Make Your Mark Blog

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

Our very own Harry Rich tells Rachel Bridge at the Sunday Times why Make Your Mark is no longer just for the ‘young’ and how he doesn’t believe everybody has the qualities needed to set up their own business.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3867146.ece

If you would like to go to a Reception at Buckingham Palace, can you think of someone you could nominate for The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion 2009?

The nominators of the successful candidates also get a Royal invitation so it is will worth making a nomination.

Each year there are up to 10 Awards plus a Lifetime Achievement Award, if there is a suitable candidate.

Previous recipients include Jane Delfino, Innovations Director at the United Learning Trust within the Manchester Academy who is a Board Member of Enterprise Insight.

For further details and a nomination form go to www.queensawards.org.uk/individual

Coaxing the over 50s, ethnic and disabled people into starting their own businesses could produce a £9bn boost to the economy within four years, says a Cass Business School study supported by Microsoft.

The groups are described as the “hidden innovators” in research suggesting they are likely to stay the business course longer than the younger generation of entrepreneurs, given encouragement, advice and confidence.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/12/cnoaps112.xml

 As announced recently in the Government’s Enterprise Strategy Make Your Mark is currently doing some scoping research into unleashing enterprise potential of over-50s, 4 ethnic minorities and women. We will definately be taking note of the findings in this study.

Check out the latest BBC online blog http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7315598.stm

from entrepreneur and Make Your Mark ambassador Kulveer - who has just sold his company which he runs with his cousin for ‘millions of dollars’.

His move to Sillicon Valley in the States has undoubtedly played a part and I wonder whether we can ever hope to reproduce this fostering environment for tech companies in the UK. It’s a point which Kulveer raises within a view point he wrote for us last year.

http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/policy/future_face_of_enterprise/who_else/viewpoints/stoz/

Let us know what you think…

Have you seen the Government’s new Enterprise Strategy?

You can view it at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_08/documents/bud_bud08_enterprise.cfm  

Make Your Mark welcomes the focus on untapped potential in new strategy.  

Commenting on the strategy Harry Rich, Make Your Mark Chief Executive, commented:  “We welcome the strategy’s endorsement of our achievements to date and look forward to building on this success.  Since 2004 our programmes have unlocked the talents of young people and encouraged 200,000 more 16-24 year olds to start a business. By widening our reach and releasing untapped potential irrespective of background, gender or race we aim to have a similar impact in areas such as women, ethnic minorities and the over 50s.“

Enterprise Insight’s Make Your Mark campaign will lead on the following areas of the new Enterprise Strategy: 

To build an enterprise culture… “The Make Your Mark campaign has been increasing the number of people who see the value of being entrepreneurial, are inspired to engage in enterprising activity and have the self-belief and confidence to do so. “Since 2004 Enterprise Week has engaged over 1.5 million young people in enterprising activities. The number of young people having business ideas was 50% higher for participants in Enterprise Week 2007 than in non-participants.” 

“We will continue to focus on inspiring young people to make their ideas happen – through high profile platforms such as national Enterprise Week, which will this year become part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, jointly co-ordinated by Make Your Mark and the US Kaufmann Foundation; and strategic partnerships including work with the Premier League to use football as an enterprise engagement tool. In addition we will focus on releasing the untapped potential of women through a high profile media campaign and other groups including the over-50s and ethnic minorities.” 

To increase enterprise knowledge and skills…“The Make Your Mark campaign is working to increase the number of people who have enterprise experiences, skills and capability and are ambitious to apply their talents in entrepreneurial ways.”

“We are glad that the strategy recognises the need for a consistent enterprise education journey for young people delivered through new investment in enterprise in primary and further education, and ensuring all new Diplomas place enterprise at their heart. We will continue to help build enterprise skills and capabilities through the roll-out of student-led Make Your Mark clubs, in 90 schools and 30 FE colleges. Clubs provide space for students to develop business ideas outside the classroom. “ 

“We will be working in close partnership with the National Enterprise Academy, focusing on sharing best practice and developing enterprise skills and knowledge. We will also be working with RDAs to embed mentoring capabilities within Spark, the Women’s Enterprise Ambassador Network.”

Are you an employee who would really like to start a business? What’s holding you back? Well, the Household Survey of Entrepreneurship identified five key barriers for employees who want to start up a business including:

• Fear of debt
• Fear of failure
• Losing the security of a job
• Worry of not making enough money
• Not enough time to put into a start-up whilst employed

Any of those sounds familiar? So what’s the solution?

Here are some great examples of employers who give their staff time off work to explore starting a business or developing an enterprising new project:

CAP Création Sarthe, France

French law allows every employee unpaid leave to start-up. This ‘enterprise sabbatical’ can last up to two years and if the business fails, entrepreneurs return to their jobs. CAP Création Sarthe, has taken this further and with funding from the council, financially supports those wanting to take the leap. During the first six months of starting up, entrepreneurs receive 70% of their salary, receiving 50% of their salary in the next six months. Entrepreneurs also have access to business advisors. A total of 28 companies have been set up since 2002, when the scheme started, and 96 jobs have been created.

Google 20% time

Through its ’20 per cent time’ initiative Google encourages its engineers to spend one day a week, or 20% of their time, on projects that are unrelated to work. The initiative has helped the company dramatically expand its offerings, including, for instance gmail.

Friday Entrepreneurs Initiative

Northumberland County Council has developed the Friday Entrepreneurs Initiative gives council employees the opportunity to take one unpaid day per week to pursue other enterprise opportunities from their desks at work. The aim of the initiative is to make an innovative contribution towards the growth of enterprise in Northumberland.

If you are an employee but would really like to be an entrepreneur – what would help you take the leap?

If you are already an entrepreneur - what helped you take the plunge?

I had coffee with Mariska from our policy team on Friday and we were talking about the ‘fear of failure’ that stops many people from starting a business. But what exactly is the fear? Is it things like fear of losing money, fear of the shame if it doesn’t work out, fear of taking the plunge and leaving the comfort zone of a secure job? Is it a fear of perceived barriers or real barriers?

Tell us what you think….

1) If you have started a business, what made you take the plunge?

2) If you have a business idea but haven’t taken the plunge, what are you afraid of?

3) What kind of business support initiatives would help people overcome the fear of failure?

Put your comments in the box below - thanks!

Interest piece about a researcher who disputes Malcolm Gladwell’s vaunted “Tipping Point” model of how social ideas spread in society.

What do you reckon? Are Super Influencers overrated?

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/28/tippingpoint-skeptic.html

Gordon Frazer from Microsoft make a case for a certain kind of intrpreneurship, and quotes our very own Peter Grigg along the way… http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/12/06/228478/how-to-nurture-innovation-in-your-business.htm

Winner of the Enterprising Britain competition, North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone (NSRZ) and Enterprising Britain runner–up, The Paper Trail, are celebrating again today following the European Enterprise Awards.   

NSRZ was crowned the runner-up in the Enterprise Support category, while The Paper Trail was announced as the runner-up in the Responsible Entrepreneurship category at the awards ceremony, which took place in
Portugal. The projects beat off competition from over 350 entrants across
Europe.  

Welcoming the news, Stephen Timms, Enterprise Minister, said: 

“North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone and The Paper Trail are fantastic examples of British enterprise and thoroughly deserves this recognition. By adopting a positive “can do” approach to local enterprise and regeneration, both initiatives have helped to transform the social and economic prospects of their areas. I congratulate the teams behind the projects wholeheartedly.”  

North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone, which covers the urban core of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-Under-Lyme, was recognised for successfully transforming one of the most deprived areas in
Britain into an economic hub of enterprise activity.  

Following a massive decline in their traditional industries, North Staffordshire was branded by Barclays in 2003 as the ‘worst place in
England to start a business’. Since then, the various projects set-up by NSRZ have helped to reverse the decline by encouraging and supporting over 500 new start-up businesses and helping to create more than 1,000 new jobs.  

NSRZ has created 21 sustainable social enterprises in
North Staffordshire schools, giving over 7,500 young people the opportunity to run a real business. One example of a school-based business is The Mitchell Juice bar, an enterprise that was set up in

Mitchell
High School with a £12,000 funding grant from NSRZ. The students run all aspects of the business and all profits are ploughed back into the enterprise.  

The Paper Trail, a unique enterprise initiative that has converted a Victorian paper mill and disused industrial buildings into a self-financing centre for education and innovation, was recognised for bringing social and economic success to the local community.  

The Paper Trail offers a wide range of income generating activities, including recycled paper making, conference facilities, schools’ enterprise projects and training courses.  Since it was first established in 2002, the initiative has housed over 26 start-up and small businesses, created at least 300 indirect employment opportunities and helped local recycled paper production to increase by 65 per cent.  

 Happy Social Enterprise Day, folks.

Went to the launch of Make Your Mark in 60 seconds this morning. It’s always great fun to see real enterprise week events with young kids. They’re always so lively and daft. Some great ideas coming through - a car door handle that takes photos of thieves, a recycling scheme that raises money to make diabetic armbands to wake you up, you know that sort of thing…

Is social enterprise becoming mainstream now then? Went onto a BERR staff event where staff were learning about this and sustainable development.   We heard some great examples of social enterprise in action - the Sherwood Energy Village in particular is amazing - check it out http://www.sev.org.uk/.  But the points that stuck in my mind where from Tom Savage, formerly known as Swampy of Mercer Street, who described how he resisted the path of social enterprise in setting up his new green recruitment business http://www.brightgreentalent.com/our-team/ because he felt that he could have more of an impact on society and the environment through mainstream business. The challenge seems to remain about scaling up social entrepreneurship - any ideas how this could be done? Should it be done? Ideas on a postcard please to our future face of enterprise work http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/policy/future_face_of_enterprise

Gordon Brown launched global Enterprise Week literally minutes ago.

Ten countries are on board already, ranging from India, to the US to China. Twenty-six countries are at the Global Enterprise Workshop today, covering coalition building, obtaining sponsorship, social media, and, most importantly, how to reach out to young people and help them to turn their ideas into reality.

The enthusiasm of the participants is truly contagious!

Think of it, we have over 5000 events taking place nationwide this year in the UK…how many could we get globally? Tens of thousands!

Right, better get going as we are starting a brainstorming session on ideas for events and activities for Global Enterprise Week…

‘Mindset’ is the most important driver for successful enterprise. This is what Ben Verwaayen, BT CEO, said at an event about the ‘future face of enterprise’ in London this morning.

Now I know everyone will say that’s common sense but the logic behind it did strike a few chords with me. Verwaayen was speaking about globalisation and innovation in the context of enterprise.

On innovation, he said technology was only the first phase of a successful venture. A good business model to implement innovative ideas was far more important. But even more critical was finding the right talent for your business. This could be anywhere in the world. “Talent has no passport, no gender, no age”, Verwaayen said. Spot on.

Verwaayen went on to say that he was looking for the best talent, not necessarily the brightest. The best talent had the desire to go the extra mile. This brought him onto ‘mindset’. The capacity to do something different, to get into a market early and to continually learn new things was critical to success. I thought this was absolutely right too. The future face of enterprise in a nutshell.

For background, I went to the ‘Future Face of Enterprise’ conference at the British Library this morning. Hosted by make Your Mark www.makeyourmark.org.uk , the event kicked off the 4th Enterprise Week www.enterpriseweek.org. It was a great, inspiring session with talks by Ben Verwaayen (CEO BT www.bt.com) Joanna Shields (President of Bebo www.bebo.com ) and others.

Dirk

I’ve just come back from our Future Face of Enterprise policy event and it was fab! Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the audience was very engaged. I think we could have continued the discussion for much longer.

The speakers were inspirational. I was particularly inspired by Farzana Baduel and Julie Meyer. They both made some strong points about the need for work-life balance when it comes to women entre- and intra-preneurs. But why not for male entre- and intra-preneurs? I think both men and women should have a decent work-life balance, not only for their personal benefit, but also to ensure family, and thus social, cohesion. For instance, I’m living in the sticks at the moment and took the 6:20 train (no comment…) to be at the conference centre on time. I thought the train would be empty but it was packed! All those commuters, mainly men, woke up at 5:30, like me, but they do it every day! What time do they go to bed and when do they see their kids? Do they only eat take-out or does their partner have a meal ready, which the main income earner eats in the half hour between coming home and dropping dead in bed? Another area where some culture change would be welcome, in my humble opinion.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO of BT and a fellow Dutchman (Dutchperson?) made some interesting points about web 2.0 and how it opens the door to participation. Whereas before you’d have to move to take advantage of opportunities, now you just need a computer, he said, to access opportunities.

I like the idea of ‘e-inclusion’ but, having just come back from 8 months in SE Asia, I’m not so sure to what extent it’s changing the world. In a sense, doesn’t it just propagate the status quo, with the lower socio-economic classes not having access to these networks? The guy who ironed my shirts in the streets of Delhi for 5 rupees certainly doesn’t have a Facebook profile (in fact, he probably can’t read). And even if he did, would the networks he could access be the right ones? I heard a story in Nepal of a man who responded to one of those dodgy emails (we all receive them from time to time) from some obscure person claiming to have millions in an African bank account, but just needing you to give him 50 quid so he can access it and share all the cash with you. The man sold his house because he believed ‘investing’ in the sender of the email would make him rich. He lost everything. My point is that, even if e-inclusion/participation is extending opportunity to more people around the globe, the vast majority are still left out.

As you can see, the conference definitely stimulated my thinking. I’ll stop my blabbing now and leave you to read a shorter, snappier blog…

Photo: From left to right: Farzana Baduel (Founder, TaxClaim), Julie Meyer (Founder and Chief Exec, Ariadne Capital), Maive Rute (Enterprise and Industry Directorate General, European Commission), Stephen Timms (Minister of State with responsibility for Enterprise, BERR), Phil Hope (Parliamentary Secretary with responsibility for Social Enterprise, Cabinet Office), Joanna Shields (President International, Bebo) and Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Corporate and Legal Affairs Director, Tesco).

M