I'm doubling up (or decupling up, rather!) on my efforts to build GrantTree up online. For a company that is very active offline in meeting and talking to lots of startups and tech companies, GrantTree doesn't generate nearly enough activity online. That's obviously my fault, and I intend to fix this!
As part of this effort, I've had to think about where different kinds of articles fit, since there's some overlap between swombat.com and the GrantTree blog - perhaps one of the reasons why I haven't blogged as much there (and even here) as I should have. Confusion and unclarity breed hesitation and inaction. For example, does an article like this one, about how to register a company in the UK, fit on swombat.com, despite its global audience? It sort of does, and it sort of doesn't. As an obsessive geek, I don't like this Schrödinger-like state of being.
Let's solve that, then.
GrantTree / Swombat split
From now on, anything that is specifically for a UK audience will be on the GrantTree blog. Some of the articles that will end up there would previously have been posted here - e.g. anything to do with the investing landscape in the UK, how to operate a business in the UK specifically, changes in legislation, etc.
Anything that is global in nature will be posted here. For example, discussions about entrepreneurship as a career, the startup skill set, and other geographically unlimited lessons learned from 5 years of being an entrepreneur.
So, if you're based in the UK, and/or would like to continue to read my UK-specific articles, please sign up to the GrantTree blog. You can follow it via tumblr, and of course articles will be retweeted by yours truly. Tumblr doesn't offer a good email subscription system as, far as I can see, but you can sign up via Feedburner's email subscription. It's kind of ugly compared to the sleek emails I send via swombat.com, but if you want to receive those posts by email it's better than nothing!
Importantly, this change will enable me to post much more tangible, UK-focused, practical articles. For example, how to answer the ROI question in TSB grants or the meaning of "company ownership" in the context of R&D Tax Credits, or even an overview of the SEIS process recently introduced in the UK.
At the same time, expect slightly more news-y articles on the GrantTree blog, like this one, responding to an article about whether UK investors are more risk-averse (answer: they are!). I've stayed away from "news" on swombat.com as much as possible, focusing instead on evergreen content, and that's going to stay the same.
In summary:
If you like swombat.com and you're UK-based, follow the GrantTree blog - all UK-specific articles will be posted there from now on.
If you like swombat.com but were a bit bothered about the UK-specific content, you don't need to do anything.
If you don't like swombat.com, what are you doing reading this? More seriously, if you don't like it, let me know what you don't like!
If you read this far, you should follow me on twitter here.
