The way in which a business owner goes to market in search of funding for expansion has changed dramatically over the last decade. No longer limited to a smattering of high street banks, the funding landscape has evolved to include a wider variety of alternative lenders and strategic partners capable of adding far more than pounds in the pocket.

To look at this subject in greater detail, Real Business sister title Real Deals partnered with Investec, a specialist bank and asset manager, to gather a collection of seasoned professionals well versed in small and medium-sized business funding.

Leading the conversation was Real Deals editor Nicholas Neveling, who started by asking at what stage a business must seriously consider taking on additional funding. What are the key inflection points?

Esther Marlow, financial director at Carmel Clothing, spoke from personal experience and said there are two significant market points that make a business re-evaluate its funding requirements.

“The first is scale. There comes a point where you cannot grow with the existing funding structure that you have in place. The second is when something changes significantly within your sector.

“In my industry of manufacturing, that change was the shift of production from the UK and Europe to the Far East. At that point, 14 years ago, all we used was a simple overdraft facility but as manufacturing shifted we went from a six-week production cycle to a five-month production cycle. Even if there was no growth, the way the business was run and funded had to change. We needed scale to stay relevant and stay successful, and that required a new funding structure.

Looking at the wider funding landscape, David Ascott, a corporate finance partner at professional services firm Grant Thornton, said, at an early stage, companies will look to friends and high-net worth individuals for capital.

“The next big inflection point is when a company’s staff numbers approach 50 employees. You are now looking at growth capital, the supply of which has improved in recent years following the emergence of institutions like the Business Growth Fund,” he added.

“You then go into the mid-market buyout space, where there is a change of ownership because of a retirement sale or a step change in scale. A company’s funding needs will broadly fall across those three steps and that is how we think of the market and address services to it.

Exacting customers

The options available to entrepreneurs and business owners in 2018 mean they are able to shop around a lot more. There is a market out there and you shouldn?t have to pay ten per cent when there is someone offering five,” Richard Holden, partner at Catalyst Corporate Finance, commented.

“A business owner will find that there aren?t just two high street banks out there. You can choose from a number of providers and you should look at the options before proceeding with a filtering process.

This sentiment was built on by Grant Thornton’s Ascott, who believes the ?power of the entrepreneur” has never been greater.

“There is a huge variety of options and providers out there. That introduces competition in the market, and entrepreneurs shouldn?t be afraid to take advantage of that,” he explained.

“There does need to be a change of mind-set. Entrepreneurs generally see the funding process as onerous and time consuming, but there is an opportunity in the market now for owner-managers to build processes around what they want and need.

This notion of competition has forced funders to evolve and reevaluate offerings, James Stirling, head of growth and acquisition finance at Investec, added to the conversation. Thinking back to before the last financial crisis, in a highly competitive lending environment he said his firm differentiated by offering ?whatever others weren?t?.

?We filled the gap between debt and equity by providing mezzanine finance or we blended different tranches of capital to try to make life simpler for entrepreneurs,” he said.

“If there are ten people queuing up to offer more money with fewer covenants, lower pricing and no amortisation then we are not going to add much value to that process. Instead, we are always thinking about what makes us different and trying to innovate.

Stirling’s colleague, James Cullen, said Investec doesn’t turn deals down just because they don’t tick all the boxes. The firm instead asks is the business is compelling and can we partner with the management team over the next 5-10 years?

Providing some insight on the flexible approach certain members of today’s funding landscape take, Cullen said he looks to ask management teams what they think an ideal funding structure looks like. Is it more important to maximise working capital with lots of headroom for growth” Can Investec help a business to take on new contracts and support with revolvers against working capital assets” Is the introduction of a cash flow loan needed Then we figure out the right structure together.

?We want to form partnerships and build relationships rather than setting what we will or won’t do in stone,” he said. It’s about working with a client to build a structure that suits them.

Manufacturing business leader Marlow has witnessed first-hand the transition from a high street bank to a specialist funder. She believes there is a real lack of creativity in terms of understanding a business and then working with the company to evaluate what the best type of funding will be for where the business is in its lifestyle something today’s SMEs are demanding.

“There is a balance to be struck between giving a company the funding it needs to grow, but not loading it with debt that it can’t afford,” she suggested. That isn’t happening because the climate has become more risk- and growth-averse.

Getting ready

Preparing for the process of taking on funding means entrepreneurs realising they will not be completely in charge anymore more, serial chairman Paul Wilkinson said.

?Entrepreneurs, by nature, like to be in charge and they don’t like working for someone else. What is crucial is that each side knows what it is in charge of. In all the successful deals that I have worked on, both parties have always been very clear on that.

If a company is going to take on more funding, and by virtue of that more risk, Investec’s Cullen believes both parties need to be clear that it is for the right reasons. You need to make sure that the management team and the systems and controls have the necessary robustness. But the main thing is that a close relationship is in place between our Client and the Investec team which, incidentally, will remain the same team ongoing.

As a funder, that relationship starts by asking the right questions and I think there is a flight to valuing that kind of interaction more. It feels like we might be entering bumpy territory now, and when things are tougher the relationship is what both sides rely on.

Real Business would like to thank Investec for making this roundtable possible.

The post A look at the changing funding landscape for UK business owners appeared first on Real Business.

Our increasingly globalised planet now has a new richest person Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. With a net worth of $112bn, Bezos is nearly 25 per cent better off in the billionaires brigade then his nearest rival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

However, what is perhaps more interesting is the research Forbes has done again on the world’s newest billionaires. Some 259 were anointed in the last year, with Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and family appreciating the most largely through inheriting the L?Oreal fortune.

A total of 12 individuals saw their bank balances soar to $5bn or more, largely driven by inheritance. The biggest self-made mover was Chinese wine magnate Wu Shaoxun, who now boasts a net worth of $7bn.

Looking geographically, it is unsurprising that the US and China lead the way when it comes to new billionaires. Our transatlantic cousins produced 45 admissions, trailing only China which had a staggering 89 newcomers.

The only new entrant from the United Kingdom was Dennis Gillings, a self-made billionaire who has made his money in the drug testing arena. Comparative sized economies, such as Germany, South Korea, France, Taiwan and Canada have all produced far more.

Britain’s challengers

• Germany: 13 new billionaires (three self-made)
• Canada: Seven (all self-made)
• South Korea: Five (all self-made)
• France: Four (all self-made)
• Taiwan: Three (two self-made)

Canada, which has 20m fewer people and a GDP worth more than $1tn less, produced seven-times as many billionaires in 2017 than the UK and all of them were self-made.

Taking a look at the Forbes’s World Billionaires list, only three British businessmen and women feature in the top 100. Leading the way is the Hinduja family at $19.5bn.

Why is it that the United Kingdom has managed to establish itself as one of the most important economies on the globe, with a world-leading financial services sector, but is producing so few new super wealthy?

When you look at the number of billionaires compared to population, the UK lags behind only the US when China, India and Russia are included. However, Canada still beats its Commonwealth rival.

Is a lack of new billionaires because we encourage entrepreneurs to exit at an earlier point” Is it because London attracts so many trailblazing immigrants who go on to produce billion-dollar companies” Or is it just because our economy is too competitive to produce new billionaires?

Whatever the answer, and it’s probably not just one, it’s important to look at these kind of figures and try to work out where our shortcomings are.

Where the world’s billionaires are

US

• Billionaires: 585 (+20 vs. 2017)
• Total net worth: $3,100bn (+$340bn vs. 2017)
• Population per billionaires: 552,308

China

• 373 (+54 vs. 2017)
• $1,123bn (+$311.4bn vs. 2017)
• 3.7m

India

• 119 (+18 vs. 2017)
• $440.1bn (+$113.6bn vs. 2017)
• 11.1m

Russia

• 102 (+6 vs. 2017)
• $410.8bn (+24.5bn vs. 2017)
• 1.4m

United Kingdom

• 54 (-1 vs. 2017)
• $203.7bn (+39.38 vs. 2017)
• 1.2m

The post Over 250 new billionaires were created last year and only one was British appeared first on Real Business.

When your career experience spans industries such as finance, travel, insurance and retail, selecting where your next challenge lies can be both heartening and daunting. For Russell Gould, a serial entrepreneur and former English touch rugby medallist, its a chance to find another business that really charges him up.

He’s now five months into his role as CEO of Vesta, a marketplace for the private rented sector. We ve recognised that over 20 per cent of the UK’s housing stock is rented and that’s predicted to grow to 25 per cent soon,” he explained.

As it stands today, there is not a marketplace for the private rented sector. It is very rare that you come across such a big sector that doesn’t have that framework or marketplace set up. That is what makes it exciting.

Gould touched down at Vesta after spending six months contracting in an effort to take a step back and identify a new challenge and opportunity. With a career dating back to the early days of ecommerce, Gould has realised there are three things any new role has to do.

“For me, the people involved have to be credible, robust and trustworthy. I then have to believe in the concept, idea and stage it’s at. Lastly, for the next three to five years I have to be able to wake up and be truly excited about it,” he told us.

“I saw a lot of frogs along the way, looking at lots of different things. But, as I said, it’s so rare that you come across an opportunity in a market that doesn’t have structure.

How eight people stumbled into the world of entrepreneurship

There are arguably two types of founders: the ones intent on starting a company from the get-go, and those who stumble into entrepreneurship quite unexpectedly. We focussed on the latter.

Vesta provides a platform, or marketplace, for vendors to offload a property with sitting tenants. As 80 per cent of the market is owner-occupied, most will be told to kick tenants out before selling it,” Gould explained. We are changing that. All properties with Vesta are sold with tenants in, or on their way in. This is great for the seller as they retain income up until completion and great for the buyer as they have income from the first day of purchase.

The business was incubated within another company called Mill Group, which has been around for around 20 years. Having spent around £3.5m and a few years developing what Vesta would look like, a period of time which included a big pivot, the business has now been spun away from Mill Group and launched four weeks ago with £50m worth of stock on the platform.

Lessons learned

Gould said he ?loves a startup challenge . At this stage of business development he has a firm idea of what is critically important. Managing spend, he said, is critical?. Despite Vesta being reasonably well funded as a startup, with £2.1m of seed capital, every penny counts in his eyes.

?Every penny spent has to have a level of return, that is a key lesson. If you don’t have to spend money, don’t. When you do spend, make sure it adds value.

After spend, Gould touched on people and described them as even more important. Make sure you have good people who believe in the vision and will give their blood, sweat and soul to make it happen,” he advised.

Gould has been through acquisitions, spin-outs, interim roles and short-lived shifts picking up a wealth of knowledge during that period.

“I?m not afraid of change. There has been the odd occasion where, in the corporate world, I’ve got frustrated with pushing cement around. Very often, these sized companies don’t have the ability to move fast enough and that might result in me looking for other opportunities.

Leaving companies still in the midst of growth has never been something that has scared Gould. Instead, the business leader sees it as evidence he’s effectively made himself disposable and redundant. If I am doing my job properly then I?m building a team and concept so that I?m not needed anymore,” he explained. There’s always a natural point where the team can step up and run things, meaning I can move onto something new.

Our conversation with Gould frequently came back to people. People shape the business experiences everyone has and, through the careful cultivation of a network, provide help and guidance as time goes on.

Despite still feeling young at heart, Gould has now got to a stage where he has “done a lot” and amassed enough knowledge to help lots of other people. It’s something that he’s proud of.

Deciding on their next challenge, whether that’s after success or failure, is something every entrepreneur will go through. Gould seems to have created a great filter for dealing with the frogs that do hop across his path and now, in the shape of Vesta, has a challenge worth waking up for each morning.

The post Russell Gould: New entrepreneurial challenges must meet three key criteria for me appeared first on Real Business.

Celebrities are paid thousands and thousands to market and endorse products on social media platforms, giving them a revenue generator stars of bygone eras could only dream of.

Competition amongst Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to be the most fashionable platform for consumers is fierce, which made the eight per cent dip experienced by Snap following a high-profile slap down unsurprising.

Kylie Jenner, one of the Kardashian clan and someone with 24.5m Twitter followers, 20.9m Facebook likes and 104.4m Instagram followers, tweeted: ‘sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.”

The result” Snap, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), saw its shares fall by eight per cent and shipped $1.3bn in value.

It is not the first time an innocuous tweet has caused stock market carnage, as Real Business rounds up below.

(1) Fake Barack Obama injury

In 2013 hackers managed to access the Twitter account of the Associated Press and posted: Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.

Unsurprisingly, given the presidents role as the de-facto leader of the free world, the stock markets recoiled in horror and panic trading saw the S&P 500 decline 0.9 per cent. That might seem like a small number, but it was worth $130bn in value.

The Associated Press and the White House were quick to correct the fake tweet and the market recovered quickly, but it showed how much damage could be done with such a small amount of characters.

(2) Donald Trump?many times

Before, during and after becoming president of the United States, Donald Trump has daily used Twitter to voice his views the majority of which are negative and bordering on defamatory. Amazon, Toyota and Lockheed Martin are all examples of companies which have felt his social media wrath.

In December 2016, Trump tweeted: “The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. Per character, that tweet costed Lockheed Martin £28.6m pretty powerful keypad work.

In declaring that Amazon was doing ?great damage to tax paying retailers?, Trump wiped $5bn off the value of the ecommerce giant. It was a swing at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post newspaper a source of much “fake news” according to Trump.

That tweet didn?t do much damage there after though. Since 16 August 2017 Amazon’s value has climbed from $460bn to its current market capitalisation of $719bn.

Twitter’s 280-character limit trial hijacked by companies joking around

While Twitter’s 280-character limit trial was intended to help people express themselves” the result of findings from its own research companies have already started experimenting with it.

(3) Bernie Sanders gets angry

Another from a political leader, this time Democrat Bernie Sanders. Famous for being the Vermont senator who took Hillary Clinton all the way to the wire in the battle to be Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, Sanders managed to bring about a 15 per cent share price loss for Ariad.

Despite only having 2.6m Twitter followers, his post declaring the greed of drug corporations to be ?unbelievable cost pharmaceutical business Ariad $387m.

He was angry that the company had raised the price of its leukaemia drug to Almost $199,000 a year” and let his feelings be known.

It was a similar reaction to Clinton who, a month earlier, had called out fellow drugs company Mylan for ?price gouging” consumers who buy its allergy shot.

(4) Twitter itself

Life on the stock market is hard work, something well known to Twitter itself. After listing in 2013, Twitter’s share price has not exactly soared. In fact, only recently did a good revenue and profit update push it back above listing price.

In April 2015 its own financial results caused a bit of a meltdown when financial technology company Selerity gained access to what were thought to be confidential Twitter figures and posted an update on the social media platform.

Unfortunately for Twitter, the financials showed a poor first quarter of the year and brought about a little shareholder panic. A halt in trading was required as Twitter executives scrambled to deal with the situation.

(5) And one going the other way?

She’s worth billions of dollars herself, but when Oprah Winfrey tweeted about Weight Watchers it was the corporate that boosted its own coffers. Upon tweeting: ?Eat bread. Lose weight. Whaaatttt” #ComeJoinMe , the US-based company saw its share price surge by 20 per cent.

Winfrey herself benefitted from this surge thanks to her ten per cent ownership in the business. She paid $43m for the stake in the weight-loss company in October 2015 and has since gone on to be one of its biggest ambassadors and cheerleaders.

With a Twitter following of 41.6m, Winfrey has the ability to reach a huge audience and influence the direction of companies she is interested in.

How real are your organisation’s Twitter followers?

Twitter celebrated its tenth anniversary on 21 March however, the milestone has prompted many to question the social network’s relevancy today and, most importantly, its future.

The post The five tweets that sent share prices crashing appeared first on Real Business.

When asked whether they would like to see a reduction in corporation tax, open immigration, a late payment policy, employment law changes or a reversal of Brexit, 34 per cent of senior decision maker respondents plumped for Britain remaining part of the European Union.

As part of the annual Real Business FDs” Satisfaction Survey, over 1,000 FDs, CFOs, CEOs, chairman and other senior management personnel were asked a number of key questions.

Unsurprisingly given their desire to see a Brexit reversal, 45 per cent said Brexit was their biggest macro worry. This was followed by the skills gap (19 per cent), interest rates (18 per cent) and cyber crime (nine per cent).

Recruitment and retention is the biggest internal challenge for 42 per cent, closely followed by domestic sales growth (32 per cent). Other less prevalent challenges include fundraising (eight per cent), product development (seven per cent) and International sales growth (six per cent).

The survey, which has been held for 16 years, seeks to identify which roadblocks are most holding back growth at UK small and medium-sized businesses. While a third of respondents have a turnover of less than £5m, businesses turning over more than £50m accounted for 25 per cent of answers.

In asking business leaders about another seminal problem, that of late payment, the FDs” Satisfaction Survey revealed 72 per cent of businesses are having to wait more than 30 days to get paid. This forces 45 per cent of them rely on an overdraft as their primary cash contingency plan followed by invoice discounting (15 per cent) and director’s loans (ten per cent).

We’re still looking for respondents to our survey, so if you’re interested then please give us 10-15 minutes of your time to complete it HERE.

The final results of the survey, at which point 2,500 businesses are predicted to have filled it out, will be revealed at the Real Business FD Surgery event on 1 May at the Royal College of Physicians in London. The event will feature a number of panel sessions looking at important issues such as how technology is shaking up the finance function, revolutionising the approach to sales and marketing and a cost-effective take on protecting businesses from cyber attacks.

Tickets can be secured by visiting the event website, giving UK FDs, CFOs and finance professionals the opportunity to hear from former Superdry CFO Chas Howes on where it all went wrong for the ?750m clothing brand and YO! Sushi CFO Edward Kingston on how to make the move into private equity.

We’ve brought together all of the most important FDs’ Satisfaction Survey findings together in a helpful infographic below.

The post Reduced corporation tax and Brexit reversal top SME leaders” wish list appeared first on Real Business.

He’s been a serial entrepreneur and now helps other businesses flourish through his investment company Firestarters. However, in a world which he believes overly celebrates tech startups and the ability for a CEO to raise money, Jamie Waller gives Real Business his thoughts on what really counts namely profit.

Jamie Waller, please tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial background

My first business was a window cleaning business when I was just 17. I had a car sales yard by the age of 18 and at 22 I started a debt recovery business which I later walked away from due to a shareholder dispute.

At 24 I was into business number four, I built it up and then sold it in 2016 for over £30m. I then formed a fintech business and sold that in 2017 for nearly £10m.

Since early 2017 I have been building my investment business, Firestarters. I am now an investor in over 12 businesses which together have a combined turnover of over £100m.

Why did you decide to go into the debt collection business?

The government was introducing red route and congestion charging and this was going to create lots of work for the industry. It seemed like a no-brainer. It is like those today who are advising on GDPR. The government introduces a new compliance theme and a number of businesses are created overnight.

Were you worried about its negative connotations?

Of course, I was but I was previously a car salesman so I was used to that. I knew that facing the negativity head on would prove profitable and that’s what I did. I stood up and said “I am here to change the industry?, and it worked.

Why these two entrepreneurs reject venture capital investment at every turn

While often lauded as the best way to grow your business quickly, venture capital investment has not had the same allure for two entrepreneurs in particular.

What were the biggest challenges to getting your business to a point where you could sell them?

Profits. Anyone can build a business that sells stuff and does not make a profit. That’s not clever. What’s clever is building a business that makes the shareholders a return. It’s a shame most current entrepreneurs don’t understand this.

What have you found is the hardest part of exiting a business?

I haven?t. Business is business to me, no emotions whatsoever.

Why didn?t you want to go back and start another company after Hito?

I did! I launched an investment company called Firestarters, which helps early-stage businesses grow. I am now as busy as I was at Hito but help over 12 companies grow rather than just one. It’s amazing and I love it.

What do you look for when making growth equity investments?

A business model that can scale, an entrepreneur that has grit and understands the importance of profit and a good gut instinct that the investment is the right thing to do.

How does being an investor compare with starting and growing your own companies?

It requires a different skill set. I now need to advise, teach and assist rather than do. It has been a learning curve for me but I love a challenge and my passion for business is what gets me up in the morning. I also get to work from anywhere in the world rather than in an office. Right now I am 2,200m up in the French mountains while skiing for a month. Work-life balance is really important to me.

Find out about the two-hour train test Thea Green uses when hiring

She’s built a nail brand which now sells over five million units a year, but Thea Green still doesn’t think she’s made it. Real Business caught up with the entrepreneur to break down her story.

Why do you think it’s important to support what you call ?non-sexy” industries?

Because the world has gone mad on sexy apps, sexy social channels and sexy businesses. Just look at the host of annual business awards and you will see that the majority of the winners are business to consumer brands and the next big tech vision.

What’s wrong with being a successful cleaning company, a coffee shop or a building firm” These businesses employ UK citizens, pay UK taxes and more importantly understand the basics of business and profitability. I love unsexy businesses and personally find profit very sexy.

How has being an entrepreneurial success changed from when you set up your first business to now?

Entrepreneurs are celebrated now when they raise money. Just pick up the business tabloids and see what I am talking about. X” raises £4m, ?Y” raises £20m and so on. It’s crazy behaviour. Entrepreneurs (if you can call them that) are spending 90 per cent of their time fundraising and burning investors cash. Real entrepreneurs are building businesses not bank balances through investment.

When I started out you put your money on the line, your house and your time. It keeps you very focused when you have everything to lose and it massively increases your chance of success.

The post Jamie Waller thinks we should all appreciate unsexy businesses more appeared first on Real Business.

Amazon Growing Business Awards alumni will spend the afternoon debating the issues they believe will define business growth in the UK over the next two decades. Topics on the agenda include where to place your bets in the fast-changing world of marketing, how to build a team fit for the future, driving growth through machine learning and the disruptive influence of generation Z.

BBC correspondent Tanya Beckett will also be interviewing some of the most exciting businesses to have emerged from the awards include Trunki founder Rob Law and Go Ape’s Rebecca Mayhew as well as Rami Ranger from Sun Mark, who started his first business with just £2 of capital from a rented room in Hayes. Through sheer dedication and commitment, Ranger now runs one of Britain’s fastest growing companies with an annual turnover of £200m.

Read about last year’s Amazon Growing Business Awards winners

• Pip & Nut: From the Science Museum tointernational food brand founder?
• Dark rooms and warm pints” Not for Flight Club and its darts renaissance
• Luna Mae London: A lingerie brand redefining ?luxury” service

Over 700 companies have been recognised by the Amazon Growing Business Awards since they were launched by Real Business, in partnership with the CBI, in 1998. The award categories celebrate everything from digital excellence, to international growth and innovation across all industries. The Triumph over Adversity prize, meanwhile, highlights individuals and businesses that have overcome extreme hardship to achieve success, while the Entrepreneur of the Year accolade recognises the grit and determination of the individuals behind these extraordinary companies.

Other Amazon Growing Business Awards alumni include companies include Just Eat, Fever Tree, SkyScanner, Charlie Bigham’s, Tusker and Graze. Former winners and finalists have gone on to become stock market darlings, and returns-busting private equity deals.

If you would be interested in joining us and talking to the most successful high-growth businesses of the past 20 years, please email amy.carroll@caspianmedia.com.

To see who is already confirmed as attending then?visit our event website.

The post Amazon Growing Business Awards alumni brought back together to celebrate 20th Anniversary appeared first on Real Business.

Following a growing trend of tickets for high-demand events being sold for ?rip-off prices” on secondary websites, ticket touts will now find it harder to turn a profit.

Consumer minister Andrew Griffiths said the government was already taking steps to crack down” on ticket touts using bots to bulk buy tickets for resale. Now, from April onwards, ticket resellers will be required to provide purchasers with additional detailed information about tickets including the location of seats, disclosure of any restrictions and the original price of the ticket.

Margot James, minister for digital and the creative industries, commented: ?We want real fans to get the chance to see their favourite stars at a fair price. That is why we are clamping down on ticket touts using bots to buy huge numbers of tickets, only to sell them on at rip-off prices.

Research conducted by AudienceNet/Music Ally in October 2017 revealed the depth of public concern with mass-scale ticket touting on secondary websites such as Viagogo and StubHub. Some 80 per cent believed secondary ticketing to be a ?rip off .

Furthermore, 52 per cent said it was hard to distinguish between authorised ticket sellers and unauthorised ones, while 43 per cent said Google was the first port of call in the search for tickets.

Shortly before the new government legislation was announced, Google announced it was changing its approach by requiring secondary ticketing platforms meet a range of criteria before being able to access the search engine’s advertising platforms.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme, Google spokesperson Jennifer Kaiser said: ?We felt like we needed to do more to make sure the advertising of secondary ticketing is clear on our platform.

“To carry on advertising on Google, secondary sites can’t use words like ?official?, they can’t use the artist or venue name in the website URL, and they’ll need to clearly say they are a reseller at the top of their page.

Google’s announcement followed a request from British artist Ed Sheeran for the search engine to?do more to stop secondary ticket sales for the singer’s gigs. Re-sale tickets for sold-out Sheeran shows have been selling at almost ten times face value on these kind of sites.

Griffiths also revealed the government will be publishing a consumer green paper later in 2018 examining how it can help people to engage with markets to find the best deals.

FanFair Alliance, which was set up to ?unite members of music and creative communities who wish to take a stand against industrial-scale online ticket touting, welcomed the news and said: “If properly enforced, we believe these clarifications and updates will better protect UK audiences, artists and event organisers.

“They should also provide greater clarity to secondary ticketing platforms of their legal responsibilities, and increase overall transparency in what is still a murky and under-regulated sector.

The post Ticket touts targeted by fresh government legislation appeared first on Real Business.

Each year, Melinda and Bill Gates write an open letter covering off their philanthropic work and answering questions repeatedly asked of them. In 2018, the duo decided to follow this letter up with a conversation hosted by musician and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda and held at Hunter University in New York.

The conversation involved taking questions from the audience, one of which was directed at Bill Gates asking about advice for future entrepreneurs.

“Clearly we need a hugely broad set of talent, but if your talents take you towards sciences or programming, advances in biology or energy breakthroughs, those kinds of deep areas are going to be the biggest source of change,” he explained.

“Those deep areas will be the biggest sources of change. We need better tools to deal with disease, and governments are having problems meeting all the needs out there.

Unsurprisingly, given the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations” leaning towards global health, the famous entrepreneur believes future innovation will help solve some of the biggest humanitarian crises the world if facing right now.

Bill Gates reflected on dropping out of Harvard to take advantage of what he and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen saw as the next major technological revolution a realisation he came to after playing around with an early computer while still in high school.

Advising future generations of entrepreneurs, he said: “If you have an inkling that science grabs you and it is hard work that is where a lot of opportunity comes from.

Interesting Warren Buffett investment advice featured in annual letter

Alongside a summary of his company’s financial performance, Warren Buffett investment advice also always features in his yearly letter to shareholders and this time he had some particularly insightful comments.

Looking back, Gates believes he was lucky that software engineering grabbed his interest. He then hired people better suited to look after the required marketing, sales and human resources side of the business, but it was his interest that allowed him to see the opportunity in the first place.

“The more you can learn sciences the more opportunities there will be,” Gates said.

The post Bill Gates highlights science as sector of opportunity for future entrepreneurs appeared first on Real Business.

Despite deciding to implement an automated housing limit in London, Airbnb says it continues to grow in the city as others in the space “flout the rules?.

In January 2017, Airbnb took the decision to limit the availability of a property in the Greater London area to 90 nights per calendar year. However, listings on Booking.com, which does not limit hosting activity, grew by 50 per cent in December 2016, Airbnb added.

In a jab at Airbnb’s rivals, James McClure, general manager for Northern Europe at the business, said: Airbnb is the only platform that works with London to promote the rules and limit how often hosts can share their homes.

?We are proud to help Londoners share their homes responsibly and are disappointed others are failing to take similar steps to help make London stronger.

In March 2017, London mayor Sadiq Khan wrote a letter to six online short-term letting agents, including One Fine Stay, Booking.com and Veeve, asking them to follow Airbnb’s lead and ensure short-term property rentals do not exceed 90 days a year.

Back then he said: ?While Airbnb accounts for a substantial share of the short-term lettings market in London, there are many other operators, such as yours, who occupy the same space. I am keen to see a cross-industry response to this issue, to help local authorities enforce the law.

According to new statistics, Airbnb hosts and guests generated £3.46bn for the UK economy in 2017, with £1.4bn of that coming from London. Typically, London hosts earn £3,000 by sharing their home for 40 nights per year.

Airbnb believes there are 40,000 listings on other platforms in London that are going completely uncapped with nearly 14,000 of those found on Booking.com.

McClure added: London is strongest when it is shared. We encourage other platforms like Booking.com and TripAdvisor to step up and do the right thing so more Londoners can keep sharing the best of their communities and the city they love with the world.

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