Written on July 14, 2008 – 4:27 pm David Petherick, Next Web WebTipr United Kingdom
Image via WikipediaSocietas Privata Europaea (SPE) is a proposed EU-wide company type designed specifically for small to medium sized companies to operate in EU member countries, which could be enacted as soon as 2009. This is a core part of the Small Business Act for Europe, which the European Commission unveiled at the end of June, based on ten guiding principles and proposing policy actions for both the Commission and Member States.
Here are some of the headlines in what is being planned:
An SPE formation should be effected within 7 days.
A cap on obtaining business licences and permits of one month.
Lower VAT for services supplied locally.
SMEs can set up their company in the same form, no matter if they do business in their own Member State or in another.
Cut the administrative burden by 25% by 2012.
The press release begins with the wonderful phrase “a step towards a Europe of entrepreneurs, with less red tape and more red carpet for Europe’s 23 million SMEs“. [English Version] [Dutch Version] A set of Frequently Asked Questions also helps to explain the benefits of this initiative.
The lawyers, accountants, international tax experts, company formation outfits and administrative bureaucrats will hate this, as they have long grown fat from the cumbersome and often antiquated legislation and regulations that small businesses are forced to deal with, often irrespective of their size, and the necessity to follow separate, complex, and expensive company formation rules and registrations in each country. I would not be too surprised to see attempts from these types of organisations to slow down and undermine this initiative, as it of course lessens their role, and reduces the number of intermediaries involved when a company expands and works in more than one country.
However, the European entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow will love this - and it is in the long-term interests of every member nation in Europe to support this type of initiative. This is how one creates the jobs of tomorrow. It is a sad fact that long-term enlightened thinking has not always been a strong point for politicians and entrenched vested interests in Europe, so it is up to enterepreneurs across Europe to applaud, support and spread the word about this initiative.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on June 30, 2008 – 10:46 am Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If you’re a regular visitor, you’ve noticed the new button in the sidebar. It’s E.Factor’s, a social network for entrepreneurs. First of all, we’re really glad that E.Factor decided to sponsor us, as it allows us to write more and cover almost all the important tech conferences. I thought I owe to you, dear readers, to elaborate a bit on why E.Factor and The Next Web Blog is match made in heaven 2.0.
Next Web’s Patrick and Roeland Reinders
I’d like to coin a new term here, namely “qualitative social network”. Now I owe you a definition, which I’ll definitely give you, yet I’d like to address a negative trend first: the devaluation of professional social networks. I don’t know about yours, but my LinkedIn and Facebook contacts lists are stuffed with not just weak ties, but really weak ties. Like people I’ve met for thirty seconds in a conference hall or PR folks who have randomly added me to their spam mail list. E.Factor seems like a reaction to this, as the founders Adrie Reinders, Roeland Reinders and Marion Freijsen have built a network that focuses on quality instead of quantity.
The purpose of the E.Factor network is to connect investors with entrepreneurs. With features like live chat, video, classified ads, multimedia ads, and finance requests, members can connect, promote, and find funding. Moreover, the service has an old school business model. Marion Freijsen explains: “whilst other networks have to rely on advertising revenue or struggle introducing a sustainable business model at a later stage, E.Factor combines new technology networking with an old-school business model based on premium membership fees, technology licensing via its’ satellites, and fees for a variety of services.”
Besides generating revenue, these fees make sure that members have a feeling of commitment towards E.Factor as some sort of self-justification for the expenses. Thus a member is more active and - together with the 46999 other members, forms a happy crowd. And not just because E.Factor will soon offer them health insurance, 401(k) plans, physical lounges, and.., hopefully, a new design.
Written on June 24, 2008 – 11:58 pm Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
Some weeks ago I called for mentors to help founder Chloe Holding with her online bikini site Habinki. I received numerous replies of experienced entrepreneurs. Some via blog comments, like Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK, others via email. I wondered how Chloe had managed so I decided to ask here how she experienced the whole mentorship process.
How did you find the response for the request for a mentor?
“I found the mentoring trial interesting, but also incredibly time consuming and I have found it hard juggling a lot of priorities at the moment.”
What did you get from the mentorship till now?
“I think that one gaines a lot of experience and information from every conversation that one has. Certainly just hearing about people out there who have done something similar and lived to tell the tale is incredibly valuable. I certainly enjoyed hearing about other entrepreneurs and the businesses they have managed to establish.” (more…)
Written on May 22, 2008 – 11:49 am Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Ok, it might be a little cliché to quote Winston Churchill in a headline, yet it was the first thing that came to my mind when I was reading a post by U.C. Berkeley student Henry Liu. Together with two fellow students he has founded Polarate. A service that offers its users an opportunity to discuss and talk about even the biggest controversies. When they launched the site on March 31st - after only three months of developing - they were expecting thousands of visitors. Turned out this was a little too optimistic. Now, almost two months later, Henry shares what he has learned from this deception and how he and his partners saved the company.
The post contains ten lessons that can help or inspire every entrepreneur who just got started. I’d like to add one too. When you’re working on your PR and blog, make sure you share your knowledge, doubts and joy in an equally honest and open way as Henry did.
Written on December 11, 2007 – 12:29 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In an on-the-couch-interview with author Sarah Lacy, Rose gave some advices for entrepreneurs. A small selection, collected by your Le Web 3 correspondent:
Don’t start raising funds too early. Make your concept perfect, then approach those angel funds and VC’s.
Pick partners that understand the business.
You don’t have to be a coder to start a project which you’re passionate about.
Written on December 11, 2007 – 12:00 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Evan Williams, creator of Twitter, asked an interesting question:
What can we take away, to create something new?
Williams thinks that adding constraints to your service can help your users. “The more options you offer, the less often people will use it. If you look at Twitter for example, it’s a blogging app without tools as commenting and images. And of course, there is the post limit of 140 characters.”
When Twitter launched, people started building applications right away. Williams gives us two reasons for this: “Firstly, it’s text only and so integrates with almost everything. Secondly, developers wanted to make up for the lack of features. Some Twitter users even say that if services as Twitteriffic didn’t exist, they wouldn’t use Twitter at all.”
Some other examples of services that had success by leaving something out:
Fotolog allows its users to post only one photo a day. It had a positive effect on the amount of comments. Now, the average number of comments on a single photo is eleven. Moreover, it lowered their costs.
When Facebook started, it limited the people who could join: just college kids. They opened up later.
A very successful dating site only shows their users a photo with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ buttons.
When Google wanted to compete with Yahoo, they removed all of Yahoo’s functions, expect for the blank text field and a search button.
Written on July 14, 2008 – 4:27 pm
Image via WikipediaSocietas Privata Europaea (SPE) is a proposed EU-wide company type designed specifically for small to medium sized companies to operate in EU member countries, which could be enacted as soon as 2009. This is a core part of the Small Business Act for Europe, which the European Commission unveiled at the end of June, based on ten guiding principles and proposing policy actions for both the Commission and Member States.
Written on June 30, 2008 – 10:46 am
Written on June 24, 2008 – 11:58 pm
When they launched the site on March 31st - after only three months of developing - they were expecting thousands of visitors. Turned out this was a little too optimistic. Now, almost two months later, Henry 
Written on December 7, 2007 – 8:49 am
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