The Beermat Entrepreneur reckons every startup entrepreneur should have a mentor. So do many TV programs about business, from Dragon’s Den to the Apprentice. The Prince’s Trust, a British charity that helps young people start businesses, will only fund a business that works with one of their mentors.
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How Apple wins at brand loyalty
The data certainly shows the value of customer loyalty. Apple has an industry-leading Net Promoter Score and it’s share price has more than trebled in the last five years. But how does Apple achieve such amazing brand loyalty?
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Bambi vs. Godzilla: How to work with big companies
There is no law that says small firms can only do business with other small firms. If you can get your foot in the door, it can be very rewarding to work with big companies. This article is about one small company – my own business, Articulate Marketing – and how we have found ways to turn our size into a competitive advantage. We work with big clients: Microsoft, HP, Symantec, Dell, Tech Data. This is what we have learned.
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The myth of overnight success
One of the biggest myths in business is the ‘overnight success’. What you find, when you look more closely, is a business that took five or ten years to get somewhere. Or a business where the hype exceeds the reality.
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The 90 percent solution: how to finish projects on time for less money
I have spent a lot of my life in software development, first at Intelligent Games and then, while at Articulate, designing and launching Turbine. If there’s one thing I know about software development it’s this: it’s hard to finish projects on time.
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How to Start a Computer Games Company
This article is about the hard reality of starting and running a computer games company. I started Intelligent Games (IG) in 1988 because I have always loved computer games and I hired my first employee and moved into real offices in 1993. I sold the company and left in 2000. In that time we released sixteen titles, which together sold over two million copies. The company grew to more than sixty-five people and worked with some of the biggest publishers in the business: EA Sports, Westwood Studios, LEGO and Hasbro. We got there without debt and without external investment. It is from this experience that I am writing this article – as they say in America: ‘your mileage may differ’.
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