Review of The Business Start Up Event, May 2009: Day One

I attended the first day of the Business Startup Event on Thursday 28th May 2009. Here is my review. Its quite a long post, but tomorrows review of Day Two, will be even shorter as its generally the same businesses stalls, and the same people presenting (seminars), so there will be no need to repeat certain things.

First impressions:

I got there and looked around. It was a massive hall, resembling the inside of an old railway station, or a big warehouse. I surveyed the many business stalls and closed off areas for the speakers halls. I then raised my voice as high as I could, and shouted out at the top of my lungs: "Hey y'all, Moneyseeker3000 is in da house!". OK, just joking about that last bit.

Rachel Elnaugh's Stall:

Anyway, I started to walk around and who do I see at her business stall, none other than Rachel Elnaugh of Dragons Den fame. Rachel achieved great success with her Red Letter Days business, and I do admire her for not giving up in the face of countless setbacks in her life. She was all alone at her stall, so I went up to her, and I decided that I would be as businesslike as possible. "I....I've seen you on TV" I gushed uncontrollably. Noooooooooooooo. I was bleeding starstruck! I couldn't believe it. I managed to recover my composure, and then the money seeking began. "Rachel, what is the most important thing about business?" I asked. "Follow your passion" was the reply. She also went on to say that marketing is also very important. She gave me quite a bit of her time, but then had to prepare for her upcoming speech in one of the halls. Just as I was about to leave I became starstruck again and was just about to ask for her autograph, but I managed to be professional and stopped myself. Rachel Elnaugh came across as a completely normal person, and I reminded myself that my millionaire mentors are just as normal as she is, so I had no reason to be starstruck.

Doug Richard Seminar:

Doug Richard was one of the investors on the TV show, Dragons Den. The speaking hall was packed out, so I wasn't able to get in. The large external video screens was not set up yet, so I feared I might miss his presentation. I walked around the side of the hall and one of the side doors was open and a few people were outside the doors listening, so I joined in and heard what he had to say. The points he made that I noted down were: Avoid money from investors, because then they own part of your business and detract from your control and profits. One of the myths of Dragons Den is that it promotes the myth of a need for investors. Also always take payments in cash and not in shares. He detailed a story where he had shares in a company he was a manager for, when he was starting out, which then lost 99% of value. He said he was a manic depressive, which once again proves you do not have to be a perfect human to be successful financially. It turns out that Doug is now doing his own wealth creation seminars, and at the end he pitched for them. This pitching of their own business ventures turned out to be a recurring theme of all the speakers throughout the day, and it made me feel a little cynical. Its as though rich people know that those less well off will happily pay large amounts of money just to hear them speaking about money. Its almost as though they have realised there is good profit and marketing by having little cults of wealth, or maybe they just want to be respected by those around them. Well today was free. They have proved themselves with their results, so by this measure, their advice is still worth listening to.

Rachel Elnaugh Seminar:

After Doug finished, most people left the hall, so I could finally go in and grab a seat. Rachel Elnaugh was the next speaker. She gave an accomplished talk. Here's my notes on what she said. Outsource everything to start with, to keep costs as low as possible, and be flexible. She is now completely web based and uses freelancers for every area of her new empire (which is mainly a wealth mentoring business). Like Doug Richard, she made a pitch for her own wealth creation seminars. She advocated the need for multiple streams of income, as having one person pay you is too risky. These harsh economic times should not be seen as a recession, but as a huge period of change for the way we do business in future. The internet is so cheap that it should be well used by businesses. Bad news sells, so don't let the doom and gloom stories of the economy get to you. Many businesses are doing well, so the recession can be the right time for businesses, as everyone still has needs. Ask yourself “why aren't they buying?”. Saying 'yes' to work, even if it's unpaid can lead to better things down the line. Spend some time everyday thinking about your business. Entrepreneurs should not be on output mode all the time, working without thinking. Focus on the 1% that works, and not the 99% that doesn't work. Rachel then talked about the book and film “The Secret”, (which I have analysed on my blog), and said you should always focus on a positive outcome. She then recommended that everyone should read the book “Think and Grow Rich (original version)” by Napoleon Hill. I have read Think and Grow Rich, and I shall review it in this blog at some point. Rachel's presentation was upbeat, but ended with a pitch for her wealth seminars. Rachel is determined to succeed and is an inspiration, when it comes to never giving up.

Jonathan Jay Seminar:

He made his first million at 30 then made millions from selling his training business. Jonathan Jay is also a panellist on the Midas touch event which is like a live version of Dragons Den. He talked about marketing. He said the formula to always follow is to have 1) a market 2) a message and 3) a media, and displayed them as three points on a triangle. Marketing is the most important thing. Find your customer first. He said “I believe in working hard, but I don't believe in working stupid”.

Jonathan was deeply in debt and about to lose his house when he started the business which made him wealthy. He shows that no matter how deep the hole you are in, you can find a way to fly out.

Midas Touch: Part Two (there were 3 one hour sessions of this, I caught the last 2)

The Midas Touch, virtually a live version of Dragons Den. Now this was worth coming for. The panellists were

1. Brad Rosser, (ex Group Corporate Development Director for Virgin. He was Richard Branson's right hand man, on projects such as Virgin Active),

2. A lady called Chelsea (who is an ex-model and was also instrumental in the launch of many TV channels),

3. Richard Davis (this guy looks the part of the jet-setting millionaire playboy you would expect to see in Monte-Carlo, like a young Lionel Luther from the TV series 'Smallville'. He got rich by starting and selling a few businesses).

4. Jonathan Jay (started and sold a few companies).

Here are some of the most memorable pitches:

Toilet door handles opened by the foot:

The pitcher was about 48 years old, and a highly educated physics and programming expert, who had worked for top companies. The proposition was that toilet doors spread germs, so wouldn't it be wonderful if you could lift your foot to the door handle and use that to open it. The solution, put a metal stick on top of the existing door handle! It was amazing to see how someone who is supposed to be so intelligent could come up with such a stupid idea. It shows that someone can be highly intelligent in one area and completely clueless in another, such as money. With the pitcher's extremely high academic background, and record of working for some of the top companies, you would think he would be rich enough to not have to go around begging for money from a group of stupid millionaires.

On-line MBA recruitment agency:

The pitcher was an MBA graduate of around 28 years old. He said that right now, many MBA graduates are being made redundant, or can't find work, so he has the solution with a new website. Apparently the MBA's will pay subscription fees for this. He wanted 200k of investment. Richard Davis tore into him, and the ineffectiveness of MBA consultants he had used in the past. He said “MBA consultants talk the talk, but don't always walk the walk”. Jonathan Jay then shot the MBA graduate down in flames, and a heated argument began. He said “I wouldn't hire someone just because of a qualification. MBA's do not contribute to a business”. The MBA shot back “MBA's come with 5 years of work experience, and they can speak three languages”. Jay cut him off “yet they are all being made redundant and can't find any work”. Jay tore him apart a bit more, but unfortunately the allotted time for that pitch ended before Jay could eviscerate him further. Here was a highly qualified MBA begging a millionaire for money and being told in no uncertain terms that he and his ilk were useless. Priceless. If MBA's are so good, then how come he hasn't got any money? No doubt he is deeply in debt after paying for that qualification. His arrogance was astounding. Well done Jonathan Jay, for not pulling punches in the asssesment of his great idea.

A trading cards holder:

The pitcher was a builder of about 50 years old who seemed to have an inferiority complex about being in front of rich millionaires. He had created a big cardboard holder to display the trading cards that children buy from popular manufacturers such as Panini. He had made 500 finished units of stock before he received a single order, and so far hasn't sold any. I can't remember how much money he asked for, but he had already spent 47k of his own money. The panellists were shocked by this. When Richard Davis expressed his surprise that so much was spent, the builder said “as we say in the building trade, easy come, easy go”. Richard Davis became incensed and said “I am disgusted by your cavalier attitude to your own money, and I would never allow you to treat my money in the same way”. Brad Rosser gave his usual “lets talk after” pacification line, and said he would help him try to recoup some of the 47k that was lost in developing the product. The lesson here is that 47k is a lot of money, even to millionaires, and the panellists were clearly very cost concious.

Midas Touch Two conclusion:

I was annoyed how after every pitch, certain panellists such as Brad Rosser would always say “great idea, I'd love to talk to you about it afterwards”. Its one thing to encourage people, but this became a standing joke. Some of the pitchers fully deserved the contempt which was displayed towards their ideas.

Stefan Topfler seminar:

In between every Midas Touch event, Stefan Topfler presented a talk on how to start your own business. He also gave a seminar last year. He created and sold the ISP that eventually became Tiscali, just before the dotcom bust in 2000, and made millions. He looked like an unlikely genius, but he is a winner in business, finance, and life. He said: Don't borrow money. Spending a lot of money to start a company is completely unacceptable. “I make mistakes every day and will do so for the rest of my life. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying”. “There is no job in the world that is safe, you have to rely on yourself”. Never borrow money from banks. Keep your costs low. I started my business with nothing. Banks lend you an umbrella when the sun is shining, but they take it back when its raining. Then they kill your business. He then pitched his on-line winweb virtual office software. He gave a down to earth seminar and showed that you do not have to be perfect to succeed. Nobody is perfect. I really liked Stefan, and I loved his seminar as it was not patronising or condescending.

Midas Touch: Part Three (there were 3 one hour sessions of this, I caught the last 2)

An adventure themed fitness business:

The pitcher was a 40yr old fitness coach who had inherited 200k. He was going to put it all into his new fitness venture, but required an additional 150k from the investors. Richard Davis told him he should not risk all of his inheritance in the business, only a fraction of it. I find it amazing that he inherited so much money, yet was planning to end up 150k in debt. I believe this is the poverty mentality at work, as his mind found a way to come up with an extremely high risk financial plan. Nobody invested.

Bicycle light indicators:

Two industrial product designers with over 20 years experience were selling directional indicators for cycles. They had already put in 200k of their own money. They were stocked by Halfords and had an impressive £200k turnover, yet made a £6000 loss. They sought 150k investment for a 20% share. Their bank will now lend them NO money, due to their negative bank balance, even though they are only 6k in debt. They said to the audience, “to anyone else trying to get money from banks, it is very tough out there at the moment”. Thanks for the tip guys. The lesson here is that the bank's money cannot be relied upon.

A pub ratings website:

A young babyfaced solicitor of about 27 years old had a “Pubrator” website so you could choose a public house (pub), based on its reviews by the public. He said it would need £8m investment over the first 3 years! He hadn't even created the website yet. He said: “I've taken inspiration from Amazon.com, and their motto is go big or go home”. At this point several audience members began to laugh, and I had to stifle my mirth at his flagrant disregard for risk management. Richard Davis went absolutely ballistic. He said: “ I can't believe what I'm seeing. You've actually said in the business plan, that you are going to be paid a £160,000 salary! Your sales figures are like something my 10 year old son would come up with!”. The solicitor shuffled nervously on the stage as Davis continued to tell him exactly where to go. Once again a supposedly intelligent person, this time a solicitor, proved that qualifications are not a measure of intelligence or ability. Nobody invested.

Midas Touch Two conclusion:

I found it amazing that in spite of the “incredible” academic, and vocational background of some the pitchers, they did not have the money to put into their businesses. The 2 industrial product designers couldn't even raise £6k to get them out of their overdraft! This confirms that a lot of people who look as though they should be doing very well financially, in fact, are not.

Seeing Richard Davis taking apart the solicitor, was like poetry in motion. Here was a highly educated solicitor begging for money from an uneducated millionaire. It was quite clear from the exchange who had the real brains, and the real financial muscle.

Jonathan Jay was like the Simon Cowell character, with Richard Davis playing a close second in this respect. The investors were not interested in throwing their money away at the slightest whim, and I shall remember that characteristic long after today.

Levi Roots Seminar:

I watched this on the big video screen outside Hall One. Levi Roots said he had recently bought back shares from one of his Dragon investors. He said he did not believe in relying on luck to make a person successful. He said, “luck is not good, inspired action is good”. He had a very thick Jamaican accent, and at one point it sounded like he said that he wrote his Reggae Reggae Sauce song while he was in prison. A woman next to me who was taking notes, was shocked, and asked 2 ladies next to her if he he really did say prison. I think that's what he said. (But he might have said "Brixton", which is where he's from). Levi Roots also said of gaining outside investment that 40% of something is always better than 100% of nothing. He shows that anyone can make a success of their life, no matter how old they are, or what they've been through, if they just keep trying.

Interesting m oney schemes:

Here are a selection of interesting business ventures from the leaflets I got at the stalls. I have decided that I will not be investing in them.

Cashflow creator:

Wealth and business training. Free 2 hour session. (This course may be just be a sales pitch for more expensive courses and training). http://www.wealthintelligenceacademy.co.uk/

Platinum Property Partners:

Mentoring people to become property investors. The sales guy at the stall said I would have to invest around 90k! When I asked him the minimum expected return on investment, he said “how long is a piece of string?”. Somehow, I don't think I'll be investing. This business is run by Midas Touch panellist Richard Davis, and its surprising to see him involved with this. The sales pitch on the leaflet says stuff like “2009 is going to be THE year for making record profits from property investment”. “generate a recession proof income”. “I gained a 3 million property portfolio in 3 years, with an annual gross profit of £130,000”. It says you can gain insight into the investment strategies which PPP are following, which fast track them to financial freedom. (The last property investment mentoring business I remember, is the firm Inside Track, which went bust.)

School for startups:

Doug Richard from Dragons Den will give 4 wealth creation and business seminars. The cost is about £100-£200 for each seminar, but you must act quickly, because “the last 50 tickets are selling NOW” (This course may be just be a sales pitch for more expensive courses and training). Www.schoolforstartups.co.uk.

Slumdog Millionaire Weekend:

Free 2 day stock market course. How to become a self-made millionaire. Are they allowed to call their program that? Surely they must have breached some copyright law with that title. (This course may be just be a sales pitch for more expensive courses and training) Www.itrade-uk.com

Traders University:

Free 2 hour stock market course. How to produce an incredible income from stock market trading from only a few hours per week. How to average over £3500 a month and pay no tax. How to limit risk to 1%, but with huge upside potential. (This course may be just be a sales pitch for more expensive courses and training. At the bottom of the leaflet in very, very, very, small print, some of the stuff it says are: “Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. The value of investments and the the income from them may go down as well as up and are not guaranteed”.) www.booktradingnow.co.uk

Oasis Land Development Limited:

Buy a small patch of land in the Cayman Islands from prices starting at about 30k. Act today, profit tomorrow. (I kid you not. Apparently it is a bare patch of land which doesn't even have planning permission. How much do you think it will cost to ship materials out there to build? Their website shows images of people enjoying themselves in the sun, but all I am thinking is “show me the profit”. I went on Wikipedia and it had this to say about the Cayman Islands: “The Cayman Islands have the dubious honor of having experienced the most hurricane strikes in history. Due to the proximity of the islands, more hurricane and tropical systems have affected the Cayman Islands than any other region in the Atlantic basin, being hit every 2.23 years”. It doesn't show THAT on the Oasis website). www.oasis-land.com

Conclusion of The Business Start-up Event May 2009: Day One

There were lots of stalls hired by businesses, dotted around the venue, well over 200. I asked around, and found that the smallest stall costs 2.5k. It is clearly seen as a good advertising opportunity for small businesses.

For me, The Midas Touch was the best thing about the event. There were some absolutely fantastic ideas present, which could only be bought to life via the power of money, other ideas, not so much. It shows that some pitchers paid no attention to their finances in life, and now, when they needed it most, they were forced to go cap in hand to those who made it their business in life to seek and nurture money. Public recognition or humiliation followed. Every millionaire treated their money with respect, and hearing Richard Davis referring to 47k as “a hell of a lot of money”, even though it's only a fraction of his wealth, pretty much says it all.

The seminars in the halls were fantastic and each person was an accomplished speaker. It was great to get advice from seasoned professionals who have been there and got the bank balance to prove it. These people are master black belts in the art of money seeking, and I am just a brown belt. They are living proof that it can be done. You do not have to fear relying on an unstable job for your income, but it is not easy, you have to work for it.

It was disheartening to see the speakers pitching their own products, businesses, and wealth seminars, as it creates a conflict of interest. I suppose I could justify it by saying “what do you expect a black belt money seeker to do?”, after all, it gives them fantastic marketing exposure, further credibility, and also lots of cash. I really do believe that a lot of them did want to help the audience to learn to be good businesspeople, after all, there are many other things they could be doing with their time. Theres just a little part of me that thinks if they were really concerned with making everyone else richer, they could voluntarily give their external courses for free. This way more people would participate and have a chance at increasing their prosperity.

The Business Start-up Event is like a “travelling circus of wealth”. Parts of this review may have seemed a bit harsh and cynical to participants, but I am trying to slice through the pretty veneer of the event and get right down to the money, and where to find it. Make no mistake, I have respect for everyone at the event, for standing on their own two feet, and trying to get as much independence and freedom in their life as possible, because in this society, that is one of the benefits of money. There were plenty of people at the event, each seeking wealth, and they came in all shapes and sizes. I was one of them, one of thousands. I was probably money seeker, number three thousand.

Review of The Business Start-up Event May 2009: Day Two, will be posted tomorrow.