Spotlight On … Paul Freeman

Paul Freeman is the CEO of PMH Digital Solutions; a mentoring business he founded to ‘promote the digital lifestyle’. It offers a range of digital products and courses to help people who are looking to discover how they can embrace digital opportunities in order to work for themselves, and get a healthier and happier work-life […]

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A patently great idea

Simon Krystman, who has recently become an IOEE member, is the man behind IdeasPatch, an innovative route to funding the filing of patents for talented inventors, who often find themselves in a catch-22 situation of no-patent, no investment. We chatted to him about his unique business model and his own route to entrepreneurship. Despite graduating […]

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Why are entrepreneurs like rugby players? Because they keep on trying.

For March’s edition of Think Enterprise, the IOEE’s monthly newsletter, we interviewed IOEE Fellow Paul Boross. As well as being a respected authority on the art of excellent enterprise communications and someone who has worked with high street banks, household-name media corporations and leading broadsheets, Paul is ‘The Pitch Doctor.’ This role sees him travel […]

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IOEE Academy status for ambitious social enterprise!

Sam Everard is the woman behind the Samee Project, a unique, Bournemouth-based social enterprise that secured its IOEE Academy status in February. The Samee Projects helps individuals from disenfranchised backgrounds on the road to self-employment or employment. We chatted to Sam about her own journey, which has taken her from wedding industry entrepreneur to successful […]

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IOEE Academy provides great enterprise Solutions

Husband and wife team Lennox and Georgina Thomas run GGT Solutions, a London-based IOEE Academy that specialises in enterprise training and consultancy. We interviewed Lennox about the business, its services and why becoming an IOEE Academy was a significant step. Lennox Thomas’ professional background lies in the recruitment sector and before setting out with GGT […]

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Accredited Distance Learning Launches with our Acclaimed Award in Enterprise Mentoring

Following the successful launch of the IOEE Campus and based on requests from members we have now widened the offer to include accredited distance learning courses. The first of these, our Professional Award in Enterprise Mentoring, is available now with a discounted rate for members. Our Award in Enterprise Mentoring programme is perfect if you’re […]

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Small Business Policy – A Different Perspective?

Written by Leigh Sear. In the late 1970s, David Birch – an economist at MIT in America, proposed that small businesses were the most important source of job creation in the US economy1.  The research undertaken by David Birch highlighted that 66 per cent of all net new jobs in the United States during 1969-1976 […]

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Spotlight On … Anna Howard

London South Bank University (LSBU) is an IOEE Centre of Excellence, and their staff and students are doing exceptional work in the field of enterprise in education. We’re running a series of case studies to let you know about LSBU’s projects and people, and this month we met Anna Howard, LSBU’s Associate Professor of Enterprise […]

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A jewel of a start-up

Danielle Sexton, 26, runs Aurora Creations, a wedding planning and crystal bouquet business servicing the North West of England. She began her journey to business success at the Wedding Planners Guild, an IOEE Academy that gave her both business knowhow and industry insights. Since starting her career as a florist’s apprentice aged just 18, Danielle […]

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Spotlight On … Paul Boross

Paul Boross is also known as The Pitch Doctor; a company he founded to help corporate companies win business through ‘the art and science of persuasion’. He has worked with major organisations such as the BBC, Google, The Financial Times and MTV, and has released several books on motivational psychology. This month we met Paul […]

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Spotlight On … Paul French

Paul French is an Executive Producer at Southpoint Films and a business mentor for local universities and the New Enterprise Allowance Scheme, as well as an IOEE Fellow. This month we shone the spotlight on him to find out how his mentoring career saw him transition into film production, and how forward-thinking is the key […]

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Our first year in business

Written by Richard Talbot-Jones. Husband and wife, Richard and Clare Talbot-Jones run Talbot Jones Risk Solutions, based in Felling, Gateshead. In a series of five blogs, Clare has covered highlights from her entrepreneurial journey including the first steps to starting Talbot Jones Risk Solutions with her husband. This month we hear from Richard, an IOEE […]

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Star start-up enjoys mentoring support

North Star Payroll, which has been up and running for around 18 months, is a Leeds-based start-up run by entrepreneur Liz McCarthy. On her journey to entrepreneurial success Liz enlisted the support of IOEE business mentor Dave Moore. We caught up with Liz to find out how the mentoring process worked for her. During the […]

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Vacancy: WordPress Developer

We are seeking a WordPress Developer responsible for both back-end and front-end development. Experience with responsive and adaptive design is essential. This position requires a combination of programming skills (namely PHP, HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript) as well as an understanding of user-experience and aesthetics (understanding element arrangements on the screen, the colour, font choices, and […]

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What the 2017 Spring Budget means to Small Businesses…

Here’s a roundup from Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Budget and how you as a small business could be affected… Business rates A recent topic in Think Enterprise was the recent business rate revaluation that has seen rates soar in some parts of the country. In our survey last month over 70% of our members believed […]

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IOEE Honorary Fellows brew up success

James Watt and Martin Dickie are the founders of Scottish craft beer megabrand BrewDog. In one short decade, the pair have taken BrewDog from a shared passion for good beer to an international enterprise success story. The business now has a staggering 55,000 shareholders, and has orchestrated the largest equity crowdfunding scheme ever, worldwide. It […]

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Anglia Ruskin University reapproved as an IOEE Centre of Excellence

This month, following a comprehensive re-accreditation visit, we’re delighted to announce that the outstanding Anglia Ruskin University has been reapproved as an IOEE Centre of Excellence. Anglia Ruskin University’s Centre for Enterprise and Development Research (CEDAR), as part of the institution’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School, originally achieved IOEE Centre of Excellence status in late […]

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Campus launches with a bang

Last month saw the launch of our new member community, the IOEE Campus. Thank you to everyone for making the first month such a success. In just the first week we saw as much traffic as we usually get in a month! It’s good to know that members are so engaged in developing their enterprise […]

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Green Entrepreneurship Training

The green economy A brief review of reports produced by bodies such as the European Commission, United Nations and World Bank over the last five years or so have highlighted that there are a number of challenges relating to the sustainability of current modes of production and patterns of consumption. They suggest that there is […]

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Spotlight On … David Bozward

David Bozward is Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Worcester’s Business School, which is an IOEE Centre of Excellence. We shone the spotlight on him this month to find out about his own entrepreneurial past and the work his pioneering department is doing in the field of enterprise education. In 1995 David Bozward […]

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SMEs face uncertainty over business rates changes

If you’re a business owner with premises separate from your residential address, you’ll most likely have to factor business rates into your monthly outgoings. Business rates are the business version of council tax and, across the UK, around 1.8 million commercial properties are eligible for the property tax. The amount a business pays is calculated […]

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Coming up: Newcastle Startup Week

The very first Newcastle Startup Week is only a few months away and it promises to provide the people of Tyneside and beyond with a rich and diverse programme of networking events, talks and workshops. We caught up with the man behind the event, Paul Lancaster, to find out more about his own experiences in […]

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So, what is marketing?

Husband and wife, Richard and Clare Talbot-Jones run Talbot Jones Risk Solutions, based in Felling, Gateshead. In this month’s blog, Clare explains to us the marketing strategies they have used, and found to be successful, to promote their business. So, what is marketing? This isn’t a rhetorical question. This is the search terms I fed […]

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Business Clinics for UK businesses

Last year we spoke to Nigel Heald about his enterprise support business, Build a UK Business. This year we’re catching up with his business partner Matthew Clayton to talk about Business Clinics – an exciting new initiative the team has recently launched. Since the IOEE last checked in with Build a UK Business around a […]

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