What an evening of discussion and education on Brand, Michael Bayler gave an amazingly energetic hours talk on brand and how important it is to be clear about your brand strategy before you do anything else.  The video of this event will be available in a few weeks time and thus all Sun Startup Essential members who couldn't make the event can watch the material and gain an insight into this wonderful evening.

Michael Bayler has a website here if you wish to know more about him and what he can do for you.

Jez Kay is Owner of NowHouse, a digital video and sound production company based in London. He helps businesses inject personality into their brands through vision, soundtracks and the occasional song and dance.

This is the event Jeremy attended and is discussing below

Busy entrepreneurs need to stay on top of all the latest startup information, but who has the time? Here's a look at what went on around blogosphere and in the news this week, in case you missed it.

Seattle-based Frazier Technology Ventures has been going strong for 44 years. Now it looks like it's at the end of a successful ride.

Getting audited by the IRS is never any fun, and it's worse when the cold eye of Uncle Sam turns to your startup. Brush up on these five classic triggers of an IRS audit.

We've all heard about bootstrapping a business, but how do you make it work for you? Here are some great ideas to get you started.

Looking for some other great startup blogs to read (besides this one, of course)? Here's a list of some that are definitely worth checking out.

"Freemium" apps are a hot topic in the startup sector these days. Here's one company that's making it work..

Flickr image courtesy of angermann.

In this economic environment larger companies are cutting back to become lean and agile, but startups are looking for investment and to grow.  

Yet another way the Sun Startup Essentials program can help our startups (and the economy) is to provide current opportunities to our large readership & member-base. We are not trying to be recruitment agents, nor will we get involved in any part of that process, but we have a great platform to assist startups. 

I hear of job vacancies mainly through my twitter stream but also at events and during networking sessions, please feel free to let me know if you know other startups hiring.  

Here are a few current opportunities from UK +European SSE members that I know of: (more coming)

• Good Rails/iPhone Developer for a seed-funded stealth startup (send me a tweet)
• MindCandy have a variety of roles - http://mindcandy.com/recruitment
• Spotify also - http://www.spotify.com/en/about/jobs/
• SoundCloud too - http://soundcloud.com/pages/jobs

Subscribe to the startup program and follow me @scoobeesnac or subscribe to our blog post summaries using the textfield to the right-side of the blog, to hear more.

Congrats Sound Cloud and Huddle for the great coverage on the BBC website!!!

Based in Berlin, Germany, SoundCloud provides a web-based platform that is transforming the way music is shared, with over 250,000 customers that currently rely on its services. Realizing that its business depended on IT performance, SoundCloud evaluated its options and found an ideal solution with Sun Startup Essentials to migrate its Web server stack to a solution that includes virtual servers and a hybrid storage pool built with Sun technologies. Hosted and managed by London-based EveryCity (another Sun Startup Essentials customer), the new architecture quickly scales with growth, delivers the raw performance customers expect, and gives SoundCloud employees the ability to focus on expanding the business. 

Based in London, UK, Huddle provides hosted project and collaboration tools - basically a "virtual office space" that allows organizations of all sizes to share documents, calendars, virtual white boards, etc. Huddle provides a free ad-supported service, as well as supported online virtual offices ranging from £10 to £125 per month.  Some of Huddle customers include Panasonic, UNICEF, Kia Motors, Nokia, and government organizations.

Sun Startup Essentials - A big hand for your business ideas from stewart townsend on Vimeo.

How can Sun Startup Essentials help you? Watch this and see how Sun can help your small business with its Sun Startup Essentials programme http://sun.com/startups

BTW, this cool video was created by the community for the Sun Startup Essentials contest that Zooppa.com ran earlier this year. 

SmallBizPod is a podcast, blog, news and community site for small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs. This is how it all happened.

Back in March 2005, Alex Bellinger became one of only a handful of people in the UK to start podcasting.

Looking around for a subject he realised there were no British-based podcasts on business. Since he had just set up his own business and had spent many years focusing on the small business sector, a podcast on entrepreneurship seemed like a good way to go.

SmallBizPod was born. The podcast, blog and website now attract tens of thousands of listeners and readers a month from all over the world.

Inspire, Inform, Entertain

From the start SmallBizPod has been there to inspire, to inform, and to be fun to listen to and read as well. I think thanks to some wonderful contributors and interviewees, it's achieved just that.

Over time, the site has grown to become one of the most visited sites for SMEs in the UK. It's also developed into a wonderful free audio resource to provide inspiration and advice from business people with real experience and real insight.

Take the time to listen to some inspiring interviews from some renowned people on subjects such as marketing, business advice, funding and many more, the beauty is that these are free and really insighful and great to hear that not just you in that Startup boat alone.

Visit http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/  now and keep an update on the latest podcasts.

Also if you really love what you hear and see then Vote for them in the European Podcast Awards -

Free and open source content management systems (CMS) like Drupal and Joomla have given entrepreneurs everywhere an opportunity to bootstrap their concepts quickly and effectively. What's the difference between them, and which one is right for you? Let's take a look.

Joomla - This CMS is very popular and freely available as an open source software package. It can be used to design Web sites, community portals, online magazines, corporate intranets, and even e-commerce sites. Out of the box, users can build data reporting tools, inventory control systems, product catalogs, business directories, and more. You don't need to be a technology whiz, however, to use Joomla. To get a feel for how easy it is, try this interactive online demo.

Mambo - Another open source option on the playing field is Mambo, a CMS with Web- and server-based installation options. Its template system means there's no complicated coding required but, because it's open source software, you can customize, tweak, and get as technical as you want. Mambo handles media content like images and video exceptionally well, and has a robust content publication scheduling feature to help keep your site fresh and updated around the clock.

Drupal - This open source content management system made headlines recently when it was announced that the White House uses Drupal to power WhiteHouse.gov. The basic package is loaded with tools to create all kinds of terrific Web sites and portals, but when you include the free add-on modules things really get interesting. Use Drupal to create e-commerce sites, podcasts, newsletters, picture galleries, forums, message boards, and more.

concrete5 - For many startups, an online presence is mainly about branding and selling your company's message. When that's the case, many entrepreneurs wish they could find a CMS that's meant for marketing. Concrete5 may be just the ticket. Designed for "regular people," not developers, concrete5 makes setting up a Web site as easy as sending an email. Down-to-earth editing tools make it possible for someone with no developer experience to build and edit a quality Web site in minutes. That's a terrific bonus, since most startups don't have extra cash lying around to spring for a professional Web designer.

Most open source content management systems have the same basic capabilities and features, and mainly vary in level of difficulty to set up and use. The easiest way to determine which CMS is best for you is to try their online demos and play around a little bit to get a feel for which one best matches your computer skill level. No matter which one you choose, each project has a healthy community of developers and users at the ready to help you get set up and troubleshoot along the way.

Flickr image courtesy of Marco Belluci.

Originally posted at http://blogs.sun.com/sun4startups/entry/cms_startup_in_a_box1

The other day I was one of the lucky few with the opportunity to attend the Media140 Branding event over at RIBA in London.  The event was aimed at media professionals and the majority of the audience were PR agencies and branding professionals.


Having spoken to a number of the attendees I would have to say there were as many experts in the audience with interesting things to say on Branding, building a brand and representing the brand on Twitter and related tools as there were on stage.   The content that was provided on the stage was only a small part of what was actually shared and the #media140 twitter stream provided a raft of additional conversation and content. 

So what came up at the event... And what did not... Here's a few of my notes:

Busy entrepreneurs need to stay on top of all the latest startup information, but who has the time? Here's a look at what went on around blogosphere and in the news last week, in case you missed it.

Are advisory boards a good or bad idea for startups? Entrepreneur-turned-VC Mark Suster says that depends on your goals.

All the advice from startup industry analysts who recommend entrepreneurs consider starting new green-tech business aren't just spouting rhetoric. Finance mogul George Soros recently committed a whopping $1 billion to the clean-tech startup sector.

Do you have trouble balancing work and home life? Do you love the art of the deal? Are you addicted to pursuing the next big opportunity? You may be an entre-holic.

Some startups don't need barrels of money to get off the ground. If you're a U.S.-based business looking for a micro-loan, there's a good chance Kiva.org can help.

Startups looking to raise capital sometimes hire finders to help them out. If this is something you're considering, “We can’t find investors on our own� isn't a good enough reason to go this route.

Flickr image courtesy of angermann.

Congratulations to the 4 winners of the North of England "stimulus package". Visuvi, LinkedNow, Chyngles, and Hear Planet will receive free airline tickets to the UK, marketing help, free office space for one year, and introduction to investors in Northern England. Way to go!!