Category / Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth

‘Double Your Customer Spend’ event a resounding success!

The Bournemouth University Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE) was delighted to welcome Peter Czapp, co-founder of The Wow Company, to the Executive Business Centre on the 23 September to deliver a thought provoking seminar ‘Double your Customer Spend in 12 Months’.

Peter is one of the CfE’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, a small group of proactive business owners who visibly support and encourage entrepreneurship by acting as Champions for entrepreneurship and Ambassadors for the CfE.  The CfE runs a regular programme of free seminars aimed at businesses, BU students and staff. They provide a great opportunity to network and gain useful insights and ideas from other business people.

The Wow Company, is a proactive accountancy practice that advises small businesses across the UK, helping them make more profit, pay less tax and have more fun! Some of Wow’s clients have achieved amazing things; changing their industries, winning awards and ultimately selling for millions. However, most of Wow’s clients are small businesses that just do ok. During this seminar Peter highlighted seven key differences between those that make it big, and those that don’t. These included having a specific client retention plan in place to ensure you are maximising sales to your existing customers and truly looking after all their needs; another important area covered by Peter related to pricing – make sure your charges accurately reflect the amount of time you spend on client work and don’t be afraid of increasing your prices!

Toby Pestridge, Creative Director of Createful was a member of the audience and produced this great visual to summarise the points raised by Peter:

Wow

We are immensely grateful to Peter for delivering this seminar and for his continuing support of the activities of the CfE. You can find out more about The Wow Company by visiting www.thewowcompany.com

Information about the BU Centre for Entrepreneurship can be found at www.bucfe.com or by contacting Nikki Harvey at nharvey@bournemouth.ac.uk

Latest CfE tenant surgery – Matt Hawkins C4L

The Bournemouth University Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE) was delighted to welcome Matt Hawkins, Chairman and Founder of C4L to the incubator to host our latest Business Surgery.

Matt is one of the CfE’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, a small group of proactive business owners who visibly support and encourage entrepreneurship by acting as Champions for entrepreneurship and Ambassadors for the CfE.

The CfE Business Surgeries are run on a regular basis and provide a fantastic opportunity for early stage and growing businesses to ask questions and pick the brains of experienced professionals and entrepreneurs. They are aimed at both the businesses based at the CfE and also BU students running businesses. Previous Business Surgeries have been hosted by Gary Seneviratne, (Adido), Peter Czapp, (The Wow Company), and Ewan King, (Content is King).

At the age of 25, Matt Hawkins founded C4L in 2000, four years after completing a computing and business degree at Brunel University.  Having programmed his first computer at the age of five, some 33 years later Matt’s privately owned company, C4L, now has a turnover of £12.5m which he expects to increase to £16m in 2014. Since inception the firm has maintained a track record of rapid growth every year due to continuous progression through innovation. Today, C4L is based at County Gates House which borders Bournemouth and Poole and occupies four floors of the building. C4L also owns its own data centre and houses 15,000 square feet of very sensitive data for banks, businesses and technology companies from across the UK and Europe. C4L’s client base includes Government, FTSE 250, financial institutions and many of the UK’s network carriers. C4L was the 2012 winner of HSBC’s South West Business Thinking initiative, and has been ranked in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and Fast 500 EMEA, as well as the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100.

Robin Humphreyies, Managing Director of games developers, Static Games Ltd (www.static-games.co.uk), and current BU student, said, ‘we are extremely grateful to have the opportunity to talk over areas of our business with Matt.’ Robin adds, ‘it is great to receive insight and ideas from someone who has such relevant industry knowledge and experience, and who has already been through the start-up stage and understands both the problems we face, and perhaps more importantly, the opportunities available to us!’

Kaisa Kangro, Managing Director of el RHEY Ltd, (www.elrhey.com), specialist designers of children’s rainwear, agreed this was a ‘great opportunity to meet Matt Hawkins and ask questions to someone who has built such a successful business from scratch.’ Kaisa found Matt’s experiences of managing growth ‘extremely valuable’ and intended to use these insights to help ‘assess and steer’ el RHEY in the future.

The CfE provides support to start up and early stage ventures and in addition to the Surgeries organises a range of activities including business seminars. ‘It is fantastic that both the Entrepreneurs in Residence and the CfE are so eager to offer up their time to help a young business like ours,’ comments Robin, ‘we hope they will continue to support us with further relevant and insightful surgery sessions in the future.’

We are immensely grateful to Matt for his time and for his continuing support of the activities of the CfE and the businesses based here. To find out more about the Centre for Entrepreneurship please visit us at www.bucfe.com or contact Nikki Harvey at nharvey@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU helping to evolve security and privacy by design

On Monday, BU researchers co-organised a workshop on Evolving Security and Privacy Requirements Engineering (ESPRE) at the 22nd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2014) in Karlskrona, Sweden.  The workshop brought together practitioners and researchers from around the world, who shared their thoughts about how security and privacy can be incorporated into the design of software as early as possible, without compromising productivity or sacrificing innovation.  The RE conference series is one of the premier conferences in software engineering, and the ESPRE workshop is the successor of several successful secure software engineering workshops.  Shamal Faily (SciTech) organised this workshop, together with colleagues from Germany (University of Duisberg-Essen), South Korea (Ajou University), and the USA (Carnegie Mellon University).

The workshop began with a keynote talk from Professor Angela Sasse (UCL), who described some recent research examining how companies build security into products they develop, and the need to change the discourse around usability and security.  Three technical paper sessions followed, before the workshop was concluded with an invited talk by Aljosa Pasic (Atos Research & Innovation) on some of the market trends and business challenges in security engineering.  Further information about the workshop itself can be found at http://espre2014.org .

We’re grateful to the Faculty of Science & Technology for co-sponsoring this workshop, and to all the workshop attendees for sharing their work.

Upcoming event: “Double Your Customer Spend in 12 Months!”

Tuesday 23 September 2014,
5:30pm arrival for a 6pm start
Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8EB

The Centre for Entrepreneurship is delighted to invite you to a presentation by Peter Czapp.

Peter Czapp is co-founder of The Wow Company, a proactive accountancy practice that advises small businesses across the UK, helping them make more profit, pay less tax and have more fun!

Some of Wow’s clients have achieved amazing things; growing quickly, winning awards for their customer service & generating large profits. The one thing that Wow’s top performing clients all have in common is that they are masters at generating revenues from their existing customers. In this seminar, Peter shares insights into what Wow’s most successful clients do differently, including sharing practical tips that you can apply in your own business right away. If you’re looking to double your client spend, attend this event to find out how!

To book please visit: http://bucfe.com/events/double-your-client-spend-in-12-months/

Catherine Philip hosts latest Tenant Business Surgery

The Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE) was delighted to welcome Catherine Philip of Wessex Business Focus Ltd to the Incubator to host our latest Business Surgery.

The CfE Business Surgeries are run on a regular basis and provide a fantastic opportunity for early stage businesses to ask questions and pick the brains of experienced professionals and entrepreneurs. They are aimed at both CfE tenants and also BU students running businesses.

Catherine is a Chartered Tax Adviser and has recently moved from a top 20 accountancy practice to her present role as innovation broker and freelance tax adviser. “Having worked with a variety of SME’s”, says Catherine, “I have become increasingly aware that many business owners do not have sufficient time or other resources to implement their business plans. I especially enjoy working alongside my clients to help them take their business plans forward: my analytical, numerical and research skills enable me to offer bespoke, pragmatic solutions to their business challenges.”

Previous Business Surgeries have been hosted by Gary Seneviratne, (Adido), Peter Czapp, (The Wow Company), and Ewan King, (Content is King).

Robin Humphreyies, Managing Director of games developers, Static Games Ltd (www.static-games.co.uk), and current BU student, agreed the discussion ‘was very useful’ and he was looking forward to having the opportunity to meet with Catherine again in the near future.

Kaisa Kangro, Managing Director of el Rhey Ltd, (www.elrhey.com), specialist designers of children’s rainwear, said, ‘the meeting with Catherine was very insightful’, and added, ‘it is great that an expert is sharing her knowledge and time with new start-ups like us; this can make a big difference and help us develop our business further.’ Kaisa also commented that, ‘meeting people and making professional contacts is relevant for any new business, and the Centre for Entrepreneurship has been very helpful in that area.’

The Centre for Entrepreneurship is immensely grateful to Catherine for her time and expertise today and for her continuing support of the CfE and its businesses within the Incubator.

The next Surgery will be held on the 5th September and be hosted by Matt Hawkins, founder and MD of C4L. To find out more about the surgeries please contact Nikki Gloyns at ngloyns@bournemouth.ac.uk

CfE Welcomes a New Entrepreneur in Residence

The BU Centre for Entrepreneurship is delighted to welcome Arabella Lewis-Smith to our cohort of Entrepreneurs in Residence.

Jointly founding the Salad graphic design and digital consultancy in 2001 – aged 26 and with a background in fashion – Bella is living proof that, starting with just passion and a creative spark, anything is possible. The classic entrepreneurial success story, Salad has grown from humble beginnings to the award-winning agency it is today, with a team of 13 and working with the likes of Hall & Woodhouse, Olives et Al, Salomon and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Alongside Salad, Bella was instrumental in the launch in 2007 of another venture, Pasture Naturals – which has since shown significant growth and established itself in the luxury washroom product market.

That both businesses have flourished despite a lack of direct experience of either sector speaks volumes for the power of intuition, enthusiasm and sheer hard graft. Above all, though, Bella is convinced that the most important ingredient is people, “I love what I do… the secret has been finding – and putting faith in – lovely, talented people who share that passion. In the early years of Salad I tried so hard to be corporate, slick, polished…. basically, someone I’m not. When I relaxed and started simply being me everything just clicked.”

Whilst for Bella the commercial objective is success – it will never be success at any cost. As an agency, Salad has never espoused a late night working culture – and Bella’s firm in her belief that, in order to do their jobs to the best of their ability, people need to be happy, to be treated fairly… and to have fun.

It’s a message with which Bella hopes to inspire others – and a key reason why we’re so excited she has accepted our invitation to participate in Entrepreneurs in Residence scheme.

For more information about Salad follow www.saladcreative.com To see the profiles of all our Entrepreneurs in Residence please click on www.bucfe.com/entrepreneurs/

Creative England Teams up with Playstation on Accelerator Programme

Funding opportunities

 

As part of its ongoing support for the games industry in England, Creative England’s  GamesLab Campus programme will invest a total of £250,000 into five Games companies (£50,000 each) to support the development of new and innovative entertainment experiences on PlayStation®3, PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita.

This package of investment will be complemented by a bespoke programme of business support and other technical and fringe benefits including the provision of PS3, PS4 & PS Vita Dev Kits1.

This announcement was made earlier this week at the Develop Conference 2014 , For more information, including how to apply, will be available shortly on our Games section Follow GamesLab on Twitter at @CEGameslab.

Mentoring support available for emergent or established creative companies

Can you answer yes to all these questions or work with a company that can?

  • Are you a  registered company in the UK
  • Have you been trading for a minimum of three years
  • Working within one or more of these sectors – advertising, film, TV, digital media
  • Have a turnover of £1m.

Ideally your company or the business you are working within will be in the following position:

  • Have a scalable business model
  • Seeking to reach the next stage of development
  • Looking to expand a product or service range; expand into new markets nationally or internationally; develop IP
  • Have a good leadership team in place.

The above are desirable criteria. If the £1m turnover is not met but there are ambitions to grow and expand the business, you can still apply as there will be other opportunities in the future. The next round starts in September 2014.

So if you are or you know an ambitious creative company with an appetite for growth and would like practical advice on overcoming the challenges of growing a creative business – why not apply for a mentor?

Click here to  find out more  

If you are interested and meet the criteria, click here for more information  or if you want to find out more details, email NESTA at cbmn@nesta.org.uk or call 020 7438 2635.

To find out more about NESTA click here

‘Intelligences’ theme of PR conference

Dr David MacQueen and Prof Tom Watson of The Media School both chaired panels and presented papers at the PR Meeting #4 conference in Barcelona last week.

The conference, which features research on critical approaches to public relations and strategic communication, had a focus on ‘intelligences’ this year.

Dr McQueen chaired a session which included fellow speakers from the the US, Spain and New Zealand. His paper, jointly authored with Graeme Baxter of Robert Gordon University, considered community resistance to corporate power in Scotland and Ireland.

Prof Watson presented a critical review of repetitive research issues in PR, in a session which also included speakers from Australia and Sweden. On the final afternoon of the conference he was a panel speaker on academic writing and publishing.

“This conference is a top event as it has broad international participation and always pushes into new research territory,” said Prof Watson. “This year, it was built around Howard Gardners’s work on intelligences, which brought forward aspects such as competitive, professional, spiritual, digital, emotional, dialogic, wicked and feminist intelligences.”

(L-R) PR Meeting # organisers Prof Jordi Xifra (Pompeu Fabra) and Prof David McKie (Wakato) with Prof Tom Watson

BUCfE Connects with Gaming Students at FODI

Members of the CfE team were delighted to connect with Gaming and Music final year students at the FODI event to explain upcoming proposed entrepreneurial programmes.

Speaking during Glyn Hadley’s and Christos Gatzidis’ lectures, the Student Entrepreneurship Manager had the opportunity to give a high level overview of the Bournemouth University Graduate Incubator’s offerings including:

  • Hackathon
  • Bootcamp
  • Competition
  • 12 months incubation space

The Business Ideas Hackathon was the main focus of the talk.  The Hackathon will be a 36-hour business idea hack to identify and develop out innovative potential high growth businesses.  Running in the Autumn semester 2014, the Hackathon will enable students to devise and code a new business from the ground up and provide an environment to test out the proposed business model.  Students from SciTech will team up with students from HSC, Media, Tourism and Business, for instance, to code a solution to a real-world problem or to scope out a potential fast-growing business.   The focus is on innovation, creativity and on high growth with fusion of different disciplines being key to success.  Whilst this initial presentation was to SciTech, students from any disciplines are invited to apply and presentations will be given to all schools in September.   Bournemouth University students about to enter their final year are invited to register their interest at this stage at our Hackathon page.

Designed to hone and refine business ideas, the Bootcamp will be for participants of the business idea hackathon or those who already know what business they want to do.  The Bootcamp will enable participants to build out their business plans and to start to develop their offering and their pitch.

The Bootcamp feeds into the Business Idea Competition:  a Dragon’s Den-style event where businesses pitch to win 12 month’s free incubator space and business support at the Centre for Entrepreneurship.

SciTech students had left their industry placements for the day to attend the FODI event, with some of the students showcasing their work to the general public.  During the event, BUCfE incubator business Static Games were able to feature their new game, Mendel’s Farm, and sign up beta testers for their imminent release.

The CfE team are immensely grateful to Glyn Hadley and Christos Gatzidis for allowing us some time to present to their students.

Dorset Business Awards 2014 Launch

The Centre for Entrepreneurship is delighted to be attending the launch of the Dorset Business Awards 2014. Sponsoring the Entrepreneur of the Year Award again this year, Bournemouth University is is keen to showcase and recognise local entrepreneurs who have made an economic or social impact in the region.

The DBA launch is being held at Parley Manor and Mark Painter, Dr Lois Farquharson, Melissa Carr, Dr Chris Chapleo and Nikki Gloyns are amongst the attendees representing the University.

The Dorset Business Awards are run by Dorset Chamber of Commerce and Industy (DCCI) and award categories have included an Apprenticeship Training Award, Bournemouth University’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Dorset Tourism Award and the Barclays Business Woman of the Year Award.  This year awards include:

  • Entrepreneur of the Year
  • Business Growth Award
  • Excellence in Innovation Award
  • Dorset Export Award

The awards celebrate local achievement and success in the various categories and are an excellent way for local businesses who enter to gain publicity and recognition in addition to being able to showcase their products or services to a wider audience.    Winners are also able to display the DBA KiteMark on their letterheads and literature.

The Dorset Business Awards 2014 Competition opens on Monday 23rd June and runs until 12th September.  Winners are announced in November at the Dorset Business Awards Gala Dinner.   Further information is available from the Dorset Business Awards website.

Dorset Business Awards 2014

Ferndown & Uddens Business Improvement District collaborates with a multi-disciplinary team from BU

The Business Improvement District (BID) yesterday hosted their first breakfast meeting on business continuity and information assurance.

Staff from the Business School, The Disaster Management Centre and the Cyber Security Unit presented a knowledgeable insight to identify collective responsibilities of businesses within the district, giving examples where one business problem may affect other enterprises across the estate. The Dorset Fire & Rescue Service and Dorset Police further supported BU’s representations concerning crisis management; business resilience; disaster recovery and cybercrime. In addition, A&T Insurance Group provided a comprehensive study on insuring business resilience.

BUCSU introduced the availability of TSB Innovation Vouchers to meet the recently published ‘Cyber Essentials’ issued by the Information Commissioners Office.

Fusion – Establishment of research collaboration, student and staff exchanges with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

 My application to the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) has been successful.  The funds will be used to establish research collaboration, student and staff exchanges with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. I will be travelling to the UKZN during Easter this month for an exploratory visit. While at UKZN, I will present a paper to the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. This will be followed by a series of meetings with students and staff. On my return, I will apply to Bournemouth University to put in place the three relationships.

 A successful establishment of the three aforesaid relationships will have many enormous benefits to the students and staff of BU and UKZN. For example, students should benefit culturally in terms of spending sometime in South Africa and UK respectively due to differences in the two countries’ cultures. In addition to cultural awareness, the staff exchange will benefit the staff involved through observing how lecturers in a different country deliver lectures. Apart from co-authoring academic journal articles, research collaboration between BU and UKZN staff should be beneficial where the research call (e.g. Horizon 2020) requires that researchers from Europe collaborate with a partner from South Africa.

 At an institution level, the relationships should help BU in two main ways. Firstly, student exchange should increase awareness of BU in Africa which may translate into increase in percentage of African students enrolled at BU. Increasing the percentage of students from Africa is important for BU because currently less than 4% of our students are from Africa compared to 8% UK universities average. Secondly, the increase in student population from Africa will also help BU achieve the strategic plan objective of increasing overseas students’ recruitment by 15% by 2015.

 UKNZ is the third largest university in South Africa and a very good university and also shares great similarities in university teaching, research and enterprise activities with those of the Business School, School of Tourism, Design, Engineering and Computing, School of Health and Social Care. Further information about the university can be found on: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/.

 Dr Ven Tauringana, Associate Professor of Accounting – The Business School

CfE Upcoming Event: Moov2 with the CIM

Training

Date: Tuesday 8 April 2014

Time: Arrival from 6pm for a 6:30pm start until approx 8pm

Location: EBC

We would like to invite you to join us at our latest CIM event.  Dan Thomas, of Moov2 will be demonstrating, in his straight-talking (and completely non-geeky) style, how businesses and the agencies they work with can successfully make and exploit their data, adding real value to the bottom line.

To book please visit: http://bit.ly/1eK1d3a