All Opinion articles – Page 8
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OpinionWould be entrepreneurs: “Never die not knowing,” says Jon Allen
“Entrepreneurial thinking is needed for 21st-century skills,” says Jon Allen, MD and co-founder of Enploy, a platform for teaching entrepreneurial mindsets for young people and for employers, and a judge at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. This is his take on what it takes to be an entrepreneur, his ...
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Opinion
“Maybe it is the age of the celebrity entrepreneur,” says Stephen Fear
“Maybe it is the turn of the entrepreneur. We have had celebrity chefs and celebrity footballers now with the likes of Richard Branson, Alan sugar etcetera… we have celebrity entrepreneurs, and that inspires others to be like them,” says Stephen Fear, the man behind the Fear Group, a company with ...
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Opinion
Paul Lees to entrepreneurs: you need luck, good team work, but you need to be able to make-up your own mind
Photo: Four leaf clover, signifies luck, image by Umberto Salvagnin “There is a lot of luck, you need a team, listen to advice but don’t always follow it.” Paul Lees, founder and one time CEO of Powwownow, the leading free conference call company, and judge at the NatWest Great ...
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Opinion
People are programmed to say ‘no’, entrepreneurs have to get the ‘yes’ response, says Qasim Majid
“I’ve had more things go wrong than go right!”, says Qasim Majid – Cas, Judge at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, “but the things that have gone right, they’ve gone big!” “The world is built on the two-letter word – ‘No’! People love to say ‘No’. It is the ...
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Opinion
“You will work harder than you ever worked before, but being an entrepreneur is amazing”, says Evadney Campbell
“Beware,” says Evadney Campbell, MBE and judge at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, when you set up a business “You are going to have to work harder than you have ever worked before.” But then I am passionate about what I do, it doesn’t feel like a chore, it ...
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Opinion
Real entrepreneurship is where we see innovation that harnesses diversity
“Entrepreneurs need to be fearless, but not like a Viking warrior,” says Joel Blake, OBE for Services to Business Support and Enterprise, speaker at TED, and a judge at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Joel is a believer in diversity – he specialises in helping clients take diversification within ...
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Opinion
There is nowhere better than the UK to be an entrepreneur, says Simon Biltcliffe
Image: Wikimedia “They are not quite like Mother Theresa of Calcutta” says Simon Biltcliffe, a judge at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, describing most of the entrepreneurs he knows, “but neither are they anything like the media portrayals of the Philip Greens or Mike Ashleys. Nine out of ...
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Opinion
Entrepreneurs could do with some justice – Justice Williams
She was just 28, when the letter came. Justice Williams, a judge at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, had spoken in the House of Commons, and when she saw the envelope and realised it was from the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, she assumed it was related to that. ...
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Opinion
Entrepreneurs: you need tenacity and humility, says top man in venture capital
“When I first became an entrepreneur, I think a lot of my friends felt sorry for me,” says Ian Merricks. “Poor Ian, he can’t get a job, he is having to go self-employed.” Not that they are feeling sorry for him now. Ian is the Managing Partner of White Horse ...
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Opinion
"Don’t do it unless you are passionate about it", says the CEO at The New Entrepreneurs Foundation
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/ Anthony Easton You need enthusiasm, bundles of it, to set up a business, says Neeta Patel, the CEO of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation (NEF). She has this advice to any budding entrepreneur, the same advice she gives to members of the foundation, and that’s: “Don’t do it unless ...
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Opinion
Ego is the enemy of entrepreneurs
"You must be supremely confident in yourself, your ability and your business, but that shouldn’t be to your detriment. Ego is the enemy," say s Jodie Cook, a judge for the Creative Industries Entrepreneur Awards category within the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. We asked her "What effect are TV ...
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Opinion
Entrepreneurs are unsung heroes says EJ Packe, so why does the media portray them as crooks?
It’s EJ Packe’s business to work with high growth entrepreneurs, and she knows a thing or two about them – what it takes to be an entrepreneurial success, and how the UK can become more entrepreneurial. But to tell the tale, we need to start with heroes and crooks. EJ ...
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Opinion
It’s a golden age for female entrepreneurs
“Female founders are finally having their moment” says Jo Dalton. She should know because she has a novel insight into the UK entrepreneur scene. For one thing, she is an entrepreneur, she has founded three companies, for the other thing she is in the headhunting business and works with a ...
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Opinion
In the age of accelerating technology, we may all need to be a bit more entrepreneurial
“When I was at school being an entrepreneur was just something that Richard Branson did. . . sometimes teachers would say ‘there are entrepreneurs in the world, like Richard Branson, but now let’s talk about getting a job.’ The idea of taking a risk was not something they really drilled ...
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Opinion
Entrepreneurs do fail and talking about it makes it more acceptable
Image: Chris Potter/Flickr Simon Burton is an entrepreneur in media, events, PR, sport and social media. He is an inspirational public speaker, and a judge at this year’s NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards and yet, he says, it’s his failures that have made him a success. “I often say ...
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Opinion
There’s an entrepreneur in all of us
“The world is a less safe place,” says Mark Fuller, Chairman of Chief Executives North West, but for creating a more entrepreneurial UK, this might be a good thing. Mark, who is a judge for the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, has worked with hundreds of businesses in every sector ...
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Opinion
The UK is becoming a global entrepreneurial capital, why? We ask an expert
Image: Wikimedia Matt Smith is the Director at The Centre for Entrepreneurs, an organisation set-up to promote the role of entrepreneurs in creating economic growth and social well-being. In this first part of an interview, he helps us try to understand what is going on with the UK entrepreneurial ...
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Opinion
NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards call for entries
Applications are now open for the 2017 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Now in its fifth year, the Awards celebrate the hard work and inspiring stories of British entrepreneurs, not simply their financial success. There are 11 categories to enter in each host city – Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and ...
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Opinion
Webinar: Have you Fallen Asleep at the Switch?
The General Data Protection Regulation is ONLY a year away, and the implications on businesses that aren't compliant are huge. Can your business afford to lose 4% of its annual turnover? Or €20 million? Register for the complimentary GDPR webinar on the 17 May at 2.30pm to learn how ...
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Opinion
GDPR – What do you need to know?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect across Europe in May 2018 and will apply to the UK despite Brexit. As this is a ‘regulation’ rather than a ‘directive’ it is binding and effectively forms part of UK law as soon as it comes into force. GDPR will ...
