While the phrase ‘traction’ has typically been associated with tyres, friction and slippery driving conditions, it's use is increasingly common in entrepreneurship and venture capital circles. This article explores what it means and why it is an important concept for entrepreneurs to be familiar with.

Gather and Throw's 'The Theory of Launch' is a fully comprehensive business and process book designed not only to help you make money, but to add equity to your brand and improve how you manage your business. Here is the fourth part of a bi-weekly offering of the books informative chapters.

And this time it's in Liverpool!

Before that it was Shanghai, Dubai and Kansas City.  March marks the month when the Global Entrepreneurship Congress roadshow comes to Britain.  3,000 delegates are expected from over 100 countries to swell the hotels and bars of Liverpool.  Among them will be several hundred arriving from Euston into Lime Street on Virgin’s Entrepreneur Express.  Dedicated networkers will start coffee fuelled networking at 6.30am, arriving two hours later with pockets stuffed with cards and croissants before they hit the convention centre.

It’s become a bit of a habit. Scouring ‘Top Ten Essentials for a Business Start up’, and ‘Five Defining Qualities of an Entrepreneur’-type blogs, not for what they include, but for what they often don’t; social responsibility.

When we look at some of the most successful technology/Internet-based companies of the last few years, from Google to Apple to Facebook to YouTube, there is a very strong U.S. bias. In recent months new poster boy technology start-ups from the U.S. include FourSquare, GoWalla and Groupon. This phenomenon got me thinking as to what were the key drivers behind this apparent disparity were and whether Europe could begin to emulate some of these technology start-ups in the months and years to come. The following represents a (non-exhaustive) list of some of the key drivers behind the gap, as I see it.

Gather and Throw's 'The Theory of Launch' is a fully comprehensive business and process book designed not only to help you make money, but to add equity to your brand and improve how you manage your business. Here is the second part of a bi-weekly offering of the books informative chapters.

Unemployment is rampant. One million youths are out of work. Where will the new jobs come from? The answer to this question comes in two parts: the Good News and the Bad News.

John Wanamaker - described by Wikipedia as the father of modern advertising, and a pioneer in marketing - is famously and frequently quoted to have said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half”. Now, you might think in today’s digital age that it would be easier to determine the return on your marketing resources - and it is, but only up to a point. In fact, as we’ll see, the real problem is often much worse than Wanamaker supposed.

Alas, our final instalment from our trip to the Entrepreneur Country Forum this week.  We have been sharing a few snippets and learnings from some of the speakers that stood out for us, read where it starts here: http://thenurturenetwork.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/learnings-from-the-best-at-entrepreneur-country-part-1/

Part 3. Paul Lindley, founder of Ella’s Kitchen and dad of Ella

The great thing about selling online is anyone can do it! Unlike traditional bricks and mortar shops entrepreneurs can often set up shop with little to no start up costs. Therefore, unsurprisingly online retailers come from diverse walks of life, distant corners of the globe and in various sizes—from lone sellers to vast corporations. Sellers can choose to work every hour God gives or can run web businesses as a supplement to 9-5 jobs.