Make Your Mark Blog

Wow, what an incredibly busy year it’s been. Amisha (my business partner) and I have been beavering away on producing a new ethical fashion magazine - nu. So far it’s gone so well we don’t quite believe it! We managed to launch the pilot issue at London Fashion Week last September, took the magazine to The Ethical Fashion Show in Paris (oh it’s a hard life), we’ve had extremely positive feedback from the ethical fashion industry and now the mainstream fashion industry is taking notice.

We’ve decided to go online until investment is secured, and finally after months of blood, sweat and tears (well almost) the website has now been launched. yay! Check out www.numagazine.co.uk to download your free copy.

Lauren, info@numagazine.co.uk

http://davidhorvitz.com/if/

This guy has had an amazing set of ideas for things he can sell to you. It’s so original I’m definitely going to buy one, and it’s a beautiful example of how ridiculously easy it can be to set up an enterprise.

I arrived on the early train from London to Leeds rather bleary eyed yesterday morning and was met with the energy and enthusiasm of the students at Parklane College taking part in the Ideas Igloo roadshow.

Groups of students approached us at the giant inflatable Make Your Mark Ideas Igloo with curiosity and loads of questions “What’s this all about?” What do we have to do?” “Can I really win £150 from my idea?”… The ideas wall was quickly covered in ideas..

From quirky to practical, creative to techie, it really was innovation in action. The ten students with the best ideas got to pitch in front of a dragons den panel including Emily Cummins (ethical inventor) Alex Tew (of Million Dollar homepage fame) and Jonathan Hall ( who runs his own record label in Leeds).

What impressed me the most was that their business ideas, that they may have only come up with that morning, suddenly started to grow and you could see them get excited talking about it and answering questions from the judges.  Alex Tew gave them some great tips on taking their ideas forward - and one of them was get out there and talk to people about your idea, there is no point keeping it in your head! And they were definitely listening  -  already there are some posts from the students on Connect me looking for advice from the Make Your Mark Connectors!

I just had an int’l conference call and wanted to give everybody really quick update on some of the Global EW activities that are happening around the world. Please make sure your seats are in an upright position!

In France… They’ve already gathered about 40 organizations to help with their campaign. They mainly represent schools, non-profits, unions and business organizations. They’ve hired one person to work exclusively on Global EW and they are currently working on setting up some fundraising events. They also are interested in holding a big European event for Global EW inNovember with their president, Nicholas Sarkozy

In Italy… The lead host is setting up a single not-for-profit organization to formally join up all its existing coalition partners, who will form a board of directors, to simplify and coordinate fundraising efforts. They plan to reach a lot of young people through a great partnership with Junior Achievement Italy. They’re currently trying to build relationships with government (although it’s difficult right now due to some political instability) and are planning a launch event in April/May in Milan.

In Germany… They’ve focused on getting social networking groups up and running and building grass-roots engagement online. There’s one on www.xing.com and another soon on www.studivz.com – one of Germany’s largest online student networks.

In Greece… They’ve organized a big event next week. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Development is opening the event and it will take place at the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The event will be targeted mainly at university students and recent grads. They’ve got good relationships now with student unions, career centres, and AISEC.

In Brazil… They’re travelling all over their (rather large) country, drumming up support for their campaign. They also recently met with some of the country’s largest retailers, with a proposal for them to produce and stock some Global EW swag at their stores.  Check it out…!

Cool, eh?

Chris

YOU have the chance to help a social enterprise get started by voting in the Make Your Mark in 60 Seconds final. The four ideas below have been selected out of over 60 social enterprise ideas that were pitched on www.makeyourmarkchangelives.org, www.bebo.com/60seconds and the Make Your Mark in 60 Seconds Facebook group

The idea that gets the most votes will win up to £5,000 towards getting started - so get voting!

1. Creative Kids Africa!
Creative Kids Africa aims to run visual arts workshops for street children and orphans in Zambia and deprived young people in Bristol in the U.K. They aim to link the experiences of African children with children in the U.K through sharing cultural learning and celebrating diversity to have a lasting impact.

Watch video and vote for Creative Kids Africa!

2. Community Gym
Community Gym aims to set up a local gym for all members of the community to use at a fraction of the cost of all other sports facilities in the area. They aim to tackle growing obesity in the area and offer a space to bring the community together. A venue for the gym is already established but they would need money to purchase the gym equipment to get this started.

Watch video and vote for Community Gym

3. The Top Spot
The Top Spot would like the money to establish a café/kitchen facilities for disabled young people to train in food hygiene, cooking and health and safety. They aim to develop their current setup to develop a social enterprise for sustainability.

Watch video and vote for The Top Spot

4. FroYo
Froyo aims to establish a social enterprise that produces an ethically, organically, locally produced frozen yoghurt that will promote healthy eating and lifestyle and will promote the benefits of sourcing local produce.

Watch video and vote for Froyo

If you’re running, or about to launch, your own business, the British Library is offering a unique opportunity to pitch your idea to a panel of financial experts, including former “Dragon” Doug Richard.

Desperately Seeking Finance is a panel debate and discussion dedicated exclusively to the secrets of raising finance. As part of the evening, three aspiring entrepreneurs will take to the stage to present their business idea and plan. And who knows, someone may even secure funding!

To qualify for this potentially life-changing opportunity, please send a 200-word summary of your business idea, including key financial projections, to bipcworkshops@bl.uk

The deadline for submitting your plans is 25 March 2008. The British Library will select three plans for presentation and the relevant entrepreneurs will be contacted the following week and asked to prepare a two-minute presentation for the evening of 22 April.

Alternatively, if you’d just like to come along for an inspiring and entertaining evening, book your tickets for the event at: http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase

There are just 2 weeks to go to get your entries in to the Big Green Challenge. This is a fabulous opportunity to work with like minded people with your prize money to make a real difference on some of the issues that face the world today.

There is loads of great info on http://www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk/  There’s a webchat, blogs from the green angels and discussions on where good ideas come form.

There’s not long left so don’t miss your chance to win you part of £1m prize.  Good luck to everyone who enters, I can’t wait to see what the winning ideas are.

LUYES is the Lancaster University Young Entrepreneurs Society and it’s run by three of our very own Connectors Steve Crossley, Matt Smith and Himanshu Kumar. They’re certainly an ambitious trio as next month, starting on Friday 7^th March they are hosting the UK’s very first university-based international entrepreneurial summit. The event, which is partnered with Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Lancaster House Hotel, Accenture, Furness Enterprise, IEED and LUMS-CEEC, will bring together students, business professionals, entrepreneurs and enterprise support organisations from across Europe to provide an exciting range of talks, workshops and networking opportunities. And…..there’s an exclusive invitation for all Make Your Mark Connectors to join them for the highlight of the weekend; an exquisite 3 course meal on Saturday 8^th March at the Lancaster House Hotel, with Allan Kenny as the after-dinner speaker.  

Shirley Bassey, Madonna, Duran Duran, the bloke from Soundgarden…A fairly random group of musicians I’m sure you’ll agree, but they all have something in common and that is Bond…James Bond. You can’t beat a good Bond theme tune, and now you have the chance to write one!

Musicians and James Bond fans across Britain have the rare chance to be a part of 007’s iconic history as Penguin searches for the theme tune to Devil May Care, the new Bond novel written by Sebastian Faulks.

Visitors to uk.myspace.com/devilmaycarebook have the chance to create an original piece of music for the new Bond book which is published on 28th May, the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth.

The winning track will become the book’s official theme tune and will be featured on the Devil May Care audio book, published on the same day. This will be the first theme tune to accompany a James Bond book and will later be available as a free digital download.

A shortlist of five entries will be selected by a high-profile judging panel, which includes the book’s author, Sebastian Faulks along with respected figures from the world of literature and music, including cult music producer Jazzie B and Matthew Fleming, great nephew of original Bond author Ian Fleming. Dom Cook, Director of Marketing and Content for MySpace UK and Alex Clarke, Penguin Editor of Devil May Care will also judge.

The competition is open to all musicians - both amateur and established artists - with the deadline for entries on 25th February. All entry criteria, including guidance on the style required, can be found on the Devil May Care MySpace page. As well as the exposure, the winner will also pick up the overall prize of £1,000 worth of music equipment.

Once the shortlist is chosen, the final vote will be opened to the public on Monday 3rd March, with the winner announced on Monday 17th March.

*insert Bond-style quip here*

A new reality TV programme on Channel Five is apparently going track the progress of unknown food brands as they go through a pitch process to Tesco’s buyers. Supermarkets are notoriously difficult to get into although with consumer demand for more local products they will be looking for new products to meet this. Ambassador Fraser Doherty of SuperJam managed to get into Waitrose and Tesco last year - does anyone else have any experiences to share?

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/783075/Tesco-back-Dragons-Den-style-show-reward-unknown-brands/

Mutya Buena (former Sugarbabe) attended Castleford Tigers first match of the season on Saturday 9th Feb to perform her debut single, Real Girl and to make her mark (well signature!) along with the rest of Cas Tigers players on a rugby ball which is now on eBay being auctioned to encourage entries to the Make Your Mark with a Ball competition, in aid of Sport Relief 2008.

This is a one off rugby ball and bidding has begun - this once in a lifetime opportunity is only around until 22nd Feb go to eBay and get involved….

Help us raise money for Sport Relief and get involved with Make Your Mark with a Ball.

Striding Out has just launched The Big Leap - which is looking for fresh, innovative, high-growth businesses, who are ready to ‘take the leap to turn their idea into reality’.

The competition is looking for ideas in the information technology, new media, creative industries, environmental solutions, and product innovation and manufacturing sectors, and will select two finalists per sector in the North and the South, to be entered for the grand prize.

http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842910557315235/competition-seeks-young-entrepreneurs.html

I read a great article by Seth Godin last week called Flipping the Funnel

He talks about how to create a fan club for your business or idea. He says that fans emerge when you:
- turn strangers into friends,
- turn friends into supporters
- turn supporters into fans.

In order to create a fan club, you need to:
1) give people a reason to really love you
2) give people a clear message to shout
3) give them a megaphone to shout with

This got me thinking – in the last two weeks I have become a BIG fan of two things.

Kiva.org – a brilliant online community where individuals like you and me can loan funds (from as little as $25 ) directly to microentrepreneurs in developing countries. It’s not new but I only tried it out recently and was stunned - the scale and speed of the transactions is astonishing. For example this group of Pakistani women entrepreneurs raised their target of $1300 within 3 hours from a total of 30 individual lenders from around the world.

Every week over $700,000 is loaned, 976 new businesses are funded and nearly 7000 new lenders join the community. I am a huge fan of kiva.org – and haven’t been able to stop telling people about it!

Ottolenghi
This weekend I was doing a 3 day course in Islington and was looking forward to trying out the Ottolenghi café because I had heard good things about it. Every lunch and coffee break I walked along Upper Street only to find a huge long queue outside Ottolenghi – it was impossible to get a table. The displays of salads, cakes and fresh produce dripping off the shelves were divine. I did manage to squeeze in and get a takeaway salad – which was so delicious it made my taste buds weep. I eventually did manage to get a table at 4.30pm on Sunday after my course finished and stayed until I was gently ushered out at closing time. The food is so, so, so good – go there if you can.

The power of fan clubs….Green MyApple
I love this campaign by Greenpeace who got Mac fans to target Steve Jobs with messages asking him to create less toxic substances in their products. Tens of thousands of Mac fans sent in photos of themselves hugging their beloved Macs – with a message saying that they wished they could be greener. The campaign resulted in a change in environment policy at Apple – read more here.

So in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, let’s share the love… what are your favourite businesses / products / campaigns / ideas / people who have inspired you / hairdressers / plumbers / cafes…/  – things you love to tell other people about – things you can’t recommend highly enough. Be a fan and shout about them here …..

If you need to be in Silicon Valley to progress your web company then this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

Web Mission 2008 will see 20 UK Web 2.0 companies travel to San Francisco to explore new opportunities for growth with key people in Silicon Valley. This event will showcase innovative UK web talent, seek meaningful assistance for companies ready for expansion, and provide a platform for those involved to gain valuable media and business exposure.
http://www.webmission08.com/

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/02/08/web-mission-launched-to-showcase-uk-startups-in-silicon-valley/#comments

Fulston Manor Business and Enterprise College is based in Sittingbourne, Kent.  As a school supported by the Co-operative, they have a handle on the ethics and values that they attach to enterprise.

The school’s definition of enterprise spirit is:

Self manager

Presentation Skills

Innovative thinker

Reflective Learner

Independent enquirer

Team player

The enterprise SPIRIT permeates everything that happens at Fulston Manor School: displays in every classroom make sure that both staff and students are aware of the qualities and skills it takes to be enterprising.  Departments around the school work together to provide innovative and relevant  enterprise learning experiences - for example, the RS department worked with the Science department to provide a focus day on ethical farming.

Evidence of  a true enterprise SPIRIT can also be seen in the art department where amazing fashion designs made from recycled materials are on show.  Several student-led enterprises flourish at the school too, supported by the FBI (Fulston Business Incubator!)  The FBI is about to join the Make Your Mark Club , and will shortly be joined by the FEDs (Fulston Exchange Department),  an online ‘freecycle’ collaboration between students who are computer experts and the school’s eco group.

Fulston students have already showed their talent for enterprise online - one student runs a gaming site, whilst another won a prize to design a game promoting fairtrade chocolate: Choca Monkey

Watch out for the enterprise SPIRIT, and for the FBI and the FEDs!

www.fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk