Sci-Fi novels saving the world – ELPs
There’s no shortage of technological innovations that existed in the pages of a Science Fiction novel long before they existed in real life. Augmented reality is straight from the books of William...
View ArticleUsing Social Media DOESN’T Damage Your Job Prospects
There’s been much talk about the impact of your social media presence on your job prospects. The thinking seems to be that a prospective employer searches your name on Google and discovers your...
View ArticleMe, me, me.
A little while ago Dennis Howlett of AccManPro came in to KashFlow Towers and shot a video, part of which was an interview with me. I honestly didn’t (and still don’t) think I said much that was...
View ArticleYour Vanity is Devaluing LinkedIn
I use Twitter every day. Anyone can follow me, and I’ll follow anyone who looks interesting. Facebook I use much less frequently and don’t have (or want) many friends on there. It’s more...
View ArticleMumpreneur – a good or a bad word to be using?
There’s a debate raging on Twitter now over the use of the word “Mumpreneur” as a name for a mother that’s an entrepreneur It started with a conversation between @EtcEtcOnline (Darren Leighfield) and...
View ArticleThe Ultimate in Customer Service: Can you better this?
One of the great things about running a growing business that’s starting to make a bit of a splash is that you get invited to pretty exclusive events and get to meet some big overachievers. I was at...
View ArticleE2Live Cancelled, Rachel Elnaugh kicks Entrepreneur
On 1st August 2005, Rachel Elnaugh’s Red Letter Days went into administration leaving plenty of unpaid suppliers and disappointed customers. Rachel received a lot of personal attacks over the failure...
View ArticleBanned from “Sage Event”
I blogged last week about the two events I’ll be attending for Global Entrepreneurship Week. I received a phone call today from the organisers telling me it “wouldn’t be appropriate” for me to attend...
View ArticleNow that you’re an Entrepreneur…
So you’ve decided to start a business, you are now officially an entrepreneur. There are a few things you need to do straight away… Business Cards First up: business cards. Raised print, full colour,...
View ArticleTenThings.me – Simples.
On Friday night I got a peek at a new, yet-to-be-launched, social site – tenthings.me. The concept is incredibly simple. 1) Log in to it via FaceBook, 2) and then “share (up to) ten things about...
View ArticleStartUp Britain and the concept of Enlightened Self-Interest
Start Up Britain officially launched this morning and it has been the top trending topic on Twitter for the UK most of today. Startup Britain has been founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. It’s...
View ArticleSaaS & Big Cos: Go Hard or Go Home
2011 has seen the big boys of the UK accounting software world, Sage and Intuit, finally enter the SaaS marketplace. After their first abortion of an attempt, Sage went back to the drawing board and...
View ArticleMP3 OCD – Tools For Tidying Your Music Collection
I recently bought a Sonos Multi-room sound system and put all my MP3s on a NAS drive (Buffalo LinkStation) so they were accessible in any room from the Sonos system and via our laptops for iTunes. Much...
View ArticleTips to Help You Switch Off on Holiday
So you’ve finally convinced yourself your business won’t implode if you take a holiday – great! Now you just need ot make sure you do actually switch off when you’re away. The below are six tips I’ve...
View ArticleOut of Limbo – Post-mortem of a fundraising excercise
Edit: For an update to this post, see Changing The Game. It’s been something of an open secret over recent months that we, KashFlow, have been in a process/undertaking a strategic review/considering...
View Article#LondonRiots – maybe this is the “why?”
As I’m writing this on Monday evening, London is having it’s third night of riots and fires. The news channels are already making a big deal about the ages of some of the people children involved and...
View ArticleAn Annoying/Funny/Time-wasting Exchange on LinkedIn
Below is an exchange of messages on LinkedIn. I’ve changed her name to just intials and removed the name of the company, but it was a PLC. From: LZ Join my network on LinkedIn LZ has indicated you are...
View ArticleEmail Etiquette – When Harry Met Sally
Most (but not all) of us now know that it’s not a good idea, when emailing lots of people, to put all of their addresses in the To or CC field. Use BCC so you’re not sharing email addresses without the...
View Article7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Bother Reading This Blog Post
Statistically there are far more people on the planet that won’t bother reading this blog post than those that will. So you, dear reader, are in a very small minority. So listed here are the top 7...
View ArticleTwitter to Save ITV Ad Revenues #socialtv
Back when there were just 3 or 4 channels on TV it was easy for a commercial broadcaster like ITV to deliver a lot of eyeballs to advertisers. Then two things happened. First, the proliferation of TV...
View Article#FollowFriday #FF – You’re doing it wrong!
It’s Friday, yay! Friday on Twitter is “Follow Friday”. The idea is that you suggest to your followers who else they should follow by tweeting their names and putting using the hashtag #FollowFriday or...
View ArticleAs Smart Phones Get Smarter, Humans get Stupider
When’s the last time you wrote something with pen and paper? My handwriting is appalling and after a few lines my fingers ache. The reason for that is because of how infrequently I need to actually...
View ArticleSoftware Satisfaction – Thank You!
On Tuesday evening we attended the black tie (or pink tie in our case) dinner for the announcement of the winners of the 2011 Software Satisfaction Awards. We won the web-based accounting software...
View ArticleI.P.E.A. – The Four Attributes You Need to Work in a Startup
KashFlow has been going a good few years now and there are over 20 of us here. But we’re still very much a start-up in terms of our culture, the way we work, and the things we’re working on. Working in...
View ArticleThe Future of Digital Money
There is currently a divide in the world of digital money. This divide was exemplified by a panel at Monday’s London Web Summit, with two of the panelists (at least to some extent) working alongside...
View ArticleI didn’t get any work done today
I had a realisation recently that other founders – especially those of a technical bent – might be able to relate to. I’d just spent a whole day in various meetings. As I left for the day and realised...
View ArticleEntrepreneurs in Prison
The front page of the Metro this morning carried a story about prisoners being used as workers by the likes of M&S and other big firms. The Independent and many other papers also have the story....
View ArticleThe Importance of Trade Shows to Small Businesses
The UK Trade Show industry has an £11 billion impact on the UK economy, with over 900 shows a year taking place. Getting the most out of a trade show depends on a few things. Picking the right arena...
View ArticleThoughts and opinions are my own, not that of my employer. And so is my...
Thoughts and opinions are my own, and not that of my employer. It’s rare that I get through a day without seeing some variation of this phrase in someone’s Twitter bio. In case you haven’t noticed,...
View ArticleBeyond SaaS, The Future Of Software Development and Delivery
Back when I launched KashFlow, my online accounting software business, the phrase “software as a service” hadn’t been coined yet. The recently popular catchall phrase ‘cloud computing’, now frantically...
View ArticleGeneration DIY #GenDIY
First there was Generation X. Then there was Generation Y. It’d be easy to read the Daily Mail and believe that the current generation is Generation ZZZ, as they’re a lazy bunch of good-for-nothings....
View ArticleIR35 Explained
The UK has always provided certain tax benefits to those working as independent contractors. However, for many years, the problem of disguised employees burdened the UK tax system and allowed...
View ArticleDo you have enough followers to read this blog post?
It probably comes as no surprise to some of you that a few members of the KashFlow Krew are Twitterholics – around 50% of staff here use it, and Management Today kindly voted Duane one of the top 50...
View ArticleWhitehall’s New Entrepreneurs In Residence – A Warning…
We recently ran a survey asking over a thousand business owners their views on what the government is or isn’t doing to make their lives easier and encourage new enterprises. The results are...
View ArticleInternal Communications in a Growing Startup
Around a year ago this guy turned up. I’ve learned a hell of a lot from him about doing my job as CEO of a fast growing company and I’m hoping to find the time to write more about some of that. But...
View ArticleThe Balance of Efficiency and Quality
Business is fundamentally (admittedly among other things!) about maximising surplus value and productivity while minimising the cost of everyday operations. However, one important variable that cannot...
View ArticleFacebook Advertising Sucks
Last year, we ran a large scale advertising campaign made up of a number of different elements. One source that performed much better than we were expecting was Spotify – we tracked a substantial...
View ArticleClowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right…
In the cola wars, it’s rare that contenders other than Pepsi and Coca Cola are mentioned. This shouldn’t be that surprising – they have billion dollar budgets (Coke spent just shy of $3bn on...
View ArticleThe Day That Email Changed Forever
If you’re running a small business you have a lot of email to process. Possibly more so if its a tech business. Some days I feel like I’ve done nothing but deal with emails. We all know that checking...
View ArticleRocking your Business World with Twitter
In the last decade social media sites have brought people together, but Twitter and other social networks have since defied their original purpose. Back when Twitter was conceived, over millions of...
View ArticleA Motivated Workforce
Motivation is a strange beast. It can evaporate at will, with productivity never far behind. There are plenty of reasons why motivation might disappear, which can make remedying it extremely difficult....
View ArticleHow to Make the Most of the Business Premises Renovation Allowance
Finding the right premises for a small or micro entity can be tough. Commercial rents can be prohibitively expensive, and even if the perfect location is located, it might need considerable work to get...
View ArticleAppreciation: Accountancy on the Rise
When you think of an accountant you probably think of someone in a cramped office surrounded by piles of invoices, constantly crunching numbers to produce a never-ending spool of…more numbers!...
View ArticleThe Value of LinkedIn for Your Small Business
Launching over a decade ago (on the 5th of May 2003 to be precise) LinkedIn has seen plenty of other social media sites fall in and out of favour with the masses. Despite the changing landscape of the...
View ArticleWhat’s in a name? Tips for naming your business
When starting a business, a key thing to consider is the business’s name; what are the main considerations to take into account when naming your business? It sounds like a simple enough task, but...
View ArticleThe Power of Reviews
The internet is full of review sites which allow people to talk about your business, both positively and negatively. Of course, this can have a huge impact on your success. Reviews can appear in a huge...
View ArticleHow Technology Helps Productivity
As a company develops, technology is examined as a way of saving money, making more money, saving time and/or enabling people to do more with less. In evaluating technology for your company, the cost...
View Article4 Future Predictions For Small Business Accounting
Some love it, others loathe it, but however you feel about change, it’s the only constant in this life. In order for your small business to stay competitive, it’s crucial you stay tuned to changes in...
View ArticleWhat You Need To Know Before Starting Your Own Business
Starting your own business can be exciting, worrying and stressful and it is important to understand the implications of your decisions and do thorough research before making the jump. The following...
View ArticleFour Inspirational UK Entrepreneurs
A record-breaking 657,790 new businesses were founded in the UK last year but in five years’ time, only half of them will still be trading. Odds like that make you wonder whether it’s worth the risk...
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