enthuse.me blog

Important changes to your enthuse.me profile

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 10:42:24 -0500

We’ve made a few big changes to the way your profile displays your information and some profiles will look a little different as a result.

Please log in to check your profile and make any changes you need to ensure it still shows off your talent in the best light.

So what’s changing?

All stats like twitter followers, view counts on YouTube, SoundClound likes and so on are now displayed in one ‘Online Presence’ section.
If you had stats on your profile before, you’ll now find this new section at the bottom, but you can drag the circular icon in the menu at the top of the profile to re-order it.

YouTube and Vimeo sections have been removed, and a ‘Videos’ section has been added in it’s place.
If you had YouTube or Vimeo videos on your profile, they will now appear in the Videos section. You can drag the icon to move this to your preferred place on the profile, as well.

The LinkedIn section remains the same, but is now named ‘Experience’.

The Slideshare section is now ‘Presentations’ and will allow you to embed slides or presentations from any website, not just slideshare.

The Soundcloud section is now ‘Audio’ and will likewise allow you to post sound clips and players from any site.

Why are we making these changes?

enthuse.me has always been about focusing on the most relevant examples of your expertise, and not just about combining information from all your (most often less relevant) social networks. The change to less specific sections should mean that fewer people add a section purely because they have an account there, and more because they have relevant content of that type to showcase. For those of you who do have impressive stats that are relevant to your expertise (A video producer should show off that they have millions of YouTube views for example), the online presence module now provides a simpler way to showcase those.

These changes mark the end of profile work for a while, while we turn our attention to the Personal Marketing Dashboard. Check back there soon for more features to help you market yourself and grow your audience both on enthuse.me and elsewhere online.

Please comment below or e-mail [email protected]">[email protected] with any feedback or questions. We’d love to know what you think, and how you use these new sections.

Come and share the enthuse.me office! Startup desks available

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 11:57:59 -0500

We’re looking for housemates.

We’ve got a few spare desks here at enthuse.me HQ and we’re looking to share them with smart people. We’re 5 minutes from Liverpool Street and Shoreditch High Street, stations in a bright, clean office, with fast internet, good music, a well-stocked kitchen and our legendary Falafel Friday every week. If you’re a young startup looking to share space with one of London’s coolest new startups* for a fair price, drop us a line and let’s have a chat.

*That’s what our mum said

Tools we love: HipChat

Mon, 04 Nov 2013 07:49:55 -0500

Continuing our post series on useful tools that help us improve and refine the enthuse.me website… next up, HipChat.

It seems odd when someone realises that we often have a conversation on HipChat, our internal instant messenger, even though we’re sitting meters away from each other. Actually though, it’s an incredibly useful and efficient tool that we use every hour of every day.

Developers often prefer to work undisturbed and so if you have a question for them that can wait, you can send it in HipChat for them to pick up when they’re free. This way the other developers are also kept in the loop, and you avoid confusing e-mail threads with loads of CCs. You can share files, set up rooms for certain groups (just designers for example) and send personal messages to invidividuals.

The best feature of HipChat is it’s ability to integrate with almost anything. We push GitHub notifications to the main chat, see Airbrake errors, see passed or failed builds on our CI server (Semaphore - also a great tool!) and even notifications of a new support email in our helpdesk. It’s a really great way for all discussions and notifications to be kept in one place.

- Toby Vacher - enthuse.me Head of Product and UX

We won! enthuse.me wins the People's Lovie for Web Services & Applications

Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:16:17 -0400

We did it! You did it! enthuse.me has won a People’s Lovie award in the Web Services & Applications category. The Lovies are voted for by real website users like you, so this award is thanks to the people who use and love our product every day. Thank you to everyone who voted for us, the cookies are on the way.

Going to Web Summit? Add yourself to our attendee directory

Wed, 16 Oct 2013 10:56:00 -0400

The year’s most anticipated tech event, Web Summit, is rapidly approaching. Tickets are booked, pitches are perfected, practice drinking sessions are planned. enthuse.me is going to be there, and hopefully you are too.

If you are going, tweet us on @enthusedotme and we’ll add you to our directory of attendees on enthuse.me. You can familiarise yourself with some friendly faces in advance of the event right here.

Not yet on enthuse.me? Register now in seconds using this link and you’ll automatically be added to our directory. Plus, you’ll have a simple, sexy one page pitch that showcases how brilliant you are, and helps you win new work.

Let’s chat in Dublin! We’ll be both pitching and exhibiting at Web Summit, so say hello and let’s have a chat. Drop our founder [email protected]">Dan or our Product Manager Toby an email now if you’d like to meet us.

Tools we love: A/B testing with Optimizely

Wed, 16 Oct 2013 07:31:00 -0400

We wanted to share some of the useful tools that help us improve and refine the enthuse.me website. First up…

Optimizely

What? Sexy and simple A/B testing

One of our core company values is to test assumptions and try to back up decisions with real data. Optimizely is a great A/B testing app that lets me (a fairly non-technical member of the team) tweak links, text and styles on our landing and marketing pages to work out which changes will give us the best conversions.

For example, after a few tests that had no significant difference on the number of visitors who clicked the ‘Get Started’ button on our homepage, one small change of the button text size from 18px to 28px resulted in a near 100% increase in conversions. That’s double the number of people clicking that button! Invaluable.

- Toby Vacher, Head of enthuse.me Product

enthuse.me chats with Simon Sacerdoti, founder of WeSwap

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 09:52:00 -0400

An Oxford graduate with a degree in Mathematics, Simon Sacerdoti was one of the founders of Avalon in 1992, a multiplayer game world (RPG) in the very early days of the consumer internet. In 1997, Simon qualified as a chartered accountant, and moved into corporate finance, where he advised numerous startups during the dotcom boom. In 2011 he founded WeSwap with Jared Jesner. After a lengthy closed beta in which they ironed out many bugs and operational issues, they officially launched in July 2013, and are doing a brilliant job in disrupting the travel money sector!

Simon visited us at our office; we ate falafels and had a lovely -brief- chat where he shared some great insights from his experience in the startup world.

Tipping point

What made you take the decision to leave the corporate world and start your own business?

It has been a series of events, starting with me realising that the learning curve and level of challenge had flattened off in my corporate job! I took the decision to start looking around, and along the way I met Jared with whom I ended up founding WeSwap!

For me the tipping point to make the change was finding an idea and someone with complementary skills to take it forward.

WeSwap’s funding journey so far

3 Rounds of funding:

1. Backing up from family and friends.

During this stage we were presenting our idea to convince our family and friends that it is a viable one and that they should invest in us. (Tip: be blunt & honest to them. “Don’t invest if you cannot afford to lose your money!”)

2. Second round of investment came from angel funding (from the UK & the US) and contacts through networking

At this stage we proved that we can actually make it happen. We used the money that we raised to start signing partnerships and building the prototype, to build our team.

3. Third round came from some new, amazing investors and some of our old (also amazing) investors

We had a working product but still no significant revenue. We added members to our team and continued refining the product, building and adding new features.

3 advice tips to startup founders

1. Hiring: The characteristics we are looking for when recruiting are:

Positive attitude
Knowledge
Intelligence
Enthusiasm
Eagerness to learn
Personal attributes

If you have these in place then relevant experience is not always important. There are agencies who specialise in placing top graduates from top universities, and WeSwap used such an agency to find several team members. Sure, it’s costly but we knew we wanted to recruit some of the brightest and most keen and they helped us achieve exactly that.

2. Open culture: encourage communication among all team members; open plan offices allow you to achieve that.

3. Structure/Procedure: Despite the loose startup culture, having some structure in place is beneficial. For instance, we use annual appraisals for all team members. The reason we do that is because it helps us collaboratively set targets and each one of us knows exactly what’s expected from them.

You can learn more about WeSwap journey here

Would you like to ask Simon anything else? Post your question below!

Cheers,

The enthuse.me Team :)

Tips on how to get the most out of your enthuse.me profile

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:25:00 -0400

We thought you might find it useful if we’d give you some advice tips on how to set up a good looking enthuse.me profile and actually be useful to you!

Although it might be easy for some, or self explanatory for others, we still think that most of us enjoy having some guiding tips once in a while if we want to use a tool properly. Because -you know- you can have the best, high-quality ingredients in the world, but if you don’t have the recipe then the food won’t taste that good, would it?

So, let’s see how you can get started and get the most out of it.

Introduce yourself

-Add your photo

Just click on the circle and upload a photo of a good looking you.

-Include a BIO statement

Write a short (roughly 50 words) statement of who you are & what you love to do. Keep it short and simple!

-Include more info about you

You can display your current location, your website –if you have one- and most importantly your email to let others contact you.

Add sections

-Current projects

Let people know what you’re working on currently. Surprise or inform them! It might be a project, it might be your job, it might be a hobby relevant to your expertise. You decide!

-Insights

Think of them as an opportunity to present yourself as a thought leader on enthuse.me. It can be something you said, a quote, anything really that represents you professionally!

-Press & Mentions

This section is for those who enjoy writing or blogging or being on camera. If you aren’t one of them it’s perfectly ok! Think of it like that: not everyone can code or dance or cook. Imagine a world of people with similar skills… B-o-r-i-n-g!

-Connections

Connect with other EnthUsers and start growing your network.

-Invitations

Invite your contacts to join enthuse.me and grow your network. You can choose to send your invite link via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or your email. Just click the small plus button and take it from there.

-A-list

Your A-list is your opportunity to show to the world who are the people whose opinions or work you hold in high regard. You can add people in that list after you start following them. Make sure you populate it with people that you admire and recommend, and consider experts in their respective fields.

-Social Media Networks

Choose which social media accounts you want to include. You don’t want to include everything here! We would recommend the ones that show your more professional you! Prove that when you tweet, blog or upload a webinar, people listen and respect your opinion.

-Links

Add some links with content that have to do with you or things that you find interesting & -of course- are related to your field of expertise.

…and in case you forget what each image is all about, don’t worry! All you have to do is hover over every section and a short explanation will pop up!

Hope that helps. If not, drop us an [email protected]" title="email enthuse.me">email or a tweet.

The enthuse.me Team:)

enthuse.me has been nominated for a Lovie Award

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 11:59:00 -0400

Party poppers and champagne all round.

We’re delighted to let you know that enthuse.me has been nominated for a 2013 Lovie Award in the Web Services & Applications category. We’re nominated alongside the fantastic Eventbrite and Issuu so we’re in great company.

The Lovie Awards, the sister to the world-famous Webby Awards, is the internet’s highest honour for the European Web. enthuse.me was picked from over 1500 entries from over 20 European countries, and previous winners include Skype, VICE, Moshi Monsters and Soundcloud.

Most importantly, the Lovie Award winners are decided by… you. So free cookies for anyone who loves what we do and wants to vote for us.

You can do so here, before October 10th.

enthuse.me meets Philip Berger

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:05:00 -0400

"It’s all about the way you tell a story. From a product to a brand to an idea to strategy, it’s about the core story, not just what you want to say, it’s what you want to tell. Then comes the implementation."

A talented film-maker and screenwriter, Philip Berger narrates his journey, discusses some of his exciting projects and shares with us his passion about storytelling -as well as some cool advice tips on film-making- .

-You are a storyteller. Enthuse us with your storytelling skills while narrating your own story in a few words!

I began my love for film at a young age. But my real blossom into loving filmmaking started when I was 14. I began to volunteer at the local film festival. I would take the bus or be dropped off by my parents until I could drive or catch a ride. Every year for two weeks I fell in love with film. I would volunteer first as an usher, taking tickets, because that allowed me to sneak into each film after I took tickets. I saw 100s of films every year this way. And this was the real boom of American independent films in the mid-1990s. From there I applied to a visual and performing arts program at my high school in Orlando, Florida. It was focused on TV and film production. We produced music videos, documentary programs and short films. I continued volunteering at the film festival and then was accepted into film school at Florida State University. It was an intense 4-year course where we learned everything there is to know about the art. After film school, I moved to New York where I worked in an art department on short films and features. I assisted a production designer and learned a lot about art direction, production design and mise en scéne. At the same time I also started writing scripts for commercials which got me into screenwriting.

On the side, I was making low-budget music videos as well as shorts. When I moved to Stockholm, I began to assist a commercial director which led me into the commercial world. After that I began to work as a director, writing many of the films I directed with the agency and/or client. And then, as of the last few years, began to write feature film scripts which led me to where I am now. It’s been a journey but, in many ways, it feels like it’s just getting started. I was told at a young age, that you will get 10,000 no’s until you get the 1 yes. And that philosophy has kept me interested in film. It is important to just keep going.

-How do you make a story sound interesting?

I find that what interests me is when something is so outlandish, so far from my life or my experiences but when I find a connection to it, when I find that I can relate to someone or something so far removed, that interests me. I feel that as humans, fear holds us back from almost everything. But when you are given the opportunity to make-believe to make your own world, you can’t be afraid to let them go the distance.

I, personally, always start with the characters before I know the story. It’s very rare that I have a story without a human, so the characters began to develop before I know exactly what’s happening. I really love idiosyncrasies. It’s those small nuances that make a character interesting. Universality is also really important. I think that we can be so peculiar and strange individuals, but what makes that interesting, is when one can relate to these weird or completely boring characters. Then I think about the action. The core… what am I trying to say? Tell? And what are the wants and needs of the characters and how will they obtain them? What are the risks and goals?

What made you get into filming?

I always liked the word filmmaker, more than director.

I decided at a very young age, around 11 or 12 years old. I watched a ton of films, mostly in the horror section of the video store. I watched horrible zombie and gore films because they gave a thrill. But then, I ran out of movies to watch in that genre and moved into independent, foreign and dramatic films and that opened up my eyes to a whole world of storytelling. I also began to film my friends skateboarding. After a while I decided that I wanted nothing more than to become a filmmaker. To create a fake world in the moving form. To make. To do. And to realize stories that would move, shake and dance in people’s thoughts and fantasies.

One of the projects you have on your enthuse.me profile seems fascinating! ‘The Music of The Future’ where music is created using tools of the future and anyone can participate via online communities and social media. Tell us more about it!

I was approached by a music producer …that was looking for someone to write and direct a pilot for a web series. Russia’s largest bank, Sperbank, was looking to attract new and young clients. Many Russians don’t trust the banks as the country was ridden with crises in the 1990s. So, in conjunction with the Olympics and other events in 2014, the bank decided to sponsor a series of concerts across the country called ‘Red Rocks.’

Along with the festival, they wanted to reach out to people via web and social media. So, together with producers and a graphics team, we created a program format that would feature two artists, from two different countries as well as genres, that would come together to produce a track using tools from ‘the future.’

We produced a trailer and then they ordered a whole episode, which we produced. It was a different way of making a series, which was new to me, but I always like a challenge.

-You take a humoristic approach on the promotional video about Swedish Match - Snus. Many people would argue that it could be risky though as it might be misinterpreted. What are your views on that?

I was approached to pitch a concept and an idea with a colleague for Swedish Match’s launching of snus in the USA. They were looking for an informative site that would educate people about what snus is and its risks and history.

I pitched an idea that would feature a more of a ‘how-to’ use the snus. It was done in a matter-of-fact and humorous way, which was even more humorous to Swedes as snus is so prevalent here. The films were weaved into the site so they were in full frame instead of being separate from the site - an organic approach.

I don’t think it was risky, although, possibly perceived so. I think it was just different. People hadn’t seen something like this before - an informative and integrated campaign about snus, with a humoristic approach.

-How is the internet affecting your work and the way you promote it?

I think things have been changing in the past year or so. If you had asked me this 5 or 6 years ago, the answer would be different. The internet is inundated with millions of videos, millions of directors, etc. So it’s quite difficult to promote video work these days.

I have gone from sending out a physical dvd showreel to having a website to incorporating my website with a CV on sites like linkedin and enthuse.me. I think curation is becoming more and more important, so we can weed through the work and feature certain artists for a certain amount of time.

Curation is and will be a vital aspect of the internet in the coming years.

-How do you use your enthuse.me profile?

I honestly just put my enthuse.me profile up and hope it will be a vital aspect in my attempt to curate a little. Sites like enthuse.me are a great tool for this fact.

-Any advice tips to people that are making their first attempts at film making?

Yes! Many, probably too many. haha. We live in a time where anyone can make a film. It’s cheap and easy to learn the technology. But the same thing happened when it became cheap to be a photographer or painter. Millions of people have the opportunity to make films now. But what I feel is really important is to not rush into it. An even cheaper alternative is to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and begin to sketch out your story. Every film, unless an art film or documentary film, has the same elements. Well thought-out characters, plot, wants and needs, goals and twists, three acts (give or take) and interesting and personal emotions. I like to compare filmmaking to a human: It’s not about how amazing it looks or sounds, but it’s the meat and skeletons and brains of the story. Then when you have that down pat, we can begin to add the skin, hair and features. Spend more time preparing and pondering, then fixing everything in post-production, because no matter what, people want to see, hear and feel a good story.

Some tips that I find very useful are:

• Start. Start with coming up with a story.
• Focus. Focus more on the pondering, thinking and pre-production process; it will save you time, energy and money in the long run.
• Observe. Observe everything around you from people, to nature, etc.
• Listen. It is extremely important to listen to people, especially your actors.
• Core. Explore your core beliefs, aesthetics and ideologies to bring them out in your filmmaking.
• Watch and Read. Watch as many movies as possible from all genres and all time-periods. Read, read, read, read scripts, books, etc. to give you a taste of the art of storytelling.
• Connect. Connect with people familiar and unfamiliar. Film is about connecting us to the people on the big screen.
• Be patient. Patience! You are not going to become rich and famous overnight. If you get a ‘no’, just keep moving on.

-What’s the next exciting project you are up to?

I am trying to go back to my roots. So in the past year or so, I’ve been developing a few shorts, TV pilots and a feature. I went to a traditional film school and started off my career in shorts and features working in the art department. I am still working with commercials but I’m in the process of moving to the dramatic world too :) I’m also trying to finish a collection of short stories.

Very best of luck Philip!

Any questions for Philip?

Post your comments below and keep the conversation going!

Introducing enthuse.me Premium!

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 07:35:00 -0400

Try it free for 14 days, then have 50% off, on us!

I’m excited to announce a great set of tools we’ve been working on to help you get even more out of your enthuse.me profile, and ensure it really is the best way to promote yourself online, gather a following and get what you want out of your work, skills or passion.

Our team have done a great job of putting together these tools for you, and as a thanks for supporting us in our early days, we’d like to offer you a 14 day free trial of all these features, and then 50% off for your first 6 months. With the discount, that’s just $2.50 per month for all this lot:

Or read on for more about each new feature…

Cover photo
My personal favourite premium feature is the ability to upload a photo or picture to the top of your profile. Don’t forget enthuse.me is all about showing off your expertise in the best light, so no drunken party pictures! Once you’ve upgraded, just click the button at the top right of the profile to upload one. You can see mine here: www.enthuse.me/toby, or our marketing manager Olly’s - www.enthuse.me/olly (that’s not his boat…)

Custom Domain
Using your own domain increases your credibility and improves your chance to show up at the top of search results for that name or phrase. If you already own www.yourdomainname.com you can set it up to point people to your profile on enthuse.me.

Custom SEO
By default, your name and headline will appear in search results as the page title, and your profile bio will be the page description. If you want to edit how your profile appears in search results, add keywords or generally just tweak it to get the best chance of jumping to the top of google search results, you can edit these in settings (the gear icon in the top bar of enthuse.me)

Promotion in site search
You can already search enthuse.me users at www.enthuse.me/search. If you’re premium, and people search for your name or people like you, you’ll appear at the top and be highlighted so you stand out even more.

Priority Support
As a premium user, we’ll make sure we respond to your e-mails in record time. Hopefully, if we’ve done our job well, you won’t have any problems you need to email us about, but even if you just want to ask us a question or get in touch, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Try it out!
So remember, it’s free for 14 days while you try out these new features. If you sign up with the discount code ‘GIMMETHEFIFTY’ before September 30th, you’ll also get 50% off for 6 months after that. If you pay for a year in advance we’ll throw that 50% on top of the 20% yearly discount as well!

It’s a no-brainer! Try them out, and we think you’ll like them so much you won’t want to give them up.

~Toby
Head of Product at enthuse.me

Great startups that have got us enthused - our team choose their favourites

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:23:00 -0400

WeSwap.com

Having worked in the fintech space prior to founding enthuse.me, I’m always interest in innovative consumer fintech propositions. WeSwap harnesses the concept of peer to peer with travel money, allowing you to buy and sell foreign currencies directly with other users. This approach cuts out the middleman therefore leading to lower fees and better value for money.

Dan, CEO

Thread

I find clothes shopping incredibly boring, but I like to put a little bit of effort into what I wear. My friends make fun of me for always wearing green trousers… I also have blue, though!

Thread sends me an e-mail from my assigned personal stylist every week with outfits I might like, and they learn my preferences the more I use it, so these days I’m buying one or two things every few weeks. I haven’t been to a clothes shop in months! Anything I like from the e-mail, I click ‘Try on’ and without any other input from me (or any cost for the delivery), it turns up at the enthuse.me office a few days later. I try the stuff, and if i like it I keep it and I’m charged a couple of weeks later; if I don’t like it, or it doesn’t fit, I send it back for free.

The best thing about it all though is that I can e-mail my stylist and they get back to me really quickly with exactly what I’d asked for. I said “I’m running out of T-shirts and I tend to wear plain, bold styles with my colourful trousers” - 2 hours later I have 5 suggestions in my inbox, all plain, bold styles. Ideal.”

Toby, Head of Product

Makeshift

Makeshift are a studio who output lots of interesting little products aimed at helping ‘makers’ do what they do best. These include Attending.io, a lightweight RSVP system; HireMyFriend, a new take on job-seeking and HelpMeWrite, which helps you decide what to write about before you even begin based on feedback. It’s exciting whenever they push out something new.

Lewis, Front-end Developer

Histropedia

A reference tool allowing people to explore the history of anything, through beautiful interactive timelines. #watchthisspace

Dennis Schipper - Web Designer

Pusher

Pusher is a service that enables realtime communication through different platforms and languages, using a ridiculously simple API. I like it because it helps push the web forward, and make it a first-class platform along with some mobile platforms.

Unai, Code Lord

Playmob

Playmob is the first in the market for raising funds for charities using mobile and game engine technology, using in-app sales. In numbers:

1m in first round funding.
$66K raised so far.
100% a great idea.

Brendan - Developer & Evangelist

HowAreYou

Healthcare is going digital and HowAreYou are at the forefront.

Check out the demo and you’ll wonder how we’ve put up with such bad user experience in the past. Not only is HowAreYou beautiful, but it has the engineering behind the scenes to back it up. The engineering team (led by Gerhard Lazu) are pushing Ruby-based web apps to the limit, and sharing their discoveries with the rest of the community.

Matthew - Rudyist

Silicon Drinkabout

The beards. The beer. The near-legendary night. If it’s Friday evening, you’ll find me at Silicon Drinkabout drinking too much Minimum Viable Pale Ale and calling it ‘letting off steam’. The original and the best Old St Roundabout startup social, it tours the pubs and tech spaces of east London. It’s free, almost always brilliant, and can now be found in London, Manchester, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Not been? Go. First beer’s on enthuse.me.

Olly, Marketing Manager

wireWAX

WireWax lets users create clickable videos by enabling tagging people and objects within the video. As you can imagine the potential of this app is tremendous! It revolutionizes the way video can be used, not only by companies but also individuals, as it allows interactive content and information to be shared. Music bands, fashion companies, football clubs, organisations from the publishing & entertainment industry, galleries, professors, students, families, friends… anyone really!

And as the saying goes: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million :)

So… have a look at the videos to find out for yourselves here.

P.S. Check out the BBC Interactive trailer. How awesome is that?!

Tania - Marketing & PR

enthuse.me meets Adam Amor

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 08:33:00 -0400

Founder of Buffoon and Space to Work, a Role Model for Big Ideas Welsh Project and recently awarded with the Swansea Bay Young Entrepreneur 2013 Award, Adam Amor is a young entrepreneur with an already successful business record. Let’s have a closer look at what he has to say about entrepreneurship, exciting projects, challenges and tips to follow.

- Nice to have you on board Adam! For start, tell us about your journey so far.

My journey as an entrepreneur started when I was just 11 years old where I saw an opportunity in school to start a tuck shop. Little did I realise then, that this tuck shop would give me the foundations to turn my dream of running my own full-time business into a reality. Even though I was only selling sweets and chocolates, the skills you pick up whilst running a tuck shop can never be taught in a classroom. I learnt the basics of business; you buy your stock, you work out how much you need to sell them for, you sell them, reinvest and then you start again.

At 14, I then decided to go into music promotion with two friends. We found that there was a lack of gigs for people under 18 in our area so we set up a promotion company which brought local, national and international artists to a small town in South Wales. During my time running the promotion company, I bought a video camera and started to record the gigs and then posted them on social media platforms to promote upcoming events. I was doing my GCSEs at the time so it was really important to get a work/education/social life balance.

I did like to keep myself busy and was also involved with the local Youth Council, community radio station, a member of Funky Dragon, which is the Young People’s Assembly for Wales and became a Climate Change Ambassador for The Welsh Government.

After my GCSEs, I decided to go to Sixth Form to study German and Physics (I know, nothing to do with what I’d been doing outside school, but I enjoyed studying them). The promotion company then went into club nights and then at 18, I accidentally became a resident DJ in a nightclub.

After finishing Sixth Form, I decided to set up a video production company as I really enjoyed the video work I did with the gigs so thought I’d give it a go. I worked for a training company for a few months to save up to start the business and then in April 2011, Buffoon Film and Media launched. Just before starting the company, my son was born which gave me a big push to work hard and make sure it succeeded to support him and my family.

Buffoon Film & Media is a video production company based in South Wales and works with freelancers and small businesses, all the way up to large corporations such as Tata Steel Europe. We are a team of three who produce promotional, training, event and wedding videos. In 2012, Buffoon won a Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday Award on Twitter which gave the company a great boost and I am looking forward to meeting Theo later this month.

- Why video production?

I decided to set up a video production as I’m a very creative person and quickly learnt how to use a video camera when I was filming gigs. I don’t have any formal qualifications in video or any form of media production so I had to learn the hard way. Luckily, I pick things up quickly so didn’t take me long to work how to use the equipment.

Video is a great way to promote a business and I love going into companies and helping them share their stories, products and services. I see every video as a challenge, and it’s great seeing a happy client at the end of a production. It’s even better when they come back for more!

- Going through your enthuse.me profile I’ve noticed you are currently involved in three amazing projects. Tell us a bit more about them and how you are involved!

As you can tell from the first question, I have always liked to keep myself busy. The main project I’m involved with is Buffoon Film and Media, which is what I’m working on full-time at the moment.

Another project I’m working on is the Big Ideas Wales Campaign by the Welsh Government. I’m a Role Model for the project and there are hundreds of others around Wales.

The newest project I’m working on hasn’t really got a name yet, but I’ve called it Space to Work for now. I’ve always been passionate about helping young people into business and this project will offer a low risk and supportive environment for them to do so. As it’s in the early stages, I can’t give out too much information so watch this space!

- As a Role Model for the Welsh Government Big Ideas Wales Project, what kind of support do you offer to students that have a business idea and want to start their own businesses?

Role Models for the project are real entrepreneurs who go into schools, colleges, universities and youth groups and deliver inspirational talks to young people. The talks aim to encourage them to consider setting up their own business and will give them an insight into the different routes you can take and the support that’s available. Big Ideas Wales also have roadshows, speed networking events and visit major events across the country.

- You recently picked up the Swansea Bay Young Entrepreneur 2013 Award. How did that affect your career?

Winning the award was a great boost for me and the company. We had some great PR from it and we’ve picked up some great new clients. It came at the right time as the company had only just celebrated completing two years of trading a few months before.

- As a successful entrepreneur, would you say that it is important for people to promote their expertise online?

Definitely, especially when your company is in the start-up phase and hasn’t got a big portfolio to show off. Saying that, no matter how big your company is, it’s always a good idea to be recognised as an expert. I know it’s a cliche, but people do really buy from people and if you don’t know what your talking about, then you will never get an order through. It’s really hard running a small business and a personal brand. You’ve got your company’s Twitter account, blog, mail outs, personal Twitter, personal blog, Facebook and all the other things you’ve got to keep up to date, it’s really hard to do everything. Even if you can’t do it online, get out there and network and give out plenty of advice face-to-face.

- How do you use your enthuse.me profile?

I’m really guilty of not paying enough attention to my own personal brand when I started Buffoon. I was focused on pushing the company so much, I didn’t even use my own Twitter or Facebook account. Buffoon now employs a team so it’s not just me running it on my own anymore. I now have a lot more time to develop a personal brand for me and wanted my own website so that people can find out more about me rather than sending them to Buffoon’s website. I tried out a few different websites, but I then came across enthuse.me, which is perfect for what I need. As I’m now involved with a number of projects, I’ve now got one site where people can find out about me, the projects I’m working on and can get in touch. I love that it’s connected to my Twitter and LinkedIn account and automatically updates so I don’t have to worry about editing my profile too much. The Press section is also really good that allows me to post stories in the media!

- Name the 3 biggest challenges you have encounter so far as a young entrepreneur.

Challenge 1 - Starting from scratch

Starting a business is hard, but when you’re starting one from scratch with no track record behind you from a previous employment to help you sell your services, it’s even harder! I really had my work cut out building the company from nothing and getting clients to trust me to turn their money into a great video. It took a lot of persuasion and plenty of discounts, but I’m proud to say that the company got through it and now has a great portfolio of clients that keep coming back.

Challenge 2 - Cashflow

Planning ahead is so important, especially when it comes to finance. When I was sending out invoices, I assumed they would all be paid on time, oh how wrong I was! I’ve waited up to six months for some invoices to be paid which caused a lot of stress when I had other bills to pay. It’s really important to build up a profile of each client individually, you will then know their average paying time, how they’re going to pay (remember cheques take time to clear) and who to contact to chase up invoices. It’s also good to get some money up front if you can!

Challenge 3 - Being taken seriously

As an 18 year old going into business, trying to sell services to businesses bigger than mine; it was tough. Luckily, I do look older than my actual age, which helped, but it was still hard. It’s really important to do your homework before going to meetings, work out what type of person you’re going to meet. Should you wear a suit or go casual? If they’ve got a profile on the company website, try to find out their interests or hobbies that they may talk about. It’s really important that you go in prepared. Make sure you’ve got everything you need to make a sale if they’re happy to shake hands during the meeting.

- What would be the top 5 business tips you would give to entrepreneurs starting their own business.

Tip 1 - Don’t be afraid to switch off

People seem to think that running a business means you’re working 24/7. It doesn’t have to be like that, it’s just people are too afraid that they will miss an important e-mail or phone call if they switch their phone off, or they will lose lots of money if they take a day off. You’ve got to remember why you’re running a business, you’re doing it to be happy and you need to be able to switch off so that you can have a healthy work/personal life balance.

Tip 2 - Network

You can spend as much as you like on advertising on radio, in the newspapers or online, but it will never be as effective as networking face to face. Networking is free and easy to do. If you do it well and you look after your clients, they will look after your business.

Tip 3 - Credit Control

When I first started the business, sending my first invoice out was a proud moment. It’s really important that invoices are paid on time, unfortunately, some larger businesses don’t realise this as much as the small ones. Credit control is easy to do as long as you’ve got a system in place to monitor your invoices. Make sure, as soon as you send your invoice out, that you say when it is due by and if they can’t pay it by then, to let you know as soon as possible. As soon as it becomes overdue, send a gentle reminder to them. If you don’t hear anything back, send another e-mail a few days later saying that you’re going to add Late Payment Interest (which you can do by law), this usually speeds things up! Larger businesses don’t understand that an invoice being paid only a day late can have a massive impact on a small business. I’m sure their Finance Officer wouldn’t like their salary being paid a day late?

Tip 4 - Be organised

Being organised is one of the most important parts of running a business. Even when you’ve got a team of staff, it can be hard to keep on top of things. At Buffoon, we use a free online app called Trello that each team member has a log in for. We set up a wall for each project that we work on and then set the tasks that we need to do and allocate them to each team member along with a due date. This app means that at any time, I or anybody in the team can log in to any project to see what has been done, is being done and needs to be done.

Tip 5 - PR

Public Relations can save you a lot of money in advertising. Spotting a story that you can send out to your local paper isn’t the easiest thing to do when you’re busy working on projects, but a good story in the press can generate a lot of free advertising for the business. Develop a relationship with your local journalist who you will be able to send press releases to when stories come up. You could also comment on stories you’re interested in or be part of projects that attract media attention.

Any questions for Adam?

Post your comments below and let’s keep the conversation going!

The enthuse.me team :)

enthuse.me meets Paul Keeling

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 08:46:00 -0400

We caught up with Paul Keeling to discuss about his field of expertise: the magical world of photography.

Paul talked to us about paulkeventphoto, the challenges and perks of photography, shared some business tips and valuable advice, and explained why it is important to use the internet to promote yourself, your work and expertise online.

-Tell us a few words about your story so far.

My story is an unusual one.

At the age of just 15,I started down a rocky road of Alcoholism. This continued on for the next 20 years. I missed many good years. I am 10 years in recovery, but my recovery left me with many health problems. It was during these early dark periods that I discovered Photography….and my Love Affair started!!!!

I was living in Killarney ,an area of Ireland renowned for its Natural Beauty. I found that when I went out with my camera, it gave me a new perspective on things. It taught me to appreciate all around me. You could,in many ways say that my Passion for Photography was a huge factor in the healing process.

5 years ago, I fell in Love and moved to Tralee… 30km down the road from Killarney.

While living in Tralee, I joined a local Camera Club…I am now treasurer of this club.

I listened heartily to all the critiques of my work and over time developed the skills that I now use in my working life. 3 years ago we married, and just 16 months ago we started our Photography Business. Bang Smack in the middle of a recession!!

We are still going strong. Photography is a tough business to succeed in…. but we are getting there. In my short but fulfilling photography career, I have photographed artists such as Elvis Costello and Imelda May, as well as being the Official Photographer for the final concerts of “Emerald Elvis”, Ireland’s number one Elvis Tribute artist. I have also recently just finished photographing the “Rose of Tralee International Festival”. My real photography passion lies in Wedding Photography . I love making a difference to the most important day in a Couple’s life. I also undertook a project called “Faithfoto”, working with young people in Killarney, making them aware of the things around them, teaching the basics of photography, and culminating in an Exhibition, which ran in Killarney Cathedral for the entire Summer.

I also developed a natural flair for Marketing….my main source of Marketing is my Website, and Social Media. I am always looking for new and exciting ways to market my business. I feel enthuse.me has given me a platform to market myself in a new and exciting way.

-What inspires you?

I am inspired by all around me. Looking through a lens at the world gives a wonderful and fresh perspective on life.

Young people inspire me. Perhaps because I had such a misspent youth!!!I am also inspired by people who succeed in their Photography Businesses, mainly because I know how incredibly difficult it is, especially in this digital age!!!

-Why did you decide to specialise on event and wedding photography?

It takes a long time to find your “niche” in photography.

I decided on Wedding and Event Photography simply because through trying all different types of Photography, I find that this is what I am best at.

I don’t have the patience to be a professional Landscape Photographer.

I work best under pressure, and, with 15 years of experience in the Catering Industry, I feel that I have all the necessary people skills to go the extra mile and make a difference to the people who hire me. I love creating memories for my clients to look back on. Whether it be by recording an event, or a once in a lifetime occasion like a Wedding.

-You are an active contributor to several online marketplaces for imagery. Tell us about them and why you decided to join them.

Yes, I am an active member in several on line marketplaces for imagery.

I find internet marketing very helpful.

If people don’t know that you are out there ,they won’t hire you.

I believe also that an image is a powerful marketing tool…when a client looks at one of my images,they can see the style that I shoot in,and if they like it,they may hire me at some stage.

I have spread myself all over the web…my photos are everywhere. I devote some time every day to marketing….and,it works…I get enquiries from Americans wanting to get married in Ireland….the other day I even had an enquiry from Poland!!

-What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue event photography?

The best advice that I can give to somebody wanting to pursue Event Photography is “know your camera”.

Photographing events you need to be on your toes and alert all the time. You are also dealing with constantly changing lighting conditions, so it is important to be able to adjust your settings accordingly ,and quickly.

-How important is promoting your business online?

On line marketing is my main source of marketing. I get enquiries from America all the time for people wanting to get Married in Ireland. It is, I think, important to know how to market on line. If you are using social media to market your business, you don’t want to be telling your customers what you have had for dinner, or to spend all your time saying how great you are. There is a method,and when applied properly it can be very effective.

I like the idea of the enthuse.me profile. The idea of giving people an idea of what you are about all on one page, in my opinion, can also be very effective in marketing your brand.

-How do you use your enthuse.me profile?

I use my enthuse.me profile to lead people to my website and increase my web presence.

I will shortly be adding it as an e mail signature, so that every time I send an e mail, all a person has to do to find out what I am about is click on a link at the bottom of the page.

Simple, but effective.

-Can you share with us some awesome awesome Paul Keeling images?

Showcase _ Concert Photography

Showcase _ Event Photography

Showcase _ Wedding Photography

If there is anything you want to ask Paul, post your comments below and keep the conversation going!

The enthuse.me Team :)

enthuse.me meets Tanya Smith

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:08:00 -0400

We are excited to commence our interview series ‘enthuse.meet EnthUsers’ !

We had our first chat with Tanya Smith, founder of tanyasmithonline.com helping bloggers, freelancers and small business owners to leverage the internet and grow successful businesses.

Tanya took some time to discuss with us about her expertise and passion for online business coaching, how she uses her enthuse.me profile and shared some great tips with us on how to create a business success online.

-Tell us about your journey so far.

I opened up my doors as a coach back in 2005. I started out working with clients who were seeking career advancement opportunities and I eventually began working more with entrepreneurs who were looking to promote and sell their services. In both situations, I found that one of the biggest questions my clients had is, “how do I present myself in a way that is attractive to the people I want to impress”?

As a certified online branding and marketing coach, I learned both formal and “street” lessons around leveraging the internet to build credibility and influence. As I established a stronger brand online for myself, the things I learned helped me reach more of the market I wanted to attract.

-What do you love the most about your work?

I most enjoy showing service providers how to use the internet to free up more time so they can do all the promoting & marketing they want without losing their minds. It’s so noisy out there, it’s tough to know where to focus your energy! Learning to prioritize and employ the right tools helps you serve more people and be more present.

-As an online business coach would you say that it is important for someone to have an online presence when they are trying to promote their expertise/business?

Absolutely!!! It’s critical to be accessible online because the internet is a virtual “phonebook”. Almost every market has prospects who seek their resources through Google or other popular search engines, whether on a laptop, desktop computer or smartphone. Having a presence lets people know you are open for business.

-How do you use your enthuse.me profile?

Since I’m doing a lot more online training now, I see Enthuse.me as an excellent platform to showcase my content portfolio - highlighting my teaching style, testimonials, products and more. I haven’t seen anything that does this in the way Enthuse.me does – it works well on mobile, lots of white space, easy to navigate - all of these get a thumbs up in my book!

-What advice tips would you give to those that are just starting their solo careers?

The best piece of advice I’d share is to work on being disciplined, consistent, and clear about your brand in the internet space. It can take time to establish respect and influence, but with the right tools (like enthuse.me), quality deliver, and a consistent effort to stay visible in a positive way, you will be successful!

If there is anything you want to ask Tanya, post your comments below and keep the conversation going!

The enthuse.me team :)

Enthuse.meets EnthUsers

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 11:24:00 -0400

At enthuse.me we are all about passion. We have built a product for you to showcase what you are really passionate about, which made us think about our passion. What is it that we are passionate about, besides building a great product?

The answer came pretty naturally. We are passionate about you! - helping you to promote yourself online in the very best light and build a following. This is why we decided to launch a round of interviews dedicated to all our amazing “EnthUsers” who want to showcase their expertise within the enthuse.me community.

The interviews will be more like an informal chat about you and what you do best. We thought that it will be a great opportunity for you to tell us a little bit more about yourselves, your journey so far, your passion and expertise, share some tips with us and let other EnthUsers get to know you better.

We want to keep it simple and fairly unstructured, to give you space to lead and share with us the things that matter to you the most. For start we’ll try to post one interview per week on our blog and spread the word through our social media accounts - of course we’ll link back to your profile to give you that extra promotional boost as well.

If you are interested in being featured, [email protected]" title="Interview Request" target="_blank">get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

The enthuse.me team :)

Pizza Barbecue Summer-y Party

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 11:52:00 -0400

Although we work hard to make enthuse.me great for you guys, we have some fun times too. Especially when the weather is as amazing as it has been the last couple of weeks (yeah you get that in London too!)

So, the enthuse.me team gathered at -our founder- Dan’s house for a Pizza-Barbecue summer-y Sunday.

We had an amazing time, lots of food, drinks and sun!

We are not going to say more, photos speak for themselves :)

Waiting for the food, chatting and getting tanned

Hungry people, can you tell?

Voila! Yummy stone-baked, home-made pizza

Yeap, tech savvy entrepreneurs cook too

Dennis -our UI & UX Designer- getting excited as he was the first one to be served

Apart from being our front end developer, Lewis has his own band too. Yeah, we listened to some nice tunes that evening.

Back to work now.
Keep checking our blog as we are working on some new, exciting stuff!

enthuse.me launches social features

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 11:16:17 -0400

We’re delighted to announce the launch of some great new features:

Following - you can follow and be followed by clicking on the ‘follow’ button attached to each users profile photo. You can see all users you follow and who follow you in the new connections module.

Notifications - all users now have a notifications tab, this contains updates from the people you are following.

Invitations - you can invite people to follow your profile if they are not yet on enthuse.me they will be invited to join. Invite people by clicking on ‘invite contacts to join enthuse.me’.

Expand your reach by getting people to follow you!

Log back into your enthuse.me account and start following people like Dan Jacobs!

Let us know what you think of the new features!

The enthuse.me team will be at this year’s Dublin Web Summit!

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:57:00 -0400

enthuse.me has been chosen from among thousands of startups that applied to exhibit at what Forbes called “The new hot ticket on the tech conference scene”.

Over 5000 start ups applied for the ALPHA program for just a few places at the conference. The ALPHA program is a means for the Web Summit to support early stage start ups by giving them free exhibitor spaces at their flagship annual event.

enthuse.me will be set up at their own exhibition stand during the 2 days of the Summit, so if you’re also attending, be sure to stop by and meet us!

The Web Summit

Often called “Europe’s SXSW”, it’s where the world’s brightest minds in technology gather for two days to hear from over 300 speakers; from the world’s leading founders, investors and CEOs to inventors, designers and entrepreneurs. The world’s leading tech companies and the most successful and innovative startups will be there, demonstrating their latest products and services.

We’re excited and want to share this great news with the rest of the world :)

If you feel like it, help us spread the word by sharing our blog post.

Thanks!

Has 9-5 had it’s day?

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:32:00 -0400

enthuse.me CEO Dan Jacobs talks about who enthuse.me is aimed at.

In previous generations people had ‘jobs for life’, this was in the case in both the public and private sectors. As a whole, people would not move between companies very often and there was a sense that if you wanted to, you could spend your entire life in one job at one company. Those days are now long gone, in the last 20 years the last bastion of ‘jobs for life’, the public sector has also changed and become more dynamic.

Now two years is a good amount of time to stay in a job, but more and more people are deciding to leave the ‘security’ of a job and are going it alone, either as contractors, freelancers, entrepreneurs, stay-at-home mums looking for extra income or people setting up their own small businesses.

There are many reasons for this growing trend, the perception of job security is disappearing, people are starting to realise that having a traditional full time job is no guarantee. With the current financial ‘situation’ in the west, people are being made redundant, being asked to take pay cuts, reduce hours and in some cases, many full-time jobs are becoming part-time. The work force is realising that you may have more security working for yourself, that taking control over your own destiny can be a better way forward.

enthuse.me has been created to serve these people, our mission is to create a set of tools that support people taking the brave step of going it alone. If you, as an independent professional, went to a marketing agency, they would they ask you:

What is it that you are great at?
What makes you different to other people?
How can you distill this into key messages?

They are also likely to advise you to keep things simple, to focus on what you’re good at and to work your network.

This is what enthuse.me is all about, we ask you the questions that your potential customers would want you to answer.

Over the next year we will be adding more and more tools to support you to be successful. Tell me what enthuse.me can do to help you, drop me a line at [email protected]">[email protected]