First, let’s get something out of the way. I run a company called Entrepreneur Secrets.
Of course I want you to visit the website and, ultimately, buy my product. But I also want you to understand why I started it. I head up the Learning and Development Unit for a major university in the UK. I have worked on a lot of training projects with businesses, particularly start-ups, and two major things have become obvious to me.
Firstly, although government has ploughed vast sums of money into business support, this all comes from the premise that people have had a brilliant business idea before they have even walked through the door.
Let’s examine this concept of a ‘business idea’: if I’ve worked for a national tyre-fitting chain for ten years, then I decide to set up my own independent tyre-fitting service, is that really a ‘business idea’? Surely it’s just ‘a business’, and I’ve picked it because I know my way around fitting tyres. Whether I’m exploiting a particular niche is very unlikely as national tyre-fitting chains abound.
So what sets apart a ‘business idea’? It is something which has been researched, there are economic trends pointing to a future need for that product or service, and there is a demographic (including other businesses) that would pay for it. So let us say that as a tyre fitter for ten years I identify that photo-electronics is going to be big over the next ten years, so I begin to look at the whole area and work out what sort of business I can start in order to take advantage of this. I have now become a true entrepreneur – I am spotting business opportunities to exploit.
The other major thing that has become obvious to me is that business support is only aimed, as I said, at people walking through the door wanting to start a business. What it does not do is address the entrepreneurial mindset of that individual. Do you really have what it takes? Do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are? Where do you need to tighten up your skills in order to succeed?
So this is why I created Entrepreneur Secrets – to give people genuine business ideas, then to train them in entrepreneurship. My company has done this type of thing for years, and with incredible results. Entrepreneur Secrets is just a way of bringing my methods to the masses, and I’m very excited by the possibilities. But more of all that later. It’s worth sticking with this blog as I’ll be giving away useful nuggets of information which shows major business opportunities that can be taken advantage of.
So why do I want to bring entrepreneurship to the masses in the first place? Well, I believe that the UK economy under-performing in several crucial respects, which can be summarised as Inception, Innovation, Investment and Internationalisation:
- Inception: we have too low a rate of new firm formation – we continually lag behind the rest of Europe in terms of start-ups.
- Innovation: we have one of the lowest levels of spending on Research & Development in Europe.
- Investment: for example manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are typically less productive than the EU average, reflecting lower levels of investment in both physical and human capital.
- Internationalisation: there is a perception that businesses in the UK are relatively less engaged in international trade, thereby distancing themselves from major market opportunities.
Small businesses, almost by definition, reach into all parts of the economy, both spatially and by sector. Hence encouraging their development offers the twin prospects of both enhancing and spreading prosperity.
So my mission is to advance the knowledge economy in the UK by helping to create businesses which are growth, and which can take advantage of international markets. The knowledge economy can be defined as ‘adding value through the application of ideas and information’. Seen in this light the knowledge economy is as much about revitalising traditional sectors as it is about the development of new sectors.
Increasing the pace of innovation within a company, and within the economy more generally, involves making more effective use of the resources that are available, where resources include not only physical assets such as land and machinery, but also intangible assets like knowledge, creativity and expertise.
As the business environment becomes more competitive and more internationalised and with technologies constantly advancing, few companies can afford to stand still. To be successful, they must have the right mix of skills, products and production methods to be able to compete. Innovation is a key element in this for the following reasons:
1. It is fundamental to preserving existing jobs. We face ever-intensifying competition from abroad. With so many countries now producing low-cost products of acceptable quality, it is vital that firms become more innovative in order to raise the quality of their products whilst reducing costs, thereby enhancing their competitiveness in the global economy.
2. Through the introduction of new products and processes, innovation is central to the development of high growth industries and the creation of new jobs. The fastest growing industries in many developed countries are the tradable, high value, knowledge-based service industries such as communications and financial and business services, and the high-technology manufacturing industries which include aerospace, computing equipment, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
