Space Forge secures £7.6m to fund trial of factory satellites

ASNF 6 months ago

Josh Western and Andrew Bacon set up their company Space Forge last year, they started off in a garage with not much else. Today, the two Cardiff-based entrepreneurs have a staff of 25 and are now planning further expansion after raising £7.6m of international seed-funding.

The financing should allow the company to start a remarkable aerospace endeavor: deploying satellites in which new alloys, medicines and semiconductors can be manufactured in outer space and then brought back to Earth. The first missions are planned for the end of 2022.

“Earth is a wonderful place to live on but terrible for manufacturing so many things,” said Western. “You have to fight gravity and the dense atmosphere while trying not to cause pollution. But in space you have no gravity to interfere with the mixing of materials, while you have a pure vacuum and no atmospheric pollution. And you also turn your instruments … Read more

3 Tips for a Stress-Free End-of-Year Giving Campaign

ASNF 6 months ago

For many, the month of December is a time to decompress and relax with family and friends. But mention “end of year” to any advancement professional and you’ll likely be met with some combination of wide eyes, deep breaths, and a reassuring mantra such as, “We’ve got this!”

As someone who has worked in fundraising, I understand that reaction since over 30% of all giving to nonprofit organizations occurs during the month of December, making it one of the busiest times of the year for schools and universities. But why is this month so busy? And how can you turn a stressful month into a streamlined, stress-free operation? Read on for three quick tips you can apply to streamline your end of year advancement efforts.

Over 30% of all giving to nonprofit organizations occurs during the month of December, making it one of the busiest times of the year for
… Read more

3 FTSE 100 shares I’ll be watching in January

ASNF 6 months ago

The festive season has provided investors with some respite from what continues to be a tricky period for the UK market. However, it won’t be long before companies start releasing updates on trading. With this in mind, here are three stocks from the FTSE 100 that I’ll be keeping an eye on in January. 

Next

Fashion and lifestyle retailer Next (LSE: NXT) will be among the first companies to report to the market in 2022. A trading update, scheduled for 6 January, should serve as something of a bellwether for how well retailers have fared in the vitally important run-up to Christmas. 

Considering just how challenging 2021 has been for some businesses, Next investors have had a fairly decent year. Boosted by pent-up demand from shoppers, shares have climbed 15% in value and outperformed the FTSE 100. 

Whether this momentum has continued more recently is difficult to say. At 10%, … Read more

How to Create An Email Strategy

ASNF 6 months ago

Creating an email strategy feels like you’ll need a whiteboard, 5 different colored pens, your entire team, and 4 cups of coffee each.

It feels like a *big* task—something that your team needs to work on at *just* the right moment. 

We have some news for you…it’s actually the opposite. An email marketing strategy is less about an over-the-top, “started from the bottom now we’re here,” type of strategy and more about taking one step forward. Then, another. And, another.

There are 5 steps to creating an email strategy that encompasses your organic, newsletter content (that isn’t overly promotional), and your promotional content (that sells products).

And each one can be situated within a week (maximum!).

Your email marketing strategy doesn’t have to wait until things slow down, you “know more,” or you’re finally ready. It just requires taking the first step…choosing your type of newsletter.

Step 1: Choose Your

… Read more

The 20 Best & Worst Marketing Campaigns of 2021 (The Small Business Version!)

ASNF 6 months ago

As 2021 draws to a close, we’ll soon see compilations of the best (and worst) marketing campaigns of the year, which will likely include Geico’s Scoop There It Is ice cream, Nerf’s chief TikTok officer and, of course, Burger King’s “Women belong in the kitchen” tweet.

These roundups are entertaining and have their takeaways, but from a small business standpoint, they’re not very useful.

So we sought out to come up with a more practical best-and-worst round-up for small businesses. No, you won’t see any new ice cream flavors in here, but you will find plenty of simple tactics that yielded very gratifying results—plus how you can apply them yourself.

The best of small business PPC

We asked 20 marketers from a variety of industries for their campaign highs and lows this year. Their answers, which follow, include a range of new and old tactics, as well as the lessons … Read more