A business plan competition to be held in London promises to help all participants, not just the winner.
A London-held business plan competition will provide entrepreneurs with the chance to get expert advice and make invaluable contacts whether they win or not.
TiEger’s Den, which is organized by TiE UK, won’t be the humiliating experience it is for so many of the participants of the hit BBC show with a similar name, Dragon’s Den, where people often get their business proposals torn apart on television.
A panel of experienced entrepreneurs from the TiE UK membership will cast their eye over contestants’ business plans and offer constructive advice and on-going mentoring to all participants.
Four entrepreneurs will have a maximum of five minutes to present their business plan, which will be followed by a Q&A session with the panel lasting no longer than 10 minutes.
Last year’s winner, Mathew Mazhuvanchery of ONSI Infrastructure, found the experience invaluable to his emerging business.
“I got great advice on how I should take ONSI forward” he says. “It’s worth its weight in gold.”
The TiEger’s Den Business Plan Competition takes place on 5 July at the London offices of competition sponsors Simmons & Simmons. The address is Citypoint, One Ropemaker Street, London, EC2Y 9SS.
If you wish to be considered for this event please send your business plan to Fionuala Pender, TiE UK Executive Director at fpender@tie-uk.org no later than 16 June.
TiE UK is part of a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, and holds frequent networking events, seminars, and workshops as well as offering a mentoring programme for emerging entrepreneurs.
More at:http://www.tie-uk.org/
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Movie Could Teach YouAbout Entreprenuership
It was a disappointment at the box office, but grew to popularity on cable television to the point that almost everyone I know considers it one of the top movies of all time. I'm talking about The Shawshank Redemption. It's a deep movie, and while talking with a friend the other day, I came to realize how well some of the lessons in the movie carry over to life as an entrepreneur.
Lesson 1 - The Discontinuity of Success (Why Overnight Successes Are Really Long Battles)
Overnight successes aren't really overnight successes. They only seem that way. I touched on this in my post about Elton John and How To Make Millions in 30 Minutes or Less. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne spends 19 years digging a tunnel to escape prison. The result is binary. He's either in prison, or he isn't. For 19 years, he's making progress, but he's still in prison. Then one day he is free. It seems like a huge jump, but it wasn't.
This happens a lot to entrepreneurs. They go years without reaching the level of success they seek, and when they find it, it often comes in the form of a discontinuity. You go through each day, working hard, not knowing if you will ever see the payoff you hope for, but taking satisfaction in the process of building something. Then one day you are acquired, or go public, or get to the point that you don't have to be involved every day. All of the sudden it's different.
Many people in Andy's position would have tried to break out of Shawshank like this:
1. Get a rock hammer and start digging.
2. Realize it's going to take a long time.
3. Give up. Or possibly...
4. Get a bigger hammer that gets you caught, and lose any hope of breaking out because the guards keep a better eye on your activities.
5. Start trying again, every time the place really gets to you, but always give up after a few weeks because it's hard and progress is slow.
The result is that you would spend your life in Shawshank. So the lesson of Andy Dufresne is to keep plugging away. Do whatever you can. It's all about forward progress. Overnight successes tend to happen to people that have put in years of paying their dues.
Lesson 2 - Institutionalization (Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying)
Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. I'm not one of these bloggers that will chastize people who work for corporations. There is nothing wrong with that. It fits some people very well, and is a surer path to success. But it can kill the spirit of an entrepreneur to spend too much time in a big company.
Here is what Red (Morgan Freeman in the movie) says about Brooks, a long time inmate who threatens to kill another inmate because he's afraid to leave Shawshank.
He's just institutionalized...The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, he's an educated man. Outside he's nothin' - just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn't get a library card if he tried.
Spend a long time at a company, and you get some nice perks. You get seniority. You get an expense account. Leave for a startup and all of the sudden you are building desks out of old doors and staying at Motel 6 instead of the Hyatt. It's not a jump everybody can make easily.
The other point that is relevant is that if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, too much time inside a slow bureaucratic company can kill it off. Here is the rest of Red's quote about Brooks.
..these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on 'em. That's 'institutionalized'...They send you here for life and that's exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway.
Like I said. Corporate life is a perfect match for the skills and interests of many people, and that's fine. But for entrepreneurs, anything more than a year or two could kill off that urge to build something. It's hard to leave the comfort of a steady paycheck and the 8-5 life, but it's like Red says in the movie - "get busy living or get busy dying."
More at:http://www.businesspundit.com/
Lesson 1 - The Discontinuity of Success (Why Overnight Successes Are Really Long Battles)
Overnight successes aren't really overnight successes. They only seem that way. I touched on this in my post about Elton John and How To Make Millions in 30 Minutes or Less. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne spends 19 years digging a tunnel to escape prison. The result is binary. He's either in prison, or he isn't. For 19 years, he's making progress, but he's still in prison. Then one day he is free. It seems like a huge jump, but it wasn't.
This happens a lot to entrepreneurs. They go years without reaching the level of success they seek, and when they find it, it often comes in the form of a discontinuity. You go through each day, working hard, not knowing if you will ever see the payoff you hope for, but taking satisfaction in the process of building something. Then one day you are acquired, or go public, or get to the point that you don't have to be involved every day. All of the sudden it's different.
Many people in Andy's position would have tried to break out of Shawshank like this:
1. Get a rock hammer and start digging.
2. Realize it's going to take a long time.
3. Give up. Or possibly...
4. Get a bigger hammer that gets you caught, and lose any hope of breaking out because the guards keep a better eye on your activities.
5. Start trying again, every time the place really gets to you, but always give up after a few weeks because it's hard and progress is slow.
The result is that you would spend your life in Shawshank. So the lesson of Andy Dufresne is to keep plugging away. Do whatever you can. It's all about forward progress. Overnight successes tend to happen to people that have put in years of paying their dues.
Lesson 2 - Institutionalization (Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying)
Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. I'm not one of these bloggers that will chastize people who work for corporations. There is nothing wrong with that. It fits some people very well, and is a surer path to success. But it can kill the spirit of an entrepreneur to spend too much time in a big company.
Here is what Red (Morgan Freeman in the movie) says about Brooks, a long time inmate who threatens to kill another inmate because he's afraid to leave Shawshank.
He's just institutionalized...The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, he's an educated man. Outside he's nothin' - just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn't get a library card if he tried.
Spend a long time at a company, and you get some nice perks. You get seniority. You get an expense account. Leave for a startup and all of the sudden you are building desks out of old doors and staying at Motel 6 instead of the Hyatt. It's not a jump everybody can make easily.
The other point that is relevant is that if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, too much time inside a slow bureaucratic company can kill it off. Here is the rest of Red's quote about Brooks.
..these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on 'em. That's 'institutionalized'...They send you here for life and that's exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway.
Like I said. Corporate life is a perfect match for the skills and interests of many people, and that's fine. But for entrepreneurs, anything more than a year or two could kill off that urge to build something. It's hard to leave the comfort of a steady paycheck and the 8-5 life, but it's like Red says in the movie - "get busy living or get busy dying."
More at:http://www.businesspundit.com/
www.peopleized.com
It came up with the idea when they saw that a lot of blogger have very good content and still have a problem getting traffic, so they started Peopleized. The goal is to give readers access to new and interesting blogs by using the interviews as a “behind-the-scenes” tool to help them gain interest to the content.
More at:http://www.peopleized.com/
More at:http://www.peopleized.com/
Uncommon Business Idea
Brian Conant stood alongside his fellow National Guardsmen during a training session about eight years ago in Hawaii. He was wearing a heavy chemical warfare suit lined with charcoal.
"Any time I expelled gas in the suit, I realized nobody could smell it," Conant, 48, says. "It was amazing."
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 58 million Americans suffer from one or more medical disorders that cause excessive gas. To treat it, doctors usually recommend a change in diet. Sometimes they recommend medication, such as Gas-X or Bean-O, which alters the bacteria that may be causing the foul odor. But with Conant's invention, the Flatulence Deodorizer, also known as Flat-D, there is an alternative way to limit the embarrassment.
The long, narrow washable pad, lined thinly with charcoal, absorbs chemicals, including hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of the bacteria that causes odorous gas. The pad, at $12.95, curves with the contour of the body, and one size fits most.
For those who fall outside the "most" category, Conant has developed the "overpad," partly due to the increasing number of phone calls from those who have just undergone gastric bypass surgery. "Can you guess our best month?" asks marketing director Frank Morosky. "January, because people have made New Year's resolutions to eat healthier. And, it turns out, healthy foods like broccoli, beans and whole grains cause gas."
More at:http://www.flat-d.com/
"Any time I expelled gas in the suit, I realized nobody could smell it," Conant, 48, says. "It was amazing."
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 58 million Americans suffer from one or more medical disorders that cause excessive gas. To treat it, doctors usually recommend a change in diet. Sometimes they recommend medication, such as Gas-X or Bean-O, which alters the bacteria that may be causing the foul odor. But with Conant's invention, the Flatulence Deodorizer, also known as Flat-D, there is an alternative way to limit the embarrassment.
The long, narrow washable pad, lined thinly with charcoal, absorbs chemicals, including hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of the bacteria that causes odorous gas. The pad, at $12.95, curves with the contour of the body, and one size fits most.
For those who fall outside the "most" category, Conant has developed the "overpad," partly due to the increasing number of phone calls from those who have just undergone gastric bypass surgery. "Can you guess our best month?" asks marketing director Frank Morosky. "January, because people have made New Year's resolutions to eat healthier. And, it turns out, healthy foods like broccoli, beans and whole grains cause gas."
More at:http://www.flat-d.com/
Cooqy provides a fresh and friendly interface for eBay which makes shopping a breeze.
Cooqy provides a fresh and friendly interface for eBay which makes shopping a breeze. Cooqy launches directly without registration. What you'll find is a seriously cool flash based interface with an advanced toolset. Information loads quickly. The advanced query function allows you to refine searches by specifying location for cheaper shipping, by generating mispelled entries which usually go unnoticed and are therefore probably cheaper, and by helping you find zero bid items or those with buy now status. By pressing Find Similar button, Cooqy will automatically pull up relevant matches. There are several viewing options: photo collage, stamp sheet, gallery, list, and even map view which very nicely integrates with Yahoo maps and pinpoints the locations of the items up for sale. Once you've set up your own account with Cooqy there are advanced options available: Finders Keepers hides an item from other Cooqy users if you're the highest bidder; Watchlist is for items you want to keep your eye on; Found Items displays results emailed to you which match your search alert criteria. Once you want to place a bid you'll be directed to the actual eBay site. For sellers there's a set of widgets which enable advertising on popular sites like Myspace, Blogger, and Xanga among others.
"Shoppers can shop eBay with superior presentation, performance, and value-add
shopping features not available elsewhere, for free!
More at:http://www.cooqy.com/
"Shoppers can shop eBay with superior presentation, performance, and value-add
shopping features not available elsewhere, for free!
More at:http://www.cooqy.com/
Online Marketplace For All Kind Of Sports Tickets
You’ll never miss a playoff game or championship again with ReserveTickets.com. Reserve Tickets is a startup which allows you to reserve tickets before the season even begins, providing the truest sports fans the best value and the best seats to all their favorite games. Ticket Reserve supports NFL, NHL, NBA, NCAA, and NASCAR, all fans of all the most popular sports in the US.
More at:http://www.ticketreserve.com/
More at:http://www.ticketreserve.com/
Search for airfare deals from your Facebook profile
GO,powered by SmartTravel, has created a Facebook application enabling you to search for airfare deals from your Facebook profile. Search flights across the country or across the world. Get your application now and you’ll be entered to win one of three $500 air travel prizes provided by SmarterTravel. You don’t need to sign up for a Go account in order to install the search widget onto your Facebook profile, and of course, friends can utilize the search as well.
More at:http://mashable.com/
More at:http://mashable.com/
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