Entreprenerd

Christmas is supposed to be a time for relaxing but for many of us it just means stress.

For those who run their own businesses, juggling daily business demands with personal responsibilities this time of year can get a bit much.

But for those who are reading this and feeling overwhelmed, there are ways of tackling it – and on this week’s episode of Entreprenerd Robyn speaks to one entrepreneur who has it sussed.

Despite what people think, anyone can do a stunt that goes viral online. Honestly, anyone. But it takes a lot of creativity, planning and persistence.

Here's how one guy did it and how you can do it too.

Today’s episode is for people who work in industries with other people who, for whatever reason, are not quite the same as them.

In fact, we’re talking specifically about one underrepresented group – women in tech.

Robyn speaks to Alice Bentinck of Entrepreneur First who deals with this on a personal level, as a female co-founder of a tech business – but also, by the very nature of the business, is involved with trying to get more women into technology.

This week we’re looking at the struggle of getting a fledgling business off the ground and what happens when you quit your job to run a start-up, only to discover the only way isn’t up.

In fact – cliché alert – entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster, often with as many downs as ups.

Robyn speaks to Sandip Sekhon – a serial entrepreneur who found out the hard way that no matter how hard you work, the rug can be pulled from under your feet at any time and more than once.

Time, money, knowledge, contacts – these are what we’d generally consider the cornerstones of every start-up.

Imagine you want to become a successful entrepreneur in London but you don’t have any of these things and, what's more, you don’t even speak English.

That was the challenge facing Susie Ambrose, who went from refugee to multimillionaire in less than 25 years.

Here’s how she did it.

In the home of the tech start-up, Silicon Valley, you’re nobody until you’ve had at least one failed business. But in the UK, if your business goes under, it tends to be judged as a sign you didn’t manage it well, or simply that it wasn’t a good business in the first place.

But which is the truth? Robyn spoke to Peter Goodman who has pretty great insight into both success and failure – both of which are in this week’s Entreprenerd.

Today’s show is about being one of the little guys but pretending to be a major player. And we’ve got an amusing story of the risk one business took to achieve this – with a little help from comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

In week one, we meet Sukhi Jutla whose push to become an entrepreneur came in the worst way possible.