Posted by president on October 14, 2011 under Advice, Podcasts | 
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Interested in developing a website? Mobile app? Starting up your own company at 21? Rich Martell, internet entrepreneur came in to tell us how it’s done, hear what he got up to here http://bambuser.com/channel/
Posted by president on October 13, 2011 under Advice, Competitions | Be the First to Comment
There’s a lot of information on the internet for young entrepreneurs, and we get how hard it is to find the good stuff. We’re going to filter through it all for you, and highlight the best of it….every week! First up is funding. We understand that it’s something lots of you are after, and so here are our picks of the week…. 
Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs run funding competitions about three times a year- keep an eye on our website and newsletter. We also tell you about all the best funding opportunities available to students!
Government grants are available from www.businesslink.gov.uk/support (great for information and support too)
Grants for social enterprises and charities are at www.fundingcentral.org.uk and www.unltd.org.uk
Grants are available monthly at http://www.shell-livewire.org/awards/ (make sure you check out their criteria for judging before you apply to boost your chances of winning)
Annual grants (over 20 prizes be won) can be found at http://www.westfocus.org.uk/event.php?event_id=16 (These grants are only available to students at six universities in the UK- the odds are in your favour with this one)
Annual grants are available at http://www.venturelab.co.uk/
If you need some advice on applications to any of the above please get in touch: president@royalhollowayentrepreneurs.com
Posted by president on September 20, 2011 under Advice, News | Be the First to Comment
You’re Hired! Why Entrepreneurship Is A Way To Success
If you pay attention to the news you will know that the current jobs market is a scary place to be. Even for graduates, the number of employment opportunities has significantly decreased since the credit crunch. However, while it may be harder to find someone to take you on as an employee, there has never been a better time to go it alone and try your hand at being your own business boss or entrepreneur. With the recently bailed-out banks committed to funding small business opportunities, those with a viable business plan and a little entrepreneurial skill may soon be on their way to building an exciting empire.
Getting Started as an Entrepreneur
In order to enter the world of entrepreneurship, you will need to have a great idea and the skills to
execute it. Good tips for those looking to go into business for themselves include:
Choose a business in an area that interests you – in the early days you will eat, sleep and breathe your business so your idea must be good enough and exciting enough to hold your interest as you get started.
Play to your skills – build a business plan around what you are already good at and familiar with – don’t attempt to branch out into a field where you have no expertise as this will
overcomplicate the process, give you masses more work and could cause you to trip up when
faced with competitors who are more knowledgeable in your field.
Find a mentor – look for an entrepreneur to help guide you through the early days in
business. Check out whether there are any business mentorships available in your area or
approach someone you know and find inspirational.
Use specialised services aimed at entrepreneurs – the business market recognises that
not everyone who enters into the world of business is well versed in all areas of business
practices. New start-ups can outsource a number of areas of their work from customer
services to their PAYE payroll solution, leaving them free to concentrate on the nuts and bolts
of their business.
The Benefits of Going at it Alone in Business
While starting out in business can be daunting, becoming an entrepreneur in charge of your own
assets offers many exciting benefits such as:
Being your own boss – choosing to run your own business man you answer only to yourself in
the initial stages. You set your working hours – want to get up at 10am and work through until
late in the evening? Go for it, as an entrepreneur no one can tell you not to!
Reaping the rewards of your work – when you work for a company, no matter how much
effort you put in, eventually the credit always seems to go elsewhere. If you become an
entrepreneur you can take credit for building your business and everyone will know that it is
all your own work.
A steep learning curve can mean quick success – in contrast to getting on the career ladder
and working your way up over the years, becoming an entrepreneur can be a fast tracked to
status and success, be the envy or your peers when they see the lifestyle you achieve with
your own hard work.
Join Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs to start down the road to success. Come and find us at Freshers Fayre in the SU this thursday and friday to find out more, and attend our first event of the term, Arora’s Den on 6th October, 6pm SU Main Hall.
Posted by John King on June 1, 2011 under Advice, News | Be the First to Comment
Download a presentation given by John Spindler of Capital Enterprise, the membership body for deliverers of enterprise support services in London, detailing sources of help including government grants that are presently on offer from over 50 enterprise support organisations operating in the London.
The presentation is available from the Capital Enterprise website.
Posted by John King on March 11, 2011 under Advice | Read the First Comment
Elance is a website which helps companies hire and manage staff online.
For businesses that hire people with specific skills on an hourly or project basis, Elance offers access to online workers and provides the tools to hire, view work in progress, and pay for results.
For skilled professionals who want to work online, Elance offers access to qualified clients and a virtual workplace.
Posted by John King on November 19, 2010 under Advice, News | Be the First to Comment
One of the most important things about starting a business is that you need to write stuff down. When you keep everything in your head, you end up ignoring contradictory evidence, forgetting important details, and generally making poor decisions.
The Startup Toolkit, a simple but effective website developed by Rob Fitzpatrick, is a quick way to write down the big, important building blocks of your startup. The goal here isn’t to tell you what to do — it’s just meant to help you to make your own good decisions.
It is based in large part on the worksheets and questions from Steve Blank’s book The 4 Steps to the Epiphany. The visual layout is based on the work done by Osterwalder, covered in great detail in the beautiful Business Model Generation book. Ash Maurya has also contributed his own twist on the canvas specifically for web startups. The risk dashboard is straight out of the pages of Komisar & Mullin’s Getting to Plan B.
Start planning your startup now by using The Startup Toolkit!
Posted by John King on October 20, 2010 under Advice | Be the First to Comment
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the term for a collection of techniques used to ensure that your website achieves as much traffic as possible, by ranking highly on searches from Google and other search engines. SEO is an industry in its own right, but there is much that you can do for free, yourself, to improve your website’s ranking.
Read this Seedcamp blog post by Andrew Hunter, Qype General Manager, on the 5 SEO tools he couldn’t live without.
Posted by president on October 13, 2010 under Advice | Be the First to Comment
Run jointly by John King, Royal Holloway’s Entrepreneurship Careers Adviser and Seb Butt, Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs’ Training Director, Startup Wednesdays is an exciting new course being launched next week, so don’t miss out on securing a place!
This FREE, yes FREE interactive 9 week course shows you how to:
…and much much more
This course is suitable for anyone who has an idea they want to make happen, doesn’t have an idea but wants to have one, or just wants to find out how to create their own career.
To register, please email john.king@rhul.ac.uk
Posted by John King on April 30, 2010 under Advice | Be the First to Comment
The Design Council have produced a series of great design guides for small businesses, combining practical advice and case studies. The guides include:
Posted by John King on March 15, 2010 under Advice, Competitions | Be the First to Comment
Get expert advice from one of the minigrants judges.
The £2,000 minigrants awards close at 5pm on Friday 19th March 2010. To give you the best chance of winning, one of the judges will be available this week to give you free one to one advice about your application. So if you have any questions about the application process, about terms and conditions, or just want to get your application into the best shape possible, make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to get some expert advice.
The advice clinics will be held in the Careers Service, Horton Building, at:
12pm-2pm Tuesday 16th March
1pm-3pm Friday 19th March
All information and application forms can be found here.
