Grombles

I'm a member of a local angel investment group known as the S100 Club . It's part of SETsquared , the world's largest university incubator network. We meet every other month to see half a dozen pitches from businesses seeking funding in the £200k-£1m bracket. Banks won't lend to high risk start-ups, and investment funds tend to only be interested in established companies needing upwards of £2m to accelerate their already proven potential for growth. So angels are a vital source of funding between Family, Friends and Fools risking their savings and mortgages on their homes, and the larger, more risk-averse venture funds. About 2 years ago the club had a pitch from a company which was then called Playcaddy. Basically it was a website that managed sports activities like leagues, competitions, teams and other group events for clubs. Impressively their system was already being used by several high profile clubs, especially tennis (the founder is a keen player who built ...

Politicians would universally fail as businessmen. They'd be more worried that I haven't included business women in my opening sentence than worry about what business means. Politicians' customers are their electorate. What they sell is popularity. Their currency is votes and their mission is to promise Nirvana within a world of mirrors. What they can't do is build and sustain a growing economy (a business) because they are measured on short-term deliverables by people who all want as much as they can get, for the least personal cost and risk, but who nonetheless believe they have a right to wealth and welfare. Promise the people 'change and prosperity' (assuming your hairstyle is appealing), and you'll get into power - until you inevitably fail to deliver it and then the next bloke has a go. That is why successful businesses aren't democracies and turkeys don't vote for Christmas - although if they realised their species' survival depended on i...

Everyone's got a ToDo list. But I've always found that a long list of things to do (or even a short one) still leaves you agonising over where to start. Typically we use one of these strategies: Pick off the easiest first Start with the one at the top and work down Look for the most urgent and start there Randomly plunge in and hope you can get them all done Delegate them and play golf (by far the best strategy, but during the round you'll think of twice as many items to replace them) Do the one that someone is shouting loudest at you to complete All reasonable approaches perhaps, but I was taught a more logical way. It uses what's called a UI chart where you decide what's Urgent and what's Important. The method is beautifully simple and can best be performed in an adapted spreadsheet or perhaps on a whiteboard with post-it notes. It's a dynamic process needing regular reviews. It works like this. Take each item on your To-Do list and place...