Stefan Töpfer

I started my first business whilst I was still at university and have been in business ever since, for over 3 decades.

In 1994 I started WinWeb with the same vision we have now; to help home & small businesses to get online. I call this the “Globalization of the Kitchen Table”.

From 1995 I built Nacamar Group PLC (today part of Tiscali/The Carphone Warehouse), into one of the biggest ISPs in Europe, which I sold in August 1999 at the peak of the DotCom boom – it was a crazy time.

In 2000 I went back to transform WinWeb and we developed the On-demand Small Business Infrastructure. It is my belief that very small businesses need an infrastructure, consisting of on-demand (SaaS) software, live services, expert advice in a timely fashion and all this supported by 24/7 live support.

In 2005 we finished our development and received full accreditation by the Institute of Chartered Accountants for our on-demand accounting software; the first such accreditation ever be awarded to online accounting software.

I write The Small Business Blog (www.sme-bl​og.com), a #1 Small Business Blog and #4 Business Blog (as ranked by Google at time of writing). My ambition is to drastically decrease the mortality rate of small business, which is almost an horrendous 60 %. Yet Government, tax advisors and other so called experts are unable to change that, something I find completely unacceptable.

Over the years I have been a key-note speaker at different Business Start-Up, Small Business and SaaS events, my usual subject is Small Business Infrastructure. I have always enjoyed meeting other entrepreneurs and discussing their plans for the future – you never stop learning.

Recently I have been asked to write a column at NASDAQ.com, for their Small Business. My aim here is to make big business news relevant to small & start-up entrepreneurs to foster the entrepreneurial spirit & ambition.

My passion is WinWeb.com – as it is a great opportunity to help so many small business owners to run their organizations more cost effectively and more successfully – I certainly learn more about SMEs everyday due to the relationship with my customers. I still do one to two hours of customer care everyday and hope to be able to keep on doing i.

Please see the rest of my professional summary at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stefantopfer - connect with me if you are a member.