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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Ditching music and movies for sweets and stationery has helped WH Smith boost profits, despite suffering a dip in sales.

The group raised profits by £5million to £81m in the year to the end of August, helped by the switch to bigger money-spinners.

Boss Kate Swann, below, who also cut costs by £15m, told the Mirror that CDs and DVDs formed 25% of Smith’s High Street sales five years ago, today it’s 5%.

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Boris Johnson yesterday imposed huge rises in bus and Tube fares and a 25 per cent increase to the congestion charge. The Mayor of London explained that the measures were necessary to plug a £3.2bn “black hole” in the transport budget. But what does this mean for London’s SMEs?

“It’s another nail in the coffin for small businesses locating themselves in central London,” says Huddle.net co-founder Alastair Mitchell. “London is already one of the most expensive cities in the world to do business, and transport costs in the UK are generally hundreds of per cent higher than on continental Europe or in the US.”

Mitesh Soma, founder of £20m-turnover online pharmacy ChemistDirect.co.uk, agrees that the hikes are a nightmare for SMEs but doesn’t believe the Mayor had any other option. “Boris Johnson is stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he says. “While there seems to be no other alternative to raise funds to pay for the capital’s crumbling transport network, small businesses will be rightly angry as these fare increases come at a time when we should be trying to entice people to work.”

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Name
Brian Tracy, born in Canada, 1944.

His Role

Brian Tracy owns a human resource company “Brian Tracy International” based in Solana Beach, California. He is the chairmen and CEO of Brian Tracy International.
He is the founder, investor and Chief learning officer of iLearning Global (the pre-eminent online business training portal in the world.)

He is also a President of Brian Tracy University, which is an online university for sales and entrepreneurship.

He is also a member of the board of trustees for the heritage foundation, in America. This foundation is an influential Washington, D.C.-based public policy research institute.
Facts about Brian Tracy

An inspirational male figure within our entrepreneurial world. As he is a self help Christian author recording works of his own as an audio book in order to help others business wise. Also via the usages of his presentations and seminars planned and organised by him.

His has a rocky background consisting of the ups and down. He was a drop out from University and from there decided to become an ordinary labourer. Life got tough, and he decided to emulate people within higher profession business wise. From the age of 25, he was a vice president over 95 people within his own business. As well he held the title of a Top Salesman. To nourish his skills, he returned to university, (University of Alberta), to gain a master degree in Business.

He is a successful man in all ways. He has a happy home – a wife and kids, and most of all his business is booming due to the course of him helping others.

Name-Abigail Pierrepont Johnson (born December 19, 1961)

Date of birth: Born December 19, 1961

Role: president of Fidelity Investments personal and workplace investing.

Education: Buckingham Browne & Nichols school

William Smith College (B.A. in art history, 1984)
Harvard Business School (M.B.A. 1988)

After all her study’s Abigail Johnson joined her father company, (Fidelity Investments) as an equity portfolio manager from 1988 to 1997. She was promoted in 1997 to an executive role in Fidelity management and research. She was president of Fidelity Management and Research from 2001 to 2005, in 2008 runs the Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services. Abigail currently serves as a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation and she also a member of the Board of Directors of SIFMA.