Altuntas of Turkey invited by President Obama to give a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya

Altuntas of Turkey has been  invited by the President Obama to give a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya. The White House extended the invitation of President Obama to Baybars Altuntas last week.

Altuntas was one of the invitees of President Obama in 2010 in the first GES in Washington DC. He was given a personal audience by President Obama before the summit started. Altuntas has been recognized by the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) and received the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the World Entrepreneurial Ecosystem award in both 2014 and 2015. Altuntas is the Vice President of EBAN, President of TBAA – The Turkish Trade Association for Business Angels & Early Stage Market Players and Ambassador of the World Entrepreneurship Forum to Turkey & South East Europe.

Launched by President Obama in 2009, GES brings together entrepreneurs and investors from across Africa and around the world annually to showcase innovative projects, exchange new ideas, and help spur economic opportunity. The 2015 GES agenda will focus on generating new investments for entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on women and youth. Since 2009, GES has emerged as a global platform connecting emerging entrepreneurs with leaders from business, international organizations, and governments looking to support them. This is the first time GES will take place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit

President Obama elevated entrepreneurship to the forefront of the United States’ engagement agenda during a historic speech in Cairo in 2009. Since 2010, when the U.S. hosted the first Summit in Washington, D.C., GES has expanded to a global event, subsequently hosted by the governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Morocco. The 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 25-26. It will be the sixth annual gathering of entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, business leaders, mentors, and high-level government officials. The established tradition demonstrates the U.S. Government’s continued commitment to fostering entrepreneurship around the world.

http://www.ges2015.org/

Micro-businesses are potentially in danger of becoming undervalued and underpaid as new research from cloud accounting company FreeAgent shows that nearly two in three (63%) micro business owners do not track or record any of their time - while just 8% of owners said that they track all of their time.

Additional research by FreeAgent also reveals that for every hour billed by micro businesses, they will on average work an additional 30 minutes of time that they could - but don’t - bill their clients for. FreeAgent estimates that this could amount to an additional £218 million a week or £11.4 billion a year in unbilled hours across the UK micro-business sector.

The survey carried out by YouGov for FreeAgent - which provides a multi-award winning cloud accounting system for freelancers and micro-businesses – also showed that a third (34%) of respondents claim to have felt overwhelmed by their business accounting, which includes financial reporting, invoicing and payroll.

In addition, the poll, which surveyed more than 500 micro-business owners and was carried out to mark FreeAgent’s £1m crowdfunding drive through Seedrs, revealed that almost a quarter (23%) of micro-business owners personally spend more than one full working day every month on their business accounting while nearly one in ten (8%) spend at least three full working days on them. FreeAgent believes that this extra time equates to around 2.4 million unnecessary days spent on accounting per month across the whole of the UK’s micro-business sector.

Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: “The UK’s small and micro-business sector is the lifeblood of our economy and needs all the support it can get. At times it can be a struggle to survive and our research reveals the extent to which these businesses are going the extra mile often without being paid.

“From our own internal data, we’ve discovered that for every hour a micro-business works and bills their clients for, they will on average work an additional 30 minutes that they could - but don’t - charge for. That’s a third of a typical micro-business owner’s time where they’re essentially working for free - which UK-wide adds up to hundreds of millions of pounds worth of lost earnings.

“But that’s just the picture for those people who are actually recording their time in the first place. Our YouGov poll found that almost two thirds of respondents didn’t actually track any of their working time, so that potentially means that millions of UK micro-business owners don’t know how valuable their time is or how profitably they’re using it.

“The reality is that, although many micro-business owners work hard for their clients, they also spend long hours doing business-related tasks that they don’t get paid for - and that includes managing, and sometimes feeling overwhelmed by, their accounts.”

FreeAgent believes that the results demonstrate the need for its multi award-winning cloud accounting system among the UK micro-business sector - and the value of the business to investors interested in its crowdfunding drive. More information about FreeAgent’s crowdfunding campaign can be found here:https://www.seedrs.com/startups/freeagent

Bowmark Capital sells Las Iguanas to Casual Dining Group

Bowmark Capital, the mid-market private equity firm, has sold Las Iguanas, the UK’s leading Latin American restaurant chain, to Casual Dining Group.  This transaction effectively completes the realisation programme for Bowmark Capital Partners III, resulting in a final return of approximately four times cost and making it one of the most successful funds of its vintage year.

Las Iguanas serves more than three million customers a year with Latin dishes cooked fresh on site at its 41 restaurants.  The award-winning business is noted for its innovative approach, high levels of service and affordable prices.

Since Bowmark invested in 2007, the business has grown threefold, with the number of sites increasing from 14 to 41. Las Iguanas has expanded from its South West heartland into a national brand, with sites now spread across the country from Aberdeen to Plymouth.  Over this period the company has created more than 1,200 jobs.  It is unique in the restaurant sector for its attention to staff, having being awarded champion status with Investors in People and being a Times Top 100 employer.

The business will continue to be led by its chief executive, Mos Shamel, and Eren Ali, who founded the business nearly 25 years ago, will be stepping down as executive chairman. 

Eren Ali commented: “The business has never been stronger.  It has been a privilege to work with the team at Las Iguanas and Bowmark Capital to build such a strong brand.  I have every confidence in the potential of the business and look forward to seeing it flourish under its new ownership structure.”

Ron Pearson, Bowmark partner, added: “Las Iguanas has delivered strong like-for-like sales growth throughout our ownership, even during the recession.  We have worked closely with the business to achieve a truly national footprint and this success is a tribute to the quality of the management.”

Las Iguanas has strong connections with Latin America, in particular Brazil, and has funded a ballet school in one of Rio de Janeiro's largest favelas.  Closer to home, it has donated Christmas presents to 35 UK children’s hospices.