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Enterprise Nation are Going on a Road Trip
The Enterprise Nation Team
Home business website, Enterprise Nation, is going on a national road trip to produce a documentary on the rise of home business in the UK.
Starting in Scotland on Monday 14th September, a crew of three will travel south to interview home business owners and talk to experts and politicians, with the team expecting to meet over 400 businesses at events and meet-ups over the course of the week.
More than 2 million businesses are run full time from home but the documentary will also take a closer look at what Enterprise Nation has termed the ‘Working 5 to 9’ trend that is seeing millions of people hold down a day job and build a business at nights and weekends. It’s a way of easing out of insecure employment, into self-employment.
Founder of Enterprise Nation, Emma Jones, says:
‘Streets are buzzing with people starting and growing their own business. Amazing businesses that utilise the best of technology to make and sell niche products and services. We’ll be revealing the stories of people turning business dreams into reality and showing that home business is truly the bright spot of the UK economy. Yet we don’t think enough is being done to allow home business to flourish – and it remains almost a hidden sector – so we’ll be calling for action from policy makers and politicians and recording their response.’ Read more
Female Founders to Pitch at The NextWomen Event October 7th 2009
 Karin Loeffen of Libersy October 7th 2009, will see The NextWomen play host to female founders, leaders and investors in the latest in a series of events to encourage and stimulate funding in female led businesses. Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials and Women Inspired by Wine, the hunt is on for three tech-savvy start-ups to assume the role of Pitch-preneur. |
Date: Wednesday 7 October 2009
Time: 5.00pm – 11.00pm (evening networking starts at 9:30)
Address: London CBC, Sun Microsystems Ltd, Regis House, 45 King William Street, London, EC4R 9AN
Cost: £37.50
Or: £30.00 to members of The NextWomen LinkedIn Group
As with nature, and especially in a credit crunch, ‘Darwinian Business – Survival of the Fittest’ will look at what makes a business a financial success. Two successful female business founders will discuss their experiences – from the birth of their great idea, through its growing pains, to its funding, the maturing of the concept and finally exit strategies.
Sustenance, experience and advice will allow women, with businesses at various stages of life, to understand how their concepts can best thrive and prosper – when bootstrapping is the best solution or when it is finally time for that first round of funding and in return for what equity, large or small, to plug a gaping big leaking financial hole or just to keep the business ticking over, or when it is simply time to cash in and try something new.
In the first part of the evening, ‘Imbibe: Only Camels can Survive the Desert without Water’, attendees will enjoy an hour of informal networking with fellow internet industry professionals. Sip on some prosecco whilst investigating others’ business tales – be them of a financial desert, an oasis in an otherwise arid surroundings or a financial downpour – before settling down in the comfort of Sun Microsystems London offices for an evening of insight and intrigue.
Before the pitch-preneurs take centre stage, ‘Mutations: The Dynamic Nature of a Start-up’, will see two female internet heroes, including Karin Loeffen, CEO and Founder of online booking platform Libersy discuss the two sides to a financial coming of age: ‘The Newborn – Life Before Funding’ and ‘The Teenage Years – How to make use of your best (financial) assets’.
It will be hard not to find inspiration from these two women who have experienced the search for funding first hand. Karin Loeffen achieved an impressive €1.5m in funding through the concept creation of her online booking application, Libersy, which can now be seen on the BT Tradespace Book it Now service, and the second speaker will be equally as impressive. Read more
BrandAlley Joins the Burgeoning World of Discount Designer Fashion Sites
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Launched in 2008 in the UK and recently named in the Online Fashion 100, BrandAlley is an e-tailer which has been successfully trading in France since 2005. BrandAlley offers private, “flash” sample-sales to an ever growing membership base. Already number two in France, the site sells and ships more than 40,000 fashion, beauty and home wares products per month.
BrandAlley focuses on offering short term, high-end private sales via their website with value on premium designer brands, with many items often up to 80% off the regular price. The web has given luxury and designer houses a new life for their end of line stock. BrandAlley has tapped into a growing market of shoppers tired of the high street and paying premium prices.
Daily updates on-line keep members up to date on what sales are new to the site and what’s coming up, making repeat custom highly likely. BrandAlley gets its merchandise directly from the fashion houses instead of buying from wholesalers, as most discounters do. It runs at least three sales per week and hires its own models and photographers to present the clothing straight for the camera.
BrandAlley saw takings top £500,000 in May – which is no surprise given peoples current recession-led move to internet shopping – and is on course to sign up its one millionth UK member. Melissa Littler, Marketing Director is part of the in-house team taking BrandAlley UK from strength to strength, and brings with her 15 years experience including the successful launch of Sainsbury’s Online.
Is 6rounds the Future of Online Social Video Networking
Occasionally I come across a site that seduces me with its branding and marketing. More often than not, as I delve into its team I find there are no women involved, but even more occasionally I just have to share the site. Co-founded by Ilan Leibovich and Dany Fishel – but with a female software developer on the team, Elizabeth Ekshtat – 6rounds is a newly launched service offering a unique place for women (and men) to hang out with their friends and to network with new people.
Currently in private beta, 6rounds is a rich, interactive and personalised video chat platform that takes shared experiences and real-time collaboration to a whole new level. Combining webcams, social activities, and interactive zones, the platform offers users an exciting variety of experiences that they enjoy and share together live and in real-time: from shopping together, sharing presentations, watching videos, playing games, listening to music, co-facebooking or youtubing, to exchanging tips and beyond.
What lured me into the site, however, was their use of digital media. We all use Facebook (even if it is just to stay in touch with friends) and Twitter, and are members of communities like LinkedIn and the odd Meetup group or two, but 6rounds has fully integrated digital media to the site. Video is a very hot topic at the moment, with many thinking it is the future of the net as television networks race to get their media online, and 6rounds might just be leading the social media race.
Watch their short demo above, and if you are equally drawn in register to be one of the first to enjoy the platform using this unique link for NextWomen readers.
CEOs do not Use Social Media
It is definitely the hot topic these days – the adoption of Social Media – and yet it seems that more and more people are reporting CEOs to be slow on its uptake. Sharon Barclay, independent PR consultant and editor of UberCEO – a blog all about CEOs – last month released research from a look at the Fortune 100 CEOs and their Online Image and Communication.
See below the results of their research, which found damning levels of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and blog usage.
mydeo Nominated In Streaming Media European Readers’ Choice Awards
 Cary Marsh of mydeo (flickr) MYDEO named as one of Europe’s hottest private media technology companies of 2008 has been nominated in the ‘Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards’. Launched in 2005 following a DTI Research and Development grant for Technical Innovation, mydeo has since become the first and only service to be fully integrated into Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker software and now provides high-quality streaming video hosting to over 250,000 individuals, communities and businesses around the world. |
Founded by Cary Marsh in response to a need to share family videos across the globe, it announced in October 2007 that Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the US with market cap of over $20bn, were taking a minority equity stake in mydeo, and would be using the Mydeo platform for its own bespoke video sharing service. The site has continued t grow since it’s first injection of cash, and went on to enjoy second round funding from Best Buy and a third from Best Buy Capital, and has since branched out into video streaming for businesses.
In 2008 Mydeo won a commendation in the ‘Best Streaming Service’ category at the 2008 UK Internet Service Provider awards and was named a Red Herring Europe 2008 finalist. Read more
June’s Kitchen Dinner was so good it took me a month and a half to write this review
 The NextWomen Kitchen Dinner Originally, I was planning to blame Monica Hinojosa’s marvellous wine for the delay in writing this, but it’s been too long now to make that plausible. The truth is, I’ve been rather busy since Simone’s wonderful Kitchen Dinner, in part thanks to the marvellous connections I made that night. |
Alongside a smattering of blokes – including me, Andrew Nutter from Balderton and the enigmatic Martin Bloom – the Kitchen Dinner was populated by a mixture of accomplished women at various stages with their businesses.
Legendary workaholic Karen Barber from Bestbefore TV was a familiar face from the tech circuit, and she was on good form, modestly announcing AudioBoo as “something we make that’s doing alright at the moment”.
But apart from Karen and Andrew, pretty much everyone was new to me. Which was brilliant. I met Anna Sofat, whose investment fund for women, Addidi, is a brilliant way for women to dip their toe into investment without needing extensive experience and without exposing themselves to a huge amount of financial risk.
Sarah McVittie from 82ask titillated me with nuggets of gossip about a certain beleaguered speech-to-text company. Miriam Lahage, whose company, Koodos, I’ve been a fan of for some time, was fascinating company. And I very much enjoyed the after-dinner conversation with Geke Van Dijk, during which (if I recall correctly) we discussed the merits of Westminster City Council versus the other boroughs in relation to green bike racks affixed to lamp-posts. But that was late in the evening, and the dinner shouldn’t be judged by the inevitable tipsy gibberish at the end.
So what did we talk about? Well, to give you a flavour, here are some of the questions that were flying around the table. Some of the discussion points were focussed on the challenges women face in business, but most of them would not have been out of place at any networking dinner:
- Should women-only Angel groups only invest in women-led businesses? Read more
The Leading Female Eco Internet Heroes
 Female Eco Internet Heroes (Dazed and Confused Magazine) For some entrepreneurs: ‘Green is (clearly) the new black’, as they use the challenge of ‘going green’ for business oppportunity. Here, Sam Parker – a recently graduated journalist – has compiled a list of Female Eco-Internet Heroes who are joining this new wave of Eco-Entrepreneurs |
Stephanie and Sharon Banfield – sisters and founders of Pink Robin
“We aim to offer you the highest possible quality from companies striving to bring about changes in the way women care for the their bodies – and the environment”
According to Pink Robin, a website set up by sisters Stephanie and Sharon Banfield to promote high quality, reusable sanitary products, the UK alone throws away over one and a half billion tampons and sanitary pads each and every year. Most of these, they say, will be sent to landfill sites or to our oceans via sewage treatment plants, potentially damaging marine life and eventually washing up on beaches.
Their solution has been to set up pink robin, which markets ecologically friendly alternatives to Tampax and strives to provide women with a resource of up-to-date information on women’s health and gynaecology.
It may seem a large leap of faith to many women, but the sisters are convinced that a move to reusable pads can and will alter the menstrual cycle from a negative experience to a positive one – and say many initially sceptical customers have written to them to enthusiastically agree.
The site stocks and advocates Natracare products and focuses on providing women with reliable health advice, meaning that education and welfare is core to Stephanie and Sharon’s part in the ecological internet revolution.
Deirdre Bounds – founder of Parties Around The World Read more
Interview with Jessica Jackley of Kiva
Jessica Jackley is one of the founders of Kiva, the first website connecting lenders to borrowers around the world for microcredit loans. Microcredit involves giving very small loans to those in poverty to enable them to start their own businesses. So far more than 200,000 people in the developing world have received loans via Kiva with a total value of more than 85 million dollars. The current repayment rate surpasses 98%.
Kiva was the first website to provide peer-to-peer microcredit via the Internet. How do you think such sites have changed the microcredit world?
Kiva provides lenders an opportunity to get involved in microfinance in an immediate, personal way; by empowering a specific entrepreneur and supporting her or his microenterprise. For microfinance institutions (MFIs), Kiva provides access to a worldwide community of lenders ready to loan zero-interest debt capital. This allows MFIs to tap into a completely new source of funding to help serve more and more entrepreneurs, more quickly and efficiently.
What is the proportion of men to women that you finance?
This data is available on the site and is updated daily. Currently 82.92% of Kiva loans are made to women.
How do you tackle the issue that women can sometimes act merely as collection agents for their husbands and sons? The men spend the money themselves while women are saddled with the credit risk. Read more
Google and Reed Learning SEO Course 2009
 Lisa Myers Reed Learning has just announced that their SEO Course, accredited by Google, is to be run by Lisa Myers of Verve Search, who was recently named one of ‘Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 – 2009’. The courses, which range from Google AdWords to Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimisation, are designed for marketers, web developers and SMEs wishing to get their business noticed online. |
The SEO course runs on two dates: 7th September or 29th October 2009, in London. Costing £499 for the full day, there were only 8 tickets remaining at the end of last week.
The SEO course outline includes: Technical optimisation; on and off page optimisation; the use of online PR and Social Media for increased exposure and link equity; universal search; unethical SEO and web analytics and measurements.
For more information about the Google Marketing Academy Courses download the brochure.
To book your place on the SEO Course, visit the Reed Learning website.
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