by Industry Leaders After working in various sectors and taking lessons from each, Ollie Collard created his own consultancy business, supporting Founders in starting and growing their companies. Ollie talks to The Industry Leaders about the importance of entrepreneurship in the UK and where you should look to find riches. How did you end up sitting where you are today? I was born in India, where my mum helped set up a Fairtrade organic cotton clothing business in the 1980s.

Focus on your customers' biggest problem Developing a new product is an exciting time for start-up founders, especially if the market and consumer research has revealed a real opportunity. Fundamentally customers want fixes to their problems. But you need to ensure you’re solving the right problem and there is a business behind it, e.g is the problem you’re solving big enough? You need to get inside the head of your prospective customers. What are their aspirations, life goal

Entrepreneurs play an essential role in any economy because they have the mindset, skills and the initiative to spot opportunities and bring new ideas to market. So do you have the skills to be an Entrepreneur? Why is entrepreneurship so important? SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population (5. 5 million businesses). SMEs account for three-fifths of the employment and around half of the turnover in the UK private sector. Total employment in SMEs was 16.3 million (61%

The current business environment has made it easy for anybody to start a business. But this doesn't make it easier to build a successful startup. Up to 90% of businesses don't make it to their 5th birthday! Is there any set recipe that makes a startup successful? If not, then, at that point, what are the variables that count? Again, the response lies in a fascinating mixture. Execution The idea is only 1%. The other 99% of building a successful startup lies in execution. Ther

Welcome to our 'Founder Friday' series. Each week we will be introducing you to a founder within Enterprise Orchard's community. Featuring this week is Banasa Williams, who is the founder of Ksoni. Imogen sat down (virtually) with Banasa to ask her all about Ksoni and how Banasa came to set up her own sustainable business. So Banasa, can you tell us a bit about yourself? Hi there, I'm Banasa! I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and moved to London 12 years ago. My profes