The Business TAP talks to Yoav Farbey of The Startup Magazine

Firstly, welcome to BUSINESS TAP! For anyone who hasn’t read The Startup Magazine yet, can you give us a quick rundown on what it’s all about, inspiration to create it and who was involved with setting it up?

The Startup Magazine is an online resource for Enreprenuers and those who are interested in startups.

It started as a personal blog about my experiences running a startup at university and then the blog became rather more popular than expected.

I turned the personal blog in to The Startup Magazine to let other startups and entrepreneurs share their stories. In recent month we have changed the magazine to be a valuable online resource to keep our readers coming back.

The number of people starting up new businesses and ‘going it alone’ has seen a big increase in the past few years, what do you think has influenced that? 

TV with series like Dragon’s Den, Shark Tank and The Apprentice. The coverage billion-dollar success stories, and the amount of government and private investment in tech hubs around the world make it easier for someone to start a business in a faster, easier and cheaper way than ever before.

Or maybe as easy as the ‘dot com boom’ but I was not there to witness what was going on at that time.

I also believe that tech is all around us, with our mobile phones tablets, and soon wearable technologies. Application and services around them mean that inspiration to start a new business is everywhere. Everyone is excited startups and would like to have their own ‘success story’.

If someone reading this feature would like to contribute to The Startup Magazine, how would they go about it?

We always love bringing on new writing talent.

Social media is probably the best place, start a conversation with us, and let us know what you want to write about. If you have written anything before, it will be fantastic to read that as well.

Furthermore contribution can be in audio and video if you wish, again do contact us over social media @thestartupmag or on email info@thestartupmagazine.co.uk

Social media has really helped new businesses grow and get visibility. Which social platform (s) would you recommend to help a business grow online?

It really depends on the business, and where your customers are if I am being honest.

Where are your audience? Are they on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Pinterest? It could be all, it could be somewhere completely different.

I have found Twitter to work best for us, but that is no guarantee that it will work for everyone else.

Having a presence on all social media is great, but you shouldn’t tackle them all at once. Especially if you are just starting out. Find where your audience and customers are, then focus on that network before taking your presence elsewhere.

You have spoken with plenty of entrepreneurs and new businesses, you must have seen some real success stories, is there any particular business you have seen grow from start-up to success?

After trawling through the archives I believe Zomato is the most successful company I interviewed.

Some of the earlier interviews with companies such as Malzee & Marblar both have continued from early stages two years ago to become very successful companies today.

They both have had several successful rounds of investment, and have a constantly growing team.

The two companies are very different:

Malzee is a shopping application, that lets you find your own style and have your friends comment on items you wish to buy.

Marblar develop scientific products from studies to consumers.

What are the future plans for The Startup Magazine?

There are many plans, however the first thing is always grow our network!

We are going to start running events with our business partners, as our readers have asked for it. This is going to be a tough & exciting challenge, but will certainly help our readership grow & will help those who attend.

The next thing on our list is moving from a just a website to a website and newsstand publication. We are slowly working our way to become a physical magazine, but we want to try things out on the Apple and Kindle newsstand first.

Finally as we grow to a new form of media, we are going to get more experts on board to keep our content useful & become a strong mentoring platform for those who are interested in working in a startup and those who want to run their own business.

Finally, what is one piece of advice you would give to anyone starting a new small business?

Work harder than you expect.

Don’t be afraid to let your guard down amongst close friends, they will be there to support you through the tough times. Be patient, success will come but is unlikely to come overnight