Advanced Entrepreneurial Start-Ups

27th-28th September 2018, etc. Venues Fenchurch Street, 8 Fenchurch Place, London EC3M 4PB

Book Now (London)

18th-19th October 2018, Nextower, Thurn-und-Taxis-Platz 6, 60313 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Book Now (Frankfurt)

Have you ever started up your own company and run your own business? Do you know how to run your business?

For most start-up owners, the answer to these two questions will most likely be 'Yes'. And that is the problem. Anybody can start a business up ranging from fresh young talent to seasoned professionals. The difficulty is that many start-up owners take it for granted that they know how to run their business, they often fail to develop 'objective reflexivity'. So many start-up owners believe they know how to run their business until they fail, and then they learn that they did not know how to run their business after all.

In the United Kingdom it has been reported that more than 50% of new start-ups fail within the first five years (Anderson, 2014). Research by the British Insurer RSA identified that once start-ups are up and running owners struggle to plan for the long term, with 61% stating that they lacked confidence in their own ability to achieve three years' consecutive growth. It was also noted that:

"The biggest growth barrier is the UK tax system, with 44pc of SMEs citing it as their main concern. This was followed by a lack of bank lending at 38pc and too much red tape at 36pc, followed closely by costs and late payments or cashflow" (Anderson, 2014).

An entrepreneur has been loosely defined as a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. Many entrepreneurs have little to no training on setting up or running a business, and aim to learn it on the job, so to speak. The difficulty is that learning how to successfully run a business takes a hell of a lot more than just qualifications, or even experience working as an employee of a firm. Developing objective reflexivity should be the number one priority for a start-up owner. Being able to evaluate your own decision-making, your decisions, and your current situation is absolutely essential to running a successful start-up. Many business owners have not developed the mentality that is really needed to successfully run a start-up.

If you are a start-up owner and you are married, you have a partner, or are in a relationship, your chances of making your start-up successful just went down. If you are a start-up owner and you like to go on holidays, or you like to go out at weekends and socialise a lot, your chances of making your start-up successful just went down. If you are a start-up owner and you work Monday to Friday and then take the weekends off, your chances of making your start-up successful just went down. If you are a start-up owner and you are not a lawyer, your chances of making your start-up successful just went down.

A start-up owner that has developed objective reflexivity is able to understand that all of these activities take away time from running the company, and will increase the probability of your start-up failing. If you a start-up owner and you are not a lawyer then you will either have to spend money on legal agreements that you will probably not understand, or pay a solicitor to create legal agreements for you that will significantly increase operational costs and will increase the probability of your start-up failing.

Storm-7 Consulting

When my brother Joe and I started Storm-7 Consulting we adopted a specific mindset. Even though we had amassed a wealth of experience working in the banking, finance, and legal sectors, we purposely adopted a humble attitude towards knowledge. From the very beginning we assumed that we did not know how to run a business and that we would have to learn absolutely every aspect of running a business. We taught ourselves everything. We had to learn absolutely everything about running a start-up, and we developed an operational mindset in which we continually strive to learn. Always. It never stops, because the second it stops is when the probability of your start-up failing increases.

This is something that many start-up owners fail to do. We had to learn how to set up a company, what directors duties at law were, what health and safety law obligations for the company where, how to create and file company accounts, how to set up the company for Value Added Tax, how to keep business accounts, and how to file VAT returns. We had to teach ourselves how to create and code a website, how to write and create regulatory compliance technical blogs, how to write and create industry whitepapers, how to write and create regulatory compliance technical briefings.

We had to acquire a much deeper understanding of all areas relating to marketing, social media marketing, marketing channels, marketing campaigns, marketing promotional videos, marketing merchandise, marketing packages, and marketing events. We had to learn how to research and create events, how to run events, how to create and build marketing and sales lists, how to undertake valuable market research, how to research event viability, how to research and create event sponsorship materials and packages. We had to learn how to source and onboard valuable media partners, how to source and onboard high calibre event and training experts, and how to source and onboard effective strategic partners. We understood that acquiring such knowledge does not automatically mean you will achieve operational efficiency - that is something that we only achieved over time.

We had to create from scratch website legal terms and conditions, a privacy policy, a cookies policy, event booking terms and conditions, expert trainer agreements, event booking agreements, non-disclosure agreements, employee agreements, independent contractor agreements, media partner agreements, strategic partner agreements, and joint venture agreements. We had to create highly innovative and unique marketing and sales campaigns for events, we had to learn and create events sales campaigns. We had to learn how to undertake highly comprehensive market research, how to create industry reports, how to undertake highly granular strategic competitive analysis, and we had to learn about efficient implementation of Blue Ocean theory.

We had to apply a higher level of organisational management, and the workplace environment, how to recruit a different level of employees, how to interview potential recruits with a unique and different perspective, we undertook hundreds of interviews, and we have reviewed thousands of CVs. We have trained many, many individuals in advanced sales techniques, advanced marketing techniques, creative design techniques, designing and creating whitepapers, designing and creating marketing flyers, and designing and creating infographics.

We have researched and learned everything there is to know about the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), the revised Market Abuse Directive (MAD 2), the revised Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), Solvency II, Basel III, the revised Capital Requirements Directive (CRD IV), the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), Stress Testing, Reverse Stress Testing, the Packaged Retail and Investment-based Investment Products (PRIIPs), the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the OECD Common Reporting Standard. We have created some of the most comprehensive training course materials that exist on the planet covering these areas, and without doubt the most innovative and compelling. We became experts and creating and delivering first class events and training courses around the world and at presenting at the highest level.

We have received bookings and enquiries from leading firms around the world, such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Dubai Financial Market, CAF the Development Bank of Latin America, the Central Bank of Ireland, the Central Bank of Russia, Rothschild Investment Management (UK) Limited, APG Asset Management, Royal London Asset Management, Brandes Investment Partners, Eversheds, Erste Group, Millenium Information Technologies, Deutsche Bank, Bethmann Bank AG, ICBC Standard Bank, Gulf International Bank, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, and BGC Partners. The company has collaborated with firms around the world, such as the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, Thomson Reuters, IHS Markit, Sopra Steria, Sungard, Capco, OTC Partners New York, IHS Markit, Eze Castle Integration, ICMBA Centre, Sybenetix, Heriot Watt University, JP Morgan Asset Management, Custom House Global Fund Services, Cass Business School, Rixtrema, Solum Financial, Objectivus Financial Consulting, D2 Legal Technology, Eurekahedge, Financial IT, HedgeConnection, Alpha Journal, ATMonitor, HF Alert, and CrowdReviews.

The Advanced Entrepreneurial Start-Ups Training Event

At the training event we will guide attendees through sourcing base graphics and videos on sites such as iStock, Pexels, and Pixbay, we will guide attendees through a broad array of marketing software solutions and how to use them and programme them effectively and holistically. This includes solutions such as HubSpot, MailChimp, PipeDrive, Leadfeader, ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics, ConvertFlow, CloudUp, Google My Business, Getsitecontrol, ISSUU, and Survey Monkey. We will show attendees how to analyse markets and competitors both in terms of existing products and services, and competitor marketing rankings. We will show attendees what type of marketing content they should be producing for their business, for example, in terms of marketing blogs, marketing whitepapers, marketing campaigns, social media campaigns, and marketing videos. We will provide attendees with a range of template legal agreements such as website terms and conditions, privacy policy, employee contracts, independent contractor agreements, non-disclosure agreements, media partner agreements, strategic joint venture agreements, supplier agreements, and purchase terms and conditions. We will work with attendees to review their existing business models and to identify ways to augment their offerings, augment existing marketing materials and campaigns, and ultimately increase revenues. We can help attendees to put together crowdfunding pitches and help them with all the materials and evidence they require to submit to crowdfunding websites.

For more than three years now we have learned to a microscopic degree what every single start-up owner should learn if they want to be successful. The knowledge and experience we have gained can be used across a diverse range of businesses.

Invest in your business the right way by investing in improving yourself and your own business knowledge.

On the 27th and 28th September 2018 in London and on the 18th and 19th October in Frankfurt we will be teaching all these skills, techniques and experience to start-up owners who truly want to be successful. Early Bird Discount Tickets are on sale until Saturday 30th June 2018.

We would love to see you there.

REFERENCES

Anderson, A. (2014). Half of UK start-ups fail within five years. The Telegraph, 21st October, [Online].