Enterprise Nation

General observations

• More than 400 people sacrificed a day in the sun to spend it in the darkened environs of the New Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden. The attendees were attentive and provoking when it came to question time. There's a lot of people out there starting online businesses and looking to improve business and diversify. It was good to see.
• There was lots of talk (and evidence given) for the continued rise in online spending.
• Big corporates are keenly woo'ing small businesses. Sponsors for the event were Royal Mail, Microsoft and BT Tradespace. This as a positive sign that these corporates see small business as a profitable and growing market.
• The event was organised by a fantastic company called The Conference People. I had met them for only an hour or two the night before and left today feeling a firm part of the family. They delivered a great event and I think Small Business 2.0 will be the first of more events to come .. on the topic of starting and growing an online business.

So, what did I learn that I thought would be of interest to you?

Lots!

Here are a few of the highlights. The Enterprise Nation team will look at all the topics discussed today and go in to them in greater detail in future features on the site.

In the meantime ....

Soundbites from the day

• 178,000 people in the UK earn their primary or secondary income from trading on eBay
• eBay can rightly call itself "the world's largest online marketplace" as the site attracts more than 15 million buyers every month. Wowser.
• Key priorities for the 'trust and safety team' in the next 12 months are to a) protect buyers b) reduce the cost of post and packaging and c) offer enhanced visibility to top sellers
• 1 in 5 post office visits every day are related to eBay
• Iceland is currently up for sale on eBay!
• Royal Mail's SmartStamp product means you'll 'never run out of stamps again' and also means you can have a professional looking logo appear on your post
• For £1.80 per day you can have Royal Mail come out to you to collect your post/parcels for the day
• The Post Office is looking to introduce new ideas that will make trips there more efficient and enjoyable .. like a drop facility if you use their online postal system (we're going to run a full feature on Royal Mail and all the interesting services they offer .. coming soon to Enterprise Nation)
• "Blogging is a simple first step to becoming an effective conversational marketer" Ivan Croxford, BT Tradespace (who delivered a great presentation that was the most popular of the day)
• 52% of small businesses say up to half their revenue is from referrals
• Video in a business profile increases click-through by 3.3 times as compared with pure text
• More than 1 in 2 online shoppers in the UK are Paypal users
• Paypal has brought out a new product that helps you start an e-commerce store; it's called Venda ecommerce solution for small business and it costs £49.99 per month
• Amazon has started a new fulfilment service that any online business can access. It sounds impressive.

And now it's time for bed

This event was crammed with useful information and news of tools relevant to anyone starting and growing a business from home. But oh my, taking in all this information is so tiring. Which is why I'm about to call it a day. At the end of what was a most interesting and insightful day. Thanks to the Conference People and Dan Wilson for inviting me to be involved. - Emma Jones