How Tech Companies are Disrupting the Auto Industry

n 1956, GM released a video entitled, Keys to the Future, that boldly predicted driverless cars in 1976. Although it is nearly 40 years later, driverless cars are being tested and will soon be disrupting the auto industry and transforming our society as we know it. While GM made this bold prediction of the future of cars, it was not until the tech world branched out, created the Internet of Things that they became involved with car manufacturers. In creating Smart Cars, the GM vision will soon become a a reality.

Tech companies pairing up with car companies

While Google has spent the past year openly working with Lexus in creating an autonomous car, other tech companies have also been working with car manufacturers. For example, Swedish tech giant Ericsson has been working with Volvo on their award winning innovation. By using integrated cloud based applications for navigation and music streaming, they are already taking their cutting edge technology and incorporating it into Volvo cars. There is a lot of speculation that Apple is getting into the Smart Car market, yet the rumors of pairing up with BMW have been unfounded. Until Apple partners up, their apps will be used but they will not be in the Smart Car market.

Cost of owning a car

Currently, Smart Car technology, led by tech companies, is infiltrating the latest vehicles. Eventually, these driverless cars will change what we pay for a vehicle. The early driverless cars will be a bit like a taxi service or car sharing. There will be an app on your Smartphone to call for transportation. Responding to that app will be fleets providing mobility services for anyone who needs to go from point A to point B. Those who own their own vehicle, and not use the self driving option, will possibly have different online insurance quotes than those who are driving the Smart Car.

Car design

As the function and user experience of vehicles will be changing and evolving, technology will influence the design of Smart Cars and this will continue to evolve. As passengers will be traversing in Smart Cities, the need for a vehicle that moves at high speeds will be diminished. Thus, the design of vehicles will reflect the need for shorter, slower city journeys. Electric driving cars will be essential to creating a driverless city. In addition, with the advancements of Graphene and other materials that could make vehicles lighter. Most of all, fuel types could potential change with Smart Cars.

Parking

How tech companies upgrade self-parking functions will determine the ease in which the Smart Car will park. As sensor data improves, parking will be faster and smoother.

Safety

As utopian as driverless cars may seem, this technology has quickly evolved, and is estimated to be available to everyone in the next three to five years. Perhaps the biggest anticipation is how safe driverless cars have become. After millions of miles of testing, the only driverless car accidents that have occurred when vehicles, driven by humans, have run into the driverless cars and caused the crash. Because there will no longer be drivers, only passengers, this will take away the bad decisions, the emotion, and the occasional aggression associated with driving.

In addition, some vehicle manufacturers, such as Volvo have also worked on technology that would prevent accidents between cars and bicycles. Not only will automobile to automobile crashes be eliminated, but automobile to bicycle vehicles will be eliminated.

Environment

With less vehicles crowding the road, and as technology companies transform the design of vehicles that will be lighter and more capable of using alternate, cleaner energy, this will improve air quality. In fact, Google Smart Cars have been quietly testing the environment by using air quality detectors in some of the Smart Cars.

With fewer vehicles crowding the road, and as the design of vehicles will be lighter and more capable of using alternate, cleaner energy, this will improve air quality. Most of all, these types of fuel could potential change with vehicles as well. Electric driving cars could be essential to creating a driverless city, but other clean technologies may become more practical.

Soon, your car will be connected to everything with sensors. Drivers will relax as the car safely drives them to their destination. We have tech companies to thank for this. They give automobile manufacturers the ability to realize their dreams.

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Five Online Training Essentials

There’s a lot of buzz about online learning. From academic institutions embracing ‘blended learning’ to people sharing their knowledge via internet forums, online education is taking an increasingly central role in the way we train and educate people

As a small business person, it’s vital that you regularly upgrade your skills and those of your employees. Staying ahead of the competition is crucial for any business, but especially for the cash conscious small business, where tight margins make every penny count.

So, how do you determine the right online training program to maximize ROI and achieve long-term benefits for you and your employees?

Flexible

Online training should be flexible. You and your staff have busy schedules; your training should work with existing priorities, not dictate them.

The need for flexibility is why, without question, one of online training’s most valuable aspects is that it’s just that, online. You can do it from home or your office or wherever else your mobile signal carries.

While the flexibility is vital, you will need to find the program that’s right for you and your team. Some people need the occasional hard deadline to stay on track, while others are better with an open-ended approach.

One way to provide structure and incentives for learners while maintaining flexibility is using badges or other signals of achievement and completion. Many institutions have begun using this method, with the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) of the Republic of Ireland providing a good example of the badge system in action.

Engaging

Online learning MUST engage the students. For that matter, of course, so must in-class education. Anyone who has ever taught a class at Uni or run a corporate seminar will know how difficult maintaining engagement can be.

Online training has especial difficulty with this element, however. Many students can have difficulty staying focused and engaged with online training over the long-term. It is essential that the course you choose offers innovative means of keeping your students interested and engaged.

Engaging online learning can employ a variety of technologies to keep students invested in the program, including chat forums, Skype sessions, discussion threads, shared screens, and shared files with multiple users.

Gamification is another exciting development in learning that is especially useful in the digital environment. E=mz2’s game-based sales training, for example, offers interactive scenarios where students can apply the skills they’ve learned in class to real world scenarios.

However they do it, an online training system must keep the attention of its students if it is to achieve long-term educational gains.

Peer-Based/Community

Real world connections and training based in a community are another essential for online training success. A healthy, active community can be a huge advantage for students.

There seems to be a boundless source of help and assistance available via the internet. For all the trolls out there, and all their nastiness, it’s truly amazing how many people are willing to help total strangers out online. Chat programs, forums, wikis, and user-generated FAQs all serve to pool knowledge and create communities around subject matter.

There are many peer-managed/reviewed training programs available that provide collaborative and interactive online training. Open-sourced training programs like Codecademy, for example, leverage online communities to supplement their training software, using P2P engagement to enhance the user experience.

Standards

One of the biggest questions is whether your training program is really worthwhile? Who sets the standards for online training programs? While colleges and universities differ in their standards and curriculum, there are plenty of reviews and standards out there to ensure you have a good idea about the quality of education you’ll receive.

Online training programs sometimes, however, do not have the same sort of official accreditation as established physical institutions. It’s important that you search out a program’s accreditations, reviews, past graduates, and other information to ensure you have found a credible institution.

Fortunately, progress on standardization is being made. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standardizes the functionality of online training, helping to ensure that most online training programs are interoperable.

Cost

The cost of online training varies widely. From professional designations and university courses, to industry specific training courses and online forums, you can find training at any budget.

In the case of higher education institutions, you likely won’t save much money directly. Despite the fact that online education doesn’t put the same requirements on a physical campus, course providers from colleges and universities often offer a similar rate for courses as equivalent courses at a physical campus. That said, students can save in terms of travel time and expenses. Without any need to commute, buy lunch, or move their residence, students save money and reduce the impact of their schooling on their day-to-day life.

Academic institutions are only one option. There are hundreds of courses offered through companies helping you develop anything from industry specific skills to improving organizational structures to personal development.

There are also a ton the free courses. There are a proliferation of courses offered by companies, individuals or groups who simply want to share their knowledge. These represent sharing knowledge in the best traditions of the web.

When choosing the right course for your company, the essential question is not of money, it’s of value. Will the investment in money, and in time, achieve ROI for your business?

Conclusion

Online training is a revolution in learning. It brings the potential to learn about anything to anyone, anywhere. With constant innovations in the approaches to learning and idea creation, online training will continue playing an important role in the modern learning experience.

When choosing the course that’s right for your business, take the time to review it by the factors above. It may be cheap, but is it engaging or accredited? Is it flexible, with a great community, but no standards?

Before committing your valuable time and energy, be sure to review the program to make sure it’s right for you and your budget.

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[Event] New Dublin WooCommerce Meetup to Bring Woo-Entrepreneurs Together

Wikipedia states “WooCommerce is an open source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. [..] Launched on September 27, 2011,[3] the plugin quickly became famous for its simplicity to install and customisation and being free in nature. [..] In May 2015, WooThemes and WooCommerce were acquired by Automattic, operator of WordPress.com and core contributor to the WordPress software. [..] For the 2nd week of March 2015, Trends indicated that WooCommerce ran on 24% of e-commerce sites online with total downloads reaching 6.7 million.”

But as a Woo-lover and Woo-developer, numbers don’t really mean much. The more entrepreneurs I meet in town, the more website owners I speak to, the more social media addicts I “talk” to, WooCommerce is sure to become the biggest provider of Ecommerce functionalities in the next few months.

Automattic, the company behind WordPress, has just acquired WooCommerce, included its worldwide staff of 50+ people, for an amount that is close to $30,000,000. Now, that is what you call an investment!

With 7million downloads worldwide, we’ve decided to start a Dublin WooCommerce Meetup.

Upcoming WooCommerce Meetup: 12 August

The first event saw approximately 25 entrepreneurs attending, all from different backgrounds (web designers, developers, ecommerce entrepreneurs, WordPress enthusiasts). Realex Payments kindly sponsored venue and….. drum roll… free drinks!

Good news is – we’re running our WooCommerce Meetups every 2nd Wednesday of the month, in Dublin 2 (and specifically in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, 7 Clare Street).

Or next appointment is on Aug 12th (RSVP here by Aug 11). We’ll discuss:

best practices for WooCommerce/WordPress website hosting
hosting platforms: who is using what, for how much, and what the feedback is
website speed: hosting and caching plugin recommendations
backing up and security: tips and suggestions to keep our websites secure and 99% hack-proof

Why is this WooCommerce Meetup important to me?

The main obstacle being faced by web developers, graphic designers and website owners is… TIME.

You would agree with me if I said WooCommerce is easy and fast, however this only applies to basic ecommerce functionalities. There are hundreds of free and premium plugins, thousands of themes, millions of PHP snippets available to accomplish advanced tasks.

So, TIME is money and we wish we had some extra hours a day to run the whole process smoothly!

This month, we’ll discuss openly about hosting providers, hosting plans, website speed, backup and restore planning and whatever is related to the best practices of “starting with the right foot“.

If you charge a considerable amount of money to develop WooCommerce websites, or if you’re investing in your next WooCommerce website, it’s extremely important to select the best hosting options before starting with the development.

When is the next Dublin WooCommerce Meetup on?

Happy Woo-Entrepreneurs of Dublin while enjoying their Free Drinks On July 8th

As already mentioned, we’ll be meeting in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce at 8pm on August 12th.

We asked Blacknight, Letshost, SpiralHost, Digiweb and other companies to attend so we’ll see if they’re brave enough to attend and answer our questions!

For sure, there will be myself, recently appointed WooCommerce Meetup Organiser by WooThemes/Automattic, and several other entrepreneurs such as website owners, designers and developers. In the first event, 2 great guys drove down from Cork to attend – so there is really no excuse if you live in Dublin!

To register (it’s free of course, plus Realex Payments will get you a free drink afterwards!), visit http://www.meetup.com/Dublin-WooCommerce-Meetup/events/223649210 now.

Hope to see you there!

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Ulster Bank and DogPatch Labs

It has been a while in the making and we were told not to tell anybody…..

Until now.

Combining banking with fintech, start ups and innovation

Ulster Bank and DogPatch Labs are going to start working together. Combining banking with fintech, start ups and innovation. Leveraging the international connections through RBS and the links through IBOS (which for example, gives you direct access to Silicon Valley Bank).

Melting pot of opportunities

Combine that with the 20,000 resident entrepreneurs on Smallbusinesscan and the Business Achievers Award and you have a melting pot of fantastic opportunities.

Watch this space (and this video).

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Are You Living in Tomorrowland? Science Fiction to Science Fact

I had the pleasure of seeing Paul Hayes of BeachhutPR at work with a group of start ups. He explained that successful starts ups frame the future of the sector they operate in. Preferably in 5 words.

You need a vision

Which means you need to have a vision of that future. In order to do so you need to understand future trends in your sector. Without that you cannot frame the story.

No direction

But it is amazing how unaware people are of future trends and as a result do not have a vision, let alone a sense of direction.

Play Xbox and read science fiction

We regularly speak to groups of businesses about future proofing their business. The advice we give is this. Play Xbox and read science fiction. Because science fiction is becoming science fact. If you are a science fiction fan, you must have read “Neuromancer” (1984) by William Gibson. Or “Snow Cash” (1995) by Neal Stephenson. Cyber punk is now around the corner. If you belief in “Filter Bubble” then “1984” has already happened.

Tomorrowland

That is the world of “Tomorrowland” by Steve Kotler”. The co-author of “Bold”, the author of “The age of Superman”. A man steeped in science, technology and entrepreneurship. We reviewed it on Newstalk.

Sciencefact

In “Tomorrowland” Kotler describes how science fiction is now science fact, covering:

bionics
mind uploading
augmentation
flying cars
space diving
genetics
nuclear power
asteroid mining
life extension
stem cells
synthetic biology
religion

We are stepping into a weird and wonderful world. Exponential change is changing everything.

Kotler goes back to Kevin Kelly and “What technology wants”, claiming that technology in itself is an organism with an inevitable trajectory to AI, singularity (by 2029) or Skynet.

Some examples of science fact

We are building new bodies, soon we will build new brains. They are building intelligent prosthetics, they are building soul catchers (a micro memory chip implanted in the brain, capturing your life. IBM already build Watson but are now building a blue brain. They have built artificial eyes. We are (re-) terra forming the Everglades and will start applying that to other planets soon. We are 5 years away from asteroid mining (building an oil platform is more difficult). We can build portable safe portable nuclear reactors, which would address some of the climate chance and carbon issues we are (not) facing.

Climate change

Because of our involvement in Climatekick, solving the carbon problem is close to my heart. If an American got all his or her lifetime electricity solely from nuclear power, that person’s share of waste would fit into one soda can. If an American got all his or her electricity from coal, that person’s waste would weigh 68.5 tons and fit into six 12-ton railroad cars. And their share of carbon dioxide coal emissions would come to 77 tons. Nuclear reactors, meanwhile, have virtually no carbon footprint

Immortality

If Kurzweil is right, you will be able to download your brain onto a lap top. Immortality is around the corner.

Hacking biology

Evolution at the speed of Moore’s law. We are hacking Darwin. How long after that until parents are saying: I bought you the best brain money can buy — now why don’t you use it?

Biocrime

Did you ever read “I am Pilgrim” by Terry Hayes? Biocrime is new. But did you know that that the Secret Service is already taking extraordinary steps to protect presidential DNA. According to the Daily Mail, in May 2011, when Barack Obama stopped off for a pint of Guinness at Ollie Hayes’s pub in Moneygall, Ireland, his service detail quickly removed the glass from which he’d drunk.

They have created the world’s first self-replicating, synthetic chromosome. Synthetic Genomics is working on a designer algae that consumes CO2 and excretes biofuel. DuPont recently designed an organism that utilizes corn syrup to create a widely used polymer base for plastics manufacturing, saving 40 percent on energy costs.

Imagine organisms that can thrive in battery acid or on the surface of Mars, or enzymes able to polymerize carbon into diamonds or nanotubes. The ultimate limits to synthetic biology are hard to discern, and have yet to be explored.

Why is this relevant?

We can already hear the questions. Why is this relevant? This has nothing to do with business. Or the best one “this does not apply to my sector”.

Here are some examples of what that means:

If you are in computing or health; $ 2.7 billion to sequence DNA in 2000. Now it costs $ 1,000. It will cost a penny by 2020. It will be cheaper to sequence your DNA than flushing your toilet.
If you are in transport; a Predator drone cost 4 million. The crowd can build if for $ 300. The development of drones is accelerating at twice the speed of Moore’s law.
If you are in farming or retail; in 3 years there will be nano fridges that can print broccoli.
If you are in pensions; in 5 years there will be at least 2 million people that are completely digitized. DNA, neuro-profiles, bio markers, bacteria, food intake, etc. You will live to be 200 years. That is the current pension system gone.
If you are an accountant; Bitcoin will make accounting obsolete.
Builders need to be aware of 3D and 4D printing.

2020

By 2020 there will be fifty billion connected devices. A trillion by 2030. We will have robots, virtual technology, sensors everywhere, augmentation, AI, solar, nano, collaborative consumption, open innovation, local Techshops everywhere, neuro-enhancements, drones, Bitcoin, quantified self (everything in your life is measured).

It is coming your way

Name it. Impacting every industry. Doubling the speed of development every year. Getting cheaper, better, smarter.

Frame your future

Now frame your sector, your business and your success in that future. If you need help, that is what we do. And reading Tomorrowland is a good start.

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Sun Life Enterprise & Innovation Awards

Sun Life Financial has worked alongside Waterford Institute of Technology to promote enterprise and innovation among Computing students and this was never more evident than at the fourth annual Sun Life Enterprise & Innovation Awards.

Two outstanding students picked up the annual awards. The Innovation Award for a project that demonstrated uniqueness went to Sophie Renshaw from Charleville, Co Cork for her project ‘Deploying Openstack on Small Scale Architecture’.

The Enterprise Award for a project that demonstrated commercial potential went to Samuel Haycock from Clonmel, Co Tipperary for his QRLang project, allowing for complete games to be coded into a QR code.

Competition for the two awards was fierce with 20 projects submitted from a pool of final year honours undergraduate projects. Ten finalists invited to showcase their projects at an exhibition at Sun Life’s newly refurbished office in Waterford.

Following the exhibition, David Healy, Senior Vice President Client and Technology Services, SLF, United States, presented Sophie and Samuel each with a prize of €1,000.

Commenting at the ceremony, David Healy said, “The level of innovation and application of technology I have seen here today is outstanding and it’s only through innovation and idea generation that the global economy will continue to grow. It is really important for Sun Life to maintain and develop our links w ith colleges such as WIT. I would like to congratulate WIT for the quality of students and projects we have seen here today and reiterate our commitment to nurture this type of innovation at the Institute. I’m looking forward to being part of this event again next year.”

Professor Willie Donnelly, President of WIT and founder of the globally renowned ICT research centre TSSG congratulated Sun Life on its courageous decision to set up in Waterford 16 years ago which has had immeasurable benefits for the city and the wider south east.

Prof Donnelly went on to say that “the institute and Sun Life have forged a deep relationship founded on strong synergies and mutual goals. Our two organisations have collaborated on multiple levels over the years at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The Masters in Communications developed collectively by WIT and Sun Life defines the industry-academic collaboration at the heart of what a technological university is about. At the centre of the programme is the concept of academic responsiveness building on the institute’s excellence in teaching and research to deliver regional economic impact.”

Karen Burns, General Manager Sun Life Waterford remarked on the standard and quality of the projects as ‘outstanding’.

Outside of these awards, Sun Life has a long standing relationship with the institute with 60% of the workforce having studied on undergraduate or postgraduate courses at some point in their career.

The successful finalists were: Samuel Haycock, Sophie Renshaw, Tony Finn, Stephen Long, Jamie Hegarty, David Ryan, Jamie Moore, Daniel Treyvaud, Eamonn Ryan and Seán Bray.

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40 Companies on the Dublin University Campus Bus Tour

The innovation bus left this Tuesday, with 40 small business from a wide variety of sectors, visiting UCD, DCU and Trinity College.

On the day the companies explored the opportunities that universities have to offer in areas such as funding, research, knowledge transfer and innovation, and will cover areas of interest the companies have requested such as sensors, e-learning, RFID, cloud computing, data analytics, 3D printing, monitoring systems, food, health, etc.

The companies visited over 8 research centres, made the necessary connections and started the process of engaging with academia and add value to their businesses.

The feedback has been fantastic

“whirlwind tour of the 3 universities”
“it was brilliant to see all the different facilities available in each university”
“great day”
“impressive”
“would never thought about doing this if it wasn’t for the bus”

Ron Immink of Platinum event (and Smallbusinesscan); “We wanted it to make as easy as possible for small businesses to start engaging with universities, but also to illustrate what a wonderful source of innovation and opportunity universities are. It is a win-win, universities can transfer knowledge and IP and businesses that normally do not engage with universities will become more innovative, add more value to their business and the economy. This was a very successful pilot and we will be doing more”.

Background

The campus bus tour is joint initiative with the UCD Innovation academy, Invent-DCU, Knowledge Transfer Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Smallbusinesscan and Trinity College organised by Platinum Event.

Next bus

The next bus will be leaving soon. Register your interest here

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Pros and Cons of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation has indubitably come a rather long way from being but a simple method of sending automatic marketing emails without any specific focus. Throughout the years, it has developed into a versatile tool that many marketers now use to create sustainable value for their customers, thereby generating more leads and ultimately converting them to much needed sales. However, marketing automation isn’t a “one size fits all” solution, and this is something that every marketer should keep in mind while tailoring the approach to actively engaging their target audience. Here is some food for thought to help you get a clearer picture of what the benefits and potential pitfalls are for those who have chosen to automate.

Pros

Marketing automation can facilitate a synergetic relationship between your marketing and sales teams.

Often enough, there is significant information asymmetry between these two departments and this can cause a costly rift in your value creation chain, meaning less leads and sales than you could be having with your level of investment. Proper automation requires both teams to be in the loop – this creates a process structure that actually makes it nigh impossible for these two departments to become misaligned. Build value from the inside!

It allows for major future returns by keeping your leads in “stand-by” mode until they’re ready to convert.

A well-timed action from your automated system can mean the difference between reinvigorating your communication with a customer and losing it to the competition.

Big data means big opportunities.

Marketing systems rely on trending, trial and error and machine learning, which means they get smarter by constantly doing and re-analyzing. You can easily measure the effectiveness of certain messages and formulations and then adjust your approach accordingly – constant feedback means constant improvement.

Inspiration through integration!

Many marketing automation solutions offer a rather high degree of integration with major customer relationship management (CRM) systems, which can further help you tailor a more personalized instrument to reach your customers.

Strength in numbers

Your new system can indeed help you fire in quick succession and even simultaneously at a host of moving targets in various marketing channels!

Cons

It might prove to be a costly investment.

The knowledge required to create an efficient and dependable marketing automation system comes with a price. That price does depend on the amount of functionality and the ability to use it as a scalable solution, but its true cost is always relative to your expected ROI. Do your math carefully!

You’re going to need a ton of data and content.

Processing and learning algorithms work by analyzing huge quantities of data to assess consumer trends and serve your marketing offer accordingly. If your data is scarce, incomplete or even faulty, your automated system is going to be doing a whole lot of missing, and getting wrong or generic offers and messages is something that consumers find irritating.

“Automated” doesn’t equal“no maintenance”

Sometimes it’s just the opposite. You need to manage your tools like you would normally manage your people. There is always some tweaking to be done in order to help this investment of yours grow to its full potential, which means dedicating some human capacity to boostyour machine learning.

It could make you lose your ability to act moderately

Many risk becoming too aggressive, too passive or too generic by relying on a machine to do all the work. Automation may offer you some serious data analytics, but marketing is about building interpersonal relationships through value, and this creates sales.

Wisdom for the road

Marketing automation is a mighty tool with the proven capability of boosting your leads and sales, but getting it right is tricky. If you plan on going “full auto”, bear in mind that the costs can quickly rise and surprise, so keep a close eye on your process, feed it ample data and remember: marketing is about understanding psychology, and psychology is about fundamentally understanding people.

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Social Entrepreneurs Ireland: Think Big, Act Now, Change Ireland

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland: Slow down. Take stock. Decelerate.

Not the typical thing you’d expect to hear from an organisation like Social Entrepreneurs Ireland perhaps. We are set up to scale the best solutions for social problems around Ireland. We support projects that have the potential to take an idea and replicate it elsewhere. After all, if we have found a solution to a problem in Wicklow, shouldn’t we be implementing this in other counties around Ireland? If we have found a more effective or more efficient way of doing something, shouldn’t more people benefit from the positive impact?

And it is a core trait of all entrepreneurs that they want to grow and develop their idea, to reach as many people as possible, to impact upon the world. As Steve Jobs said, entrepreneurs want to ‘make a dent in the universe’.

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland

At Social Entrepreneurs Ireland we love that attitude. Our slogan is ‘Think Big. Act Now. Change Ireland’ and it is because of this passion and the potential to significantly impact Ireland that we work with social entrepreneurs.

But over the last 10 years we have learned that all of this should come with a small note of caution. The rush to scale projects, to work with more people and to increase your impact, while totally understandable, is potentially counter-productive. Our experience has taught us that often what some of the most exciting projects need is a period of deceleration before they can think seriously about acceleration.

Getting the Model Right

Before you can deliver a solution at scale, it is vital to delve deeply into the core service, product or solution that you are delivering. And once that is clear, the scaling model needs to be clearly developed and defined before starting to roll it out. We have seen it many times that early success is seized upon and attempts are made to replicate something before it is ready. And the danger is that a really powerful idea might fail and as a result be written off.

Is your model scalable? Is it sustainable? Can you replicate the core elements of it or is it dependent on the actions of a few key individuals? Do you have the capacity to deliver at a bigger scale?

At SEI we now take a lot of time at the beginning of the Awards Programme to work through all of these things with the entrepreneurs, and only move to scaling conversations once the fundamentals are in place.

Demands

Another challenge that we have seen in recent years is that big, exciting ideas often receive a huge amount of attention very quickly. In particular, projects led by young social entrepreneurs can receive a lot of interest from media, potential partners and supporters. While this support and coverage is potentially transformational for the entrepreneur, the risk is that they may become over-exposed, they may burn out, or they may just be distracted by all of the noise, events and attention, to the detriment of their projects. In these cases they may not fulfil the early potential that their projects have.

Learnings for SEI and for Social Entrepreneurs

Indeed, this is a challenging issue for us in SEI, as our Awards Programme celebrates these social entrepreneurs quite publicly. It is a constant challenge for us to find the right balance between protecting the social entrepreneurs and showcasing their work. I’m not sure we’ve always gotten it right but we are constantly working on it.

Over the years at SEI we have changed and adapted our approach and now have a much more nuanced approach to how we work with social entrepreneurs. We are very conscious that sometimes the best thing we can provide a project is to give thempermission to decelerate for a while, to take a breath, to take stock, to slow down, so that when they do choose to scale, they are ready to give it absolutely everything.

Darren

Darren Ryan, Chief Executive, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland

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Four Essential Ways for Small Businesses to Boost Sales through Digital Marketing

When it comes to increasing sales, nothing can compare to the power of the internet. Whether you have a local place of business or an online global presence, there is no better way to reach millions of people, literally overnight. Small businesses looking to boost sales should really investigate how to accomplish that through digital marketing. Here are four essential ways for small businesses to boost sales through digital marketing.

1) Go Mobile

Recent statistics indicate that more people shop from their mobile devices than they do from their home PCs. In fact, it is such a huge portion of the market that Google even changed their algorithms to better serve mobile searchers. If your site isn’t mobile friendly, now is the time to act. Make sure your online marketing is mobile friendly. Not only will you rank better with the search giant, but you will reach a significant portion of your market that you would have otherwise missed out on.

2) Online Discounts & Vouchers

Another great way to boost sales online through digital marketing is to advertise great savings with online discounts and vouchers not available at physical locations. People love a bargain and when they feel like they are getting a product at a saving they wouldn’t get at their local retailer, they will jump on the chance to save money. You can even find out which discounts and vouchers to offer with online tools that show in real time UK retail spending trends. This is perhaps the best way to boost sales based on buying trends.

3) Social Media

It has become almost cliché to hear marketers saying “We are social creatures.” But, in reality, that is exactly what we are. Marketing experts tell us that people will spend more money with someone they trust than from some unknown person or entity. In other words, they aren’t really spending money as much on your product as they are on you. If they trust you after having built a relationship through social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) they may even pay more for your goods than they would at another shop. Why? Again, the trust factor. Social media is great for establishing trust and if you don’t employ this as part of your digital marketing, you are losing a huge portion of the buying public.

4) Pictures, Videos and Infographics

Finally, people want to see what they are buying. Use pictures, videos and infographics to display products and to show why a consumer should buy them. Many innovative ecommerce sites have gone to 360 panoramic views of products so that viewers can see all sides in one shot. This is especially important in the fashion industry as the shopper can see both the front and the back of a garment as opposed to a stock shot of that item in a box.

Again, whether you are looking to build foot traffic in a physical location or to increase online sales, there is nothing like the broad and rapid reach of the information superhighway, the internet. Use these four essential ways to boost sales and you will see just how quickly digital marketing campaigns can make a difference.

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