Keeping the Startup Dream Alive!

This week is the fourth annual Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) – the world’s biggest celebration of business innovation with backing from the Prime Minister and billionaire business tycoon Richard Branson. With more than 40,000 events happening in 123 countries this initiative demonstrates that despite the difficult economic climate, new businesses are springing up all over the world and entrepreneurs have a great deal of amazing resources at their disposal.

In the spirit of Global Entrepreneurship Week, Dell and StartUp Britain want hear about your business experiences as a start-up: what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt; what tech gadget can you not live without; and what’s the secret to funding? Take the short survey here and we’ll share the findings from Britain’s entrepreneur community in two weeks!

In the UK today there are nearly 100,000 more small and medium-sized businesses than there were at the start of 2010 and this year an anticipated 200,000 people will participate in GEW activities. Budding entrepreneurs can check which of the UK-wide events are happening in their area using the GEW map or get networking online via Twitter and Facebook for valuable business advice and to establish connections and share ideas.

The host of events this week will show that, with the right vision and support, any entrepreneur can make a success of their big idea – something that was reiterated this week by the CEO, Creative Director and founder of Mind Candy. At Evening with Michael Acton Smith – an event hosted by The Glasshouse – Michael was interviewed by David Rowan of WIRED Magazine and outlined how the social gaming company grew from a fledgling start-up to one of the world’s fastest-growing social gaming companies.   

This week’s programme of London-based events range from courses that show you how to turn your hobby into a business, to workshops that teach you how to measure the effectiveness of your website and masterclasses on financing your enterprise. Organised as part of London’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Entrepreneurs Festival will give young tech and digital companies the chance to accelerate their start-up with an intense week of business boot camp training sessions with the industry’s most successful leaders.

Networking is a perfect platform for entrepreneurs to share ideas and was the thinking behind the Dell Women Entrepreneurs Network (DWEN) – set up to help entrepreneurs gain inspiration from other women to succeed and grow their businesses. Follow the #DWEN hashtag on Twitter and the LinkedIn group to join the conversation. 

Dell has always been a big supporter of the small business community around the world and its latest initiative the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) programme kicked off recently in the US. The first EIR is Green IT entrepreneur Ingrid Vanderveldt whose main goal will be to identify and asses new business and technology solutions for SMBs. Check out her blog post to get the inside track on why she’s taken on the role and how the new initiative will hopefully create an authentic “bridge” between “big business” and emerging companies.    

About the Author: Andrew Miller