September heralds the annual Young Company Finance Conference in Stirling, an excellent and highly informative business event. The YCF conference is a chance for young businesses to gather to hear informed comment from leading business figures and experts, review the past year in business, hear thought provoking case-studies....and even listen to a bit of The Beatles?

 

With 150 in attendance last year, the event was well attended again this year with a broad range of delegates from investors, professional advisers, universities, business consultancies, enterprise networks and numerous public sector agencies. This year's event was entitled "Surviving and Succeeding", examining the issues involved in doing so from the perspective of both young companies, and investors, advisers and industry observers.

 

Lasting a full day at Stirling Management Centre, the speakers were all fantastic, with a few notable stand-outs including Mike Southon, of famed Beermat Business Models, and Lucy Armstrong of entrepreneurial consultancy The Alchemists.

 

Mike delivered a highly engaging presentation, paralleling the story of international pop sensations, The Beatles, to the story of successful entrepreneurs. Using a number of slick graphics, images and video clips to emphasise his points, Mike finished with an unforgettable air guitar solo that brought plenty of smiles to faces and was no doubt a talking point with many after the event.

 

Lucy's presentation, while devoid of air guitar, was also memorable due to the quality and authority with which she presented. Using only one slide to assist her speech, Lucy discussed the challenges of growth and how to position your business in order to manage the challenges and opportunities presented. While the core message behind much of what she discussed would appear obvious to many in business, such as the need for a good chairman, non-executive and financial directors, Lucy made the memorable point that growth is not simply "more sales", or "more of the same", and that real growth must be addressed with a very different attitude.

 

So now that you know what you have missed this time around, be sure to keep your eyes peeled and focused on the Young Company Finance website for all the latest news, comments and analysis of the young company market in Scotland and the UK, and be sure to make it along to next year's conference, whether your a Beatles fan or not, for more invaluable information and analysis.