Enterprise UK Blog

Who do you imagine when you think ‘entrepreneur’? Richard Branson or Alan Sugar? Fourteen-year-old Joel Drapper could be evidence that a new generation is brimming with entrepreneurial flair.

Joel has a talent for IT and a passion for websites. He has taken his interest and turned it into an enterprising opportunity. By starting the business 1stclasswebsites.com. Joel is planning to use his skill in creating websites to help small businesses and charities, giving them a professional-look presence online. Joel already has some satisfied customers and his fame as a local business man is growing:this week he made it into the local paper. Read the story here:
http://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.2251446.0.it_boy_with_a_head_for_business.php

Joel and his family have already ‘made their mark’ through enterprise:

In December 2007 the family entered a team for the Make Your Mark Challenge, the UK’s largest simultaneous enterprise competition. In the toughest ever year of the contest, the Drapper Family came up with an enterprising solution to the Challenge to ‘make it pay in a globalocal way’ and triumphed as a winner in the South West Regional Final.

Following success in the Make Your Mark Challenge, the family joined the Make Your Mark Club, a network of enterprise clubs run by school and college students. Four children have been developing enterprising ventures and all are making their mark developing new skills and ideas.

Joel used the prize money from the Make Your Mark Challenge to develop his business idea for the website design company and next week he will launch 1stclasswebsite.com on his birthday. Joel has overcome many barriers, including having ADHD, but nothing has stopped him bringing his idea to life.

Joel is a living example of the ways in which young people can make their mark and create real opportunities for themselves. We wish him lots of luck with his venture – he’s a great example to us all!

The Drapper Family Home School is part of the Make Your Mark Club. See enterprising ideas from teenagers all over the UK on the MYM Club website: www.makeyourmarkclub.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurship, Make Your Mark Clubs, Web/Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.