Make Your Mark Blog

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.

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).

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:

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.

Craig Dearden-Phillips, social entreprenuer, UK Social Enterprise Ambassador and author dropped in today to meet us at Make Your Mark. Craig is best known for setting up the social enterprise SpeakingUp which supports and empowers people with learning difficulties, disabilities and mental health problems to speak up for themselves.

We talked about all things social enterprise, the Make Your Mark: Change Lives campaign, Social Enterprise Day and links with Global Entreprenuership Week and how we could possibly work together. As an avid networker it also turned out that we knew some of the same social entreprenuers (or is more a case of we have narrow networks?!) including Tom Savage and Matt Stevenson-Dodd who were both interviewed in his inspirational book, Your Chance to Change the World - the no fibbing to social enterprise.

We extend a warm welcome to our newest North East Make Your Mark Clubs…

Abbey Hill School & Technology College, Ashdale, Carmel RC Technology College, Conyers School, , Hartlepool Sixth Form College, Haydon Bridge High School, Hirst Park Middle School, Kings Academy School, Kings Manor School, Longfield Comprehensive School, Norton Humanities College, Pathways, Prior Pursglove, St Bede’s Catholic Comprehensive School, St David’s RC Technology College, St Hild’s Church of England, St Mary’s Catholic Comprehensive School, St Michael’s Roman Catholic VA Comprehensive School, St Peter’s Roman Catholic VA Comprehensive School, Thornaby Community School, English Martyrs, Bydales Comprehensive School & Unity City Academy.

There is still time to register to join us at a special North East event, exclusively for Enterprise Week event organisers , delivery partners and supporters of the campaign.

Date: Tuesday 1st July

Time: 12 noon - 3pm

Location: Beamish Hall Hotel, DH9 0YB

For more information, contact the Make Your Mark Team on 01642 451826

Its official…. we have a local meet up planned exclusively for North East Make Your Mark Clubs.

It takes place on September 29th , 0915am for 0945 - 1230pm.

It is set to be THE networking event of the new school year. Places are limited, so please contact [email protected] ASAP to book your places or for more information!

We have a summer time referral scheme, where teachers can win a prize!

To welcome our new Clubs and as a thank you to our existing Clubs, we are launching a competition exclusively for North East Make Your Mark Clubs!

Simply answer the following challenge:

What is YOUR school or college going to do to put it on the map during Enterprise Week 2008 and why should we launch Enterprise Week 2008 there?

Tips and tricks:

Ø Although the students in the Make Your Mark Club will be responsible for pulling all ideas together, why not get the whole school to contribute with suggestions?

Enterprising teenagers have glided down the catwalk, modelling prom dresses supplied by top local designer, Kate Fearnley.

The students from St Peters Catholic College in Middlesbrough incorporated high fashion with African dance in an evening of ethical glitz and glamour. Kate Fearnley, Make Your Mark Ambassador and designer to the stars, helped the students turn their ideas for an eco friendly fashion show into reality.

Last week’s event has shown that being fashion conscious and being eco friendly can go hand in hand as all materials used were ethically sourced.

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.

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…