The Complete Guide to Launching Your High-Tech Business
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Forward The complete Guide to launching your High-tech Business Inside you will find: ❒ Making your Fortune ❒ Launching your Start-up ❒ Business on the Internet ❒ Financial Management for Small Business ❒ Law for Small Business ❒ Marketing for Start-ups ❒ Sources of Help and Advice Philip Treleaven High-tech Start-up Guide © Philip Treleaven 1999 Forward ii Philip Treleaven1999 Preface This book is dedicated to young high-tech Entrepreneurs - especially students - to helping you become the next Richard Branson or Bill Gates. High-tech Start-ups are different. They are built on the idea of working like crazy for two to three years and then going public or selling out for a vast amount of money. In the United States, staring your own high-tech company is part of the American dream. Bill Gates of Microsoft, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Marc Andreessen of Netscape, and Jerry Yang of Yahoo are role models who have become enormously wealthy at a very early age. They have also helped revitalise America. They have produced global products and services like Windows and Yahoo that have literally changed the world. And, more importantly, they have created jobs for millions of people. Opportunities abound in the Internet revolution and the coming digital media revolution of interactive television. This is not just an American dream, young people in Europe and Asia are also starting high-tech companies. It is a global competition for new ideas, money and jobs. Today, the 'job for life' and the 'student grant' are rapidly becoming history. So turning necessity into a virtue, more and more young people are starting high-tech companies and working their way through college. Rather than delivering newspapers or working in a bar, if you are going to work hard, it is nice to feel that with a bit of luck you might make your fortune. If the right balance is struck between working and studying, having your own company gives security, pays the bills and certainly gives you a valuable business education. The 'university of life'. Starting your own company is probably the most exciting thing you will ever do. Seeing the company grow, overcoming problems, creating jobs for people, making money, and retiring to the Caribbean. Well, lets not get too carried away just yet ... but as Richard Branson has shown, the sooner you start, the more you can achieve. In fact, being an Entrepreneur is probably the most socially useful thing you can do, because, as Silicon Valley has shown, new high-tech companies create large numbers of well paid jobs for people. This book helps you start your high-tech company by drawing together in a single source all the information you will need. There are a number of excellent books covering a specific area of small business. Therefore, for each topic, I list a key reference for further reading: Inside the Tornado - Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge, Geoffrey Moore, Capstone Publishing, 1998. We focus on 'high-tech' Start-ups, and especially those making maximum use of the Internet, because electronic commerce companies that interact with their customers over the Internet will be the major source of new businesses in the coming decade. This Guide comprises seven parts: 1. Make your Fortune - looks at role models, such as Richard Branson, Jerry Yang and Bill Gates, and how they started their companies. It then briefly surveys the exciting digital technologies that could inspire your business. It covers setting up your company, including getting an Internet presence, and how to make 'real' money by floating your company on a stock market. 2. Launching your Start-up - covers all aspects of starting your company from choosing a money-making idea, preparing a business plan, doing market research to see if the idea is viable, registering your company, plus the essential but more mundane things of setting up your office, hiring staff and ordering the stationery. iii Philip Treleaven1999 3. Business on the Internet - looks at putting the Internet to work for you. Setting up your Web site, using the Internet to advertise your company, how to use the Internet to service your customers, and different types of electronic commerce businesses. 4. Financial Management for Small Business - this is the serious part, covering how to raise money to finance your venture, how to read a balance sheet and control the finances of your business, financial planning and forecasting, how to cost your products and services, and even an overview of taxation. 5. Law for Small Business - comprises three main parts: company law, contracts and intellectual property rights (IPR); especially important for high-tech start-ups. It is about protecting yourself and your assets. The contracts chapter focuses on software, the Internet and electronic commerce. IPR covers confidential information, copyright, trademarks, and patents, with specific reference to 'high-tech'. 6. Marketing for Start-ups - covers the essential topics for any high-tech Start-up of marketing, branding, public relations, advertising, sales, plus global marketing and exporting. 7. Information Sources - lists sources of help and advice, covering the contact details of organisations in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and a comprehensive glossary of business, technical, financial and legal terms. iv Philip Treleaven1999 Acknowledgements In the USA, young entrepreneurs making their fortune through high-tech Start-ups are 'part of the American Dream'. From Boston to Bangalore, Tel Aviv to Taipei, there is a frenzy of high- tech Start-ups with entrepreneurs dreaming of $1 billion fortunes. We need to also make this 'our dream' if we are to be successful in the coming 'digital' decade. Through this High-tech Start-up Guide and the companion 30-lecture Digital Business course (first started at University College London), we are seeking to change the entrepreneurial culture. (A lecturer pack for the Digital Business course is available for any university and college wishing to offer the course.) In this endeavour, I would like to acknowledge the support of my friends and colleagues who have contributed greatly to this High-tech Start-up Guide. I would like start by acknowledging Dr. Suran Goonatilake (Founder, SearchSpace Ltd.), a visionary entrepreneur, and Dr. Jeff Skinner (Director, UCL Ventures) who gave extensive help and advice on the Guide’s contents. Dr. Andrew Scott (Director, UCL Management Studies Centre) proof-read and commented on Part 2, Launching your Start-up. My good friend, Dr. Raghbir Sandhu (NVision), an expert on electronic commerce, made many contributions to Part 3, Business on the Internet. Chris Wayman (Clark Conway) and Humphrey Nokes assisted me with Part 4, Financial Management for Small Business. Humphrey Nokes is a leading UK investor in high-tech start- ups. Stephen Walker (Partner, Bray Walker), Graham Farrington (Lagner Parry) and David Marsh (Partner, Needham Grant) gave me extensive help with Part 5, Law for Small Business. Stephen Walker specialised in high-tech start-up law. Graham Farrington is a well-known Trademark Attorney. And David Marsh is one of Britain’s leading intellectual property rights lawyers. Andrew Wettern (Deputy Director, UCL Ventures) and Susannah Hart (Interbrand) proof-read and commented on Part 6, Marketing for Start-ups. Andrew Wettern is responsible at UCL for commercialisation of intellectual property in information technology. Susannah Hart (Interbrand), one of Europe’s leading authorities on brand management, helped me with Chapter 33, Branding; branding being central to the success of every high-tech start-up. Finally, I would like to thank Carol Webb, an aspiring entrepreneur, for proof reading the whole Guide. Screenshots, screen splashes, images & clip art The author acknowledges and thanks the following companies and organisations for permission to reproduce screen shots, screen splashes, images and clip art: IMSI (UK) ltd, Nominet (www.nic.uk), Netnames (www.netnames.co.uk), HMSO Cabinet Office, Bank of Ireland (www.boi.ie), Infoseek (www.infoseek.com), Nasdaq (www.nasdaq.com screenshot of website © Copyright 1999, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Reprinted with permission of the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group), Easdaq (www.easdaq.be), London Stock Exchange (www.stockex.co.uk), Neuer Markt (www.neuer-markt.de), Sage (Instant Accounting), WinZip (Copyright 1991-1998, Nico Mak Computing, Inc. Winzip is a registered trademark of Nico Mak Computing, Inc. Winzip is available from www.winzip.com Winzip screen images reproduced with permission of Nico Mak Computing, Inc.), Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), Regus (www.regus.com), BtInternet (www.btinternet.com), Dell Computer Corporation Ltd (www.euro.dell.com), Hensa (http://mic2.hensa.ac.uk - to be changed to www.mirror.ac.uk in the near future), Exploit (www.exploit.com), Link Exchange (www.linkexchange.com), CNN (www.cnn.com), Real (www.real.com Copyright © 1995-1999 RealNetworks, Inc., 2601 Elliott, v Philip Treleaven1999 Suite 1000, Seattle, Washington 98121 U.S.A. All rights reserved. Real Networks, Real Audio, Real Video, Real Media, Real Player, and other names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc.), Pointcast (www.pointcast.com), Gap (www.gap.com), Tesco (http://shop.tesco.co.uk), DHL (www.dhl.com), Microsoft MSN, Ebay (www.ebay.com), Internet Magazine, Symantec (WinFax, www.symantec.com), Business Links (www.businesslink.co.uk), Enterprise Ireland (www.enterprise-ireland.com), British Venture Capital Association (www.bvca.co.uk), Charles Schwab (www.schwab-worldwide.com), Irish Revenue Commissioners (www.revenue.ie), Hoovers (courtesy of Hoover’s Online, www.hoovers.com), E-Centre (www.e-centre.org.uk). Disclaimer I have taken great care and effort to check all the information and advice in this guide for accuracy. However, given the comprehensive nature of these notes, mistakes are inevitable. I regret therefore, that I cannot be held responsible for any loss that you may suffer as a result of any omissions or errors.