Here’s the text of a speech Bill Watterson gave at Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio, to the 1990 graduating class. SOME THOUGHTS ON THE REAL WORLD BY ONE WHO GLIMPSED IT AND FLEDBill WattersonKenyon College CommencementMay 20, 1990 I have a recurring dream about Kenyon. In it, I’m walking to the post office on the way to … Read more
Business black holes, the cycles between them and how to jump your business into greater growth. The predictable problem of business black holes Some 20 years ago I interviewed around 700 small businesses to discover whether the growth and stall trends I’d previously been analysing in big business still occurred in the small business market. They certainly … Read more
Women’s time has experienced a surge in value. As more women have pursued higher education and stepped into professional roles, their time’s value has more than doubled, incentivizing a substantial reorganization of daily life with consequent transaction costs. It’s expensive for highly educated women to be homemakers but that means substituting the wife’s time for … Read more
Agency Workers Regulations aim to combat discrimination of people who work for employment agencies, by stating that agency workers should be no less favourably treated in pay and working time than their full-time counterparts, who do the same work. Similar to IR35, the guidance is designed to ensure fair treatment of contractors and freelancers, and ensure that … Read more
The good people behind OpenTech 2013 posed a great question as one of their potential sessions for the event happening on 18th May in London: What should a 2013 not-for-profit look like? It caught my eye a few weeks ago and I’ve been pondering it ever since, not only because I’ve had experience in starting … Read more
Two years on from producing the first Social Charity Study, the team at Visceral Business have produced the Social Charity Index 2013, a report looking into how phenomenal and substantial the growth of social and digital media has become among charities in the UK. A few headlines from the report: The average rate of growth in … Read more
This is the ninth in a series of interviews with freelancers, telling us their stories on how they went freelance. The aim is to help others who are thinking of becoming freelance learn more about what it takes, as well as get advice and inspiration so they can get the confidence and understanding to find out … Read more
I was lucky enough to be invited to the inaugural #DowningTweet party, through my work with Twestival (thanks for the invite, @amanda!), which took place at 10 Downing Street. We were there to support the www.millionmums.org campaign, which aims to stop women from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications around the world. As @SarahBrown10, Global Patron of … Read more
Last night I went to an event organised by 160characters and the Mobile Entertainment Forum called Sending Out an SMS: Charities Prepare To Go Mobile. Although charities have been slow to pick up the potential offered by mobile the barriers to adoption are crumbling. With a growing number and range of successful case studies, the … Read more
“They’re solving problems like education and health care, creating jobs, and manufacturing right here in the U.S. And yes, a few of them also happen to be making some pretty cool apps for your phone.” Below is the “30 Under 30″ of US business start-ups, published on Inc.com. You can also view the slideshow here. … Read more