I’ve blogged before about how I started KashFlow with the help of the Prince’s Trust. I’m eternally grateful for the help I got from them and  I’ve since been involved in  number of fund-raising events for them and been lucky enough to meet some pretty high-calibre, ultra-successful people.

One of the big turning points for me was meeting Lord Young, who took a big leap of faith and  invested in KashFlow a few years ago. He’s now our Chairman.

Recently I spoke to Mike Coombs, the careers advisor at my old school - Brampton Manor in Newham, East London - and he thought it’d be good for me to come in and talk to the students about the option of starting a business. Certainly when I was there I didn’t think it was possible for someone from my background to go on to have a moderately successful business.

So I agreed to go in and do a little talk.  It was actually quite good fun. I was amazed at how few of them knew anyone that had started a business.

See the cheesy video below shot by one of the journalists that was present. I’ve nicked one of his phrases for the title of this post.

Anyway, on to the point of this post. I’ve decided to take on an intern from an area similar to where I grew up to come and work at KashFlow for a while to show what it’s like running a business.

Not filing, making coffee and emptying bins like so many people seem to end up doing on work experience - but to get a feel for what it’s really like running a business. And also to see the huge opportunities the internet presents to those who want to start a business but have relatively little capital to do so.

Hopefully it’ll encourage them to start their own business when they leave school - or at the very least see it as a viable option.

Watch this space for updates!

Recently I was talking to Andrew Bredon about his cool new project JobWhizz (take it for a spin whilst it’s still free) and business owners / entrepreneurs in general. He said something that immediately struck a cord. I’m paraphrasing here, but it was something along the lines of “You know you’re a business owner when your [...]

If you’re looking for a new supplier, whether it’s an accountant, a designer or anything else then by far the best route is to ask others you know in business who they’d recommend.
This works fine if you’re asking the person privately. But where it falls down is if you ask them on a public forum, Twitter or [...]

I feel a bit naughty using the blog to advertise for non-KashFlow reasons - but I’ve just had to say “no, thanks” again to someones money and that makes me feel even worse.
Are you a Microsoft Techie or running a Microsoft-based Hosting Company?
Do you want to provide streaming media services or (even better) perhaps you [...]

I first jumped on the Twitter bandwagon back in January shortly before it went mainstream in the UK (which I think was 21/01/2009 when Stephen Fry appeared on Jonathans Ross’ first show after his suspension)
I was asked today if Twitter has helped my business. It’s a question I could answer with one word: yes. But I [...]

Business cards seem to be getting flashier and flashier. I’m seeing more and more cards that are covered in marketing messages, calls to action and sales pitches.
Your business card is NOT a sales brochure so don’t treat it like one.
Your business card should have your logo, web address and contact details - it doesn’t need [...]

We offer a free trial of our online accounting software and we tend to follow up those who don’t go ahead to become paying subscribers to find out why they chose not to go ahead.
Typically we’re told that they love the software, it’s by far the easiest to use and easiest to understand application they’ve [...]

Last month I had a problem with my Sony Vaio laptop. The touchpad was knackered and needed replacing. A couple of emails back and forth with Sony Support and they arranged to pick it up, repair it and deliver it back to me. When I opened the package at first I thought they’d given me [...]

Dear Vodafone,
It’s been 5 years now since we first got together. I said back in 2006 that I love you and that I would never look at another mobile phone provider but things have changed since then.
You’ve changed since then.
I used to phone you up and you’d answer within seconds. You were always happy to [...]

Most books on marketing and branding  will tell you that you need to “position” a product and you should avoid associating the product with anything that conflicts with that brand positioning. (At least, I’m assuming they do. I don’t think I’ve read any!).
For example, Pot Noodle position themselves as the irreverent antidote to all the healthy [...]

One of the things that’s been lacking in KashFlow has been an integrated, web-based payroll application.
We’ve been integrated with 12Pay for quite some time but a lot of our customers want a web-based solution which, like KashFlow, can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection - regardless of if you’re using a Mac, Windows PC, [...]