Make Your Mark Blog

Last week I got the chance to meet a super selection of Make Your Mark Club members. Nestled in the sunshine of South Bank, London, myself, some of the Make Your Mark-ers and club teachers and students got together to swap notes on enterprise, marvel at inspirational stories and eat their body weight in biscuits.

Highlights of this jam packed day included a funny take on making your first fortune by actual genius Sabirul Islam. And how Clippykits creator Calypso Rose took on the fashion world from her parent’s kitchen.

We also held a very swish awards ceremony. Big winners on the day were Edward Kirby and Poppy Hall at Staindrop school. Edward won for being a great team player, an attribute you will deffo need in business, and Poppy won for being a financial whizz, so well done them!

Staindrop was not the only school with winning talent, Mount Carmel school in Islington, North London also shone bright. Teachers Stephine Tuey and Chiara Bernesi won the Most Inspiring Teachers awards, and Tamoy Robinson won Most Inspiring Student. So a big congrats goes out to them!

But it wasn’t only the Club members awash with awards, our very own Make Your Mark-er Marilise Saghbini won Most Star Quality! We were all very proud, in fact I think I cried a little…..

The fun didn’t end there though, I had a mission to get some video interviews of the day and I was able to coerce some willing participants (victims) into giving me some really funny, interesting and informative tales about their Make Your Mark journey, so a big thank you to them!

After all that excitment I needed a long lay down, but I can’t wait for the next one, so see you there!

Diana x

PS: If you want to relive the fun of the meet up-and frankly who doesnt?-look out for the video clips being posted on the blog very soon.

Following on from our great Make Your Mark Meet up events around the regions, we will be hosting an event in partnership with the South East of England Development Agency to unleash ideas for Enterprise Week 2008!

If you are an Enterprise Week organiser, a Make Your Mark Ambassador or Connector or you simply want to know how you can involved in Enterprise Week 2008 then get signed up!

This event is your chance to learn about how Enterprise Week 2008 is going global, with some practical workshops to run a successful Enterprise Week event and the perfect opportunity to network, share ideas and get inspired!

Event details are:

Date: Tuesday 22 July

Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm

Place: Mercure London Gatwick Hotel, Povey Cross Road, Horley, Surrey RH6 0BE

Places are limited so please register at: http://unleashingenterpriseweeksoutheast.eventbrite.com

See you there!

Eimear

Did you know that it’s no longer sexy to be greedy…?

Since last year’s Enterprise Week, we’ve been asking different people about the things they think will shape enterprise culture in the future. We’ve just released a report with Demos called the Future Face of Enterprise http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Demos_FutureFaceEnterprise_web.pdf

The report summarises some of the views we gathered and brings together some more detailed chapters from a range of experts.

Lots of interesting people contributed their views. John Bird (Big Issue), Martha Lane Fox (founder of lastminute.com), Sir Ronald Cohen (Bridges venture), Tim Campbell (winner of the Apprentice), Gordon Frazer (Microsoft’s UK’s Managing Director), Gita Patel (Stargate Capital), Rebecca Harding (founder of GEM), Jamie Murray-Wells (Glassdirect.com) and loads more. Check out the views here. http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/policy/future_face_of_enterprise/who_else

So what does the work say?

 Some of the interesting things coming from this collection include:

1.      The overwhelming feeling that “it’s no longer sexy to be greedy.”(John Bird). Entrepreneurs can make a positive difference to the world and there is a need for big businesses and social entrepreneurs need to work together to scale up the impact of social and environmental ideas.

2.      Workplaces of the future need enterprising employees. Yet enterprise is often missing when we talk about employability, and companies are still reluctant to recruit and hold onto employees they perceive to be ‘risky’ entrepreneurial individuals.

3.      Local places also need to build enterprising cultures to be able to support the national drive to build enterprise culture. Local government should see their role in identifying and inspiring local enterprise talent

4.      The future of enterprise education should focus on making practical enterprise opportunities and on building ambitious, forward-thinking mindsets.

5.      If we are to make enterprise more inclusive, we should break down stereotypes of what makes an entrepreneur and focus on individual aspiration and passion. As Iqbal Wahhab (founder of the Cinnamon Club) observes, “Society must embrace diversity in enterprise and not pigeon hole people with stereotyped expectations…we should encourage the unexpected.”

6.      Entrepreneurs need informal access to business ideas, mentors and networks yet it can be overlooked by formal business support models. We need to do more to celebrate the people who enable alternative informal types of support

Have a read of the work if you’d like to know more. But what do you think is changing about entrepreneurship and enterprise culture in this country? 

A young man from Lowestoft has been chosen for the prime minister’s Global Fellowship - having found success during the Make Your Mark Challenge.

19 year-old Richard Miner from Lowestoft, is one of 100 young people chosen for the prime minister’s Global Fellowship - a programme designed to encourage and nurture oustanding talent and enterprise.

Depsite his obvious hard work and talent, Richard credits his success to the Make Your Mark team and his participation in the Make Your Mark Challenge whilst at school. During the challenge,  Richard and a group of friends established ‘UnHeard Entertainment’, a music management and PR company and as a result of their success, went on to attend the Make Your Mark in Music networking event in london, with Richard also becoming a founding member of YELP (Young Enterprising Lowestoft People) - a local network set up with the help of the local Make Your Mark team.

Richard says:  I believe strongly that getting on this chance of a lifetime, is in part due to the huge amount of support you and the whole Make Your Mark collective  gave myself and ‘UnHeard Entertainment’. It certainly allowed us to all become more knowledgeable about the ways of business and helped greatly in building a self-confidence in ourselves. The experiences that I have had due to ‘Unheard’ were priceless and I personally have a lot to owe you for those and the contacts made from Make Your Mark.”

As part of the fellowship programme, Richard is due to spend six weeks in India including two weeks in a school or college working as a language assistant and two weeks as the guest of a global company to get an understand of international business.

In November, Richard and the other fellowship members, will join the prime minister Gordon Brown to take part in ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’ as part of the Make Your Mark campaign.

The Eastern Region Make Your Mark Team would like to congratulate Richard on this fantastic achievement and highlight how participating in Enterprise Week can really help young people to make their mark!

Plymouth is the Enterprising Britain finalist for the South-West and I joined judge James Capper to find out more about how the area has changed and the ambitious plans for its future.

Plymouth has embraced enterprise as a way to transform a city centre and unite disparate areas of the community. We met people from a number of different projects that have contributed to raising the aspirations of young people in Plymouth, supported new businesses in the area and generated a sense of pride in Plymouth residents.

We heard about the University of Plymouth’s vision to turn the university into an enterprise university with enterprise education at its core, permeating all subject areas. The university actively promotes enterprise competitions and Enterprise Week activities and encourages real-life experience of enterprise: A group of young people run the Pilgrim Cafe in the univeristy and Plymouth is in the process of setting up a Young Chamber of Commerce.

Throughout the city centre colourful banners promote Plymouth Summer Festival which has spearheaded a ‘cultural renaissance’ from the Jazz & Blues Festival to Plymouth Flavour Fest, a celebration of food from the region which draws 100,000 people to the city centre. Exploiting Plymouth’s geographical position, one of the most successful events during the Festival is The Artemis Transat boat race. Re-locating the boat race to Plymouth Harbour has had a huge economic impact on the city, attracting visitors from the UK and abroad and encouraging Plymouth residents to come into the city centre to take part in the celebrations.

Plymouth has a real vision for its future and, led by a group of committed, enthusiastic business and community leaders and supporters, I have no doubt they will build on their success and continue to promote the area as a great place to live and work.

Make Your Mark in fashion is in it’s final stages and our three fabulous teams of ethical fashion entrepreneurs are working to create new stand alone ranges for their respective mentor’s business. Miawi for Junky Styling, R.A.J.E for THTC and Berrie for Enamore will launch their collections in an exclusive catwalk show at The Hopsital Club on 16th September 2008 during London Fashion Week.

To find out more about the competiton and our finalist check out www.makeyourmarkinfashion.org

Just a reminder that there’s still time to get your applications in for the Girls! Make your Mark Awards.

There are four categories of awards<a

Female Entrepreneur of the Year
Entrepreneurs with a conscience
The pioneer
handbags and gladrags

There are some great prizes to win including exclusive and unique jewellery, mentoring, cash prizes and more, so please get nominating.

The deadline for entries is July 21st.

For more details and to apply visit

What a fantastic visit to Tynedale and their enterprise network last week! An excellent example of how a deprived rural community can be transformed through enterprise. The people were so united, involved and supportive of network and the wide range of enterprise initiatives in the community.

The community brought together through a shared entrepreneurial spirit, overcoming the barriers of a population dispersed over a large geographical area and considerable deprivation (worsened still by Foot and Mouth a few years ago).

The enterprise education in schools was particularly impressive with some very dynamic head teachers working very closely together for mutual benefit and innovative ways of involving businesses in schools and exposing young people to business people and enterprising environments.

The highlight at the end of the day was a visit to a nursery that had been set up by a group of young local entrepreneurs. Jamie Murray Wells (Founder, Glassesdirect and the national judge on the visit) was asked to open the new nursery garden and new water feature for the children to play with… the group of 2yr olds playing in the garden then promptly soaked him in water from head to toe!

Are you a business person based in the North East? Would you like to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs?

Make Your Mark Enterprise Clubs are:

A dynamic network of student-led enterprise clubs, currently over 300 nationally, 35 of which are in the North East

Open to students in schools & colleges and are completely free

A great route into schools for employers and a great way to raise your own profile in TV and get positive PR

What the Make Your Mark Enterprise Clubs need from employers:

Real enterprise challenges from you e.g. design challenges or real business problems

Opportunities to talk to you and to learn from your business experiences & expertise

Support and guidance in planning their own business ventures

For you to inspire them about what is possible for them in their future

What’s in it for you?

A chance to

Work with young agile creative minds

Help develop the necessary skills in your future workforce

Raise the profile of your business

Generate lots of positive PR

Offer your staff self development opportunities

Market test some of your products with your potential customers

and …… an opportunity for you to be inspired by our young people!

If you would like to get involved, please contact Julie:

Julie@makeyourmark.org.uk / 01642 451826

It’s official - we’ve hit 61! This is the number of countries which have signed up to Global Entrepreneurship Week. Inspired by the UK’s Enterprise Week, this will be the world’s biggest-ever week celebrating and promoting the entrepreneurial spirit amongst young people.

Watch out for events and activities happening near you! To see more, check out www.unleashingideas.org.

The full list of countries is on at http://www.unleashingideas.org/countryhost. And to get involved in the UK, sign up at www.enterpriseweek.org.uk.

This is my first guest post for the Make your Mark blog so I thought what better topic to start with than making your first sale?

There are some simple steps you can follow to secure that first customer cheque – a cheque that will look so good you’d rather hang it on the wall than put it in the bank.

1. Make a list
Make a list of the people you think will be interested in your product/service. Include friends, family, contacts, colleagues and other local businesses.

2. Make your pitch
Contact the people on your list with a personal message (no one likes group email!.) Set out the benefits of what you have to offer. Include details of the cost and your contact information but don’t expect to receive dozens of immediate calls. There’s a bit of follow-up for you to do.

3. Follow up
Call your contacts, ask if they received the information and whether they’d be interested in learning more at a meeting.

4. Show up
Arrive at the meeting on time! Be friendly and professional, ask plenty about the prospective customer and respond by showing how your service/product can help them. If they agree to a deal, bring the meeting to a speedy end as it’s now time for you to head back home and deliver on what you’ve promised.

5. Tell the world
With a first sale sealed, you’re well and truly in business so be sure to tell everyone! A sale gives you a customer, credibility and a track record. And that will bring even more customers to your door.

Emma Jones is founder of the home business website, www.enterprisenation.com and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’ published by Harriman House.

Hi, Shed here… Might I say how gorgeous you look today…

This month, I’ll prove to you that the process for turning your ideas into amazing adventures is wonderfully and devilishly simple. It goes something like this: you have an idea in your head, you take steps to make it happen - then… incredible opportunities arise:

All you have to do is START DOING SOMETHING NEW…

THE WORLD’S NEWEST CELEBRITIES - let’s see what you think…

This is a great example of how an idea can cause an adventure. Three years ago, I created a new range of sweets - and unknown to me, a packet of those sweets got sent to a guy in China called ‘Dominic’. He called me up, we became great friends and three years later - just recently - Dom flew me out to Beijing for a book launch for my new title, IDEAS MAN.

Years before I made contact with Dom, I’d been trying to release a new set of ‘trading cards’ for kids (the full exciting story is chronicled in my book). The range of characters is called ‘HELLEBRITIES‘, and here are a couple:

Even though the HELLEBRITIES trading cards never got the backing for a global launch, whilst I was in China I took the opportunity to see if I could turn some characters into 3D Figurines instead. What’s brilliant about China is that there are loads of talented people over there who can help with your idea (for a much lower price than here), and they’re even reachable through the internet (just Google ‘China Manufacturers’). Here’s what the sculptor produced:

If you’re a manufacturer or a retailer and you’d like to help make the HELLEBRITIES range the huge worldwide success it deserves to be, please get in touch through my personal site.

So that shows you how one idea (my range of sweets) can then create a huge adventure (a trip to Beijing) and also make another idea come to life (the HELLEBRITIES models). Pretty exciting!

And this is proof that…

***WHEN YOU START MAKING A NEW IDEA HAPPEN, YOU NEVER QUITE KNOW WHERE IT MAY TAKE YOU…***

All the best and here’s to your ideas!

Yours,

Shed

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Shed’s bestselling, inspiring and amusing book IDEAS MAN is out now.

See more of his adventures and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk

Read Shed’s inspiring story.

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This popped into my inbox yesterday from Heidi at Innovation Central. It looks like a great opportunity for those with an good business idea to get their hands on some cash!

As we turn the corner of a new era, we need new people to help us continue with our enterprise message - As the new HR manager I am excited to have some great opportunities available to continue the enterprise message through our people. We are looking for people ready for new challenges and passionate about what we do - whether you are a self confessed enterprise junkie or want to embark on an amazing new journey you might just be in with a chance - so who’s in?

Vanessa

Enterprise Junkie - and - Make Your Mark HR Manager

The Liverpool Daily Post Business Hub have launched a Business Booster competition open to people living in Merseyside, West Lancs and Cheshire.

All you need to do is register at www.ldpbusinesshub.co.uk and you could be in with the chance of winning marketing support, free web hosting and IT support, accountancy services and business coaching and mentoring.

The winner will be announced at the LDP Business Hub event 17th and 18th June at ACC Echo Arena in Liverpool and Make Your Mark will be there running the Speednetworking Zone. The event will also feature live business debates, seminars and exhibitions so a great opportunity to come along and make some new contacts.

Hope to see you there.