Enterprising Young Brit finalist Vicki Psarias is making her mark in the film world, scooping up the Channel 4 4Talent Award for Best Writer/Director for her short film Broken.
You can read an interview with Vicki at http://www.channel4.com/4talent/ten4/vickipsarias.htm and find out more about her work at www.vpsarias.co.uk/
Well done Vicki!
More than 150 people in Merthyr Tydfil discovered the advantages to being their own boss during a local enterprise
campaign.
Budding entrepreneurs of all ages in Merthyr were given help to get their business ideas off the ground with a series of activities held during Enterprise Week.
The campaign was a key part of the local council’s commitment to boost new business and create the world-beating entrepreneurs of the future. The Enterprise Week - the first ever held in Merthyr – gained such a positive response that requests have been made to repeat the event next year.
NOP GFK research suggests that initiatives like Enterprise Week are having an impact on young people’s attitudes and behaviour; with over a third (35%) feeling they have the personal qualities needed to develop a business idea, up from 26% in 2005.
Between 2005 and 2006 there were also increases in the proportions of young people actively engaging in enterprise activities. The most popular activity for over a quarter of young people (27%, up from 22% in 2005) is running or owning a website with commercial potential.
The research reveals that of the young people that are already thinking about setting up an enterprise, 85% do not see their youth preventing them from taking their ideas forward (up from 75% in 2005).
Here at MYM we are lucky enough to have a massive database of Women’s Enterprise Ambassadors (young women who have successfully set up their own businesses) from all over the country who are ready and willing to volunteer to come along to your school/youth club/event and help inspire young women into becoming more enterprising. They do this through running assemblies, talking to 6th form classes, speaking about their business experiences and lots more…
It’s all great! There’s just one hitch - they are all really keen to get involved and we don’t have enough opportunities to offer them at the moment - especially in the North… just today I received an email from one of our fantastic Northen ambassadors feeling very sad because we didn’t have anything for her to get involved in! The ambassadors are amazing and busy people but they want to do more!
So, if you know of a group of young people (and especially if they are a group of young women) who could benefit from a talk or from networking and interaction with one of our ambassadors, let me know! It’s a free service, all you need to do is email me at girlsmakeyourmark@makeyourmark.org.uk and let me know what you’re looking for!
Sounds a great scheme to me.
The Currys and PC World retail group has begun an experiment to give homeless people the chance to become entrepreneurs. DSGI has teamed up with Foyer Federation, the homeless young people charity, to launch the Big Enterprise Challenge. Fifty young people from around the country were invited to take part in the first trial which took place in north London. They were given coaching and practical lessons in selling and then pitched their ideas to the retailer’s senior buyers. All those taking part won a year’s worth of mentoring to help get their idea off the ground. Sir John Collins, DSGI’s chairman, said businesses were not doing enough to harness entrepreneurship to inspire people from disadvantaged backgrounds to have the confidence to act on their ideas. “We want to give them access to business people by helping them understand what business and enterprise is about,” said Sir John. “The best of them could become entrepreneurs themselves” For the majority, getting employment in an enterprising venture could be where they get too.” He added that while groups such as DSGI could fund initiatives like this as part of their community programmes they had to concentrate on their core businesses and leave the delivery and follow through to specialists such as Foyer. “This is something of an experiment. We want to see how well Foyer follows it up and how helpful it is.”
At Lauder College in Dunfermline Fife, the Skillextra Plus group took part in The Apprentice activity at the Access Centre with Learning for Work Advisor Gaynor Jamieson on the 13th November 2007 as part of Enterprise Week 2007.
The Apprenticeship task is an enterprising activity, which equips learners with skills such as commercial awareness, creativity, ideas generation, leadership and project management.
The Skillextra group demonstrated and applied enterprising skills, attitudes and values such as self-awareness, self confidence, creativity, initiative, communication, decision making, problem solving and teamwork. The group was split into two teams who named themselves the “Panda Pods” and “Little Princesses” and designed and produced two items of jewellery.
The teams tasks were to:
After two hours it was decided by the panel that the “Little Princesses” had successfully achieved the task and that the “Panda Pods” were to be officially fired from the task! This is what the groups had to say about their Enterprising morning:
“I really liked the task…….it was fantastic!”
“I enjoyed it!”
“It was good fun, I enjoyed it!”
Below are photographs of the “fired” “Panda Pods” and the “Apprentice” “Little Princesses” with their certificates:
Today marked the launch of Eastbourne Youth Radio’s annual stint of broadcasting, when young people from local schools and colleges will provide 50 hours of broadcast to their community. It’s the seventh year that Eastbourne’s young people have had the chance to rule the airwaves whilst working together to learn about media production in a scheme ru by Eastbourn Education Business Partnership.
Not quite knowing what to expect, I tumbled off a train into Eastbourne, and found myself being offered bucks fizz and pastries at 11.00 in the morning (it’s a hard life!). I met local business people, Eastbourne’s Mayor and the Chair of the County Council who were all very proud of the creativity and resourcefulness of this year’s young broadcasters. I would have liked a chat with some young people too, but they were far too busy putting together radio shows and putting local decision-makers through the paces in live interivews.
I did manage to squeeze into the tiny ‘Media Hut’ with around 40 young people from primary and secondary schools, as well as from Sussex Downs College (who were our hosts) to witness a ‘Meet the Media’ programme. In the cramped porta-cabin, kids grilled a panel of local media personalities by asking them questions about their careers. The panel included a couple of rival breakfast show teams (from Sovereign Radio and Southern FM), as well as a young film-maker, and the Editor of the Eastbourne Herald Newspaper. It was also great that the panel included Chris Bailey,who participated in EYR in the early days and is now ia presenter on Bright FM.
The young presenters who ran the show did a fantastic job, especially since they had to contend with the cheesey jokes and relentless good moods that breakfast DJs seem to be born with.
It was inspiring to see enterprise brought to life through the medium of radio. Too often enterprise for school students is synonymous with business, but through EYR, young people weren’t making up pretend business ideas to pitch at ‘dragons’. Instead they were using a range of enterprise capabilities to deliver a real and creative output.
Tune into Eastbourne Youth Radio on 87.7 FM if you’re local, or listen online at: www.eyr.org.uk
i met a really interesting young entrepreneur from poland today called jaroslaw kotowski, but he thankfully let me call him jerry.
he recently started up a company called geomedika, a ‘medical tourism’ company that offers full service polish medical treatment services to international clients - without the long waits and high fees. they offer treatment in general surgery, orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery and dentistry. (i hate to mention it but do you remember the episode on coronation street when that crusty-but-fabulous blanche went to poland for a hip replacement? jerry’s company facilitates trips like that.)
anyhow, we met to discuss ways he can promote the business here and also to explore how the youth forum of lewiatan (the polish confederation of private employers) can develop a polish-uk young entrepreneurs network as part of global entrepreneurship week. this network, he said, would be particularly beneficial to him and others like him and it’s something i’ll definitely be working on and thinking about for other countries.
at 19, just months after graduating and poland joining the eu, jerry moved to london to gain some international experience. he landed a job at harrods (the day before he was about to pack off home), worked there for a bit, made some money, and then returned home to continue his studies and set up his business.
but in poland, he explained, it’s a lot harder to start a business than it is in the uk. jerry cited bureaucracy as one barrier (e.g. it took him an exhausting 45 days to register his company as a general partnership and this was generally due to inefficient public services) and the expense of owning a business as another (e.g. it costs roughly $400 US a month to pay insurance for one employee, 40% of the average wage).
in spite of these obstacles, jerry is an entrepreneur. for him, entrepreneurship makes perfect sense: it offers more professional development opportunity than a job at a large corporate, it allows him to express his individuality, he has a lot more fun and can, hey, make a profit, too!
over and out
chris spavin
Some fab feedback from the pupils of President Kennedy School who attended the Girls! Make Your Mark event in Liverpool on 14th November:
“I am Kiran Chand and was one of the students who attended the ‘girls make your mark’ event on the 14th November. I knew that it would be business related, and was eager to attend as I have been doing business studies for just over two years now.
When I got there I found the whole experience much more than I had expected. It was all so sophisticated and we were treated like adults. I personally found the guest speakers truly inspiring and they were the highlight of my day. Originally I had the goal of going to university which still exists, but now I know that it doesn’t have to stop there. I could go further and better myself by actually being my own boss and running my own business. The amount that these women have achieved and the paths in which they have taken really appealed to me. I came out of it not only feeling full from the fantastic meal; but I felt refreshed and now have a whole new take on my future, and I also have new ambitions for myself in a business sense. I can safely say that I am ready to make my mark (excuse the pun). ”
and…
“I found the “Girls Make Your Mark” as a truly inspirational experience through the talks that the people gave. My best experience was having Jo Cameron from the apprentice sitting next to me and talking about business and womens rights, i found this very useful because it made my way of thinking change as a female.”
and…
“The ‘Girls Make Your Mark’ event was very insipirational! It helped me with my future decisions as a female and about the different opportunities I have. There should be more events like this taking place as it was an amazing even for girls and women.”
To celebrate Enterprise Week, Brighton-based youth enterprise initiative, YES Network, hosted an innovative event called ‘Enterprise Changes Lives’ at The Basement, Brighton, on Tuesday 13th November. The event featured inspirational talks from successful young entrepreneurs, speed-networking and a mini-exhibition and was open to anyone aged 18 -30.
Speakers at the event included Brighton-based Raj Anand, who at 25 has already started his own highly successful internet business, Kwiqq.com. Raj is Business Week’s European Young Entrepreneur 2007 and Kwiqq supplies blue-chip clients worldwide, with bespoke social networking solutions from their offices at the Sussex Innovation Centre.
Also speaking was young female entrepreneur, Sinem Ersever, 27, a writer, short film and documentary director and Managing Director of London-based media agency Advericom, which provides complete marketing solutions for clients, covering web/graphic design and video production.
The event was hosted by Southern FM presenter, Nick Simon and the guest speakers were followed by a speed-networking session - a fast paced exchange of ideas and contacts. The event was supported by Legal & General.
There were also a number of experts on hand to answer the budding young entrepreneurs’ questions regarding accounting, employment law and intellectual property.
Event organiser, Jack Forester, Founder of YES Network said: “Listening to the advice of experienced and successful entrepreneurs is a highly effective way of learning about enterprise and inspiring young people to make their ideas happen. Many people aren’t aware that starting a successful company when you’re young is a realistic prospect and can be a hugely rewarding and fulfilling experience. We hope to help reduce the fear of failure for young people interested in starting their own business.”
I just read a fascinating article about 132 people who got together on a Friday night with the intention of starting a company but with no idea of what it would do, and 54 hours later they had finished!
It’s part of an interesting venture called Startup Weekend. It appears to be a one man show that gets people together for a weekend to start a company and keeps 5% of the profits from the created company to fund further Startup Weekends.
I love the idea but so far they are only in America. Maybe we could start a similar thing over here or get them to run a weekend in London? (Would have been a great Enterprise Week event)
Make Your Mark ambassador and TV presenter June Sarpong is giving young people the chance to claim a share of £1 million to help tackle the dangers of drugs and crime, and play a positive role in their community.
The 18-month Prince’s Trust initiative will see June and Davina McCall host a series of heated debates where young people are empowered to give their opinions on issues that matter to them.
The Government’s new 10-year youth strategy boasts a youth club in every neighbourhood, improved facilities, coming of age ceremonies, a recognised Youth Week and a National Institute of Youth Leadership. But only 27% of people in the UK think that young people play a positive role in their community in Britain today.
With the Government stating that young people will decide where a quarter of a local authority budget will be spent, the debates create an open forum where young people can air their opinions and for Government to take note.
The web video sees 20 outspoken young people airing their grievances with June and Davina about some of the daily problems they face in modern day Britain.
i just read an article by stephen tyler in the telegraph on dyslexic entrepreneurs. tyler argues that dyslexic entrepreneurs are more likely to take risks than non-dyslexic entrepreneurs because - get this - they simply don’t understand figures.
i think the argument is twaddle for a couple reasons:
1- “julie logan, professor of entrepreneurship, said: “we measured propensity for risk taking and it was absolutely the same [for dyslexic entrepreneurs] as non-dyslexic entrepreneurs…”
2- while it’s true that “existing academic studies show that UK entrepreneurs are twice as likely to suffer dyslexia than an average person” tyler does not present any evidence to suggest that this is because they don’t understand numbers. a stronger desire to prove one’s self and to prove naysayers wrong, and a greater determination to overcome obstacles seem like more reasonable explanations. furthermore, a detachment from the education system and other modes of ’institutional thinking’ could be an additional reason why dyslexics are more prone to innovation and risk-taking.
i’m no expert on dyslexia but tyler’s argument seems totally bogus. any other opinions? i do have to say, though, that i didn’t know that entrepreneurs were that much more likely to be dyslexic - very interesting indeed.
chris spavin
Mon 12th November ‘07: Blablake School:-
Solared Powered Golf Buggy
Our idea was to make a Golf Buggy that is more economical than the traditional Golf Buggy that is run off of petrol or with an electric battery. Our idea would be more economical because it would be powered by solar panels that would be placed on the roof of the buggy. In the winter the solar panels will not be very effective due to a lack of sunlight so there will be an electric motor also placed onto the buggy. The golf Buggies will be a huge success in sunny countries such as Portugal and Spain, therefore the Buggies would be in high demand in those countries. The buggies will not only be used on golf courses but in parks and other places where maintenance men need a way of transport around the site that they are working in. The solar panels will be placed on all sorts of Buggies: 2 seater, 4 seater, 6 seater all with enough space for the golf clubs. Some buggies will not have somewhere for golf clubs but they will have a basket for the tools that a workman might have with him. While I and my team were working on the idea we all had jobs to do such as: market research and financial issues.
Social Enterprise day was fantastic. After launching the day at a school in London myself and the three other finalists of the Make Your Mark in 60 Seconds Competition, along with Phil Hope, other business owners and journalists travelled across London on a big red bus in order to be introduced to various social enterprises and people. It was inspiring, really inspiring. There are SO many people out there who want to make a difference.
I have to be honest with you, like, completely and utterly honest… I want a million pound. Well, technically I want more than a million pound, one would just be the start. Okay, the point is I want to be rich. You know what? Who doesnt want to be rich? Most people do which is why they spend 100’s of pounds a year on lottery tickets and scratch cards, its why there are millions of people who want to set up their own business. People want to free from the chains of financially slavery and an over bearing boss. It’s perfectly okay to want to be a millionaire, of course it is.
The British Library hosted a great event last night featuring Sophi Tranchell from Divine Chocolate, Tim Campbell from the Bright Ideas Trust, Kresse Wesling from EAKO and two other businesses, and Zoreen from Justgiving.
They were FANTASTIC and took questions from the knowledge-hungry audience really well! Anyone that wants to set up a social enterprise should definitely look up these great people and get some inspiration from them.
They also spearheaded a discussion on what a social enterprise really is. I think we got generl consensus that it’s a profit-making business with social aims - even if a the business has some private stakeholders. That should make it a bit easier for young social enterprises to find funding from private investors!
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