Shopitize: A Club Workspace Success Story!

Here at Club Workspace, we provide a place for startups to start-up. If you're a Club Workspace member, you can access a network of London coworking locations, chat with a possé of likeminded entrepreneurs, and build your dream bizo from your Club Workspace base.

Shopitize have done just that. They started at Club way back in 2011, and have since gone on to great things in the world of smart shopping apps! But we'll let them tell you all about that...

Hi Shopitize! For those who don’t know, what do you do?

Shopitize is a London start up whose mission is to create a world where all shoppers effortlessly receive personalised recommendations and offers on products they need and love.

Our platform directly connects people with the brands they love and rewards them for sharing information about how they spend. The concept is based on four R’s - Receipts, Reports, Reminders, Rewards and is set to revolutionise shopping in the UK and world over. The more people that join Shopitize, the more the system will learn and the more sophisticated the rewards will become, saving both time and money for consumers and the brands.  In short, Shopitize is set to change the nature of how people shop and how brands promotion to and connect with the consumers.

Why do you think it’s all gone so well for your business?

As we developed the business idea, we conducted a lot of research on the concept.   We also recruited   very experienced advisors and mentors in the relevant industries to confirm the scalability and potential of our business model.   Listening carefully and having the flexibility to adjust quickly have been very important.

Let’s go back to your roots. When and where were you founded?

It was a sunny day in the summer 2010, and the three would-be co-founders were brainstorming ideas at a Belgian café. We were looking to start something new and were inspired by how the today’s youngsters had made smartphones such an integral part of their lives.  We evaluated a lot of different concepts, but we kept coming back to a core idea that people should be rewarded differently based on their loyalty to specific products and brands.  It was a couple of days later while shopping that we looked at a shopping receipt and thought:  “That’s it- The receipt contained all the key information to make our system work.”   And that was when Shopitize was born.  From there,   it didn’t take long for us to realise that our idea and business model could apply to all sectors, age groups and geographies and had real potential to cause significant market disruption!

How old were Shopitize when you moved into Club Workspace?

We were a little less than year old when we moved into Club Workspace.  We had outgrown the borrowed conference room at one of advisors, and were looking for a space that would give us flexibility to collaborate as we grew.

Why was Club Workspace the right choice for you?

Club Workspace was a great place for entrepreneurs with big ideas to start!  It provided us the flexibility that we needed at the early stage of our development.  We also met many people who have helped us grow along the way, and several of whom    have since become part of our team. 

So, how much has Shopitize team grown since you moved into Club Workspace?

We grew from a full time team of four to an extended team of more than eight before we took our own office space through the Club Workspace network.

Where are you based now? 

Although we have graduated from the Club Workspace, we have not moved far away! We currently have our own office space in the Leathermarket which is part of the Workspace Group; therefore, we still maintain a very close relationship with our network at the Club Workspace.

What are your plans for the future?

We are very focused on the user experience.  Since we released our mobile apps on iPhone and Android to public beta in March, we have received a lot of support and valuable feedback which has helped us refine our experience.

Once we finish our beta, personalised offers will be our key focus.  We have had great conversations with brands who are very interested in our vision and who are excited about the potential to directly engage with their power users. So, building these partnerships and delivering offers to shoppers are the most important missions for us this year.

Our mission to revolutionise shopping is not a simple one, but we will continue to innovate! We have also just won the honour to be the top 20 innovators at Cisco British Innovation Gateway Awards, which is really encouraging for us to move forward in our quest!

Thank you! 

Shopitize Website: http://shopitize.com/

Shopitize Free Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shopitize.shopper&hl=en

Shopitize Free iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/shopitize-shopping-receipts/id507460453?mt=8

Contact:

Irina Pafomova

Co-founder of Shopitize

ipafomova@shopitize.com

http://shopitize.com/

Staying Friendly with HMRC

David Catto of PCG, the UK’s leading members-association for freelancers, introduced Paul Mason of Abbey Tax to a huge crowd of attendees at Clerkenwell’s Club Workspace venue.

Every month, PCG and Club Workspace join forces to host an event that will benefit London’s huge freelance community. In the past we’ve covered subjects such as presentation techniques and rates negotiation. This time around, the subject was tax.

Paul delved into his bag of tips and tricks over the course of the evening, and explained the best procedural and record-keeping methods to keep freelancers on the right side of HMRC.

Tip One: Records 

Paul kicked off by reaffirming that old home-truth: if you want to claim something on your tax return, keep good records! The old-school advice of ‘keep your paper receipts’ was offered by Paul, but he also admitted that sometimes even the best-kept receipts let you down.

It has been the experience of many freelancers that their receipts fade, even if they have been safely stowed in a folder. This is, of course, due to the quality of ink used for some receipts. But, not to fear, there is an escape from the effects of budget ink! If you fear that a receipt will fade, the HMRC will accept a good quality scan or cameraphone image of the receipt in question. As long as all details are clearly visible, a copy is as good as an original.

Tip Two: Penalties and Fees

If you receive a letter from the HMRC, reply to it as soon as you can. Time is everything with the HMRC. Paul explained that the usual rule is this: if you don’t reply to the HMRC within fifteen days of a letter being sent, you will face a fine. Another HMRC tactic is allowing fines to grow. For some tax infringements, your fine could increase by £100 every day.

Tip Three: Are the HMRC Picking on Me? 

Paul explains that the HMRC regularly target certain groups of professionals. In the past, they have honed in on barristers, plumbers, hospital consultants and private tutors. These seemingly diverse industries are linked by one common theme: they are busy people. Due to their workload, they are more likely than others to pay late.

Another sector in the HMRC crosshairs is E-Marketplaces. More and more people use EBay to run pretty tidy businesses. Due to the quick transaction time and the possibility of multiple accounts, tracking the due tax can be difficult. That’s why the HMRC are having a long, hard look at it.

“PAYE Phoenixism” is another trend that the HMRC want to crack down on. This is when a company goes ‘out of business’, and therefore negates the tax that it owes, only to rise again. The HMRC are investigating cases wherein a companies appears to 'crash and burn', and a new organisation - led by the same entrepreneur and in a similar line of work - rise from the ashes.

Tip Four: Keep Your Failures

A clever little tip that Paul shared was this: keep your failures. In other words, all freelancers know that they don’t get every job that they go for. However, what Paul explained was that they should not delete rejection emails. If you are ever in a position where you have to prove that you've been actively seeking other clients to the HMRC, these thanks-but-no-thanks letters could be your greatest ally.

Tip Five: Are You Employed? 

Above is the question that the HMRC are likely to ask. If you do the majority of your work for one client, the HMRC would prefer you to be an employee. That’s why documents like rejection letters - as stated above - could be very useful, to prove that you are a bona-fide freelancer. 

However, if you would rather be classified as employed, and it is your ‘employer’ that is stipulating that you remain freelance, then you may have a challenge on your hands. It is possible that the HMRC will view the situation as your fault, and fall on you like tonne of bricks, rather than focusing their reprimand on your employer. Therefore, get in touch with PCG, or a brief, they’ll be able to tell you what to do.

Tip Six: Paying Yourself Dividends

The process of paying yourself dividends isn’t as simple as drawing money out from your account. Dividends can only be paid after a minuted board meeting that decides their payment. Dividend vouchers also must be issues. 

Although this sounds quite pedantic, a ‘board meeting’ can be you and your better-half sharing the sofa on a Friday night after a cheeky takeaway - the only stipulations are the occurrence of a board meeting, the minutes and the dividend vouchers. 

Thank You

Thank you very much to PCG for bringing their event to Club Workspace, and thank you to Abbey Tax for providing the expertise. Another great turnout too, a big thank you to everyone who came along!

Startup Culture: Why Culture is Key to your Growth

It’s always an extra-special pleasure when a Club Workspace member brings a great event into the space. Last week, in an event hosted by Dreamstake, our old friend Duncan McTavish (left) shared his expertise about building a healthy startup culture.

What is Culture?

The first question to get thrown out at our Leathermarket venue was this: what is a startup culture? Duncan defined culture as, ‘how we maximise our potential by living and working together, how we use speech and actions.” Therefore, if you transfer this into a startup environment, it how an entrepreneur can cultivate an atmosphere in their office that is most conducive to the success of their startup.

Who is Duncan McTavish?

Before Duncan began to explain how the startups in the room could nurture a healthy cutlure, he explained his background. Duncan stated that he would draw largely from his time at Creo. During Duncan’s tenure, Creo grew from a turnover of $200k per-annum to $1 billion. This was, in no small part, down to their culture. 

Why bother?

Another question that Duncan answered early was the big ‘why?’ Why should I, as a startup, bother to instill a healthy culture at my startup? Duncan’s simple answer was: if your staff are happy and content, their relationships with your customers will be better. Therefore, if customers are happy, not only might they spend more with you, but they are more likely to recommend and endorse you.

In this modern age, where the perception of brands can live or die on social media, stories of good (or bad!) customer experiences spread like wildfire. Improved customer experience is only one of a host of reasons for why cultivating a healthy startup culture is a good idea.

How? Unit Presidency

After answering the Whats and Whos and Whys, we came to the meaty bit: the How!

The first concept that Duncan introduced was ‘Unit Presidency.’ Unit Presidency is an idea that startups can instill in each of their employees. The idea is this: that you are the president of your job. Noone else in the company, nor nobody else in the world, is as good as you at your job. If a team-member believes that they are the best person at their job in the company, then they do not feel subordinate to, or patronised by, any of their fellows.

This feeling is empowering, and it goes some way to levelling the playing-field that traditionally lies between ‘employees’ and ‘employers’. 

How? Stakeholders

Stakeholders, as you will know, is a term that refers to everyone who is effect by a decision. To cultivate a healthy startup culture, one must involve every single stakeholder in the decision making process. Doing so will give every member of the team a huge feeling of ownership. They will feel like part of the decision making machine, rather than pawns that are moved by it. 

How? Consensus

Duncan explained that consensus is the most important idea to a startup. This is because in small startup teams, if there is one blatant ‘opposer’ and four ‘proposers’, for example, the whole business could fail. 

The idea is to avoid there ever being a ‘blatant opposer’. If a 100% consensus cannot be reached by all of the stakeholders, then the 20%, for example, have to openly agree to ‘not oppose’ an idea. 

How? Leadership

In perfect-startup-land, leadership pyramids would be drawn upside-down. The role of a leader - the founder of a startup - is to create a clear and common vision that every team members can work by. If an entire team is bound by this vision, they can better achieve their unit presidency. 

How? Recruitment

One golden rule handed out by Duncan: do not use recruiters. They will charge you a huge amount to find you a team member who may not have suit your startup culture. 

Consider this instead: If your startup is growing at a rate fast enough to require a new recruit, you’re obviously doing something amazing and interesting. Use the natural je ne sais quoi of your startup to create a buzz. If there is notable hype, especially on social media, people will start coming to you.

When you have a queue of recruits standing at your door, select the person who best suits your startup culture. If a person is going to fit seamlessly and happily into your culture, then stump up for their training! It is better to hire a person with the right attitude than to employ a qualified problem-child.

Of course, decisions on hiring should be made by consensus. Each stakeholder who will be effected by the new member of staff should be able to interview the prospective new team-member. If any stakeholder wants to veto the appointment, they have full right to do so. A full consensus much be reached.

Thank You

A huge thank you to Duncan, for sharing his unique and beneficial experiences. Thanks to Dreamstake, too, for putting the event together. The biggest thank you goes to everyone who came long to our Leathermarket venue. It was a truly eye-opening event. 

Enterprise Nation Launch SnapMeUp App at Club Workspace

On Thursday 5th July, our Clerkenwell Club Workspace location played host the launch night for SnapMeUp, Enterprise Nation’s new smartphone application.

SnapMeUp is a QR code-based app that celebrates entrepreneurship and small-business. The app enables smartphone users to dive into expert small-business advice from selected enterprise hotspots. Club Workspace is delighted to be one of the first host locations for the trailblazing SnapMeUp service. 

To get the skinny on how SnapMeUp works, have a watch of Enterprise Nation’s video. The vid was shot on location at Club Workspace, the Clerkenwell Workshops, and the Clerkenwell Kitchen. 

The launch night was a great success, and we’re very pleased to have been a part of it. After an hour or so of mingling and munching, the guests took to their seats and the launch proper got underway.

Emma Jones, the Founder of Enterprise Nation, was joined on stage by Clare Rayner and Jess Butcher who represented The Retail Champion and Blippar respectively.

Emma, Clare and Jess drove home one key point, that the digital world is not the enemy of the High Street. In fact, they believed the contrary: e-commerce can be the High Street’s greatest ally. 

If you are to believe everything you read about the High Street, it would seem that it’s all doom and gloom. However, the ever-expanding digital arena has the ability to drive footfall back to your local shopping strip. The three experts agreed that there is one theory that needs to be debunked: the online space is not the enemy of small shops.

The beauty of the smartphone is that it lives in a user’s pocket, and it gets used at least once an hour. If your local shops could utilise the personal and regular relationship that you, as a user, have with your device, then they’re onto a winner.

A thank you from everyone at Club Workspace to Enterprise Nation for bringing their fantastic Launch Night into our venue. It was a pleasure to host you. Thanks from everyone in attendance to the Clerkenwell Kitchen for laying on such a terrific spread. Finally, to all of the new faces and old friends who came to our little corner of Clerkenwell, thank you for coming, and pop back soon.

How to Pitch for Investment

Winning Investment can be the defining moment in an entrepreneur’s life. If you secure that huge deal that enables you to spread your wings, it can really ramp your business up a level. On the other hand, If you don’t get the investme

nt you need, you go back to square one. Therefore, you want to get your pitch for investment right, right?

That’s exactly why Gary Weinstein came into our Leathermarket Club Workspace venue. Gary has previously hosted a workshop about writing business plans. This week he was back, laying down the law about investment pitching. Gary came to Club as part of the Dreamstake Academy.

Are You Ready to Pitch?

Before Gary gave shared the secrets of Investment Pitching, he threw this question out to the audience: are you ready to pitch for investment? The answer to this question depends, of course, on what level of investment you’re hoping to raise. If you’re doing the ‘friends and family’ rounds, then as long as you’ve got an idea and passion, you should be prepared enough. 

If you’re looking to secure Angel or VC money, you need to ask yourself some questions:

Where is my product? If you’re a product-based business, your product needs to be at a late prototyping stage, in beta, or launched. If it’s 'just' an idea, it will be very difficult to secure big funding.

Am I a Ltd. Co? Limited companies will find it a lot easier to secure funding. Ltd. Companies are easier to portion off in shares, easier to value, and easier to exit than other models. Also, using a different model will make you ineligible for SEIS and EIS funding. 

Part One: What Problem Are You Solving

Gary then began to break down the perfect investment pitch into manageable sections. The first section deals with conceptualising your business idea as the solution to a problem. 

The first thing you have to do is describe the problem. Don’t go into huge technical detail, just use simple language such as, ‘too many people lose mobile signal in London.’ Next, explain why that problem is a problem. Even though the ‘problem’ is obvious to you, remember that it may not be so crystal clear to an angel. 

After you’ve made your problem as clear as can be, quote a figure. Tell your prospective investors how many people are affected by this problem. The higher number the better! Though, of course, don't massage the stats. 

Part Two: Your Solution to the Problem

Explain your business idea - your solution! - and relate it back to the problem posed. When you’re explaining your idea, use broad terminology. You want the investors to understand your offering, not to be bamboozled by it.

Explain why your product is a ‘unique proposition’. That does not mean that you should say that your idea is unique - far from it! If you claim to have a trailblazing, never-before-seen concept, investors are likely to run a mile. They would rather hear how you combine non-unique factors into a great, new, original package.

Part Three: Business Model 

After you’ve discussed the nuts and bolts of your idea, you can move on to the business model. Discuss how your business is monetised, run through all of the different revenue streams. Quote some figures, however keep them realistic. Although investors are, of course, looking for a big investment, they’d rather see a ‘genuine’ projection. A hockey-stick on a graph will look suspicious if you can’t back it up. 

If your business model is free - like Facebook or Twitter! - then you’ll need to be able to prove huge volume. Investors like to hear big numbers, and if you can’t give them big numbers with a pound sign, give them volume! Volume is genuinely impressive. 

Part Four: Your Competitors

Your competitors are hugely important to the success of your pitch. Your prospective investors know that everyone has competitors, even investors have them! If you don’t mention your competition, VCs and Angels will start to question why you have avoided the issue.

When you mention your competition, mention their core-offering, and explain how you do it better. If a ‘competitor’ has gone bust whilst providing a service similar to yours, be sure to mention them! If you analyse why they have failed, and explain how you will avoid their mistakes, your bravery and conidence in your idea will charm the investors. 

Part Five: Why are You Credible? 

Time to look straight into the mirror. Why are you running this business? Do you have years of experience in the industry? If not, why are you the best person for the task at hand?

Mention your team members, too. Why are they the best in the business? Why does each person have their job? Extraneous members of staff won’t go down well!

Also, if you’re involved with any mentors, coaches or accelerators, now is the time to mention them. 

Part Six: Funding!

It’s why you’re there! Mention all of the obvious things: How much money do you need? What is that money going to be spent on? Do you want all of the money in one lump sum, or is it better for the cash to come in tranches? When are you likely to turn a profit? When are your investors going to be able to exit? Always bear in mind: A lucrative exit is what they’re looking for, of course. 

In this section, throw in a realistic P/E (Price to Earnings) Ratio. They’re the kind of numbers that your investor will want to see.

Part Seven: Pitching Advice

Gary wound the night up by running through some pitching advice. One simple thing to remember is: less is more. This goes for what you say, and your slides. Don’t use several words when two will do. Or, to put it briefly: avoid pleonasm.

Be mindful of your tone of voice. Don’t be monotone, don’t be too quiet. If you’ve lost their interest, it’s very difficult to get them back. Another vocalisation-must: Don’tspeaktooquickly! It’s amazing how hard it is to unravel a garbled sentence.

Part Eight: Have Some Graphs to Hand

Gary recommended that you don’t include a burn rate prediction or financial projections in your presentation, as it’s difficult to give adequate time to these documents in an investment pitch. However, have all of these documents to hand. If your potential investors want to see them, it would be most impressive to be able to whip them out after several clicks of your mouse. 

Of course, if you are asked for a burn rate prediction, include several methods by which you would arrest burn. They downward trajectory isn’t nice to look at!

Thank You

A massive thank you to Gary Weinstein for providing another night of first class advice, and thanks, of course, to Dreamstake for inviting Gary back for his second event! We hope that all of the attendees found the event most useful, and best of luck to them with their pitches!