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29th Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference

isbe - Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

31st October - 2nd November, Cardiff-Caerdydd, UK

For further information www.isbe2006.org

Entrepreneurial Quote - Silvio Berlusconi

"The link between my experience as an entrepreneur and that of a politician is all in one word: freedom".

Silvio Berlusconi

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/silvioberl173459.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Richard Branson

"I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going".

Richard Branson

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/richardbra173425.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Peter F. Drucker

"The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity".

Peter F. Drucker

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/peterfdru154441.html

Entrepreneurial Quotes - Doc Hastings

"Our region's economy was built upon their entrepreneurial spirit, and our economy still depends on the continued success of the enterprises they have worked so hard to create".

Doc Hastings

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dochasting244082.html

Entrepreneurial Quotes - Thomas Jane

"My dad was an entrepreneurial businessman, and maybe I got some of his ability".

Thomas Jane

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjane191203.html

Entrepreneurial Quotes - Harold S. Geneen

"The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication".

Harold S. Geneen

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/haroldsge162897.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Mary Douglas

"The culture that produces strong leaders is one of individualists who are entrepreneurial at every level, taking opportunities as they come, serving self-interest when they can, without inhibition".

Mary Douglas

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marydougla237163.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Bill Frist

"We are a strong, robust, and prosperous nation. Optimism is the essence of our success. It drives our creativity and emboldens our entrepreneurial spirit. It is what makes us invest in the future and accomplish our highest aims".

Bill Frist

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/billfrist167713.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Michael Faraday

"The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication".

Michael Faraday

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/michaelfar277606.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Michael Gerber

"Most entrepreneurs are merely technicians with an entrepreneurial seizure. Most entrepreneurs fail because you are working IN your business rather than ON your business".

Michael Gerber

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/michaelger204543.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Jack Schwartz

"Under Hitler it was the entrepreneurial and professional classes who were the first victims of Nazi boycotts and exclusion. Today it is Israel, the most powerful symbol of Jewish national resurgence in two millennia".

Jack Schwartz

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jackschwar290295.html

Entrepreneurial Quote - Joseph A. Schumpeter

Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production.

Joseph A. Schumpeter

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/josephasc155475.html

Spreading the spirit of enterprise

Fast-tracking innovation in Cambridge

Last year, Gordon Brown announced plans to start Enterprise Summer Schools aimed at teenagers in a bid to nurture the entrepreneurs of the future. It is certainly in step with educational and economic predictions of the need for individuals to be able to create their own jobs in a hugely competitive and changing market. But what’s out there for the aspiring entrepreneurs of today? Programmes like the BBC’s ‘Dragon Den’, ‘The Apprentice’ and Channel 4’s ‘Make a Million’ have glamorised enterprise but do little to provide practical help right now. It can be an incredibly long, arduous and risky process for individuals to test, fund and transform their ideas into commercial reality.

The University of Cambridge’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) has been running its own Summer School for the past eight years with increasing success. It’s aimed at those interested in technology, innovation and enterprise looking to overcome the barriers to business – accessing the right skills, funding, networks, etc. The Summer School opens the door once a year to the prestigious Cambridge high technology network with experienced entrepreneurs available to fast-track business innovations to commercial success. CfEL collaborates with over 200 experienced entrepreneurs to provide relevant, credible and practical training. These include people like Hermann Hauser (Serial entrepreneur, Founder of Acorn computers and co-Founder of Amadeus Capital Partners), Karan Bilimoria (Founder and CEO of Cobra Beer) and John Snyder (Founder of Enterprise Accelerator and EEDA board member) to name but a few.

The location helps with Cambridge already recognised as a hive of entrepreneurial activity, particularly in the hi-tech sector. There are an estimated 250 start-ups (many technology leaders in their respective fields) with direct links to the University of Cambridge still trading and accounting for $1.5bn of revenue and $6bn of value. The activities of the Cambridge Technopole, the CfEL, Cambridge’s Hi-tech Cluster, Business Angels, Venture Capitalists and other local interest groups and private sector organisations mean there is a rich bed of knowledge and support for new members of the local hi-tech community.

Over 200 people from 19 countries have attended the Summer School since the programme started in 1999. 55 new businesses have been developed and over £35 million in funding has been raised by alumni in the period 1999 – 2005.

Source: http://www.entrepreneurs.jims.cam.ac.uk/news/news.htm

Entrepreneurial Quotes

“There will come a time when big opportunities will be presented to you, and you’ve got to be in a position to take advantage of them.” – Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Inc.

“There is only one way to make a great deal of money; and that is in a business of your own.” – J. Paul Getty, Former oil tycoon and once the richest man in America

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy, former president of the United States

“A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, former Roman Emperor

“Those who enter to buy, support me. Those who come to flatter, please me. Those who complain, teach me how I may please others so that more will come. Only those hurt me who are displeased but do not complain. They refuse me permission to correct my errors.” – Marshall Field, entrepreneur

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary” – Vidal Sassoon, entrepreneur
“I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.” - Harry Truman, former U.S. President

“If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't! If you want to win, but think you can't, It's almost a cinch you won't. If you think you'll lose, you're lost; For out in the world we find Success begins with a fellow's will; It's all in the state of the mind. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger and faster man, But sooner or later the man who wins Is the man who thinks he can.” – Walter D. Wintle

“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t do.” Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist

One can get anything if he is willing to help enough others get what they want. – Zig Ziglar, salesman

Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. - Chinese Proverb

When all resources; food, wildlife, trees, fuel, are destroyed, man will not be able to eat money. - Native American Proverb

Seek to understand then be understood. – Stephen R. Covey, author

The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets. - Robert T. Kiyosaki, author, entrepreneur, investor

Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners. – Robert T. Kiyosaki, author, entrepreneur, investor

Talk the Talk - entrepreneurship

Like all selling, entrepreneurship is 50% bullshit. Big yourself up at every opportunity (if you don't no one else will) and don't hesitate to use the following in important meetings - banks, investors and customers will lap them up:

"I'm very Proactive" - The opposite of reactive. You make things happen and are a dynamic, go-getting businessperson. You do not sit at home watching Neighbours and drinking tea all day.

"My Stakeholders are key" - Someone your business relies on. You understand the key concept that all businesses are about building, and maintaining, relationships. Everyone from your bank manager (financial support) to your local KFC (emotional support) is important.

Just don't overdo it, or you will sound like David Brent.

six primary characteristics of the entrepreneurial instinct

1) Independence: The first is a burning desire for independence. Ashok Rabheru of Genisys admitted to us, "If I had the choice of a suburban detached house with a BMW working for a corporate; or a one-bedroomed flat and be self employed, I would choose still to be self-employed. It's within our blood, within the family blood and within the blood of the Gujurati." The need to be special and unique is a driving force of the entrepreneurial instinct. Any company wanting to get more entrepreneurial has to be prepared to accentuate its differences and its peculiarities. In other words it has to assert its individuality.

2) Passion: The second characteristic concerns the passion that emerges from the personal vulnerability of the entrepreneur. In his article - 'The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship' - Manfred Kets de Vries wrote, "Some entrepreneurs I have known hear an inner voice that tells them they will never amount to anything.

But regardless of who put this idea into their minds, these people are not retiring types who take such rebuke passively; they are the defiant ones who deal with it creatively through action."

The arrival of systems, managers and consultants when a company hits adolescence is an accident waiting to happen. The few companies that survive adolescence with their original creative spirit intact are those who succeed in positively channelling their entrepreneurial passion rather than suppressing it.

3) Determination: Dogged determination and irrepressible energy is the third characteristic. Pret a Manger owes its breakthrough to Julian Metcalfe's refusal to sit back. It was a good business with high quality product and customers who kept coming back, but something wasn't quite right. At least for Metcalfe it wasn't quite right. For all the other sandwich shop owners around Victoria everything was fine, they were all able to make a reasonable living out of it. What bugged Metcalfe though were the queues. The quality of his sandwiches and the loyalty of his customers meant a line of them snaked through the shop every lunchtime, all waiting in turn for their sandwich to be made up. It was annoying because it limited the amount of customers they could serve, but what really got to him was that each of his customers had to wait so long.

"And then suddenly it occurred to me that, if they trust us, why don't we just put it in a box? I'll never forget it, one Monday morning we put everything in a box and I said to our staff - just see if you can get every customer to take it from the box. That was the most extraordinary Monday, there were no queues at all in the shop, and when we looked in the tills we had taken twenty percent more than we had ever taken before. It was like a light comes on; it was quite incredible. That was the greatest day". It may have been the greatest day, but it also demonstrated what Julian Metcalfe is all about. Way before he got to his eureka moment he had explored a number of different ventures including a delicatessen and a wine shop. And all the time there was something in him that compelled him to find better ways of doing things. The fat lady never sings for the entrepreneurial company.

4) Creativity: The fourth characteristic is creativity. Entrepreneurs are creative people who bring something into being out of nothing. "What I couldn't bear in the advertising business was the frustration of having an idea, not necessarily my idea, but a creative idea, and watching a group of people destroy it," complained Tim Little of Tim Little Shoes. "Now if I have an idea I implement it." It's not so much the idea that matters to the entrepreneur; the important thing is to bring it into existence. Whereas bureaucratic companies tend to be old, slow and reactive entrepreneurial companies are young, energetic and creative.

5) Motion: The adrenaline of entrepreneurial companies establishes a rhythm of perpetual motion. This is the fifth characteristic. One of our interviewees, Richard Wheatly, illustrated this by describing an early crisis that he faced with Jazz FM. Despite all the positive things he was doing with Jazz FM, the company was burdened by offices that were too large and too expensive and by the weight of another radio station that he had inherited - Viva. Something had to happen, the company was three weeks from closure.

As Wheatly now says, "You've got to have a crisis to refocus a business. I guess the key issue is really being in shit-street so you have to focus." And as crises go this was a pretty big one. Wheatly's response had an air of desperation about it, he went out with a radio station to sell. And he got lucky, he found Mohammad Al Fayed.

Not only did Al Fayed want a radio station and was prepared to pay for it, but he also wanted the building. Wheatly was out of jail. Entrepreneurial companies live on adrenaline; mature organisations crave certainty and want to control their environment. Entrepreneurial companies not only go with the flow; they thrive on the excitement of it all.

6) Femininity: The sixth characteristic concerns femininity. There's a trend, led in part by female entrepreneurs, towards a more collaborative and feminine model of business that places emphasis on relationships and 'soft' values. Hannah Brown exemplified this for us when she described the spirit at Kendall Tarrant. "What is amazing is the closeness and the personal nature of the relationships between all the individuals. The mutual respect, the mutual caring, genuine caring. That doesn't mean we're all best friends because of course we're not, it is a commercial relationship, but there is a blurring that goes on that is very real and very mutual. We wouldn't do anything intentionally to annoy, irritate or upset the person over there because we have the respect for them and that's all about the personal relationships. I can't emphasise that enough. It's hugely female." Those companies that are in touch with their entrepreneurial instinct are often in touch with their feminine side, giving lie to the Arthur Daley caricature of the entrepreneur. Those that aren't will increasingly find that they need to develop it.

Uniqueness, passion, energy, creativity, rhythm and femininity: these are the distinguishing qualities of the entrepreneurial instinct. These are the dimensions that you need to attend to if you and your company want to get more entrepreneurial.

Business Link

Have a look at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk for a whole range of business start-up information.