Recently I gave a presentation for the Association for Coaching on Pushing your Boundaries. It is a topic that seems to be increasingly popular, perhaps because the economic downturn drove many people to minimise risk taking and focus on maintaining what worked, rather than looking for new opportuntiies.

This is a guest post by Joshua Wallace and Richard Hartley, co-founders of Cytora.

There is little doubt that we are facing tough times for the economy.  Rising unemployment, austerity and many other factors have meant that the average person feels considerably worse off than at any other time in recent history.  It is unsurprising therefore,  that we are witnessing a backlash against senior executives (in many industries) who are taking home multi-million dollar pay packages. 

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a product demo that seems to go on interminably until you feel that you have lost the will to live? Ever felt that the sales person is simply lobbing feature after feature at you, desperately hoping that that at least one of them will be of interest? Ever believed that they aren’t going to let you out of the room (or off the call) until they have shown you absolutely everything?

Last week I treated myself to a trip to the cinema in the middle of the day. It was empty, it was peaceful and it proved to be the perfect escape from the madness that was occurring in my working world.

What do you get when you gather some entrepreneurs, serious investors, and innovators together at a jam-packed, invitation-only, event on entrepreneurship? Read on to find out…

The UK and the US have long run large trade deficits. Such a deficit is often thought to mean that a country is, like a household, “living beyond its means”. How true is this?

As a female entrepreneur, it’s surprising to hear that only 14% of businesses in the UK are run by women. As a woman, I am half as likely to set up a business as a man and statistically less likely to think I have the skills to do so.

I recommend you read Fred Wilson’s recent blog post about the need for a well articulated business strategy before pushing a particular business model. I found myself in violent agreement with Fred’s blog post(s) and my take on his argument is this.

This month, I spoke to entrepreneur, investor, media personality and Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Dell Inc, Ingrid Vanderveldt. With a mission of “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020” (EBW2020) as well as creating and curating the $100m Dell Innovators Credit Fund to power entrepreneurs worldwide, Ingrid continues to run her own businesses VH Energy Investments and Green Girl Energy, as well as organise the GLASS Forum, an invite-only annual event bringing today the world’s most extraordinary women leaders in all areas of sustainability. In between juggling a whirlwind workload, I ask Ingrid if she could share where her own start-up journey began and why she vows to give back to the entrepreneurial community as a whole, with a particular passion for women.