The Startups Awards 2016, sponsored by Sage, are open for entries from now until Friday 16th September. For more information or to enter the awards, go to startupsawards.co.uk
Want to launch a start-up business? Five experts share their advice
More than 600,000 start-ups were launched in 2015 – yet statistics show than more than half won’t survive beyond five years. So how to ensure your new venture will thrive? The founders of some of Britain’s leading businesses offer some pointers on the road to success
Cath Kidston, MBE
Designer, founder of Cath Kidston
“My advice for new businesses starting out is to love what you do, because it's going to be very hard work. You've got to stay focussed: write down your dream and focus on your core values. It's not just about profit: profit follows a great business.
I spent a long time building the brand and taking very little profit out of the business; what I wanted was a recognisable, identifiable product and brand name. One day I read in a national newspaper that something was 'very Cath Kidston'. That was the reward I'd been waiting for; that was the proudest moment I've had with Cath Kidston.”
Jon Wright
co-founder Innocent Drinks
“To create a successful start-up, the single most important thing is a great team. That may just be yourself and a couple of other people, but collectively between you, you must have the all necessary attributes if you are going to get a business to really fly. Once you’ve got that, it’s about having a great idea.”
Simon Franks
co-founder LoveFilm
“The most important thing I look for in a start-up is for it to be a business and not just an idea. Being a business ultimately requires that you make a product or service for X, and that you sell it for X+. As long as that plus is more than your costs, you have a business. Simple as it sounds, I find that these basics sometimes get overlooked.
The kind of start-ups I look for have a great team, have financial discipline and either an innovative new product or service or are innovative in their execution of an existing product or service. Crucially, however, they also will have the drive to deliver profit at their core. This kind of entrepreneurial dynamism should be celebrated and nurtured.”
Nick Wheeler
Founder Charles Tyrwhitt
“Our world continues to change at a dizzying pace and there are businesses starting now that will be complete game changers in the near future. What I like about business in Britain is that it is fun. Anything is possible. If you have the idea and the inclination, you really can turn your idea on the back of an envelope into reality.
What I look for in a start-up is a business with a strategic vision and a founding team with the guts and determination to turn that vision into a reality.”
Simon Devonshire
Co-founder, Wayra
“I believe the key challenges for start-up success and to the successfully scale broadly fall into three categories: access to talent, access to finance and funding, and – what I think is perhaps the biggest challenge – access to customers.”
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