The Times - Enterprise Network

We at WiseInnovation have only recently come across the enterprise network and are still forming an opinion on it.

Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (Cambridge)

Cambridge Judge Institute of management has combined the backing of one of the top academic institutions in the world with a large number of local venture capitalists and angel investors to provide a service which aims to 'spread the spirit of enterprise'.

While aimed primarily at Cambridge students the CfEL has something to offer most people and http://www.entrepreneurs.jims.cam.ac.uk/ is worth a look

The BBC website - An outstanding collection of Small Business Advice

When the BBC puts its mind to a task it tends to produce diamonds. This website is not an exception, using the power and weight of The Corporation it gets to speak to numerous business owners and has collated their thoughts into a website.

On the downside, the information feels like it was collected on the spur of the moment so it is not as comprehensive as you may like. All that said, being free this website provides excellent value for money!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2003/small_business/default.stm

BStartup is going to Birmingham

Business Startup (http://www.bstartup.com/) was in ExCeL late 2004 with Sir Alan Sugar (of Amstrad and others), Karan Bilimoria (Cobra Beers) and various other big names in small business all attended to share their thoughts with young aspiring business owners.

The event overall was incredibly helpful with talks from various government departments and more business leaders than you can shake a rather large stick at. If the Bstartup event comes to your area, we at WiseInnovation certainly recommend that you pay it a visit.

UK Small Business Website

Another government produced website which will happily help you through the tricky maze of starting and running a small business in the UK.

This website is well worth a look: http://www.sbs.gov.uk/

BusinessLink - Small UK Business Government Website

For those of you not yet using BusinessLink, throw away your inbuilt concern about .gov.uk websites and go to a site which proves that government can do some things right!

It feels a little ironic that some of the outrageously complicated legislation requires a government site to explain, but explain this site does.

A new concept to give professional, high worth low cost websites

At WiseInnovation we have been disgusted by cost of producing and maintaining a high quality website for a small number of products.

If I sell cars in a small business with a low turnover, do I need all the frills associated with a comprehensive online shopping basket? Do I need to be able to conduct my entire sale online? Do I need the hassle of keeping it updated? Do I need the cost of maintaining it?

or

Do I simply need to be easily found and show my potential customers the information they need to decide to come and meet me, phone me or email me all at as little time and energy cost as possible?

We believe that most people in this area of business life need the second one, at least to start them off. To us and many other small businesses £15 per month to have a "dynamic" website or £30 per month to host a shopping site is unnecessary cost when the items we are dealing in are typically traded face to face anyway.

We also dont believe that you want to spend £400-£1000 on a profesional designing a site that you are going to have to spend hours of your life or much more money to maintain.

We will develop a personalised application for your home PC that will help you easily manage the items you sell and let you try out at minimal risk the benefit that being online will have for your business. So if you are a car salesman, estate agent or have any other business which you would like help to get cheaply online then get in contact with us at business@wiseinnovation.co.uk and ask for more details.

WiseInnovation - Helping small businesses grow

WiseInnovation intends to help small businesses. As a business user do you ever feel that you are being unfairly charged in a way that the mass-market would never abused? Well, we did too and it was with this in mind that we have developed one or two innovations (you decide if they were wise) to reduce the costs of running a business without sacrificing the essentials.

Note: All the thoughts here are to be taken as food-for-thought and opinions and no major decision should be made entirely on the basis of this site's content. We aim to assist your thinking about business,not replace it.