted, Jonty Hearnden, TV Antiques Expert, and Louis Barnett, founder of Chokolit.

The programme is an informal mentoring scheme, which is designed to be flexible. The emphasis is on two people getting together who share something in common – dyslexia. The aim is for the mentor to share some of their coping strategies and above all instil confidence in the mentee. The scheme is based on the reality that too often the positive attributes of being dyslexic are forgotten and not even recognised by the individual themselves. The scheme is about celebrating the positive side of dyslexia and who better to do this then someone who has travelled the same road and who can act as a role model.

The BDA and Dyslexia Scotland believe if dyslexic people in the UK were provided with mentoring to increase their confidence, there could be an increase in the number of dyslexic people unlocking their potential and creating new ventures. If US rates were matched a further 560,000 UK entrepreneurs would exist [1].

References
1. Logan J, Hendry, C., Brown, J., Courtney, N. (2008), ‘Unlocking the potential of the UK’s hidden innovators’, Microsoft UK; sponsored by: Microsoft

Branson talks about his Dyslexia

One of my earlier blogs (24 January 2008) introduced a new line of research into the links between entrepreneurship and dyslexia. In the following TV interview Richard Branson talks openly about his dyslexia, which he attributes in part to his success.

Studies carried out at CASS Business School indicate that dyslexics make up 19% or 600,000 of the 3.5 million population of entrepreneurs in the UK whereas in America 35% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. The fundermental difference between the two groups seems to be their level of self-confidence.

A ‘Conversation’ about Dyslexia & Entrepreneurship

Last week I was invited to Arizona by the Kauffman Foundation to attend a closed ‘conversation’  between a small group of thinkers and doers for the purpose of better understanding dyslexia and entrepreneurship, and the possible links between the two.  The group, consisting of successful dyslexic entrepreneurs, educators and leading scientific researchers, spent two and a half days exploring the possibility of introducing a new study to extend the initial findings of Professor Julie Logan in this area [1].

As a dyslexic entrepreneur and academic researcher myself, this is an area of research which is close to my heart and one which I will continue to follow closely in my blog.

References
[1] Logan, J. (2007) Failures in education system cause UK to produce less dyslexic entrepreneurs than the US. CASS 

Plot your company’s Equity Fingureprint

The idea of plotting a company’s Equity Fingerprint was devised by Philip Baddeley, a Cambridge based entrepreneur, Business Angel and mentor. An Equity Fingerprint encapsulates the equity structure and valuation of a business, which is essentially an equity map that plots the effect of shareholder dilution overtime as additional rounds of funding are closed.

Apart from being a useful tool for entrepreneurs, the Equity Fingerprint Methodology is also now being used as a research tool and a means of teaching the role of external equity finance in the growth of new ventures. To find out how to plot your own company’s Equity Fingerprint and see examples of other successful high-growth businesses such as Google and Cambridge Silicon Radio download The Essential Guide to Equity for Entrepreneurs.

When considering the possibility of dilution in order to raise additional finance, just remember that in the long run, it’s better to have a small piece of a large pie than a large piece of a small pie!

The UK’s Hidden Innovators

New research conducted by Cass Business School’s Centre for New Technologies, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CENTIVE) sponsored by Microsoft, has revealed that a latent pool of hidden innovators could potentially add a staggering £15 Billion to the UK economy by 2012 if the right conditions were created according to the latest government figures.

The report, Unlocking the potential of UK’s Hidden Innovators, which combined in depth statistical research with qualitative case study analysis, was conducted over a six month period. It examined how we might unlock the barriers and pathways to entrepreneurial innovation in three important groups, recognised for their entrepreneurial potential:

• “Olderpreneurs” (those aged over 50)
• Black Minority and Ethnic (BME)
• People with a disability (including dyslexia)

Older entrepreneurs, ‘olderpreneurs’ could contribute an increased 17% of the potential uplift to the UK economy by 2012 and will be key to capitalising on this innovation opportunity as the size of this group expands over the next four years. With a wealth of experience and insight built up over their careers, this group has the highest rate of business success and longevity, with over 70% of start-ups lasting more than three years, compared with 28% for younger entrepreneurs. Moreover, with those over 55 set to account for a third of the UK population by 2025, older entrepreneurs are well placed to tap into the fast-growing potential marketplace through their shared experiences and understanding, the report reveals.

One of the report’s key findings is that entrepreneurial self-confidence is a critical issue for all the hidden innovator groups and a major barrier in pursuing an entrepreneurial path. However, it also reveals that this self-confidence can be nurtured if there is a culture of entrepreneurship to support it.

Develop your network

Developing a network is an important activity for entrepreneurs who will all require information, capital, skills, and labour to start a new venture. These networks comprise of people who are known to the entrepreneur, or who are known by the entrepreneur’s contacts and who can help to complement the entrepreneur’s resources, particularly at the early stages of a new venture. The larger the network, or social capital as it is known, the greater the chances that the entrepreneur will be able to tap into the right knowledge source, at minimal transaction costs. The venture’s ability to attract and retain clients depends not only on its ability to produce high-quality products or services, but also on its connection to potential clients, which a network can provide.

Sierra Navada College have developed an “Entrepreneur Network Experiential Exercise”, which provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to diagnose their own network of relationships. Follow the link and complete the questionnaire to determine the density of your own network.

New biological factors found to influence entrepreneurship

A new avenue of exploratory research has set out to understand more fully the long running nature versus nurture debate on whether entrepreneurs are born or can be taught the appropriate skills. The high growth in entrepreneurship education over recent years in schools, further education colleges and universities would suggest the latter. However, a UK exploratory study [1], which compared the self-employment activity of 609 pairs of identical twins and 657 pairs of same sex non-identical twins, found that identical twins had a much higher incidence of self-employment activity. This seems to suggest a genetic link to entrepreneurial orientation, although the specific genes have yet to be identified.

A second exploratory study on the same theme based on evolutionary biology [2] found the level of testosterone in individuals with entrepreneurial experience to be measurably higher than those with no entrepreneurial experience, suggesting a possible link between testosterone and venture success.

Should this line of exploratory research prove fruitful, what might be the potential implications for private or institutional investors wanting to incorporate tests of this nature within their investment due diligence process? Would it be socially acceptable to deny someone access to financial resources based upon biological factors that they can’t control?

References
[1] Niclaou, N. et al., (2006). Is the tendancy to engage in self-employment genetic? http://wsomfaculty.cwru.edu/shane/ge/GE1.pdf
[2] White, R. E., et al. (2006). Entrepreneurs and Evolutionary Biology: the relationship between testosterone and new venture creation. Organisation Behaviour and Human Decision Processes