ACPR Blog

–Winners from the BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur competition prove that successful businesses are bucking the trend–          

Two businesses established by mums specifically catering for parents and families are amongst the  20 winners of BT Business’s Essence of the Entrepreneur competition.  Holiday Nanny, based in Lincolnshire, provides families with a properly qualified and vetted nanny for their holiday. Since starting the company in 2007, founder Nicola Grant has grown it enormously, and now works with over 140 different families and many top travel companies including Kuoni, Cadogan Holidays and Elegant Resorts. NetMums, based in Middlesex, was founded in 2002 by three mums and provides an online yet localised community for parents and families completely free of charge. It currently has over half a million users. Both these businesses are committed to making life easier for families, and creating networks for parents to talk and share ideas through experience. (more…)

I was just reading this story about a Brighton mum who made it to the finals of ITV This Morning’s Mumpreneur Competition. It reminded me of a good reason to enter awards. Helen Twigge Molecey and her Wondercube are still getting publicity, a couple of months after the award, and that is without even being the main winner. The Argus sums it up in their first sentance, “A mother has enjoyed lucrative television exposure for the innovative children’s toy she put on the market just a few weeks ago.”

Check out that word, lucrative. Promotion on ITV’s This Morning is worth thousands of pounds and can get your business exposure to millions of potential purchasers. Find some awards to enter in the new year - make it part of your PR plan for 2009.

BT Business launch free business mentoring programme

Following Small Business Week, BT Business in conjunction with Peter Jones, announces a free mentoring programme to help UK small businesses succeed. One business will have two half-day sessions with Peter Jones and an additional five businesses will win mentoring sessions with senior executives from the BT Business Senior Management Team, including Bill Murphy, managing director, Robin Mackenzie, marketing director and Mick Hegarty, strategy director.

This is an excellent opportunity for a small business to get valuable free advice from leading experts and draw on the skills of influential entrepreneur Peter Jones and senior executives from within the BT Business Senior Management Team. The mentors will be able to demonstrate the diverse skill set needed to run and manage a successful business and deliver bespoke mentoring to businesses. (more…)

MumsClub, the business club for mums, has announced the winner of the 2008 Mumpreneur competition.
Melanie Riddell, the Mum behind www.sizzlingscience.co.uk had the most original and inspiring business idea. Her business provides fun and interactive science workshops for children.

Melanie beat off stiff competition from other mum owned businesses to be crowned ‘MumsClub Business of the Year 2008′ and has won a whole package of prizes for her and her family. (more…)

A new website offers a “laugh-laden smorgasbord” of free help, advice, guidance, motivation and inspiration for anyone already running a business or thinking of setting one up. The person behind EnterpriseCafe.tv is Iain Scott, who continues to cause consternation in the enterprise world by claiming you don’t need a business plan to start up a business. (more…)

New research shows that after the initial enthusiasm for Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice, the small business community is disappointed with business TV programmes. As a result, the BCC has collaborated with Dell to create www.smallbusinessadvice.tv, a specialist online TV resource for expert commentary and advice to give small businesses the edge.  (more…)

Linda Jones has interviewed me for an article which will interest anyone who juggles work and children.

Do you see entering for business awards as an important part of your marketing strategy? Results of a survey released today show that industry awards really do make a difference, with business decision makers admitting to being swayed by awards and accreditations.

The survey, commissioned by awards specialists Boost Marketing and undertaken by market researchers Shape-the-Future, found that of the 400 senior business people who took part, 81% admitted to being influenced by awards when buying products and services for their business. (more…)

FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk is a new advice and networking website for freelancers and contractors at a time when growing uncertainty forces people to look at their skillsets and consider working for themselves.

There are currently 1.4 million people freelancing in the UK, according to research  from the Professional Contractors Group (PCG). And last week Government figures showed that unemployment has reached an 11-year high - the number of people out of work in the UK in the three months to September rose by 140,000 to 1.82 million. (more…)