Your EnterQuest Bulletin - Issue 214

Thought for the week: "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." William A. Foster

• Careful planning, lots of advice and a celebrity endorsement spells success for ice cream venture
• Understanding trade credit terms
• Free collaborative writing tool
• Share business ideas and information online
• Free web space with Microsoft
• Test your business idea before starting up

If you're looking for a grant, or a source of help or further information about your local area or sector, send an e-mail with your query and location to the EnterQuest information team and we'll do our best to help.

Send your enquiry to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.

To access over 800 factsheets, guides and small business reports, go to www.scavenger.net.

Careful planning, lots of advice and a celebrity endorsement spells success for ice cream venture

Husband and wife farmer-entrepreneurs Judith and Stephen Foreman have come up with a sweet way of coping with the crisis in the dairy industry - instead of selling their milk at a loss, they turn it into "beautiful old-fashioned ice cream".

That quote didn't come from the Foremans, it came from celebrity TV chef Brian Turner, who, like the Foremans, hails from Yorkshire. He told the Observer Food Monthly that the Foremans' Mr Moo's ice cream is one of his favourite holiday treats.

Judith said getting a celebrity endorsement was: "Absolutely fantastic. We find people coming in on the back of that. We do have people who know him and have been recommended. It works as fantastic advertising."

Made with milk from the Foremans' herd of Fresian cows, at Skipsea near Driffield on the East Yorkshire coast, there are more than 30 different flavours of Mr Moo's ice cream. It is a prime example of the vogue for local food, with honey, fruit and lavender sourced from the surrounding area being used to flavour the different varieties. The Foremans are currently looking at making an ice cream flavoured with local beer.

Mr Moo's received a rural enterprise grant to help with start up costs. That meant the couple had to prepare a thorough business plan and wade through reams of paperwork. But Judith believes that all of the attention to detail helped to make the venture a success.

She said: "We've done our homework. We'd thought about nearly everything because of doing all the paperwork [for the business plan], and for farmers that's pretty unique."

Initially inspired by US ice cream company Ben & Jerry's, the Foremans also took advice from other regional farmhouse ice cream makers.

Judith said: "They've been very, very helpful. We're far enough away not to encroach on their territory."

She also credits her peers with giving her sound business advice: "Think big. Make sure you get the right size machinery."

But she does admit her gift of the gab has helped spread the word.

She said: "Someone told me I was a motormouth."

Overall, though, Judith believes Mr Moo's business ethos has helped to establish the enterprise.

"We do a quality product and we don't compromise on the quality," Judith said.

"We are here, people can see me, it's a family business: my husband and my son are involved.

"It really is from cow to cone."

The ice cream is available at the farm's own ice cream parlour, as well as at a variety of farm shops across Yorkshire. The farm has further diversified to create a countryside walk to the beach and has a five-berth caravan site.

Understanding trade credit terms

There is a business truism that 'a sale isn't a sale until it has been paid for', but in practice most businesses find that they have to give some level of credit to their customers if they are not to lose sales to competitors who will allow the customer time to pay. But in allowing a customer credit you are in effect lending that customer money until they have settled the bill.

The British accounting terms 'debtors' and 'creditors' can cause confusion in comparison with their American equivalents of 'receivables' and 'payables'.

• When you allow someone time to pay you are offering them credit. Your debtors (or receivables) are the people or businesses to whom you have given credit and so they are the people who owe you money.

• This should not be confused with your creditors (or payables) who are the people who have given you credit and to whom you owe money.

For a normal sale there a variety of generally used invoice payment arrangements, of which the most common are:

• Pro forma, where the customer has to pay on an invoice raised in advance of shipping the goods.

• On presentation, where the invoice is due for payment as soon as it is received.

• 'X' days net, which simply means payment within the specified number of days after the date of the invoice.

• At the end of the month in which the invoice is issued.

• On a net monthly account basis, which means at the end of the month following the month the invoice was issued.

• On a specified day of the month following the invoice.

For guidance from the Better Payments Practice Group on being paid on time, go to www.payontime.co.uk, or see our practical factsheet on trade credit for more information.

Each week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business ideas in the UK and elsewhere around the world.

• Online spectacle and contact lens retailers are emerging as an alternative to the high street optician. Customers can buy prescription glasses or contact lenses for a discounted price and have them delivered direct to their door. Online spectacle and contact lens retailers tend to be cheaper because they have reduced overheads.

• Custom-blended tea picks up on the growing trend for customisable products. Kent-based Blends for Friends offers consumers customised blends of tea to give as gifts. Each blend is custom-made to suit the recipient's personality. Buyers complete an online form that includes questions on the recipient's characteristics, then the tea is blended and sent in a personalised presentation caddy.

Regularly improving your vocabulary is not just about learning a new word and its meaning. It will improve your general knowledge and make you feel and act smarter in all sorts of personal and business situations.

Do you know the meaning of the word 'coterminous'?

a) Slowing down
b) Of equal extent or duration
c) The ending of an agreement by two parties
d) Private or secretive

Answer at the end of the Bulletin.

The following topical business issues have been recently reported in the media. Did your radar pick them up?

1) The Government has delayed the introduction of the controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs) for home sellers. Instead of becoming compulsory from 1 June, when will their phased introduction begin?

a) 1 August
b) 1 December
c) 1 April 2008
d) A date yet to be announced

2) Britain is bucking the international decline in the number of businesses starting up. What has been credited with causing the current buzz about entrepreneurship in Britain, according to a recent report?

a) Internet auction sites such as eBay
b) The strength of the pound
c) TV programmes like The Apprentice and Dragons' Den
d) Government enterprise policies

3) Complaints and enquiries about which type of business have increased by 41% in the last year?

a) Supermarkets
b) Estate agents
c) Convenience stores
d) Plumbers

Answers at the end of the Bulletin.

Free collaborative writing tool

Writeboard is a free tool that enables users to type text and share it among colleagues for editing, revising and collaboration purposes. The tool can be used for collaborating on letters, sales copy, mission statements or any text that could benefit from the input of others. Each time the text is changed or revised, a new version is saved, making it easy to track changes and compare different versions. Users simply pick a name for a Writeboard, assign it a password and enter their email address, before writing content in the Writeboard created for them.

Share business ideas and information online

The FreePint website brings together a global network of users dedicated to swapping and sharing free business information. It offers a free fortnightly newsletter of tips on using the Internet for business research and a forum - the FreePint Bar - that allows you to pose questions to your peers and to network with other users. The organisation has built up to a community of more than 70,000 users worldwide since its launch in 1997.

Free web space with Microsoft

Microsoft is offering small businesses the chance to get online and attract new customers - for free - by signing up to its Office Live beta service. Businesses that sign up receive a free domain name and web hosting courtesy of Microsoft, taking the hassle out of designing and running a professional-looking business website. Other features of the service include easy-to-use web design tools and reports on website traffic.

Test your business idea before starting up

Manchester-based firm i2m offers users the chance to receive a free evaluation of their business idea, concept, development or prototype. The evaluation process requires answers to 21 questions so users can gain feedback about the commercial potential of their idea. The i2m site also offers an ideas bank that matches evaluated ideas with investors. Organisations can use the bank to find new ideas to licence.

For hundreds of practical tips and techniques to help you find new customers and increase sales on a shoestring budget, check out The UK Small Business Marketing Bible.

Author Nick McCormick wrote this book out of "frustration", after seeing the negative effects poor management had on the places where he had worked in IT. Each of the 15 chapters covers a tip for success from a commonsense approach, including treating staff like human beings, and doing what you say you'll do when you say you'll do it. It also includes a list of dos and don'ts, plus a quiz to see whether you would make the 'right' decisions in given situations. Check out:

Lead well and prosper: 15 successful strategies for becoming a good manager, by Nick McCormick

Visit www.enterprisequest.com to access all back issues of the EnterQuest bulletin. If you have any feedback or suggestions for us to make this service more relevant please e-mail your comments to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.

If you wish to discontinue your subscription to EnterQuest please click on the 'SafeUnsubscribe' link at the bottom of the bulletin.

Remember that we guarantee never to sell or give your e-mail address to anyone else.

Good luck

The EnterQuest Team

This information is meant as a starting point only. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made, the publisher makes no warranties that the information is accurate and up-to-date and will not be responsible for any errors or omissions in the information nor any consequences of any errors or omissions. Professional advice should be sought where appropriate.