Ace Biz Hacks

Meet Petar Zaharinov, CTO and Radina Popova, CEO of DiFOLD in Bulgaria, who are braving the pandemic to launch their folding reusable water bottle. An Architect by profession, Peter explains how his 4 years research to develop a collapsible design technology was accelerated by when his highly business co-founder in Radina, a former Saatchi and Saatchi marketeer joined him to form a company. Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology Climate KIC (EIT Climate KIC) accelerator provided DiFOLD with an initial grant and mentoring to start building a commercial plan around their project.

DiFOLD demonstrates the importance of a complementary team in taking innovation to revenue and shows ’Bill Aulets 24 Steps of Disciplined Entrepreneurship’ and Seth Godin’s customer focus in action. Radina explains how early failures helped refine their customer ‘persona’ to better formulate their message and mission. These two climate focused innovators treat the pandemic as another challenge as they dive into their Kickstarter crowdsource funding campaign. The Entrepreneurs Trust wishes them every success.

www.difold.tech

Radina Popova: www.linkedin.com/in/radinapopova

Petar Zaharinov: www.linkedin.com/in/petar-zaharinov-81b62524/

Social media:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/difold.tech

Instagram: www.instagram.com/difold.tech/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/OrigamiBottle

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/difold/

Survival through the COVID19 pandemic is a stretch for us all and for many it’s a tragedy; a first in most of our lifetimes. In 2016, a heavily pregnant Natalie Queiroz went through a 9 minute murderous attack that changed her life forever. It was a complete surprise to the medics that she survived, but not to Natalie, who ‘decided’ she was going to live.

Natalie and her baby survived, and things were never the same again. She grabbed a hold of life, continuing to raise her family in a positive manner, raised thousands of pounds for the charity who were a key part of her survival that fateful day, founded an organisation addressing the growing threat of knife crime, authored a top selling book and delivered a TEDx talk.

In this podcast we talk about her ‘decision’ and the importance of four key elements of the survival mindset that are applicable to entrepreneurs facing systematic threat to their businesses. Be inspired to thrive through this challenging time – it’s your choice!

Further information about Natalie Queiroz can be found here:

Her motivational speaking/coaching company Natalie Q Inspire Ltd: www.qinspire.co.uk

TEDx https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHrdDXZwzuM

Her book – ‘Still Standing’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Still-Standing-Natalie-Queiroz/dp/1789460654

Creative businesses have a great impact on society through their music, design work, software development, architectural creation, social media impacts. They contribute to the ‘culture’ of society. But how do they deal with the impact of COVID19 ? For some immediate prospects are bleak. How should they respond, what is the way forward for them?

In this podcast I am joined by the CEO of The Creative Quarter Company in Nottingham, Stephen Barker. Come on board this conversation as he provides a healthy perspective on how creative businesses should be collaborative in their attitude, maintain an optimistic mindset if they can, and take responsibility for their own future. And how agencies like the Creative Quarter can help.

Listen in on his thoughts on how the pandemic, whilst calamitous now for many, may leave some positive lasting legacy too.

For Further information

The Creative Quarter Website : www.creativequarter.com

Find and connect with other businesses https://www.creativequarter.com/cqfinder

Managing the impact of COVID19 on your business like a corporate

with Gosia Walendzik, Certified Change Management Professional

How should small companies, entrepreneurs and innovators react to a global shutdown?

Strap yourselves in! In this podcast, I talk to Gosia Walendzik - advocate for the behavioural change. This is an honest conversation about knowing how people react to adverse change can help you and your company’s future. We talk about what big corporate companies do, how do they manage in times of crisis and what can we learn from them. Whether you are a big company, entrepreneur or innovator – learn how to successfully lead in times of uncertainty.

Gosia is a certified change management professional and passionate for strengthening the case for behavioural change. She has over a decade of experience leading complex change programmes encompassing transformation and human transition processes. She is a member of the Change Management Institute and co-leads the London Chapter for this community of practice.

If you have any questions to Gosia email her at [email protected]

Follow Gosia on:

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/acceleratechange/

Instagram: @gosia_walendzik

Website: https://www.acceleratechange.co.uk/

Governments, healthcare and corporates are moving at rapid speed to deal with the COVID19 pandemic. But what do innovative entrepreneurs do? Yes, we follow the guidelines but how do we respond in our business? How do we deal with cancellations of meetings, deals and opportunities?

The Entrepreneurs Trust Podcast brings together two other innovative Coaches, Consultants and Speakers: Debbie Clarke of www.Debbiedooodah.co.uk : digital coach and brand strategist and speaker with Steve Hobbs of www.askingbetterquestions.co.uk a professional facilitator, executive coach and speaker.

We all work with the startup community, incubators and universities and have interesting experiences probably similar to many ambitions’ small businesses. The three of us talk openly about how we are coping, how our plans are shifting and come up with our creative ideas to keep calm and carry on!

Listen into a live discussion with 6 ‘climate change’ focussed entrepreneurs from across Europe as we unpick their business model before their stakeholders do !

This is a section of my two day seminar for Europe’s leading investor for sustainability focussed businesses, EIT Climate KIC.

We used my framework to help entrepreneurs assess the weaknesses in their business model before anyone outside their business does. These smart entrepreneurs allowed me to record this conversation to review their Business Model where we get to hear the issues of concerns for them – and not where we would have expected.

Listen in if you preparing your business to raise funding, find new customers, suppliers and need some inspiration make sure it as robust as you need it !

The Entrepreneurs Trust ‘Secret Sauce’ Podcast with Onyeka Obiacha, Managing Director of the – The Tsai Centre for Innovative Thinking at Yale University

https://entreust.org/2019/12/02/ethical-coffee-cups-to-world-class-innovation-centre-leadership/

The entrepreneur’s journey is often a bumpy ride – not something that Business Schools, incubators and accelerators really consider in much depth. In this podcast, I discuss some of those situations and look at what entrepreneurs need to know to get through the stinky situations when they happen. Listen in and be prepared.

An entrepreneur has to be so many things to so many people, which can cause conflicts and stress. But what is the actual identity that such a person should actually adopt?

As an entrepreneur, you are so many things. These include being some ones’ role model, an amazing employer, coach, friend, battling with updating the social media presence, stretched by your own ambition as well as the cause that you are in, plus the objectives and targets your setting for yourself. Is easy so see that being so many things can be difficult.

In this week’s podcast, I discuss the topic of being ready to launch your product into the market. Going through the advantages and disadvantages of the mind set of being ‘ready’ and what this actually means. Alongside the benefits of being 100% ready compared with being less than 100% ready.