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Monthly Archives: May 2012

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Posted in the Travel category.

Article source: http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/content/insert-head-line-tags-approximately-webpage-game-titles

NetworkMarketingElite.com Shows Entrepreneurs How to Harness the Power of Networks

Past Press Releases from Joe Bragg

Data Eliminate Ltd Offer Secure Data Destruction Services

Stock Certified Announces Five Stock Chart Reviews: Home Health International, Inc. (HHII), CUBA Beverage Company (CUBV), Telifix Communications Holdings (TLFX), Sunpeaks Ventures, Inc. (SNPK), Great Wall Builders Ltd. (GWBU)

HermanProAV.com Offers Chief Projector Mounts to Support Projectors and Optimize Projection Screens

BookKeepingHornsby.com.au Success With Small Businesses Leads to Expansion

Hedge Funds Use Social Media Monitoring Signals to Predict Stock Trading with 87.54% Accuracy

Article source: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/networkmarketingelitecom-shows-entrepreneurs-how-to-harness-the-power-of-networks-145869.htm

MLM Smart Phone App Allows For Easy Entry Into a Business Startup

Kadence Creations, LLC created a smart phone app, MLMipedia Pro, to help people navigate their way through the network marketing industry. This tool not only provides an unbiased comparison between top MLM companies, it is also handy for people that want to take the first step into business ownership. Amid high investment cost and even higher failure rates, starting a business is not for the weak of heart. MLMipedia Pro makes it easier to gain a foothold into the entrepreneurship world.

Austin, Texas (PRWEB) May 31, 2012

People from all walks of life are jumping into the entrepreneurial world. More and more people are tired of working for someone else and tired of being an employee their whole lives. They now want to be their own boss and gain more control over their lives. There are three main ways to do this in the business startup world: buy a franchise, start your own business, or join a network marketing company.

Starting a new business is popular for new entrepreneurs; however the time, money and risk associated with it are major hurdles. Nine out of 10 small businesses fail and there is little to no support when it comes to training, design, marketing, etc. You are on your own. Franchises are popular mainly because of their name recognition and built-in marketing. Unfortunately entry into franchising comes with a high investment, and only about one-third are profitable. The third way is to join an MLM and utilize their proven methods and training to become successful, and MLMipedia Pro can help someone make that decision.

The amount of money needed to build a network marketing business is a fraction of the cost for a small business or franchise. There are no assets needed, no training needed, and no history of business ownership needed. And there are numerous products and services to sell, numerous ways to get paid and various entry levels to choose from.

MLM companies also offer the necessary training to be successful via local groups and/or online training, so there is no need to travel to a corporate office. The training they offer is easy to learn and easy to duplicate, which will benefit people while they grow their business. MLM companies also have the name recognition that franchises do. More and more of them are a household name which allows someone to start an MLM that is known world wide. MLMipedia Pro provides the necessary information needed to choose from these companies.

Network marketing companies offer people a huge opportunity to start their own business and MLMipedia Pro will help narrow down the choices in an easy to use manner. This iPhone app allows the user to make an educated decision based on the information provided. With the hundreds of MLMs available to choose from, this is an unbiased tool to help narrow down the field.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9560603.htm

Article source: http://www.chron.com/business/press-releases/article/MLM-Smart-Phone-App-Allows-For-Easy-Entry-Into-a-3598206.php

MLM Smart Phone App Allows For Easy Entry Into a Business Startup

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MLMipedia Pro v1.1 screen shot

Network marketing companies offer people a huge opportunity to start their own business.

Austin, Texas (PRWEB) May 31, 2012

People from all walks of life are jumping into the entrepreneurial world. More and more people are tired of working for someone else and tired of being an employee their whole lives. They now want to be their own boss and gain more control over their lives. There are three main ways to do this in the business startup world: buy a franchise, start your own business, or join a network marketing company.

Starting a new business is popular for new entrepreneurs; however the time, money and risk associated with it are major hurdles. Nine out of 10 small businesses fail and there is little to no support when it comes to training, design, marketing, etc. You are on your own. Franchises are popular mainly because of their name recognition and built-in marketing. Unfortunately entry into franchising comes with a high investment, and only about one-third are profitable. The third way is to join an MLM and utilize their proven methods and training to become successful, and MLMipedia Pro can help someone make that decision.

The amount of money needed to build a network marketing business is a fraction of the cost for a small business or franchise. There are no assets needed, no training needed, and no history of business ownership needed. And there are numerous products and services to sell, numerous ways to get paid and various entry levels to choose from.

MLM companies also offer the necessary training to be successful via local groups and/or online training, so there is no need to travel to a corporate office. The training they offer is easy to learn and easy to duplicate, which will benefit people while they grow their business. MLM companies also have the name recognition that franchises do. More and more of them are a household name which allows someone to start an MLM that is known world wide. MLMipedia Pro provides the necessary information needed to choose from these companies.

Network marketing companies offer people a huge opportunity to start their own business and MLMipedia Pro will help narrow down the choices in an easy to use manner. This iPhone app allows the user to make an educated decision based on the information provided. With the hundreds of MLMs available to choose from, this is an unbiased tool to help narrow down the field.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9560603.htm

Wellness International Jumps Rankings in Top Company List for Fourth Year


PLANO, TX, May 30, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Popular Dutch business magazine, Management 500, recently published
its Top 500 Companies list, including WIN Worldwide BV at #84, up 83
spots from 2011. Founded by Ralph Oats and his wife, Cathy, WIN
Worldwide BV is the European affiliate of Wellness International
Network, known for the weight management line, BioLean(R) System, and
top omega-3 supplement, WINOmeg3complex(TM).

This is the fourth year Management Team 500 honored Wellness
International Network as a top 500 company. Wellness International
Network has previously earned the #167 and #357 spots after initially
claiming the #490 spot in 2008. Wellness International Network is
among esteemed companies such as Shell, Apple, Facebook, Coca Cola,
IBM and KML and earned higher rankings than McDonalds, Red Bull,
Starbucks, Volvo, Pfizer and Zappos.

“This recognition shows our products and business model work. It’s
because of this success people have the opportunity to be healthy and
wealthy with Wellness International Network,” Ralph Oats says proudly
of the growth in the Netherlands over the last 18 years. “The news of
this significant jump is extra special as we are celebrating our 20
year anniversary. The recognition cements our stature as a
nutritional company offering an international opportunity for people
to achieve health and wealth.”

Paul Gebbink and his wife, Els, have been incredibly successful after
opening Wellness International Network’s Dutch market in 1994.
They’ve expanded their business all over the world. In 2011 Els
earned the Business Leader Award from the Global Women Summit in
Amsterdam for her role in bringing Wellness International Network to
the Netherlands, and the couple also leads efforts in giving back to
several charitable organizations, including the Wheelchair
Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Kelly Foundation. “That’s
the whole purpose for us,” shares Paul Gebbink, 2011′s Worldwide #2
Earner and #3 Top Producer from the Netherlands. “You can keep
earning a lot of money, but there needs to be a real purpose for
doing this too.”

Many top athletes enjoy the benefits of Wellness International
Network’s nutritional product line, including, Dutch National
Baseball MVP, Vince Rooi and Dutch Olympian speed skater, Arjen van
der Kieft. Athletes who want the most out of their performance fuel
their fitness with results-oriented products like Sure2Endure(TM) and
Winrgy(R), a sugar-free energy drink-mix.

Wellness International Network Founders Ralph Oats and Cathy Oats
have been dedicated to offering people lifechanging options for
physical, mental and financial wellness since 1992, when they
launched U.S. operations. Wellness International Network’s global
influence has since spread throughout North America, Europe, Africa,
Australia and Eurasia.

About Wellness International Network, Ltd. (WIN)
A privately held
company specializing in health and nutritional products, Wellness
International Network, Ltd. is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with
affiliates located in Hoofddorp, Holland; Johannesburg, South Africa;
Sydney, Australia and Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1992 by Ralph Oats
and his wife, Cathy, WIN operates in many countries throughout North
America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Eurasia, and is far and away
the forefront leader in global network marketing. Management Team 500
Magazine has selected Wellness International Network as a Top 500
company for three years. Serious athletes are delighted to learn that
WIN holds the prestigious certification from the NSF Certified for
Sport(R) program as products considered safe to use for those needing
to comply with anti-doping regulations. WIN Worldwide BV also
participates in the Netherlands Security System Nutritional
Supplements Top Elite Sports [NZVT] program with a number of our
products white listed as safe for top athletes. For more information
visit:
www.nsfsport.com or
www.necedo.nl/nzvt . WIN’s products are
listed in the Z-Index, a database of products associated with the
public pharmacy, used by doctors, pharmacists, businesses and
government. Learn more about why “It Pays to Live Well” at
winltd.com.

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        Wellness International Network
        Email Contact

SOURCE: Wellness International Network, Ltd.


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Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wellness-international-jumps-rankings-in-top-company-list-for-fourth-year-2012-05-30

Growing pains: Klaus Nyengaard

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Just-Eat recently announced a third venture capital round, taking total funds raised to £80 million. CEO Klaus Nyengaard reveals lessons he’s learned at the online takeaway business, and in previous ventures.

Klaus Nyengaard, CEO of Just-Eat

Date: 23 May 2012

Article:
Profile

I started my professional life as an associate at a business consultancy, but I realised that I didn’t want to be in a corporate, I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

My first real entrepreneurial role was in 1997 at website Scandinavia Online, which was majority owned by [Norwegian publishing company] Schibsted. They were very untraditional there, and understood that they couldn’t innovate enough within their structure, so they were all about setting up new companies. This gave staff the chance to run a business in an entrepreneurial way.

I set up the Denmark arm of Scandinavia Online with a Norwegian guy, with whom I invested my own money. Back in those days no-one knew what the winning internet model was. We did list services, a portal, e-commercial this and that. We were all over the place.

Critical mass

Ultimately we realised we didn’t have the scale to become a success, it needed quite a lot of capital and some critical scale on the organisational side to compete in the portal space. We decided to see if we could merge with other firms to create a bigger entity which we could then list on the stock market.

We did manage to merge with some other companies but I realised that it didn’t work having two big telcos as shareholders; it was stopping us being agile and flexible. You need to make sure you have the right owners who understand the bigger picture.

I left the company and started again in mobile software publishing. We launched in 2000 and raised a Series A round of about $2 million, but a few months later, venture capital funds started to go into meltdown. If you look at the stats for money invested by VCs in the fourth quarter of 2000 and first of 2001 it was one of the lowest amounts ever.  

We didn’t raise enough money in the series A round. We were offered a lot more but we said no because we were afraid of dilution. At the time we thought we could fund ourselves for just another six or seven months and raise a new round when our website was launched and we had the first products ready, but it was too risky a strategy – you have to take the money and run with it.

Another mistake I made with that company was believing too much in technological forecasts. We were hearing about how 3G mobile connectivity and handsets would explode within three years, but that was not the case. It didn’t explode until the iPhone, a full five years later than everyone expected.

Hire and higher

I took a lot of lessons into Just-Eat. Hiring people has been a challenge and we’ve made a few mistakes. In a high-growth company like ours where you’re so dependent on people, every time you hire the wrong senior guy it’s painful. It’s not just about employees though, working with the best possible people extends to picking the right partners and the right investors.

I have to be careful about working in big corporations. If I do, it has to be when I am a significant decision maker because I can shape things myself, but if I don’t have that power I would likely disagree with how it’s run. It’s important to find the right mix of professionalism and creativity – that’s the key balance for any company.

Article source: http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/the-entrepreneur/business-leaders/2104883/growing-pains-klaus-nyengaard.thtml

Phillip Jacob Shinen, Alleged Online Huckster, Has Been Quite Busy on the …

phillip-shinen_square.jpgYou’ll find Phillip Jacob Shinen all over the Interwebs, offering riches to those who join his assorted online ventures. The 32-year-old has one ad at the top of a site warning visitors about the old Nigerian email scam. “This is not MLM”–a multi-level marketing Ponzi scheme–”or a Scam, these are real online jobs!” he writes in another teaching folks how to earn large sending out bulk emails. Certainly a guy drawing attention to online sucker-seekers would not so openly seek them himself, right? Wrongski, according to the feds.


Shinen was hauled before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Santa Ana last week following his May 17 indictment for alleged wire fraud relating to the fraudulent
sale of websites. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office:

The indictment alleges that between February 2007 and March 2008,
Shinen advertised and sold websites to the public. He guaranteed to
purchasers that the websites would produce a certain threshold income
and promised that he would train purchasers to use the websites. The
websites, however, did not generate the level of income or Internet
traffic claimed by Shinen. In order to make it difficult for the website
purchasers to contact him, Shinen used a number of aliases.

His indictment follows an investigation by law enforcement in the area of Fresno and Madera, the small Central California town where Shinen used to reside, and here in Southern California, which includes his apparent new home in Aliso Viejo.

phillip-shinen_senior-helpers-santa-ana.jpgSenior Helper of Santa AnaPhillip Jacob Shinen gets ready to earn.That line from the feds about using aliases to hide his tracks may be true, but simply knowing per the indictment where Shinen lived and worked, you can still pick up his cyber trail using his real name.

“I will teach you how to make money online working only 5 minutes per day!” he promises in a promotion of FundIt.net.

Shinen has also written online articles about making easy cash simply by taking online surveys.

“We have shown 1000s of people all over the world, in over 50 different countries, how to get paid for their opinions,” he writes about his PayingSurveys.net. He goes on to quote rates of: $5 to $95 per hour to answer paid phone surveys; $50 to $150 per hour to participate in focus groups; $24 to $75 per hour to shop, eat, or see a movie; $8 to $35 per hour to drive your car; and up to $3,200 a month to test drive new cars.

RipoffReport.com outs Shinen in a complaint by a Saskatchewan, Canada, woman who says she was promised loads of money after buying 500,000 emails to send out via Shinen’s Ad-Site.com. That prompted this response from the company:

We apologize for this customer’s problems with the services offered by
Phillip Shinen last year. Ad-Site.com was sold by Phillip Shinen to a
new owner in Janurary of 2006. This report was filed by an unsatisfied
client of Phillip’s while he was managing the business.

What was that your momma said about things that look too good to be true?

“I love everything about Senior Helpers,” Shinen, then of Senior Helpers of Fresno, writes in a testimonial for the franchiser. “I can honestly say I couldn’t have picked a better business!”

Shinen
Care LLC, which lists itself with the California Secretary of State as being in the business of in-home care for the elderly, is located in Santa Ana and includes
Shinen and Tiffany Treadway as officers. A Tiffany Treadway was also an officer with Shinen at Senior Helpers of Fresno. She may also go by Tiffany Shinen, who is identified as the owner on the Senior Helpers of Santa Ana website that also includes Phillip Shinen as an officer.

Senior Helpers gives 2030 East Fourth
St., Santa Ana, as its office address, so at least Shinen did not have to drive far to get to the federal
courthouse last week. However, he may not be at that address long. The maximum statutory penalty for wire fraud is 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney.

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Article source: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/05/phillip_jacob_shinen_fraud_web.php

Blyth, Inc. Announces PartyLite Worldwide Leadership

GREENWICH, Conn., May 29, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — Blyth, Inc. (NYSE: BTH), a leading designer and marketer of candles, accessories for the home and wellness products sold through the direct selling and direct marketing channels, today announced that its board of directors unanimously approved the appointment of Robert B. Goergen, Jr., who will continue in his capacity as President, PartyLite Worldwide, indefinitely.  Mr. Goergen, Jr. was appointed to his position in January, 2012 and had previously served as President of Blyth’s Multi-Channel Group since 2006.  An external search for a permanent successor has been discontinued.

Commenting on his role, Robert B. Goergen, Jr. stated, “I am thrilled to be leading PartyLite at such an exciting point in the company’s history.  PartyLite’s senior management, global home office teams and I are committed to the products and programs that drive growth, support PartyLite Consultants and Leaders and offer compelling shareholder returns.”

Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, CT, USA, is a multi-channel company primarily focused on direct selling.  We design and market home fragrance products and decorative accessories, as well as weight management products, nutritional supplements and energy drink mixes.  These products are sold through the home party plan method of direct selling and through network marketing, respectively. The Company also designs and markets household convenience items and personalized gifts through the catalog/internet channel, as well as tabletop lighting and chafing fuel for the foodservice trade.  The Company manufactures most of its candles and chafing fuel and sources nearly all of its other products.  Its products are sold direct to the consumer under the PartyLite®, Two Sisters Gourmet by PartyLite® and ViSalus Sciences® brands, to consumers in the catalog/Internet channel under the As We Change®, Miles Kimball®, Exposures®, Walter Drake® and Easy Comforts®, and to the Foodservice industry under the Sterno®, Ambria® and HandyFuel® brands.  In Europe, Blyth’s products are also sold under the PartyLite brand. 

Blyth, Inc. may be found on the Internet at www.blyth.com.

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts.  Actual results could differ materially due to various factors, including the slowing of the United States or European economies or retail environments, the risk that we will be unable to maintain our historic growth rate, our ability to respond appropriately to changes in product demand, the risk that we will be unable to integrate the businesses that we acquire into our existing operations, the risks (including foreign currency fluctuations, economic and political instability, transportation delays, difficulty in maintaining quality control, trade and foreign tax laws and others) associated with international sales and foreign sourced products, risks associated with our ability to recruit new independent sales consultants, our dependence on key corporate management personnel, risks associated with the sourcing of raw materials for our products, competition in terms of price and new product introductions, risks associated with our information technology systems (including, susceptibility to outages due to fire, floods, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, break-ins and similar events) and other factors described in this press release and in the Company’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE Blyth, Inc.

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/29/4523633/blyth-inc-announces-partylite.html

Paddle Trout Lake

By Sault This Week

Posted 4 hours ago

TROUT LAKE TREK: The Sault Naturalists will join the Saulteaux Voyageur Trail club to paddle on Trout Lake, just north of the Sault, On Saturday, June 2. Bring lunch and dress for the weather. Call Mark Croft or Ron Pricket for details as to meeting place, duration of the trip, and requirements for equipment. Call Mark Croft at 705 254 2356 or Ron Pricket at 705 254 1533.

PLANT SALE: Perrennial plants, trees and shrubs are priced to sell quickly on Saturday, June 2, 9 to 11 a.m., outside, at the Red Cross building, 105 Allard St.

BLOOD DONORS: Canadian Blood Services asks Sault Ste. Marie and area residents to consider donating blood to help maintain a strong inventory of blood and blood products for hospital patients. The need for blood in Canada is constant because blood has a short shelf life. Next clinic takes place at the Verdi Hall, 455 Queen St. W. on Tuesday, June 5, from 4 to 8 p.m. and Wednesday, June 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) to book an appointment and help meet the continuing need for blood or book on-line at blood.ca. If you already have an appointment, thank you, and we urge you to honour it.

CHAMBER AWARDS: Sault Ste. Marie District Chamber of Commerce seeks business award nominations. Deadline is Monday, June 18. These awards will be presented at the 2012 Annual General Meeting and Business Awards dinner to be held in October. Nominations may be made for the following awards: entrepreneur/Business of the Year; environment award; Safe Work, Sound Business award; diversity award; customer service award; young entrepreneur/Business of the Year Award; business development award; marketing award; employer of choice award; ATHENA Award. Nominated businesses must be Chamber of Commerce members in good standing and must have been in business for a minimum of three years (with the exception of the young entrepreneur/Business of the Year award). Businesses may be nominated in more than one award category and self-nominations are accepted. Award nominations forms are available on the Chamber website at www.ssmcoc.com or by contacting the Chamber office at 705-949-7152.

MEDICINAL HERBS: Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society’s next meeting will feature as guest speaker, Suzanne Hanna on “Salve-making with Medicinal Herbs”. The meeting is Monday, June 4, at 7:30 p.m., at United Baptist Church, 41 Malabar Drive. It includes the society’s spring garden show. New members are always welcome. For more information, contact President Rita West at 705-942-3862.

ROSE DAY: Lions Club 53rd Annual Rose Day has begun and the club counts on the public to support the Early Vision Screening Program. When you buy Lions Roses/Carnations you support children in schools. Each year the club’s vision screening program in kindergarten classes throughout Sault Ste. Marie helps identify children who need glasses. If they cannot afford glasses, the Lions Club will buy for these children. This year the club also will purchase teleconferencing ophthalmology equipment for Sault Area Hospital. Brighten the day of someone in your life by sending flowers hand delivered within city limits at $ 15 a dozen for roses and $ 10 a dozen for carnations. To place an order call Sheila, chairperson for Rose Day, 705-945-9806. Deadline is Thursday, June 7, to order. Delivery date is Wednesday, June 20.

Advertisement

Article source: http://www.saultthisweek.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3571577

Pitching for MITIE’s millions

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On the day five budding start-ups came together to face the heat from a real-life Dragons’ Den, it was apt that the mercury hit 28 degrees.

The five finalists of MITIE Millions line up with the judges panel

Hunter Ruthven

Date: 29 May 2012

Article:
Feature

The rooftop patio at the National Theatre in London was the location for the inaugural MITIE Millions pitching event. Hosted by FTSE 250-listed MITIE, an energy and outsourcing services group, the process gave entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch to a panel of judges for a share of £5 million in investment.

MITIE has already supported a number of fledgling businesses with investment, in the expectation that the start-up will ultimately be acquired and folded into the MITIE organisation.

CEO of MITIE, Ruby McGregor-Smith led the judging panel. She outlines why the business has such a passion for investing in entrepreneurs and their start-ups: ‘At MITIE, entrepreneurialism has always been at the heart of our organisation. Since we started 25 years ago we’ve been in partnership with entrepreneurs to grow their business and we’re as passionate about this today as we were when we started.

‘If you don’t have start-ups as part of your business you don’t stay innovative and in touch with what clients need. So it’s very important that as we get bigger we do more and not less.’

Oli Barrett, co-founder of the Clean and Cool Mission, which helps UK entrepreneurs to meet investors in the US, was compere for the proceedings. He says that he initially became involved with MITIE as part of the Start-Up Britain programme of which the FTSE 250 company is a sponsor.

He adds, ‘I thought it was a refreshing way to see a very big corporate supporting entrepreneurs. When people are starting businesses one of the headstarts they need is getting to paying customers and MITIE has the most amazing opportunity to take these entrepreneurs to market very swiftly.’

Into the lair

Kicking off proceedings was ProFinda, a business led by Roger Gorman and Tierney Stone. It offers a way for companies, particularly large corporates, to compile and analyse all of its employees’ skill sets and abilities. It labels itself as an internal talent and knowledge-matching platform which helps businesses better understand the capabilities of their workforce.

Gorman and Stone had a firm grasp of their figures and, asking for an investment of £300,000, explained that the premise works on the same basis as an online dating site by better understanding the community it is trying to address.

The pitching afternoon also provided the opportunity for employees of MITIE to step out of the plc’s shadow and put forward their own idea for a business.

Paul Abbott, who works within MITIE’s water division, presented his idea for an app-based programme to map areas prone to legionnaires’ disease, and so help control or prevent outbreaks.

He was looking for a £100,000 investment and received positive feedback from the interactive audience vote, with over two-thirds of those in attendance saying they would back him.

Clear Returns was third to face the heat of the judges panel, which consisted of McGregor-Smith, MITIE financial director Suzanne Baxter and chairman of small business banking at RBS, Peter Ibbetson, a man who claims to bleed SMEs if you cut him open.

The business claims to help retailers with procurement and stock levels and buck a trend which sees one in three garments that are purchased online being sent back.

Clear Returns was looking for an investment around the £1 million mark and uses data analytics and a PhD maths whizz to provide companies with a more up-to-date picture of returns. It helps identify products which are frequently returned and out ‘de-shoppers’, those that buy a piece of clothing on a Thursday, wear it over the weekend, and then return it on Monday morning.

After a short refreshment break, when those attending had an opportunity to network and sip a glass of Pimms whilst taking in the sun-drenched South Bank, two more businesses stepped up to the stage hoping to persuade the judges to back their business.

Fourth in line was another MITIE employee, Mike Bond, who has come up with a way of retrofitting inefficient and defunct office lighting by way of a few small additions.

While he was hazy on the amount of money he needed and financial forecasts he thought we achievable, his on-stage demonstration of how easy it is to update the light fittings proved a success.

Bond’s technology claims to take the yearly cost of running an office light from £24 down to £12, by using a form of strip lighting called T5Eco.

The final pitch was from enthusiastic entrepreneur Ricky Ketecha, CEO of Frame Medical. His business is looking to provide advice and vital assessment to sufferers of type II diabetes.

Ketecha was looking for £700,000 from the judges to tap into a market which sees the NHS spend £8.5 billion of its £100 billion budget on the condition.

Winners and losers

With the pitching done and dusted, the judges retired to deliberate on what they had seen. McGregor-Smith was quick to say that while only one business would receive backing, MITIE would be keeping in contact with all of them to monitor progress.

With three out of the five ideas on show being backed by the interactive, but not binding, audience vote, the investment was up for grabs after a number of confident pitches.

But in the end it was ProFinda which walked away with the £300,000 it was seeking after the judges praised its ‘unique’ offering.

Gorman, CEO of ProFinda, says that the idea has been about for six years. The real challenge, he says, has been taking it to market.

He adds, ‘The two big milestones were to pivot the idea so we know it will work and to build a brilliant team around it.’

For ProFinda, the attraction of MITIE’s investment was the speed at which it would be completed. ‘At this stage in a company’s journey we don’t need just money,’ Stone explains, ‘We need the right investor with the money.

‘We think the synergies with MITIE and the doors they can open will help us with the platform, and we see that being as valuable as the cash.’

McGregor-Smith says, ‘I think all of them offered different levels of innovation and also I was really chuffed as they had all really thought through different concepts and were brave enough to stand up in public.

‘We will now help support and develop the business ideas and bring them to fruition to make them a more sustainable businesses.’

The proceedings were closed with champagne and trophy giving, with all five concepts being commended for getting this far.

While the first MITIE Millions event only invested in one company McGregor-Smith says it is concept which will be kept and used to back more businesses in the future.

Article source: http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/the-entrepreneur/business-leaders/2105713/pitching-for-mities-millions.thtml