Leanna Archer is the Founder/CEO of Leaana’s Inc, A hair and body care products she started at age 9 years old after her mom started using hair pomade made by her great grandmother on her hair.

Suddenly, she started receiving a lot of attention from strangers commenting on how much they loved her hair which was from the result of the pomade.

She quickly noticed the need for the product and how beneficial it could be; now the next step was convincing her parents as a 9 years old to start a business selling pomade

Firstly, they acknowledged the idea, but wrote it off by saying that they dint have the time and knowledge to run a business, she was told the regular you know “wait till you get older” speech.

But she dint give up, she decided to take it upon herself to introduce the pomade to her friends in a Gerber food jar and it paid off, they all loved it, and it was like they switched a light bulb on, calls started to come, people wanted more.

After that, Her parents were so impressed they decided to help her, she obtained her business license and tax id after doing some research and in June 2005, Leanna Inc was born.

Leanna is still currently responsible for the creations and development of the products but not without her family.

Leanna also travels around the country giving speeches to motivate kids and young adults.

New interactive business website, www.inafishbowl.com has recently been set up to help those considering setting up in business do exactly that – learn from the experience of others! The new ‘reality’ Big Brother style business website profiles the trials and tribulations of three start-up businesses filmed through different stages of their journey and broadcast on the website using live twitter feeds, videos and blogs as the entrepreneurs share their experiences in real-time.

Businesses featured include a record label, a bespoke tailoring company and a Mexican food range. Each are finding their way through the start-up maze and sharing their experiences along the way. From naming their business through to frustrating first meetings with banks, the businesses lay themselves open for others to watch and follow online.

The In a Fishbowl project was founded by entrepreneur Toby Reid and is being supported by Midlands based entrepreneur Andrew Springhall.

Springhall commented:

“So many people go through the process of starting a business and it is a truly daunting experience. There is a wealth of information available to first time entrepreneurs, but nothing that provides you with the chance to learn from the experiences of others. www.inafishbowl.com will do just that.
The service is designed to provide empathy, learning and motivation to others in a similar position. It will act as an interactive support guide for any budding entrepreneur.”

See www.inafishbowl.com for more details

It’s not everyday you hear someone reject to work with corporate giants such as JPMorgan and McKinsey to pursue life as an entrepreneur.

David Langer made this decision and he’s loving every single moment of it.

This is a must read interview for every entrepreneur starting up, especially those based in the UK. David covers a lot of ground in this interview, he talks about:

• Why he started GroupSpaces.
• How he secured funding for GroupSpaces and what you should start doing right now to be in a better position to get funding for your startup.
• Why he’s not going to work for either JPMorgan or McKinsey.
• Why as an entrepreneur you should be getting connected.
• Why you don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to be successful.
• Why he shares some of Barack Obama’s views on fitness.
• Why he would like to have a cup of coffee with Winston Churchill.

Can you quickly give us some background information about yourself?

I’m a 24 year-old Internet entrepreneur, born and bred in Wimbledon, currently based in Oxford having completed a Mathematics degree at Oxford University in 2007. In addition to working on my startup GroupSpaces, I also write for The Gateway newspaper as their Entrepreneurship Columnist and train for my current sporting passion: triathlons.

So David, tell us about your company and what inspired you to start it?

GroupSpaces is an Oxford-based Web startup which takes the pain out of managing clubs, societies, associations and other real-world groups.

I started GroupSpaces in 2007 with my co-founder, Andy Young, based on our personal experiences on the committee of various clubs and societies at Oxford University.

We observed that every real-world group we came across was managing itself using a mash-up of disconnected tools and processes. This was really inefficient and meant these groups were spending an unnecessarily large amount of time on admin, distracting them from their group’s core purpose.

The status quo was a mailing list on Gmail or a Yahoo!/Google group, a membership database in Excel, events on a Facebook group, payments being collected by cheque or cash and a website which was time-consuming to update and disconnected from everything else.

Andy and I thought that it would be much quicker and easier to manage all these things from one place, which is what inspired us to start GroupSpaces.

What makes your business different from other competitors?

GroupSpaces’ main competitors are Excel spreadsheets, Cc email threads, cheques and some other Web applications solving one specific problem for groups e.g. Eventbrite for event management.

GroupSpaces differentiates by providing an intuitive, all-in-one Web-based solution for group management.

What role do you perform in your company?

We currently have a small team which means I perform many different roles. A typical week for me involves wearing several different hats such as user support, marketing, sales, finance and operations. I currently work on every area of the business except for coding the actual software which I leave to our brilliant team of developers.

How difficult was it getting funding for your business? Is there a right way for young entrepreneurs to get funding?

Prior to raising our angel funding, we had already built a prototype product, had a few hundred groups using it and were generating revenue so we had a fairly good ‘proof of concept’, something which angel investors often look for. We ended up receiving multiple offers of funding for our angel round and the one we took came via the Oxford Early Investments business angel network. It took us about 5 months from our first conversation with prospective investors to getting the money in the bank.

If you’re a first-time entrepreneur and you think that you are going to need to raise funding for your business, I would encourage you to start building relationships with potential investors as early as possible and ask them what they will be looking for you to achieve before they would be comfortable investing in you. This can vary a lot between different investors, countries and markets, so the best thing to do is to just start talking to potential investors.

David you’ve worked in some pretty big companies so far such as Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan and McKinsey. Why didn’t you go down that route and get yourself a safe secured job?

Having done some courses and internships in the corporate world, it was crystal clear to me that being an entrepreneur was my best option. There were several strong reasons for this:
• I could do what I love and am passionate about every single day.

• I could have far more positive impact on the world by starting my own company and this was personally a very important factor when considering how I would spend years of my life.

• The long-term financial upside was greater if you are successful and I don’t think that it’s anywhere near as important to have money in your early twenties versus when you’re older and have a family etc.

• I could spend every day doing what I thought and felt was most important. I didn’t have someone telling me differently.

• Andy and I were already underway working on GroupSpaces and were very excited about its potential so we definitely wanted to continue working on this to start with.

• I’m not sure how safe and secure taking a job with Lehman Brothers would have been…
What are key ingredients that you think makes a successful entrepreneur?

Persistence, persistence and persistence. One of my favourite entrepreneurial books is Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston (Founding Partner, Y Combinator) – it’s composed of 32 short interviews with successful technology entrepreneurs such as Steve Wozniak (Apple), Max Levchin (PayPal) and Evan Williams (Blogger, Twitter). The book concludes with a quote from Ron Gruner, founder of Shareholder.com and Alliant Systems:

“The key to success, if you had to sum it up in one word, is persistence.”

I asked Jessica about this quote a couple of years ago after I had first read the book and she said that it was a deliberate decision to end with this. From her experience at Y Combinator having invested in dozens of startups, it was clear to her that the ones with the most persistent founders were the ones which went on to succeed.

Also from my personal experience both as an entrepreneur and interacting with hundreds of other entrepreneurs over the past few years, it’s clear that the ones who do the best are prepared to do anything and everything to make their companies successful and they don’t give up. Whether that means changing their initial idea, changing team members, raising more money, whatever is required, the most successful entrepreneurs don’t give up, they persist and keep persisting until success comes their way.

Do you feel that there are things which entrepreneurs are doing wrong to break into the entrepreneurial world?

I think anyone starting their first company should try to meet and build relationships with other entrepreneurs. This might mean relocating somewhere with a greater density of entrepreneurs but I believe this can be done in other places besides Silicon Valley. You just need to seek out a couple of other entrepreneurs who are slightly further down the line than you are and can share with you some of the lessons they learned and offer you advice on the challenges you are facing.

I also think peer pressure can be a big motivator for first-time entrepreneurs. Y Combinator companies benefit a lot from this – I remember Paul Graham saying that not screwing up at Demo Day in front of all your friends is a much bigger motivator than getting rich. Similarly if you can just find a couple of other young entrepreneurs at a similar stage to you, it will give you a significant sense of urgency to get shit done if you think their startup is progressing faster than yours.

Why do you think is so difficult for young entrepreneurs to get funding for their company whereas in the US there are tons of investment opportunity e.g. Silicon Valley

There are a couple of ways of looking at this. On the one hand there are far more angel investors and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley than anywhere else in the world, but there are also far more startups there. Obviously this results in a lot more startups being funded in Silicon Valley than anywhere else but there are also quite a few active angel investors and venture capitalists throughout the UK, you just have to look a bit harder to find them.

I’m not in a good position to comment outside of the UK or Silicon Valley as I haven’t spent any time being an entrepreneur there, but certainly in the UK if you are a first-time entrepreneur, you should be able to draw up a shortlist of 10-15 investors who do deals at the size you are looking for. These lists of VC firms for UK-based startupssources of angel financing are good starting points. If you put in the effort to network and get personally introduced to all these investors, get meetings, and still are not able to get funding, then your business is probably not far enough developed for the stage of financing you are trying to raise e.g. if you’re struggling to raise angel financing, you might still need to get more of a ‘proof of concept’ and if you’re struggling to raise your first round of Venture Capital then you probably don’t have enough early traction.

What are your hobbies?

When I’m not working on GroupSpaces, I enjoy working out, spending time with my girlfriend and heading to the occasional drum n bass rave.

In particular, I am a firm believer in ‘healthy body, healthy mind’. This old adage was in fact scientifically proven recently. A lot of people I speak to say that they are too busy to work out but I don’t believe that this is a healthy attitude. My mind functions faster when I’m at peak fitness and that means exercise is an essential part of my life. I make time to keep fit, even if this means sacrificing on sleep sometimes. In the summer I enjoy training for and racing triathlons and in the winter I tend to spend more time in the gym.

If you ever believe that you are too busy to work out, I would encourage you look at Barack Obama. The President of the United States is probably busier than you, even though you may be very busy. However, in a recent interview of Men’s Health magazine, Barack said:

“Most of my workouts have to come before my day starts. There’s always a trade-off between sleep and working out. Usually I get in about 45 minutes, six days a week. I’ll lift [weights] one day, do cardio the next. I wish I was getting a 90-minute workout.”

Who has been your greatest inspiration so far?

I find the most inspiration in people who are able to repeatedly apply themselves to a world-class level in multiple disciplines. As a mathematician, I often see patterns when I abstract parts of my and other people’s lives and I think the ingredients that make one successful in business, sport, politics, entertainment and most other fields are actually very similar.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers does a good job of explaining this – Gladwell claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practising a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. There are obviously other factors in play, but I would relate the point made back to my earlier point about persistence being the key driving factor of successful entrepreneurs.

Specific people who have inspired me in this way are:
• Arnold Schwarzenegger for becoming the best bodybuilder in the world then turning his hand to acting and becoming world-class at that and now building a fantastically successful career in politics, becoming Governor of California.

• Mark Zuckerberg for changing the way hundreds of millions of people understand their relationships with their friends. What particularly inspires me about what Mark has achieved is that Facebook isn’t so successful because he executed one idea really well. He has continually innovated and adapted his company to grow and succeed, all at such a young age.

• Marc Andreessen for starting two billion dollar companies (Netscape, Opsware), being on the way to having started a third (Ning, valued at $750M last round) and having now started his own venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, which seems to be on the way to building a world-class portfolio.
If you had a chance to have a cup of coffee with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Winston Churchill. By all accounts his determination and data-driven approach to strategy were second to none. Some people laugh at books like Sun Tzu’s Art of War for Executives but I firmly believe that the characteristics of a successful leader in war are very similar to the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. I’d love to experience Churchill first hand and compare with some of the most inspirational people I have met in my life so far.

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

My primary focus is building GroupSpaces into a world-class company and I’m not really thinking beyond that at the moment. Long-term I’d like to probably do at least one more startup, write a book, travel the world and perhaps start a venture capital firm. We’ll see what happens.

Do you have any tips for aspiring entrepreneurs?
• Before making important decisions, double check that both your heart and head are in agreement.

• If you aren’t already in regular contact with other entrepreneurs at a similar stage to you, go and find some – the peer support and peer pressure this will generate is really important.

• Once you’ve settled on your initial idea and founding team, focus on core and be the most persistent person you’ve ever met.

• Finally, I’ll offer a quote from Dharmesh Shah, founder of OnStartups: “The shortest piece of startup advice ever: GO!”

Thanks for your time David and good luck.

To find out more about David, you can follow him on Twitter (@langer ) or view his profile on LinkedIn.

Nick Kenner and Rob Crespi decided to quit their day jobs and jump into the entrepreneurial bandwagon, after quiting their jobs they decided to start their own restaurant that would serve a healthy, fast, and creative alternative after being tired of the options available to them.

So I decided to talk to them about why they decided to quit their job and start their own business, Enjoy the interview and dont forget to leave comments.

Hey Guys, How are you doing?

Enjoying the holidays!

Great, Can you quickly give us some brief background information?

Nick Kenner – I graduated Colgate University in 2003, then worked the next year and a half at Exis Capital where i traded currencies and fixed income for a macro-economic portfolio manager.

Robert Crespi – I graduated the University of Wisconsin in 2004 with a major in finance and is currently working in the equity sales division of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc. an equity brokerage firm in mid-town Manhattan.

We both grew up in Manhattan and have been friends since eighth grade.

I mean quitting your job to start a business? How confident were you about that decision?

We were both so young that we were too naive to even worry about anything. Our thought process was that we have a good idea and we just need to make it happen.

How did you get finance to start the business?

We approached former co-workers, family, family friends, banks, anyone who would listen to us!

Describe/outline your typical day?

No day is the same. I get into work at 7:45 AM and leave around 7 PM but what happens between those hours is always different. The range is so wide; it could include negotiating with a land lord, reviewing company numbers, going over new marketing materials or my favourite, reviewing employee disputes.

How many hours do you work a day on average?

Usually around 11-12 hours but almost never on weekends!

How did you decide on the location for your business?

We take a location, estimate the amount of revenue this store will do (this estimate is made based on several factors) and then plug the rent for this space with the revenue number into our business model and see what type of projected ROI we will see.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

We tried serving breakfast starting out and it failed after about 4 months. The product was good and it stayed true to our brand but it failed because we were not ready to fully commit and unless you are willing to fully commit to a product you have business introducing it.

How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do?

I think you just have to have a feel about someone from the interview process. Other then intuition you need to make sure you incentivise people so that it makes sense for them to care about the concept.

How many employees do you have?

170 People!

How have sales grown in the last few years?

We have grown over 100% the last two years.

What plans do you have now to expand your business further?

We are aggressively opening stores in the US while continuing to bring on international partners that can grow the business themselves locally.

How important have good employees been to your success?

It’s everything!

In one word, characterize your lives as entrepreneurs?

Interesting.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

Having customers truly happy that we exist and are in there lives is very gratifying. Also knowing that this company supports certain employees and their family puts a burden on us but also makes us feel we are doing something worthwhile.

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

You develop such a vast array of skills that can be taken into any business, the most important of which is the belief that you can tackle any issue and achieve any goal.

In your opinion, what is the most important an entrepreneur should possess?

A very good work ethic.

Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

Chipotle. They are the gold standard in my industry.

What advice do you guys have for young entrepreneurs looking to start up their business especially in your industry?

Good luck. Make sure you believe in your concept and that you give it 100%.

Thanks for your time Guys and happy holidays.

Check out their website to find out more about what food they serve.

I have another great interview for you guys, I really love this interview as it gives some much in-depth advices for entrepreneurs. especially young entrepreneurs and start-ups. Chris Pund 23 years old, recently graduated college in May 2008.

He shares his views on entrepreneurship
His businesses, why having a business plan is still essential
Startups trying to manage money in this recession and much more...

Don’t forget to leave comments and let me know what you got from the interview and what you think of what chris is doing?

Please kindly give us some background knowledge about you?

Well, I’m a 23 years old, recently graduated college in May 2008 and now work full time but run a few different businesses on the side after “normal” working hours. I’ve always been an entrepreneur and grown up around entrepreneurship, starting my first business while in Middle School and continuing through college to now. My oldest business is my web development company which I’ve been slowly growing after school and after work for the past 8 years. Now I run a multitude of different websites in different niches, have a successful eBay company and also am growing an ecommerce website.

8 Years, thats a long time, Its great that you started at such a young age

What do you think are the key lessons to entrepreneurship?

To be successful as an entrepreneur I think there are a few things that you have to embrace and learn along the way. The first one would be being able to adapt to any situation or circumstance that arises. You just can’t stop because of an issue or problem, you have to be able to adapt your strategy and work through it. Another lesson would be that failure is not a bad thing. Everyone has failures and false starts; you’ll eventually get it right, so just keep working and grinding it out! Finally, you have to be passionate about your business and be sure it is something that you could be in love with doing for many years to come in the future.

Do you think it is still effective to always have a business plan?

Yes, you are always going to want to have a plan; however, you may not need a conventional type of business plan. Your plan could easily be a few pages of notes written out about your business idea, strategies to achieve sales, potential marketing efforts, and your pricing strategy. You should always have a plan, but that doesn’t mean you need a 50+ page document.

Every business is looking to expand? What do you think we every start up company should look for in an investor?

In investors, I think it’s more important to look for and find someone that is truly willing to invest in the business and not just give you money, hoping to make some back. If you’re looking to strictly raise capital, apply for a loan. If you’re looking for someone to invest in your business, they also need to be willing to invest in you as an entrepreneur. They should be interested in helping you succeed by mentoring, sharing ideas, helping grow the business, and anything else they can do to make you successful, which in turn makes them more money!

What are the best ways for businesses especially start-up to manage their finances during tough times especially in this financial downturn?

For a start up, one of the best ways to run your business is by bootstrapping as much as you possibly can. Don’t go out and rack up a lot of bills on a credit card that you can not pay off. Keep a tight eye on your finances, bank account, and credit cards. You should be rethinking every purchase you make before making it, even when money is not tight. There are so many ways to manage your money on the internet or in software packages like Quicken, so try some of them out and see what you like. But no matter what, keep your checkbook balanced! Don’t waste your money on office rent, furniture, etc if you don’t need it.

This is some great advice chris, especially for young entrepreneurs looking to start their business whilst at the university, I can remember get so excited when i first started my first business and really wanted to get an office space and furniture which im glad i never did because i would have been a costly mistake.

Let’s talk about your businesses, when, why did you decided to start up your own business?

In Middle School I started my first business, so probably around the age of 10-12. Have parents who are entrepreneurs, they were very encouraging and willing to allow me to explore the different avenues out there to make money. And at this point, it was purely for the reason to make money so that I could buy the things I wanted (video games, etc). When I got into High School and become more serious about running my businesses, it turned from just wanting to make money, to something that was fun, was keeping me up at nights, and also was setting me up for success in the future. It started to then become about the freedom and ability to have your own schedule, not answer to a “boss” and do what I enjoyed.

Tell us what your business does?

I have two main businesses now which bring in the most income for me. The first is a web development business which I started in High School. It’s a full service firm offering the whole range of services from design to development, deployment, and marketing of websites. I work with many different contractors to get a lot of the work done as well as outsource different portions. This helps to keep my costs low, my prices down, and my profits higher. I also have a maintenance portion of my business which handles general website maintenance for clients, web site hosting, etc.

The second main business right now is an eBay business which sells camping equipment and outdoor gear. I work with many different top name brand manufacturers to purchase their equipment and resell on eBay. From this, I’m also growing a stand alone ecommerce shopping site that is selling the same items. Besides the camping equipment sales, I also sell items for other people who are looking to liquidate their stuff and don’t have the time or knowledge to do it themselves.

Do you think being brought up by entrepreneurs as parents gave you the desire to start your own business?

Definitely! Having parents who are entrepreneurs was a great influence on me and helped me along the way to be to the point that I’m at now. I like to believe that entrepreneurship is 75% hereditary and 25% learned, so having a family history of entrepreneurship definitely made a difference.

What books would you recommend to anyone looking to further their knowledge in entrepreneurship and self development?

There are a few that I recommend hands down, all the time: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Rules for Renegades, 7 Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial Masters. To this list I’d also more recently add The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

Securing a new client is always a great thrill and it makes all the hard work worth it. Besides signing my first “official” web design client at the age of 16, being given the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for my university on graduation day was a great accomplishment.

What sacrifices did you have to make to be a successful entrepreneur?

There are tons that young entrepreneurs make when starting up a business, and there are more I’m sure that I won’t think of until they come up! I recently wrote a post outlining a few distractions of young entrepreneurs on Dorm Room Biz. Personally I know I’ve sacrificed the relationships that I’ve had with different friends because I wouldn’t do different things or go to events because I needed or wanted to get work done for my business. I’ve also sacrificed the relationship that I had with my fiancé at the time, now Wife. There are always going to be many late nights that you’re up working hard while everyone else is either sleeping or out doing something. There will be days when you just want to relax and hang out but can’t because if you don’t build your business, then no one else will for you. As a young entrepreneur you sacrifice every part of your life at one point or another, whether its relationships, your health, or anything else.

What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?

My hobbies are my businesses. I live and breathe them because I want them to be successful, and without my constant attention and work, then I know they won’t get to that point. However, because my business are my hobbies, there is a lot of overlap with the things that I do in my “non-work time” which include camping, hiking, backpacking, traveling, and enjoying the outdoors. Being a retailer of outdoor gear and equipment comes in handy when I have the chances to test what I’m selling first hand!

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

Time management skills, the ability to rapidly switch focus from one task to another and then back again, communication skills, confidence, and so much more!

In your opinion, what is the most important an entrepreneur should possess?

Hard work, dedication, and passion are the main three things that I think every entrepreneur really needs to have if they want to be successful. While you can be successful without one or all of those, they can aide in your reaching your goals much faster and achieving success.

Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

There are a lot and many of them are small business just like mine. Startup companies like Tatango.com who are taking the world by storm. Mostly I admire other young entrepreneurs who are well know such as Cameron Johnson, to older entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson, to other entrepreneurs who are just crushing it that are not well known names. There are so many young men and a woman out there making so much money in different niches it’s just unbelievable!

On those impossible days, what motivates you to keep going?

Just knowing that the next day can’t be any worse unless I let it be. My success is up to me and I control it, so if I don’t act on achieving it that “down day”, the next will be just as bad. My goals and aspirations are also a major influencer on how hard I work.

Do you have a favourite business tool or resource?

For internet based invoicing, I love GreenerBilling. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have also been great tools for finding business, growing my brand, and expanding my network.

What social network site does the trick? As in generating traffic to your site?

For generating the most traffic to my websites, it’s probably Twitter. But I wouldn’t limit yourself to just one network, you need to take advantage of a handful of the different sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and everything else. I’m finding myself interacting more on LinkedIn recently and hopefully that will pay off in the near future!

What advices would you give to the young entrepreneurs out there?

Follow your passion and start a business around your passion so that what you do is what you love.
Stay focused, work hard, and the rewards of success will come in time.
Don’t let others negativity get you down, to be successful as a young entrepreneur, it’s going to be a lot of work!

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

With a little bit of luck and success, I’ll be living the dream of working for myself, having my own office set up and having a successful business. 5 years is a long time to nail yourself down to one venture and I don’t want to say that what I’m doing now will be what I will be doing in 5 years.

However, I know I’ll be fully dependant on the income generated through my business rather than being “stuck in the rat race” and working for someone else. On top of that, hopefully we will have purchased our first home, maybe have a baby, and just living a great life.

Thank you Chris, Keep me updated, it is some great tips you’ve shared with us, I’ve already written down a few things to work on for myself, i wish you the best of luck.

Don’t forget to check out Dorm Room Biz and his Blog, He’s got some great contents, tips and advices for young entrepreneurs there.

Don’t forget to leave some comments.

A British transport company that runs school buses across the United States has suffered a setback after bidders walked away from a $1.3 billion takeover offer.

CVC Capital Partners, which has just acquired the Central and Eastern European drinks business of Anheuser-Busch Inbev ( AHBIF – news – people ) for up to $3 billion, said that it and National Express’s largest shareholder–Spain’s wealthy Cosmen family–would be walking away from their offer. The bidders did not give a reason, but analysts believe they may have struggled to obtain financing for the deal from their banks.

Click here for full report

After a torrid year, Clinton Cards has some reason to celebrate today as its shares jump more than 15% following news of improving sales.

The party props, plushes and greetings retailer highlights a “marked improvement in second half like-for-like sales” and adds that pattern has continued into the current year with Clinton stores showing gain of 2.9% in the first 10 weeks.

Clinton Cards earlier this year put its Birthdays greeting-cards chain into administration saying it could no longer provide funding to the loss-making business.

In June, it bought back 196 Birthdays stores out of administration for £3.5m.

Click here for full report

Millions of credit card customers are having their details put at risk by UK call centres, 97 per cent of which are consistently flouting rules on data security, according to research published today.

A national poll of UK call centre managers by Veritape, the audio recording specialists, found that recordings of calls where customers reveal sensitive financial details, including their 3-digit security code, are routinely stored on call centre computer servers, leaving them vulnerable to hackers.

This is in direct breach of global industry standards drawn up by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Council.

The findings are published in a paper, The Great Credit Card Gamble, released to coincide with National Fraud Prevention Week. The report states that nineteen out of twenty call centres that store recordings of transactional conversations with customers do not delete or mask the credit card details in the recordings.

Click here for full report

A bid for J Sainsbury Plc (SBRY.L) may not be imminent, but its property assets, growth plans and uncertainty over the intentions of its top investor could keep it a focus of speculation, and its stock in demand.

Shares in Britain’s third-biggest supermarket group leapt as much as 20 percent on Thursday as chatter swirled that its largest investor, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, was mounting a new takeover bid after a previous attempt failed in 2007.

Read here for full report

Google Inc. shares rose in premarket trading after the company’s third-quarter results signaled that the Internet advertising market is experiencing a turnaround and that the search leader is set to be the prime beneficiary.

At least one analyst said the company’s shares could hit $700 apiece, a level not reached since December 2007.

The Mountain View, Calif., company’s results were “stellar,” said Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef Squali, lifting his price target on the stock to $600 from $470, and raising his earnings estimates for the company.

Canaccord Adams, meanwhile, raised its target by $140 to $700, saying YouTube results are improving and advertisers’ budgets are likely to ramp up for the holiday season.

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