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December 8, 2006 by Julie Stanford Leave a Comment

Creative business

Yesterday Jane and I were in Farnham, Surrey, teaching a Marketing Masterclass for the University College for the Creative Arts.

We spent the day taking a group of people — all of whom were involved in creative industries: design, photography, film, and so on — through the basics of marketing so that they could use it to underpin their business plans. We covered customer groups, competition, pricing, marketing research, outline planning and creating an action plan (all of which was taken from our next product: the Planning and Starting Your Business workbook). [Read more…]

July 11, 2006 by Julie Stanford Leave a Comment

What’s luck got to do with it?

In January 2006, I took part in a memorable masterclass about entrepreneurship, given by Professor Alan Gibb, Professor Emeritus of Durham Business School.

During the session, Professor Gibb gave us a copy of the Durham University Business School entrepreneurship ‘test’. This document takes you through all the qualities of an entrepreneur and, finally, you arrive at a score which measures your own degree of entrepreneurial qualities. [Read more…]

April 8, 2006 by Julie Stanford 3 Comments

It’s all about the money, honey

I’ll never forget the first time I understood the importance of money in business. That, in fact, it’s all about money. Oh, of course, I’d vaguely understood the notion before then — after all, I’d been running my own successful business for many years — but I hadn’t really thought it about in any depth until this particular day.

I was sitting talking with a retired bank manager when he suddenly mused aloud,

You know, Julie, without money and profitability, isn’t a business just a glorified hobby?

That evening I thought more about what he’d said. About the wider meaning of what he’d said. I started to understand why many businesses falter, or even fail, in the early stages. [Read more…]

January 1, 2000 by Julie Stanford Leave a Comment

New ways of learning… but let’s not throw away the old

I’m currently researching new online software for e-learning.

We want to add another dimension to our workbooks and worksheets, so being able to offer readers the ability to complete the material online is exciting. Online stuff is certainly great, it’s interactive, brimming with video and flash animation and audio files, and I enjoy looking at new ways of helping people learn about business, but…

…I hope that nothing will ever replace books. I suppose I would say that, currently being a publisher of printed books, but I’m also an avid reader and there’s something about holding the book, turning the page, reading into the early hours; about the intimacy and relationship between book and reader, that a web page simply can’t replace.

Or am I just embarrassingly old-fashioned?

Move over Kindle; I’m in the middle of a cracking paperback.

Creative business

What’s luck got to do with it?

It’s all about the money, honey

New ways of learning… but let’s not throw away the old

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