Entrepreneur E-Book

Lucy Tobin

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 228

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Small Business Book Award Winner 2013, Small Business Book Awards

The secrets of the UK's biggest online entrepreneurs revealed  

Thinking of starting a business? Already have a business online and looking to take it to the next level? The wonderful world wide web has made creating a start-up that much easier. Thousands of people are out there reaping the rewards the web can bring. If you want to join them, you've come to the right place. 

Profiling today's foremost web entrepreneurs, Lucy Tobin - who meets successful business founders every week writing an enterprise column for The Evening Standard – takes us through their start-up stories and maps out exactly what's made them so successful. You’ll hear first hand from the bright sparks behind some of the UK's top online businesses. With interviews, practical advice and insights, you'll learn how they did it, what they recommend, and how you can do it too.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Part One: The Story Behind . . . 

CHAPTER 1 WONGA

The idea

Concept to reality

Take off

Wonga’s wonga

Making a splash

CHAPTER 2 MOONPIG

Green light

On the up

Spiralling success

Funding

CHAPTER 3 MUMSNET

Jacuzzi business

Word of mouth

How to get known? Get sued

Still flying solo

No exit

CHAPTER 4 JUSTGIVING

Knocking on doors

A runaway success

The usefulness of usability

Fee storm

CHAPTER 5 ZOOPLA

Film star success

All nighters

Splurge

CHAPTER 6 GOCOMPARE

Grow or die

That man who sings opera . . . 

The people

Opportunity knocks

CHAPTER 7 GROUPON / MYCITYDEAL

New direction

Sprint finish

Fish shortages

CHAPTER 8 SPAREROOM

The sound of success

Growth

Shoestring budget

Making some noise (quietly)

Code red

The future – and beyond

CHAPTER 9 MADE.COM

Sofa so good . . . 

Networking essentials

Take off

Expansion

CHAPTER 10 MOO.COM

‘Pleasure cards’

New start

Spreading the word

CHAPTER 11 ENTERNSHIPS

And then the economy imploded

Bootstrapping

Buy back

New strategy

The future

Part Two: Advice

CHAPTER 12 THE LIGHTBULB MOMENT

CHAPTER 13 THE IDEA: CHECKING IT OUT

Market research

Monetisation plan

Barriers to entry

How much will it cost?

Timing

You

Solo or duet?

CHAPTER 14 SETTING UP A BUSINESS

Business plan

Financial reporting and accounting

Tax

Funding

Recruitment

Premises or working from home

Intellectual property

Internet usage policies

Banking

CHAPTER 15 CREATING A WEBSITE

The domain name

Hosting

Build, design and development

SEO

Site content

CHAPTER 16 GETTING YOUR SITE KNOWN: MARKETING

Creating a plan

The theory

The reality

Pay-per-click

PR

Social marketing

Don’t forget the real world . . . 

Is it working? Analytics

CHAPTER 17 EXPANSION AND EXIT

Acquisition

RESOURCES

Featured websites

Check it out

Networking

Funding and banking

Creating a website

Marketing

More advice

This edition first published 2012

© 2012 Lucy Tobin

Registered office

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-857-08288-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-857-08301-2 (ebk)

ISBN 978-0-857-08302-9 (ebk) ISBN 978-0-857-08303-6 (ebk)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There can’t be a more helpful group of business people in Britain than entrepreneurs. This book wouldn’t have happened without a huge amount of help from founders of web start-ups, financiers, developers and more. Thank you for breaking up your sunny weekends in Chicago, the frantic final hours of acquisitions and the Heathrow check-in queue to talk to me. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is jam-packed, and I’m grateful to all of those included in this book for giving up time to give out advice. Special thanks to Yael Levey and Rob Cooper for the very latest trends on wireframing and more, and to Twitter contact Leigh Caldwell of Inon for his exhaustive advice on development.

This book is for my parents, for being the best backers anyone could ask for, and for Howard, my husband-to-be and PR-in-chief. Thank you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lucy Tobin is a business reporter for the London Evening Standard, where she writes a column about entrepreneurs and how they built up their companies. She has been named Enterprise and Business Journalist of the Year in the Santander Media Awards Young Journalist of the Year by law firm DLA Piper; commended as Journalist to Watch at the WorkWorld Media Awards and as Regional Journalist of the Year at the HeadlineMoney awards for financial journalism. Lucy is the author of two previous books, A Guide to Uni Life and Pimp Your Vocab. She has a first class degree in English from Oxford University. www.lucytobin.com

INTRODUCTION

Heard the old joke about the new entrepreneur? A bloke who’s just launched an online business meets some friends in the pub. ‘So’, says one, ‘what made you decide to start up on your own?’ ‘Well’, replies the entrepreneur, ‘it was something my last boss told me.’ His friend responds: ‘Wow, what did he say?’ – to which our hero responds: ‘You’re fired.’

Groans all round. Not only because it’s a pretty bad joke, but also because it just doesn’t represent the vibrant culture of entrepreneurship in the UK today. Yes, it’s true that during the recession, hundreds of thousands of Britons realised there was an alternative to spending each night worrying about the corporate axe and whether they’d still have a job in the morning. Amid a culture of no pay-rises and ever-longer hours, many turned away from spending their working life slaving away for someone else, and started up alone.