A long day at the South of England Showground attending the monthly general auction run by Mid Sussex Auctions. With over 1,500 lots it looked like being a very long day with a late finish but fortunately the auctioneer knocks the lots through with little patter – you either buy or miss out – and alos offers buyers the option to buy similar following lots. Suddenly you have jumped fifty lots so you need to stay awake to catch your number.
This general auction offers a broad range of items mainly from distressed sales and lost property. Clothes and bedding comes in big bundles but computers and mobile phones are sold individually. Amazingly there was little interest in SLR cameras but bidding for the Mac Book was fierce. Someone bought it untested and with no extras such as power supply for over £250.
I had hoped for a bargain with a “lost” laptop but the CEO of Dragoon Solutions chased us all away. He told me afterwards that they buy all laptops at auction on the south coast. So better to go direct to Dragoon Solutions and see if they have what you want and they may even offer a guaratee.
One other key point – bring your own chair. The sofas and chairs can be removed as soon as sold so some unfortunate bidders had to stand for a long time. Lots of gold and watches for sale but one dealer just took them all.
Another great day watching entrepreneurs at work and wondering what sort of business plan and business plan resource they all used. Our Dragoon man must have found it worth spending his time bidding rather than enjoying the seaside!
By the way, bring a large van to take all your lots away!
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Walking along the Kennet & Avon canal, I met the friendly Mr and Mrs Bird, owners of Uccello. Apparently they had first wanted to retire to Italy but decided to travel on the canals of the UK and named their boat, Uccello – Italian for bird.
Whilst Mrs Bird enjoyed a book on the towpath, husband was painting up the foredeck or whatever the bit of boat was called. They were stuck as the Crofton Engine Steam pump and modern electric back-up were being thwarted in their attempt to fill the top pound because of a leak and none of the boats could use the locks.
So running out of food, they found the postal code for the Crofton Pumping Station from the Royal Mail website. They ordered provisions from Tesco.com with the warning that they were to be delivered to the narrow boat across the canal. Important – make sure your mobile phone is working so that you can be alerted that the delivery is on the way and you can stand by the gate. Easy and yes, Every little helps!
Mr and Mrs Bird need a business plan to make sure the pension stretches but there is no danger of them needing a business plan resource!
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Red Gate Software is one of the rising stars of the Cambridge Cluster and now they are helping the next wave. Entrepreneurs are provided with a desk, Internet and the biggest draw of all, FREE DELUXE FOOD. We all know that an army marches on it’s stomach but geeks build great businesses powered by sensible nibbles. If you are working 100 hundred hour weeks you need a sensible diet, some exercise and deep sleep.
In Neil Davidson’s blog post The Accidental Incubator there are more details. It fits in well with his recent takeover of the Cambridge Network and contrasts with the way CfEL has moved their Summer School into a general management programme called Ignite which no longer concentrates on entrepreneurs but “corporate innovators” prepared to pay the hefty fee.
Both make mention of the importance of a business plan but little mention is made of a business plan resource. If you do not take your equity seriously then stick to the corporate world.
Or you can try Brent Hoberman’s PROFounders Fund which has culled a list of 500 applicants to 5, I think. The first investment is in TweetDeck with less than 10% share. Later investments should be more ambitious and the stake higher. Great set of entrepreneurs including the impressive Michael Birch of Bebo fame.
But perhaps avoid the Capital for Enterprise Fund backed by the Government and “administered” by the likes of fund managers Octopus Capital.
If the Government wants to encourage investment in small companies, do it via the EIS scheme with entrepreneurs been given higher and higher tax breaks to put in their cash and time. It is a fact of the Venture Capital world that only the top tier firms spot the winners so fund managers will never make it work; well, hardly ever as the old song goes!
Hope one day to be invited to discuss Equity Fingerprint with the Red Gate Software Springboard aspiring entrepreneurs and take a bite of deluxe food. Or perhaps Hoberman will serve a tasty dish to tempt me.
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Harry Wallop features Lakeland in an article in the Daily Telegraph titled “Shopping Mecca fro Middle Britain”. The surprise is the news that that Father Rayner, the founder, ran off with the company secretary and the three brothers took over and built the business. The other surprise that the Lakeland’s HQ at Windermere station is the second most popular tourist attraction after Windermere Lake cruises with more than one million visitors. I guess that they were ahead of the Apple shops with the emphasis on customer fun rather than pressured sales.
One of my first jobs was counting plastic bags at what was then Lakeland Plastic. My late Sister was so much faster that I had to count another product and staple them together. I remember surprising Mr Rayner by saying I knew how many I had stapled by counting the number of staples in each set of staples which I inserted into the machine. When I wrote to the Rayner brothers to remind them of the fact that I had been a neighbour and early employee I received an impersonal reply. Maybe they did not wish to be reminded of the early days with their Father.
Now the three brothers are coming to the end of their working time, I wonder what business plan resource they are using to make sure the equity stays in the family. The HQ is a brilliant – wish a picture appeared in Zemanta – and I am sure they will have a business plan as clever as their wonderful products. By the way, Wendy Miranda is the customer ambassador and ultimately in charge of what the retailer sells – clever lady.
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Mark Lock, MD of Peterborough engineer and fabricator Midas Technology is featured in a DT case study on the bank’s unwillingness to back small-scale engeering companies.
It is rather a confusing story as Midas appears to be a good company that has run into problems by spending, over the last five years, £350k on developing a new water-saving valve. £350k is serious money an no wonder that a small company is having problems with the cash flow. To me, the banks are correct in not being supportive of someone who is not following the essentials of running a business in the current times and keeping a strict control of cash flow. Everyone would like to develop a dream product and get away from being a contractor. The options are to obtains grants before starting development, produce a prototype and get up front payments from customers or, thirdly, raise some equity funds and good management.
The three experts talk about funding alternatives such as factoring/invoice discounting – not suitable for R&D – and only skip over equity funding.
At all times, let alone the present times, it is so important to put the dreams to one side and settle on a “boring” business plan and then see if there is enough spare management time let alone cash to follow a dream. We angels in Cambridge know how difficult that is!
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This was written before Tr.im reversed the decision and decided to keep open. However the issues discusses are still valid – no money, no business.
Tr.im announces that it is ceasing the service of trimming the size of a URL. The blog post says that they have not been able to find a way of making money out of tr.im (I do not like the word monetise) and they are being hit by the cost of running and developing the system. They have lost out in the race to provide the service to Twitter.
Duncan Bannatyne of Dragons’ Den fame says that the he has lost count of the times he has said “It’s not a business, so I’m out”. He means that “any budding entrepreneur must have a robust business plan and clear profit-making projections for their enterprise to stand a chance of success”.
The Dragons only pick the easy companies in which to invest; ones with sales and profits. The flaw normally being that the entrepreneur does not have what it takes to turn the initial success into a large company. This gives the Dragons easy pickings after the really hard yards have been won.
It will be sometime, if ever, before the Dragons have the nerve to join the angels in Cambridge – you do not have to be a member of the Cambridge Angels – backing ideas a long way from the market and the with sketchy business plans. It is a very high risk world investing in people and technologies ahead of the game. It would be fun to present a Google, Flickr or Twitter type deal to the Dragons let alone ARM, CSR and ARTVPS.
But where we can agree with Bannatyne is his condemnation of smoking. Seen as fun when I was young, the consequences are well known nowadays. Bannatyne quotes figures of 20% of the population (presumably the UK and not his beloved Scotland) smoking with many more affected by passive smoking.
In the geek world in Cambridge, smoking is almost taboo so perhaps we do have something in common with those fearsome dragons after all even if we may have to tr.im their egos!
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I am an angel investor so do know the business plan and how they use the business plan resource. Thought I would share their latest marketing idea.
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Prof Ken Siddle honoured with major University teaching prize
The contribution to university teaching made by Professor Ken Siddle, Director of Graduate Education at the MRL, has been recognized by the award of a 2009 Pilkington Teaching Prize.
The contribution to university teaching made by Professor Ken Siddle, Director of Graduate Education at the MRL, has been recognized by the award of a 2009 Pilkington Teaching Prize.
The Pilkington Teaching Prizes were established in 1994 with the aim of ensuring that the University’s very best teaching talents are given proper recognition.
Prof Siddle is a dedicated teacher and innovator who is widely respected for his knowledge of and enthusiasm for both graduate education and research. The prize is awarded in recognition of his tireless efforts to organize graduate education programmes, which have contributed to the creation of the Graduate School of Life Sciences and the development of a more coherent structure for post-graduate education throughout the University and especially in the School of Clinical Medicine.
Within the MRL Prof Siddle has been particularly influential in establishing our two 4-year integrated graduate training programmes in molecular mechanisms of metabolic and cardiovascular disease, which are supported by the Wellcome Trust and the MRC.
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Another great case study coming up as Facebook acquires FriendFeed. We have had Microsoft, then Google and now we see Facebook flexing their muscles as the Internet moves into web 2.0.
Scobleizer has been pushing the joys of FriendFeed. I hope that he is on a percentage – he deserves to be!
So FriendFeed has been sold hardly before it has become a mainstream social network product. But check out the CVs of the founders of FriendFeed – talk about a great team; great people with amazing pedigrees.
I wonder who had the vision to back the business plan and who worked out the business plan resource?
From Google: “That’s not all. Along with the announcement of the FriendFeed public beta, the company is also announcing a $5 million round of funding from Benchmark Capital as well as FriendFeed co-founders Paul Buchheit, and Sanjeev Singh. Considering the fact that FriendFeed was created by ex-Googlers, it’s probably not surprising that the company has wrangled some funding at all.”
“Facebook Inc. said it has acquired FriendFeed, a start-up that allows users to share links and status updates online, folding in a potential rival that struggled to take off.
Facebook paid nearly $50 million for the company, in a combination cash and stock offer, according to people familiar with the matter. The company paid roughly $15 million in cash, with the rest in Facebook stock that vests over several years and would be worth roughly $32.5 million based on the $6.5 billion common valuation an investor recently placed …”
Hat tip: Scoble also known as The Scobleizer. Where will he lead us now?
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Yvonne points out as a comment on the post on Matching China that she helps so much with all these posts by not only editing them but also finding lots of information on the Internet. Of course, too much detail would only reduce the flow of the story. However credit where credit is due.
It is interesting that some people seem to have a gift of finding things on the Internet by using search engines. Yvonne not only helps me but finds bargains for holidays and flights by continuously searching the internet. Not sure of the secret but I guess it is a question of searching not once in nine days but nine times every day!
If you want her help in searching on a topic do leave a message below. I wonder what her business plan will be and whether she will require a business plan resource?
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