It has been a crazy week at Reading University and Henley Business School working on building businesses.  I am only now getting to grips with typing up what we have learned this week.  Here are what the     team learned on day 2. Got any questions then send us a tweet!

You can start a business without money – it is possible to get going with very little money and start selling before you have created your product.  Sell your value before you create it.  Take the money up front

People can read how you are feeling – be confident, have fun and work on your belief in your product or service.  People can read your thoughts through your body language so be careful!

Think when you are fresh – the last thing you want to do when you get home after a hard say is to think.  Make sure you think when you are fresh and just have a simple list of things you need to do when you finish!

Be Creative – Any idea is a good idea.  The key to having a good idea is to have lots of ideas!  So let them flow, good, bad or indifferent!  Get the ideas flowing!

Convert your business canvass to a timescale – and more generally give everything you are doing a timescale.  Work expands to fill time.  If you don’t give yourself a deadline, if you don’t put a timescale on it then it might never happen!

Eat you frogs first thing in the morning – do the most difficult thing you have to do first thing in the morning because your day can only get better from there

How to make friends – get out there, talk to people, start tweeting, ask questions and be interested.  If you want to be interesting be interested

Incorporate things into your daily routine – success is the build-up of small daily action, turn the things you need to do to build your business into habits using tick sheets.  Build habits that grow your business

People want you to be good – In all my years of presenting I have never met an audience that says I hope this next presenter is “rubbish”.  It is the same in business, people want you to succeed, they want you to be good

Trading structures – the difference between a sole trader, ltd company and partnership.  We will do a blog with more detail

Set-up a Twitter account – if you aren’t on twitter you are dead!

Companies house – Use the companies house website to check to see if the company name you want is being used by anyone else

Start a business with no money – Sell your value before you create it, the first job of an entrepreneur is to get out and make a sale.  Nothing happens till the sales happen

Do stuff you want to do – if you work within your passion it doesn’t feel like a job, it is fun.  And given the hours you need to work to make your business fly you have better enjoy doing it!

We have got some fantastic events coming up that have been funded by our partners Alliance Homes, Knightstone Housing, Poplar HARCA, Reading University.  We get funders so that the events are free for you to come along to.

All you have to do is let us know which ones you can make it to.  Our up coming events are:

We will be writing a blog posting shortly on how to get the most out of the Pop-Up Business School so keep coming back to check the blog.  You will also find all sorts of business tips on the site that will start you thinking about business, marketing, twitter, sales and more.

If you want to get hold of Alan then tweet him here

or tweet the Pop-Up Business School here

We are delighted to announce that following the success of our two week course in October 2012 we will be back in Sunny Weston-super-Mare on May 16th!

We have loved speaking to those who attended the course over the last couple of weeks and have received some very positive feedback - Thank you all for your kind words.

A huge thank-you too must go to Alliance Homes for funding the course.
Whether you have attended one of our courses before or you are new to the experience - Everybody is welcome, come along and see how you can start making money.

What will the day consist of?
Alan will be at The Campus from 9:00am so please come and see him - he can't wait to see everyone!
Formal sessions will commence at 9:30.
In order to squeeze as much into the day as possible we plan to have one hour for lunch - please bring your own food and make use of the time to catch up with everybody.
To give you a taster of the day Alan will be covering:

• What do we need to overcome to get where we need to go?
• Building confidence
• Sales and Marketing (finding customers, winning business and having fun)
• Business revelations from the last 6 months

The formal session will finish at 4:00pm - Alan will hang around to answer questions and help anyone.
If you have your own laptop that you are able to bring, please let us know; it would be great to help as many people as possible with issues such as creating a website etc.

If you are only able to make a certain part of the day that is fine - it will be great to see you!

Where?
The one day course will take place at The Campus - Highlands Lane. Weston-super-Mare . BS24 7DX.

The Campus can be found just off the M5. Junction 21. A ten minute walk from Worle Parkway train station and a No.14 bus run by First Group stops just outside The Campus. Parking is available at The District Centre just across the road and spaces are available for Blue Badge Holders directly outside the Campus.

To view a map of The Campus please CLICK HERE

The Challenge...
Would you like to see Simon as well as Alan? Simon hasn't confirmed he is able to attend the 16th, if you would like to see him; Tweet him on @simonjpaine or @popupbusiness and let's see if we can get him to come!

First Wessex and Pop-Up Business School are exploring a partnership together to run a Pop-Up Business School for their residents to help them to earn money and start businesses.

Pop-Up Business School and Hyde housing have just started a new project together with the aim of coaching and mentoring three residents in starting up new businesses as part of a pilot scheme that could eventually be rolled out to all Hyde residents

The scheme is now open to applications so if you are a Hyde Housing resident then you can apply for mentoring and coaching to start a business by filling in the application form at the bottom of the page and sending it to alan@popupbusinessschool.co.uk

We have already had applications from people wanting to start:

We would like to introduce you to Paula Luke who is a professional marketing consultant with more than 20 years experience and has been running her own marketing consultancy for 5 years called Lepus Marketing.

Why am I telling you all this? Well Paula has very kindly agreed to come into the pop-up business school and help all the businesses there with their marketing.  We are excited to have someone with her experience coming in to work with us!

The one thing that we have discovered running our own businesses and helping many other people set up is that nothing happens till you make a sale.  Nothing happens until you market your product and create sales.  So Paula Luke and Lepus Marketing's help is going to be invaluable!

We are excited to have Paula coming along to help us with our marketing and help you with your business ideas.  Here is a little bit more about Paul:

_

I want to start a business but I don't know what to do

This workshop will guide you step by step through running your own business, what type of company to start, how to deal with tax, how to start selling and the nuts and bolts of small business start-ups.  We have started a few companies in our time and have some of the magic shortcuts and tips we can share with you

Never go back – 10 ways to leave the job centre behind you

This workshop is designed to give you inspiration and ideas of how to never go back to the job centre again.  These ideas and tools will help you get your own job, help you set up business and become financially free

7 ways to make extra money on the internet

You already have a job; you have two children you look after at home, you are already busy.  This workshop is for you.  Showing you how you can make money online from the comfort of your own bedroom.  This workshop is designed to show you quick and easy ways to make money online

How to eat a frog: what's stopping you getting started?

Have you been thinking about starting a business for years?  Have you always dreamed of being your own boss?  Have you wanted to do it but somehow you never got round to it?

This workshop will give you the power to get started and keep going when it gets tough.  With the latest techniques for getting things done quickly this workshop will help you get going, get motivated and make things happen

Make money out of your Facebook friends

So you love using Facebook?  All your friends are on Facebook? You spend hours a day on Facebook?

Have you ever considered you can make money out of Facebook? This workshop will show you ways you can turn your addiction into a living.  We will help you find ways of making money out of Facebook and earning some extra money

How to think like a billionaire and how it can help you

How is Richard Branson different from the rest of us?  How is Lord Sugar so successful?  How did Bill gates build Microsoft when so many of his competitors shrivelled and died along the way?

In this interactive and fun workshop we will explore how the billionaires are different to the rest of us.  We will uncover the beliefs that help them to be successful and workout if and how we can apply them to our lives. You won’t make a billion from this workshop but it will get you started!

How to make a website for free

To start a business you need a website; right? Right, if you aren’t on the web you are missing out.

Websites cost money to set up; right?  WRONG!  You can set up a great website that will get you online quickly and easily and will drive customers to you.  All you need is the right tools!  In this interactive workshop we will show you how you can build and promote a website for no money at all.  Bring your laptop or borrow one of ours and let’s get started!

How to start a business with NO money

One of the most common things we hear after people express a desire to start a business is “I can’t do it; it takes money to make money!”

That isn’t true.  I have seen incredibly successful businesses started for £100 or less!  Come along to this workshop and we will show you how to get started with no money!  And if you find you do need a little money then we will show you where to get it from!

I don’t get Twitter: 12 ways to make money with Twitter

Come along to this workshop and find out how one man is making $15,000 a day from a 30 minute video he puts online talking about wine.

Twitter is changing the way we communicate and it is opening up possibilities.  Come along to this interactive workshop and we will show you how to use twitter, how to set up and account and how to start a business that afternoon!

Make money from your sofa

This workshop is designed to show you ways you can make money from the comfort of your own home.  How to build a business and get started the same day!

We often hear people saying “I don’t have time to start a business”; well this workshop will show you how to get it started from home and fit it around your family and life.  This workshop will change the way you think about business!

Our partners Alliance Homes have created a flyer for the up coming Pop-Up Business school event in Weston Super Mare.The event has been sponsored by Alliance Homes and Knightstone Housing Association so it is completely FREE for you to attend.

Our whole aim is to inspire you to start businesses, make some money in your spare time and have fun with the latest business tools!

The event is in Weston Super Mare at the Motex Centre from the 1st of October and is open to anyone in North Somerset, in fact it is open to anyone who wants to come along.

We will be holding the opening ceremony on the 1st of October at 10am and we would love to see you there.

It promises to be a knock out event which will teach you some of the skills you need to be successful in business and over the following two weeks we will work with you to actually build your own micro-businesses.

We will have the very best in enterprise and entrepreneurship coaches on hand to help you start up and make some money!

Come on down to the event in Weston and if you would like some flyers to give to your friends or to put in your store then please drop us a line and we will send them out to you.