Exceltasks Ltd Blog
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Determining whether a market is strong enough to carry your start up http://bit.ly/i5MG0A
One of the most difficult judgements a start up entrepreneur has to make is sizing the market for their products. Your product can be applicable to every household in the US, but that doesn't translate to your market size directly.
There are lots of constraints that costs impose on the market size of a product, especially for a a start up. In addition to costs, there are other barriers, such as the level of competition, the relationship that the other competitors have with retailers and customers, the cash that competitors have relative to you, and so on.
It's important to be aware of the constraints to achieving your start up's full potential market size, as knowledge of these constraints can ensure you don't burn too much cash too quickly by over-anticipating the take-up of your product and burning cash too quickly.
Conservatism in your estimates is important. In the internet sector, many a start ups simply give their product away for free for the first months, with no expectation of revenue. Those that do so are usually venture capital funded, and have a relatively patient business plan and the deep pockets that this requires. For many companies however, this is not an option.
In the upcoming series of articles, I'll look at ways of sizing your start up's market size using a constraint-driven approach. A typical management consultancy or investment banking case study will talk about making macro estimates for a whole market, contingent on assumptions. These macro assumptions just don't apply to a a start up. Your available cash and rate of service will determine your a start up's market size, rather than a hazy and huge mass of 'customers' from an overblown estimate.
To find out more about how you can size your start-up's market, sign up now for this free series.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Student Finance Tips: How To Get Funding For Your Study http://bit.ly/hHkWTI
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Students show 'signs of addiction' to distraction http://bit.ly/flDiSe
A recent study has found that students show signs of addiction when cut off from the internet, mobile telephones, newspapers and other distractions.
When 200 students at the University of Maryland went distraction-free for 24 hours, they were asked to blog about their experiences afterwards. They were not allowed to use the internet, mobile phones or other distracting media, but were allowed access to library books for the duration of the experiment. The findings were quite astounding.
The lack of distracting media had powerful effects. Some students reported symptoms similar to drug addicts in withdrawal. “I noticed physically, that I began to fidget", said one student. A number of students hallucinated that their cells were in their pockets or were turned on, even when they weren’t.
One student stated “When sitting in the library reading my textbook, I actually did hear some vibrations in my head and would think my phone was vibrating next to me”. According to the researchers, the absence of information – the feeling of not being connected to the world – was among the things that caused the most anxiety in students. Could it be that students cannot function without distraction?
"I find it [difficult] to fathom someone not being connected through media, because I know no other way,” one student wrote. “It’s funny,” wrote another, “but I realized we are a social species, and the use of media today helps us to establish a connection with one another.”
It seems that seeking distraction could be an integral part of the student experience. A student admitted "I probably spend at least 1-2 hours on these sites alone BEFORE I even make it to attempting my homework and then continue checking these websites while doing my school work.”
Ten Ways To Overcome Distraction And Stay Focused http://bit.ly/hNaTxe
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Student Finance: Study Finds Part-time Jobs Lower Achievement http://bit.ly/honETC
A recent study has shown that working part-time for more than 20 hours a week can lower academic achievement and increase the likelihood of drug addiction. For students working to finance their studies, this will not make encouraging reading. Researchers at the University of Washington, the University of Virginia and Temple University studied data from around 1,800 US students aged 16-18 in the 1980s. They explained that the data set was still relevant because students' part-time jobs had not changed since the 1980's. This assumption alone is questionable, since sites to flexible freelancer jobs such as Student Finance Express did not exist at the time! The study suggested that students working long hours tend to take easier classes, and spend less time on homework. Students' academic achievement was negatively impacted for a year after quitting part time jobs or reducing their working hours. These results suggest potential problems for university students facing higher tuition fees in the UK, who will increasingly need to work part-time in order to fund their studies. With students from lower income families requiring the most part-time work hours to fund their education, the implication is that high tuition fees would result in lower academic achievement by students from working class backgrounds. In a highly competitive labour market, academic achievement is critical to job market success, so lower academic achievement by students from poorer families would diminish the progressive impact of education, thereby undoing billions of public investment. Potential solutions for this double jeopardy come from equipping students to compete in the knowledge sector jobs that offer higher pay, and have a lower impact on students' achievement. Freelance work is an example of this, as it can often be done online and during hours that suit the student's study timetable. The recently launched Student Finance Express enables students to obtain part-time knowledge work as freelancers. Students can get part time freelance gigs from admin, research, writing to programming and web design. These jobs can be performed anywhere, with just a computer and internet connection. http://bit.ly/honETC