Category: Entrepreneurial Knowledge/Skills

PWC Teach at #NHSClinEnt PitStop 7 on the Financial Journey of a Startup

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Adnan Zaheer and Lynell Peck are both Finance Partners at PWC.

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Adnan was the formal financial director at Arena Flowers and Smart Pension. He is experienced in building up small businesses into medium-sized ones. Now both working for PWC.

Lynelle trained as a speech and language therapist but then pivoted to accounting.

Most companies don’t have a great system for fulfilling their legal obligations financially.

Filing late impacts your company in terms of fines. It also impacts your companies credit rating and it can also damage your own personal credit rating.

The monster can grow very big, very fast and sometimes it can get really really ugly.

When should you hire a finance director?

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Adnan would advise that you get a finance director earlier on rather than later.

Tony suggested getting an accountant – otherwise, mistakes will be made. You need someone to keep you on the straight and narrow. It will keep you from getting into trouble.

You cannot withdraw dividends unless a company is making a profit. The articles of the company will stipulate what one can and cannot do from the start, however, these have to be within the law.

They would recommend you find someone who you can talk to and build a relationship with over time. However, if you want your company to grow rapidly then you will need a bigger firm.

PWC will be launching an application for SME’s soon.

Randeep Grewal then talked about cash flow from the back of the room. Does your business generate cash flow in a positive way? (ie. the working capital is negative eg. Tesco). He again emphasised the importance of a decent finance director.

Adnan again – SEIS and EIS schemes are enormously helpful in stimulating investment in SME’s in the UK.

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All you need is an assurance certificate. SEIS is up to 150k. EIS is £100k – 5 million. There needs to be UK taxpayer in there to get the tax relief. SEIS – people can even invest in themselves. You have to incorporate within 2 years to get SEIS.

There are also R&D tax credits – particularly web/system development side. If making a loss in that year you can get up to 33.5% money back on your web development. If you make a profit you get 22.5% back. Nifty is PwC’s platform for this.

You have to offer a pension to your employees. (Auto-enrollment). There should also be benefits packages.

Regulatory audits have to be done when you have more than 50 staff. Due diligence, tax health checks, cyber-security health check, restructuring support and risk assurance / corporate governance all need to come in after this.

Finally, people need to tax-plan for their business exit.

Types of Finance Advisor

Book-keepers manage payable accounts at about £10-12/ hour. A management accountant will probably be at least partially qualified and can do some analysis – put it into a reporting form (ie. cash flow forecast.) Accountants will be fully qualified and chartered.

Finance directors come in 3 different types:

  • Accountants – who will do tax and reporting.
  • Strategic Partners – sit on the board and have relationships with external investors.
  • Catalysts – they do the ops and strategy but they also drive the business (normally they are number 2 to the CEO.

My finance partner (PwC app) helps you with all the different levels here. They also have My Lawpartner, My Tax partner.

Raising money

 

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Thanks Anna Vital for this

 

  1. In the beginning you with incorporate. Then you will raise family and friends money, angel – SEIS or EIS, crowdfunding, startup loans, grants, (innovation grand, r&d tax rebates, Innovation Vouchers, Regional Growth Funds, Mayor of London etc.). Pension-led, incubators and accelerators.
  2. Next around the time of Series A: Business angel investors, family offices/corporate venturing, VC (professional option), Crowdfunding, Business Growth Funds, Loans (Bank, Asset financing, invoice financing, Mezzanine Finance [where the debt turns into equity if it is not paid], Bank Referral Scheme).
  3. Finally in additional rounds or either as the company nears exit: Private equity, VC, Debt Finance (from  both banks and non-banks), Mini-bonds (Loans from small-scale investors), Alternative debt financing.)

Will they invest?

  1. Debt is cheaper than equity – investors will lose interest later on.
  2. Previous success
  3. The investor’s confidence is high (market forces have a massive effect).
  4. Investors will look for the right team, idea and execution and exit plan.

You have to pre-plan – it takes 9 months for the average round to be closed.

Get someone impartial to do the negotiating for you – as the entrepreneur, you are too close to the project to get the best deal.

Ten Top Tips for Clinical Entrepreneurs in Media Land #NHSClinEnt

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Based on a talk to the #NHS Clinical Entrepreneurs by Vivienne Parry – Science writer and broadcaster.

1. People like:

  • Royals, celebs, cute dogs, drama.
  • Something new, surprising, quirky, counter intuitive.
  • Conflict.
  • Human stories – personal journey’s.

Make of this what you will – but these are the things media-land tend’s to look for.

2. Have things to hand:

Great pictures, top factoids – a nugget that is unforgettable – quote on, quote off.

3. Don’t ramble:

Have a beginning, middle and an end to the story.

Typically people start in the middle – without a context (and therefore the story doesn’t work).

4. There needs to be a clear need:

Otherwise people won’t get it. Show me patient’s who have benefited. It needs to be clear and easily understood!

5. Know the difference between good morning and newsnight

One of them is very relaxed and the other is very formal. If you’re sitting on the couch with Piers Morgan you don’t need any training. Newsnight you do! Always watch the show before you go on it.

6. News and features are really different animals.

On the news they will not tell you to comb your hair. If you look like a mess they won’t tell you. Features you’ll have makeup etc – apparently this is essential.

Know the style of the programme, magazine or paper. Know what makes a good piece for each.

7. Rate journalists

Pitch to the ones you like and are in sympathy with. The ones you resonate with are the kinds of ones you should approach yourself as the interview is likely to work much better

8. Horizon scan – what’s coming next?

Understand what events make news. – If you’re the top ligament guy you may need to wait until Wayne Rooney busts his ligament. Then is you’re chance to pounce.

If you don’t get anything – don’t be disappointed. Everything has a time to shine and it may not be dictated by the factors you consider most important.

9. Media people live in a totally different time-zone and world!

They will have to meet their deadlines. It needs to be now (tomorrow is not ok). The average online journalist has to get a story out in 24 minutes! Return those calls fast. Now or never – return and leave a message if you can – at least they will remember you.

It is not an oral examination. Don’t use acronyms or jargon. Use and practice analogy in your area. Simple analogies that people can get win the day.

Establish what the journalist knows. If you don’t ask them to repeat it back they will fill in the dots otherwise and get it wrong. If you think they didn’t get it ask them to repeat what you said and explain it back. If they can’t do that then you need to go over it again. Same with quotes, ask them to quote them back to you.

Re-frame the questions: ie. Is this available in the NHS? If not then say that’s a very good point, we need to raise awareness of this and try to get it into the NHS nationally!

Check: Is it live or recorded? Studio or OB (outside broadcast)?

10. Lights, Camera, Action…

News? Feature or documentary? Documentary you’ll get lots of time setup etc, feature in the middle, news they really don’t care – if you look a wreck they won’t tell you. Who am I on with? What to wear – don’t wear black or white? No small checks, patterns, strong colours, not fussy, no dangly earrings and brush your hair!

You need makeup – DO NOT refuse it! You will regret it.

Never look at the camera – look at the interviewer. When you look away from the camera you lose trust! Also, don’t flap around.

People often look at the monitor – this is because they suddenly get distracted by being on television. Say what you want to say. Write down 3 things that you absolutely have to say in that interview. Note: (The interviewer might distract you with some other irrelevant questions – just say what you need to say!)

Understand that the interviewer won’t have read your departmental briefing or any of your papers. The researcher may not have told the presenter much. If you have something to hand and can, do your innovation in a speedy way or use 5 quick and easy phrases. Help people out if you need to, and don’t ever get angry.

Be relaxed. Breathe out, smile.

Be authorative: stillness, clarity of message, sincerity. Breathe out – then you have a very lovely sexy voice to the voiceovers with.

To be authoratative – STOP! Be still and then speak – you will come across as a very serious person to be taken seriously. Make your message crystal clear.

Be interesting – record yourself and then mark out every word you think should be significant in bold. Vary speed and tone of what you say, use limited hand gestures, smile. Make it sound like a ham Spakespearean actor – on screen this comes across well apparently… Vary the tone and the speed!

If you have a tic – train it out!! They can be very off-putting.

11. Bonus – When dealing with print and radio:

Understand deadlines, ask journalists to read back quotes, offer to look at the science copy but don’t alter grammar or style.

Always say yes to radio – has enormous reach and is a great way to practice.

Ask ‘is it live or is it recorded?’ Who are the other guests?

You don’t need notes – you’re the expert – (if you need to, write it on the palm of your hand, don’t wear bracelets, don’t bang the table [apparently people do].)

Practice with your auntie and try it with kids – but don’t start with 14 year olds.

Start with local radio and TV (great practice).

Pour yourself a large drink and watch yourself back! Note things down in a notebook. Change the things you can. In a mirror remember you are looking at a mirror image of yourself. On TV you see the reverse! Unless you watch it you will never improve.

Ask your mum to keep cuttings and records of phone numbers and who you have spoken to. Use a contact management system to keep records of your contacts.

Further hints… Be committed

Passion, Enthusiasm and Knowledge are key!

There is always that moment when the mouth is moving and the brain has stopped. Just stop talking: I’m really sorry that was rubbish can I start again. Short soundbites are all they want – they will cut out any ramble.

That concludes her whistlestop tour of media training for the NHS clinical entrepreneurs.

 

Branding: Adam Devey-Smith #NHSClinEnt

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How do clients build brands?

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The One Off (Top 10 agency). They are idea agitators. Their team is broad with multiple people across disciplines working together. They live by their promises. The biggest one is respect – you have to respect your client and your customers.

How will AI affect consumer behaviour – people are not dumb. They get what is going on and they will vote with their feet. Your brand has to stay ahead. The branding has to fit with the product.

Things they have learned:

  • Manage Risk – evolve and collaborate
  • Listen all the time
  • Don’t hang out with the wrong people
  • Well research your ideas and market
  • Good branding and communications

Don’t assume that you know what the competition are doing.

  • What’s your secret. Your story? Vision, mission, values.
  • What are your promises? (Give them something to believe it).
  • Why should I believe you? (Do something compelling).
  • How do you tell your story?
  • Where should you tell/sell it?

Is it sustainable? It needs to be more than just you and the product. Vision and love – do you fall in love with the idea?

Just GYSD – ‘Get your shiz done’

Q&A, actions, age breakdown. Ask everyone what do you think? Why you? What are your competition doing?

Big Promises: Align the vision/brand promise with the behaviour of the company – have a really strong passion!

Little Promises: ‘By 10:30 AM’ – that’s crap don’t do that.

Brand Matrices – Get these nailed down!

Do the groundwork – why are the customers here! Go back to basics and the history of ‘what the company is about’.

Logo’s

  • Don’t get hung up on your brand logo early on. Do get hung up on the name and vision.
  • Vision and Brand Values
  • Articulate your brand promises and belief points across all media.
  • Your logo does not need to do everything
  • Align your business to your brand – branding is a promise.
  • This will build a brand map.

What is your BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goal – Anita Roddick, Body Shop

The tech, fashion and sports industries are the most demanding. They want an idea now – if you can crack those industries you can iterate really quickly and build great stuff.

Spend at least a day doing this – sit down with others and beat around each others’ ideas. It is important – a VC will be looking for a sustainable business.

 

Make sure your pitch is understandable by investors, customers and colleagues.

You will succeed when you identify a problem that needs solving. Listen to 5 good people and your customers. When you see this as a journey you never give up!

When you get the team and customers behind you… really understanding, believing and loving your brand. (Not just you and not just your product.)

iWantGreatCare – Neil Bacon shares a few predictions

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He explained that patient ratings are directly related to outcomes, patient satisfaction, absenteeism and cost.

Transparency drives performance. Relative’s ratings of cleanliness in hospital predicts MRSA and C-diff rates.

In 5 years time your professional reputation will be determined by what Google says about you.

Your colleagues will be threatened by your ambitions. He had to sell his house in order to start doctors.org.uk and then invested all the money he got from doctors.org.uk in iWantGreatCare. It is going well but taking time to scale. Watch this space.

Proximie – An NHS Clinicial Entrepreneur Startup

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Proximie – augmented reality platform that allows surgeons/clinicians to collaborate in a AR platform.

Secure system – cloud based telesurgery. Allows you to work together locally and internationally. Crowdsourcing knowledge. Hardware agnostic. Virtually hands-on. Surgeons can reach the poorest from the richest areas.

AR is growing massively. What do the surgeons actually need? What does a consultant at home actually need?

They have now got some really diverse partnerships and have won some great awards.

She co-founded with a technical person and when they realised they were on to something they brought in a chairman and a director to make the team start to scale. It’s only when you have the idea, traction and team (with the right vision) that you can start to scale the business. They are now 25 strong! Good job!

Founder’s Story – Vivek Muthu – You don’t have to build a tech business!

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Didn’t build a tech business! He built a consultancy business. You don’t have to be in tech!

He feels he used to be the least entrepreneurial person that he knew. As far as he was concerned he was just doing the normal job and then he developed an itch – so he joined the BMJ. He was instrumental in developing the clinical evidence series. That’s where he met his business partner and the business started!

It was called Baysian and it helped publishers, commissioners, NICE and others to look at the evidence for various treatments. Then they got into guideline development and gradually became digitalised.

13 years on he sold the business to the Economist group who wanted to develop a health consulting wing. This led to a good relationship with them and he still consults for those who bought his business and has developed a portfolio career.

He was surrounded by good people. He feels that serendipity was helpful. He never knew where he would end up. Find people you trust and value who are more experienced than you – you are exposed and you have to realise who you are in yourself and what you believe in / your values are.

Find people around you who at their core have similar values to you. The idea is only a small part of success, execution and diligence in execution are so important. Keep an eye on your finances, staff, culture, products. It takes absolute commitment. There comes a point where you have to make a decision: It can be destructive so you have to watch your relationships. It also requires resilience. In 2007 his business partner developed breast cancer and had to leave the business.

On the flip-side it is the most liberating thing. Like anything that is hard you come out of it stronger, having survived. They managed to build their business without investors – perhaps it wasn’t as big as it could have been but it didn’t matter to him. He is living proof that consulting is a viable option for clinical entrepreneurs.

How to Become a Clinical Developer #doctorswhocode

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Before I became a clinical developer I was a relatively technology-naive doctor for 6 years. Sure, I was interested in technology but I couldn’t write a single line of code and I certainly didn’t know what was possible through software, the internet and the coming age of medical technology. For me it all started out as it always does with trying to solve a problem. I was trying to solve the problem of delayed diagnosis for patients with IBS by building an algorithm. This then led to a chain reaction of other discoveries which thrust me down the path towards data science. (Interestingly whilst I did build an algorithm I became instantly dissatisfied with it and thus why I am now obsessed with machine learning.) This is my ‘why’ – I exist to make things better for patients and clinicians through technology and this is my compass by which I make decisions.

That was my situation. The key question you need to ask yourself is: What is my problem? This is the key to unlocking this journey from normal clinician to clinician developer. Now, at this point some people might say why not outsource the solution. This is a very valid point and for an easy problem – like building a landing page for a website for instance you may well want to do this. However, I think that logic is flawed in several ways:

  • Firstly, if you ‘outsource’ things you don’t know how they were built and therefore cannot change them. This means they are doomed to be ‘static’ and static things always atrophy over time – this is a fundamental law of all nature – ignore it at your peril.
  • Secondly, it deprives you of a chance to develop as a person. Developing software is just as much about developing problem solving skills, communication skills, product development skills, business insight and growth/time hacking as it is developing technical skills. If you don’t learn at the start you will pay for it later in other ways.
  • Thirdly, if you start simple and at the beginning, you will grow with your subsequent products. I didn’t start by writing an algorithm. I started by building a blog and experimenting with social media! Why did I do this? It was the best starting point I could think of at the time and it was a great springboard to then learning web developement, then power-use of tools, then coding and then data science! If I had started at the data science end I wouldn’t have gone anywhere.
  • Fourthly, it becomes really expensive. Many startups are bankrupted simply because development costs are so high. Combine this with the fact that most startups fail (because they fail to achieve product-market fit) and you have a recipe for waste. The first bit where you have lots of ideas it both the easiest bit to learn to do yourself and also the most likely to fail. Outsourcing this part of your strategy is likely to end in a costly learning experience rather than a cheap rewarding one.
  • Finally, a lot of things we do simply can’t be outsourced. Healthcare projects by their nature tend to involve confidential-data and the fewer hands involved in the process, plus the more ‘in-control’ you can be as the developer at the source the better you can ring fence your work. Plus there is a massive international shortage of data scientists, and I therefore simply couldn’t outsource what I was working on, and I still can’t. This is why we need clinical developers who have a deep understanding of the problems that only they can solve!

I hope I have convinced you that contrary to popular believe there are some major benefits to getting your hands dirty as a clinician. But now the key question. Where do you start?
This is a question that cannot be answered in a straightforward way. To find the answer you need to start at the end (where you think you want to end up) and work backwards:

  • If your ambition is to build a website to support patient’s with a specific condition, then start by becoming an expert in that condition, joining social media groups and micro-blogging (Tumblr, Twitter etc) – Then when you have a good understanding of what the problems are that they face, build a simple blog of your own on WordPress (I will explain how to do this in a later post, it is extremely simple and requires no coding skills at all). Then focus on building ‘traction’ (again I will explain more about this in future posts). By this point you will have by developed the skills to build a basic site and you can move on to doing more complex things on WordPress (The functionality in WordPress is immense and you can achieve an enormous result without writing a single line of code). Then you need to start learning some HTML, CSS, JS code to take things further (However, many will not want or need to and this is fine as well – you no longer need to code to be a frontend developer. The rules of the game have changed and what counts is results not how fast your page loads.)

  • If your aim is to produce the next killer medical application to make life better for other clinical staff then start by becoming a power user of other people’s applications, take an online course in app design and start simply by building a basic website – This is key (as I will explain in future articles the way to build a killer app is not to start with an app). Then gradually increase the complexity of the site and move towards performing simple backend-functions (Again I recommend WordPress as it means you can obtain results quickly on your own). Then start building a simple web-app (again in WordPress). I suggest you stick with WordPress when you are learning as it is beginner-friendly and you can ‘hack’ quickly (achieve fast results). At this point you need to be thinking about learning either python, ruby or PHP. I suggest you start with python as it is beginner friendly and very readable as well as very powerful. By this point you will have ‘unlocked’ the beginning of the path to becoming a backend developer and you will be well on your way to building the web-app you really desire.

  • If you ultimately want to solve a complex machine learning problem that is specific to your line of work I suggest you start by manipulating big-data in Excel. Then try using some more specialised software. Then learn the programming language Python as this will give you the right kind of mindset to move to the next stage – This will act as a launchpad (I suggest you ignore all other programming languages at the start or you will get confused.) Then do some online-courses (I will recommend which ones later). Then find a dataset that is important to you and start playing with Python packages etc. Go on a bootcamp and start applying what you have learned. One of the features of medical datasets is that they are normally confidential, so I strongly recommend you don’t put them on Kaggle or GitHub (online developer communities) but you can play with other data-sets using these communities.

I hope this makes sense. I plan to write everything in as simple a way as I can because the point of this site is to encourage other clinicians on this journey. If you think I am using language that is too technical please let me know and I will ‘develop’ it.Clinical Developers would like to thank the ‘Python Software Foundation’ for the use of their fantastic logo. We are proud supporters of Python.Originally published on www.clinicaldevelopers.org the network for clinicians who want to develop.

Types of Clinical Developer #Doctorswhocode

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There are lots of different kinds of clinical developer but they generally fall into 6 different broad disciplines as represented by the different colours of the octagon above. In a way the disciplines are somewhat artificial, as what really matters is getting results and not which broad category you fall into. For instance you cannot be a frontend developer and not be at least slightly interested in user experience design. However, they help to give others some idea of your background strengths when it comes to building a team.

Note: Not all of these roles even require much coding skill. Some developers can get by without coding at all! I will cover this in future posts.

Clinician Frontend Developer

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‘Frontend’ generally pertains to the parts of the website that you as the visitor can see. These developers focus on producing visible web presence. They range from those who rely entirely on pre-built products (this is a completely acceptable way to start and can actually get you quite far as I will show you) to those who code in HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL and often other languages as well. If your main aim is to produce a tangible web-presence then this is the route you want to take at the start. 

Clinician Backend Developer

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‘Backend’ is all about the things you can’t see. This type of developer tends to deal with everything from servers and members-only areas on websites, to fully functional web-apps and sometimes whole online platforms. They tend to code in some of the higher-order languages like Python, PHP and Ruby. It is quite difficult to be a backend clinician developer without having at least some basic coding skills. However, there are all sorts of frameworks that make things much easier (I will explain about these as we go on). If you want to build web-algorithms or fully functional websites with members areas etc you will need to know at least some ‘backend’ skills.

Clinician IoS/Android App Developer

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These clinicians focus on phone apps. These require a whole different framework in order to build. I won’t go into it now but this whole area is changing extremely quickly and standalone phone-apps probably aren’t the best way to start-out if you are starting a business. However, once you have an established product there is definitely sometimes a place for building a ‘phone presence’. Some clinicians have built incredibly successful businesses using phone apps.

Clinician Data Scientist

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This is my personal area of interest. The clinician data scientist knows how to use computers to solve complex data issues and build algorithms. They generally code in Python or R and use algorithms to analyse data. Machine learning problems are solved by this group and I believe we are only just at the beginning of seeing the impact data scientists will have on our clinical lives. However, the problems specifically require detailed experience and understanding of the problem in order for them to be solved. This is where the clinician data scientist has a massive advantage.

Clinician UX Specialist

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UX stands for user-experience design. These clinicians focus on making things flow by reducing ‘friction’ and making things ‘human’ shaped. This can be achieved by relentless testing, market research, attention to detail and most importantly focussing on what would best solve their own problems. The clinician is well placed to be a UX expert as they have deep personal experience of the issues which beset those they care for and fellow clinicians. It requires a very open mindset and is not so much about the technical aspects, although many are very adept coders as well. If anything is going to work it needs good UX to be woven into it. 

Clinician Full-Stack Developer

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This is the full package. Fluent in many languages they can basically do everything above to a degree but possibly not to the depth of someone well versed in one discipline. If you need one person to test out ideas quickly this person is your best bet. They can also network very effectively with other developers and because they can iterate ‘build’ very quickly they are a real asset to any development team. In the future they will be common but at the moment they are rare.

To find out more visit : www.clinicaldevelopers.org   – signup to our mailing list for updates, tips and tricks.

Paul Gaudin – Accountancy and Numbers #NHSClinEnt

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You need to know your numbers. Build the foundations as though you are building a skyscraper (ie. Rock Solid).

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Background and statutory obligations

Take directorship responsibilities extremely seriously. If you get it wrong it can be extremely costly. Meet your statutory, fiduciary (legal responsibilities as mandated in company law) and tax obligations. To ensure you are making profits, to plan, to raise capital, to grow and to value the business.

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Be careful. In different countries there are different structures that exist. Limited countries must have statutory accounts. Audit thresholds – your company may qualify if it has two of the following: annual turnover more than £6.5 mill, assets more than £3.26 mill and 50 or more employees.

Cash accounting models are probably best for most health-tech businesses. You must submit your accounts to companies house within 9 months of the accounting reference date.

Accounts systems and processes

You need someone who likes bookkeeping and cares about it. They need a clear understanding of the key information required to run the business. They need a system to produce clear information on which to base decisions and to monitor performance. Make sure you get on really well with them. Select a system that grows with you: http://www.softwareadvice.com/uk/accounting. Don’t leave this it will always come back and bite you.

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You need information flow to and from the various disciplines in the business, so that managers all understand their role in delivering the business plan and when their area, or another, is causing imbalance.

You need to create balance. Fix the cracks. Take the team away every 3 months to try and iron out differences and maintain relationships. It’s perfectly normal that people get upset.

Board responsibilities and reporting

The board is there to set the ends. To define what the company is in business for. It is the job of the executive to decide which means those are best achieved. You need to have a good executive structure with rules and codes of conduct. There are key elements of good reporting structures: CIMA reporting structure to boards.

The best board decisions will be driven by customer data. What is going wrong? Then you need to have a quarterly management information review. What are the competitors doing? Is our revenue strategy working? How are the customers feeling?

Then use the data to drive the business plan.

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Directors must manage risk – do you have a disaster recovery plan? You must have one! You must have the correct insurance – PL, PI, EL, Life, CI, Medical. Do not store data near electricity sources.

You should have a full shareholders agreement tied in to your articles. Have a plan for critical illness. Workplace pension scheme if you employee people.

Tight purchase and sales contracts which protect you from currency fluctuations an a range of potential issues. You must comply with the data protection legislation in all your local markets.

Business Models

This is simply ‘how you plan to make money’

Synchronise your main client and distributor, discounting, freemium, up-sell, cross-sell etc.

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Deploy a responsive and multi-channel strategy with different pricing models delivered against a common RRP, develop a loyal test consumer group to give immediate responses to product, innovation and pricing. Partner with a market leader to generate revenues to get the business started.

The 1 page business strategy. OGSM Mark Van Eck.

Banking and Investor Relations

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This is a really important relationship – they can give you connections and discounts in all different sectors and industries. When you go international you need really strong investor relationships.

For the lender they are interested in balance sheet.

Secured lending or asset backed. Factoring.

Investors – runway – income and available working capital, proof of concept. NPV (Net Present Value).

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Financial Modelling

Build a spreadsheet. Sales A, Cost of Sales – B. D2c, distributor, international, licence, franchise. Production cost, sales and marketing, human resources, operating profit. share capital and liquidity ratios.

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Balance Sheet

Fixed Assets, Liquid Assets, Share Capital, Liquidity Ratios – a lender will look at all these. Current, Acid, Cash ratio’s.

EBITDA – 3 to 15 times multiple of this. Net profit + Interest + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortisation.  You need STRONG legal advice here.

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Watch out for ‘earn-outs’ – check for anything like this in a contract.

Be careful when being approached for your business to be bought out.

Great accounts and Great due diligence are KEY! When you get someone ready to buy or invest YOU need to be ready as well!

If you are an entrepreneur now you are probably ‘disintermediating’ a process. The data is all connecting. The data is coming into the hands of the patients.

Mike Casey – Future Nova – FlipPad #NHSClinEnt

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Mike Casey – FlipPad – a clean case for iPad.

A spray resistant and protected iPad cover for hospitals.

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The idea was to replace the mobile computers in hospital.

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They managed to get funding and got Apple involved. It takes a long time to get Apple to get used to the company. However, they loved it and it went into their enterprise range.

Then a surgeon in the US left a review on medgadget after he tried to destroy the product in a surgical theatre and failed: Their sales took off!

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Then companies including a super glue factory became interested and sales took off so much that they had to move factories.

At one point a German factory challenged them on whether or not the product could survive a various list of chemicals. It turned out to be the only product that could!