Make Your Mark Blog

Having just spent my first day in Abuja with the Global Entrepreneurship Week Nigeria team (lead by UNESCO Centre Abuja), and some of its partners, I am feeling totally inspired.

In the first half of the day, I did a short presentation on Global Entrepreneurship Week and its aims, and gave a brief background on Enterprise Week and its history. About 40 people joined us for the meeting and it was held in the offices of the team’s recently acquired strategic partner, the Abuja Enterprise Agency. Many of the attendees travelled very far for the meeting (it is over 300 miles apart), from different states, but they were all passionate and united by the same thing - building economies and communities through youth entrepreneurship. Attending organizations included Junior Achievement Nigeria (it’s called Young Enterprise in the UK), the Nigerian Association of Students, SIFE Nigeria, and a range of other NGO and state representatives. We were also joined by the Global EW Host organization from Cameroon, Youth Business Cameroon.

If you’re a shopaholic and you like the thought of trading clothes, this could be the opportunity for you!

BBC2 is about to launch a brand new fashion show called Twiggy’s Frock Exchange, hosted by Twiggy, Lauren Laverne and Grazia magazine’s Paula Reed. The show will offer 100 women the chance to swap quality old clothes and get styling tips from the experts.

To be part of the swapping fun you need to be prepared to part with 5 good quality items of clothing – and in return you have the chance to walk away with 5 ‘new’ items. What one person has grown tired of or doesn’t fit into anymore may be someone else’s next party outfit – without any money being spent!

Hunter and Taylor, identical twins aged 7 who live in Australia, have been talking on and off about starting their own business for years. They had been taking old Lego parts to school and selling them for a dollar to kids in the playground. After they each saved up their small pocket money allowances over two years to buy individual laptops - they decided they wanted to make enough money to buy an iMac. After a few days of discussion, business planning and logo design, they have now launched Kids Candle Company and are blogging about their progress.

Channel 4 is currently searching for philanthropic stars of the future to take part in its hit series, The Secret Millionaire.

In fact our very own ambassador Ben Way was a knight in shining armour during the 2006 series, when he gave £40,000 of his fortune to Hackney charities!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, each programme follows a different benefactor as they face the challenge of living ‘undercover’ in a socially deprived area of the UK.

Last week I attended the south-east region meet-up at the Mercure Hotel in Gatwick. The day was a great success and kicked off with some speednetworking which broke the ice and got everyone mingling. We then heard from Jane at Buckingham New University about what she got up to during Enterprise Week last year and what they’re planning for this year’s Enterprise Week. We then heard an inspiring story from local entrepreneur Dominique Oliver who told us about setting up her business in film training, Resource Productions.

The Morgan Foundation Entrepreneur Awards are designed to find a new generation of role models - whether they are new businesses, young entrepreneurs or social enterprises with vision and drive who are based in North Wales, Merseyside, West Cheshire, Shropshire and the Wolverhampton area . We are also looking for a special person or business that has overcome obstacles and succeeded ‘against the odds’.

In 2008 there is over £150,000 of prizes on offer, made up of professional services and £105,000 cash, split over 5 categories which include

• Best New Business (less than 4 years old)

Ok so I’ve stolen my headline from the Sun’s article but hey it’s a goodun.

This morning I went to the UK Catalyst Award ceremony which was a glittering affair attended by nearly 200 people with an interest in how technology is being used to tackle social issues. The winners included Gordon Brown’s favourite (yes he was there) savvychavvy.com which brings gypsy travellers together online to discuss common issues and change society’s perceptions about them.

Earlier this week Make Your Mark hosted a women’s only Ambassador Event at Wild Rose Florist in Hartlepool.

Our thanks to Natalie Mullen for proving such a lovely venue. The shop smelt and looked GORGEOUS! Nathalie is a successful young entrepreneur and now employs four people. She has always wanted her own florists and got her first break by recommendation and feels that her business has grown on recommendations.

There was some great networking going on at the event and we were pleased that our guests left with some useful new contacts.

The Make Your Mark team here in the North East recently had some great photography training courtesy of Make Your Mark Ambassador, Michael Kelly of Construct photographic . Pamela, Ann, Katy and I learned so much from the session. Having started the session not knowing my Aperture from my Exposure, I left so much more confident.

Michael showed us the science behind the camera, how to select the right settings and most importantly for us novices….how to compose a great picture! Look out for some seriously good photos from the Make Your Mark North East team coming soon!!

Two quite different but very exciting young entrepreneur awards are open for entries now!

Are you the UK’s Young Design Entrepreneur 2008? Are you passionate about design, an innovator looking for entrepreneurial ways to move the UK design industry forward? Are you looking to broaden your international business opportunities and to build your network? If this sounds like you then you could be the inaugural winner of this prestigious new award from the British Council, with support from the Cultural Leadership Programme. For more entry details and closing date have a look at http://www.creativeconomy.org.uk/ukyde08

The free papers are not just a hot bed of salacious gossip and fashion tips but also good ideas. Surprised? Well so was I but amongst the pictures of WAGs falling out of tacky clubs an advertisement for an event called Time Banking lay in wait.

Time Banking is an ingenious idea. You get the chance to swap skills and talents with like minded individuals, all within handy hour sized chunks.

So if you’re handy with budgets, finance and Excel Spreadsheets, but would like to get some tips in design to enhance your marketing materials, then Time Banking may be for you.

The world is more enterprising than ever before, so is work experience preparing young people for this?

Consider the following:

1. The world of work is changing

• Jobs for life are extinct…Portfolio working, changing careers, increased life expectancy and ageing population
• Interest in entrepreneurship on the rise and lifestyle businesses are increasingly popular
• The internet and technology, and globalisation are (arguably) creating a ‘flat world’, and reducing the costs to business start-up

(The NESTA project we’re involved with summarises all this better than i can - see the Future World of Work http://www.nesta.org.uk/future-world-of-work/))

Any enterprising person should put this in their diary!

The Eastern Region Enterprise Week Meet Up is going to be held on the 17th September 2008!

Where: Ipswich Town Football Club

Time: 10am-2pm (lunch included)

Join us to get fresh ideas and tips on how to participate and get the chance to see what Enterprise Week is all about and how beneficial an enterprise culture can be!

The event is also a great place to network with local companies as well as Make Your Mark ambassadors and champions.

PLTS are:

• team working
• independent enquiry
• self-management
• reflective learning
• effective participation
• creative thinking

For example, regarding INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY

The student-led aspects of the Make Your Mark Club, and the journey of discovery embarked on to make an idea happen enable the following skills to be developed:

They make dreams, they break dreams and all without getting up from their leather chairs! (Which do look very posh. Heals darling?)…that’s right I’m talking about the Dragons of the Den!

And we here at Make Your Mark are already wondering how we would pitch our ideas to Dragons, (a portable cake making machine anyone?) without getting a lick of their fiery wrath.