Well, it's been ten years since he first won the hearts of the nation - and the world - but it has now been announced that he will be retiring this summer.

I'm speaking, of course, about Harry Potter.

The adventures of the boy wizard were first published in June 1997, and the last of the seven books will hit the shelves this July.  read more »

If you improve your writing skills you can improve your sales.

Before any of your prospects become customers they will read your website, your leaflets, your letters, and catalogues. At a basic level they will make judgements about you and your company from the writing - is the spelling correct, is it believable, are you dependable, etc.  read more »

When you launch a new business (or want to refresh an old one), you'll want to develop a brand tha makes you distinctive and attractive to your customers.

The first part of this is working out why your business exists, and why customers will choose you.  read more »

Here's a review of a book called 'Duct Tape Marketing' that sounds great.  read more »

Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide author: John Jantsch asin: 078522100X

I've received the following question by email, and wanted to answer it here (I only answer questions on flyingstartups.com or here on the blog, rather than replying by email, so that more than just the one person can access the answers)...

Question...  read more »

Do you have the secret ambition of selling your company to a big player like Google?

Well, they're pro-actively seeking acquisitions, have $11bn to spend, and here's the inside track on what they're looking to buy .  read more »

Stanford University has been a major factor in the development of the entrepreneurial culture in Silicon Valley. Its education and support has helped create companies like Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and Google.  read more »

Being creative with your business card is a great way to get noticed and stand out from your competition.

Here are two great ideas: A business card for a personal trainer , and a business card for a second hand shop .  read more »

Equity funding and trading in Britain is about to take a step back in time - for the better.

In 1973 the regional stock exchanges in Britain were merged with the London Stock Exchange, but that step is about to be reversed in Birmingham, where the Regional Development Agency is set to open Investbx this summer.  read more »

Over the last couple of days some further details have been emerging about the small print behind the budget.  read more »

How to Fund Your Business: The Essential Guide to Raising Finance to Start and Grow Your Business author: Steve Parks asin: 0273706241

I was in London yesterday, and then meetings all day today, so I'm only now getting a moment to blog about the budget and my views about its impact on entrepreneurs.

I received the first headlines from news sites on my PDA as the speech was ongoing, but then, as soon as the chancellor sits down,the Treasury news-machine gears up and press releases start arriving by email with more details.  read more »

If you've read any of my books, particularly How to Fund Your Business , you'll know that I keep hammering home how important it is to manage and monitor your cash flow.

Cash is the fuel for your business - and you wouldn't want to be in a plane when it runs low on fuel. The same goes for your business.  read more »

How to Fund Your Business: The Essential Guide to Raising Finance to Start and Grow Your Business author: Steve Parks asin: 0273706241

McDonald's UK division has a reputation for going off in a different, more adventurous, direction from the main company.

It was the first to abandon the Ronald McDonald adverts in favour of more quirky advertising - and the rest of the company later followed suit.  read more »

I've been a bit quite on here recently - my daytimes (and lots of the evenings!) have been taken up with a particularly busy (good busy) time at one of my companies.

My weekends have been spent on a redesign of the Flying Startups website that I run to support the readers of my books.

The site is now faster,e asier to navigate, and a bit better looking.  read more »

Money men have an image of being serious and dull, so I was pleased, and amused, to see an article from one big US Venture Capital firm, listing the big successful companies that they passed on the chance to invest in .

Their site says:  read more »

I spend a lot of time in London, and when I'm there I tend to have meetings all day, and either business or social events in the evening.  read more »

I heard a presentation today by Karan Bilimoria - the founder of Cobra Beer . He is an extremely intelligent and personable guy, with a very clear and measured presentation style.  read more »

On Saturday I spoke at the Independent Newspaper's One Life event at Olympia in London. As usual I had a great time on stage, and it was also great to meet so many enthusiastic entrepreneurs-to-be afterwards.

My publisher had a stand at the event too and sold a lot of my books, so it was a pretty good day all round!  read more »

When launching a new business or product, one of the things that can take a lot of thought and time is the brand name.

Christopher Johnson, a.k.a The Name Inspector , has compiled a great report analysing ten types of brand names he found in use by internet startups .  read more »

Guardian Unlimited has a great write-up of a recent Internet People event on 'How to make a successful internet startup' .

I think some of the key points made are applicable to all startups:  read more »