Carl's Blog

Michael Fallon has announced that we are looking for two Entrepreneurs in Residence

Carl — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:19:29 +0000

Today Michael Fallon has announced that BIS are looking for two Entrepreneurs in Residence. BIS want to bring small businesses and entrepreneurs in to the heart of government to ensure that policy decisions have the small firm perspective taken into account from the very outset. There are two positions: One for a start up entrepreneur, preferably just [...]

500 Local Papers Join Forces with Deborah Meaden to Launch Local Business Accelerators Boost for Promising Young Businesses

Carl — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:12:15 +0000

LBA Research Reveals Optimism for Growth but Need for Advice and Support As the local newspaper industry launches its highly acclaimed Local Business Accelerators campaign led by Deborah Meaden of Dragon’s Den, new research shows thatBritain’s young businesses are positive about prospects for growth despite tough economic times but they still need advice and support. [...]

34 months and counting…

Carl — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:43:59 +0000

…that was my answer when asked why I was getting involved in PRIME, the Princes Initiative for Mature Enterprise. In 34 months I will be 50 and that is the audience that Prince Charles is hoping to help the fiftes and overs. It’s certainly my future and yours perhaps or your present maybe. How did [...]

The secret to success in business – “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and … get on TV?” advertise

Carl — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:06:12 +0000

In the words of the late Hughie Greene; ‘opportunity knocks’. I’m showing my age I know, but knock it did on my inbox, toward the end of last year. It arrived in the form of an email, which initially I thought was a scam along the lines of ‘I am the wife of a Nairobi Prince who [...]

Business Link is changing

Carl — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:46:08 +0000

Throughout 2011 I have been attending Vince Cable’s Entrepreneurs Forum’ to help advise the government on business and enterprise policies. One of the areas we have focussed on specifically is developing a comprehensive start-up package to help fledgling businesses. We felt it was important to create an environment that helps businesses start, improve and grow. [...]

My take on The Apprentice, episode 10 – Sell, sell, sell

Carl — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:56:07 +0000

Introduced as a ‘Back to Basics’ episode, this week’s task really did strip away any glitz, glamour and bullshit of business along with any hiding places for our ambitious ‘apprenti’ (what is a good collective noun for them? A ‘hopeless’ of apprentices? Perhaps a ‘shower’ of apprentices…) Our ‘shower’ rose early again to be briefed [...]

My take on The Apprentice, episode 9 – The Biscuit Task

Carl — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:43:38 +0000

So, just the not-so-magnificent seven remain. I hereby solemnly swear, that in the following piece, I will not to use any obvious and lame biscuit or confectionary related puns or wordplay. I will leave that to the tweeters. I was a little uninspired by the evening’s adventure into the world of biscuits. Perhaps it’s my [...]

My take on The Apprentice, Episode 8: Paris

Carl — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:14:19 +0000

They started as 16 and now only 8 remain; the entrepreneurial elite. Wasn’t it George Bush Jnr who said the French have no word for entrepreneur? And he was the most powerful man in the world so there’s hope yet for all of these candidates. This week, the ‘Apprenti’ threatened to end the entente cordiale [...]

My take on The Apprentice, episode 7 – The Magazine task

webmaster — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:02:05 +0000

So only nine remain and this week their early morning began huddled in the foyer of the headquarters of one of Rupert Murdoch’s old newspapers, before he created the global TV network with Sky TV. But who this week would be lost at sea and thrown overboard by the captain of industry, Lord Alan -Pugwash [...]

Carl Hopkins: my 60 seconds on Four Rooms, Channel 4′s new series

Carl — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:58:20 +0000

It started with a tweet. An industry chum, Phil Dean, tweeted about a blog post he’d written about comics. Superhero comics, you know the sort; Marvel and DC, Spiderman and Batman. He is a fan and so I tweeted back that I was too. He came to my home and we spent a couple of hours chatting [...]