Today whilst collecting my 6 year old daughter from school, I thought about this question and whether the most enterprising ideas come from a ‘Eureka’ moment or gritted teeth?
To fill you in, I’m up in beautiful Yorkshire - well it usually is beautiful but today it’s raining and snowing! This was the reason for my gritted teeth but it did give me an enterprising idea…
Even though I had only met them that day, I couldn’t help feeling pride when my buddy team Wheatley Park School came second in the Challenge - woo hoo! Their ‘value bands’ must have caught the judges’ imagination and I had my eye on their prototype ‘rainbow’ bands (hand made by the girls in the team!). I will def be collecting them when they no doubt hit the shelves in 2012!!
The team and their winning wristbands:
The team receive their prize from Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries!:
Their thoughts on winning 2nd prize:
This morning I attended the launch of a new women’s support network.
The morning was very well attended by business women and public sector people who can provide invaluable advice and help. I was given a very warm welcome by Phil Cowper and his team from the Tameside Business Family www.tamesidebusinessfamily.com .
I arrived just in time to hear an inspiring talk by Helen Thomas MD of Meredith Thomas PR Ltd www.meridiththomas.com on what makes an entrepreneur. She surprised us all at the end of her presentation by saying that she was going to be 60 next birthday and had no intention of stepping down from managing her successful business. Helen has agreed to be an ambassador for us and spread the word that it’s never to late to give it a go!
Last night I attended a fab Fab Over 50s event in Preston. Obviously I was only allowed in under my roving reporter remit! The event was light hearted and entertaining aimed at confidence building and presentation skills.
Organised by Spark ambassador, Janet Harrison www.creative-academy.co.uk in partnership with image consultant Cliff Bashforth www.simplyimage.co.uk . Cliff gave image hints and tips to an audience of 70 or more of us hanging on his every word. I found that I’m similar to Kylie (unfortunately not because of my bum) and due to a senior moment (must have been the company) I’m not quite sure why.
Today I have been at Brew Tea Bar were teams of students from 5 schools across Merseyside have been taking part in the Brew Tea Challenge.
Make Your Mark Ambassador - Phil Kirby set Year 12 students from All Saints High School, Bebbington Sports College, Broadgreen International High School, Carmel College and Pensby High for Girls the challenge of creating a new tea blend and designing a poster campaign for the new tea.
Phil opened his Brew Tea Bar in August this year and it is going from strength to strength and when I spoke to him about Enterprise Week and he mentioned this challenge we were delighted to invite schools along to take part.
Year 10 students at Pensby High for girls were treated to a visit from Wirral MP Steven Hesford and Make Your Mark Ambassadors Clare Molyneux and Tim Coleman.
Steven, Clare and Tim were on hand throughout the morning to talk to the girls about enterprise, the Make Your Mark Challenge and how they can develop and build their own enterprise skills and potential.
Mr Hesford said: “Enterprise week provides a great focus on how we can create business opportunities, particularly for our up and coming entrepreneurs of the future.
The North West Women in Business Awards 2009 have been launched!
If you are a woman entrepreneur Making Your Mark in the North West you can enter by downloading an application form from www.nwda.co.uk/women.
The awards are an opportunity to celebrate, recognise and reward the entrepreneurial talent of women in the North West and to inspire others and promote enterprise as an option to other women in the region.
Last Thursday I attended the Liverpool John Moores University Graduate Entrepreneurs Awards Event held at the new Studio 2 @ Parr Street Studios. The event was a great success with a lovely venue, food and drink. But the best thing about the evening was too see the great enterprising talent that has come from Liverpool John Moores University Start Up Programme.
Liverpool John Moores does a great a job of nurturing enterprise talent in the city and the event recognised those that actively support it with the Young Enterprise Volunteer of the Year Award which went to Make Your Mark Ambassador Julia Emelogu of Maximum Impact Solutions.
Enterprise isn’t always what springs to mind when you think of British seaside towns but Scarborough Renaissance Project-Waking Sleeping Beauty is proving that even the most challenging economic environments can be turned round to create a thriving business community.
The project was announced as winner of the Enterprising Britain competition 2008 at an awards ceremony held at No 11 Downing Street. The award was presented to representatives from Scarborough by Peter Jones and they certainly seemed to be pleased with their win.
Scarborough provides a great example to other seaside towns of how to use public regeneration funding to begin a process of attracting private money back into the local economy.
Technology is the best of things and sometimes the worst…..
Here was me getting all excited at 8pm last night, had just edited a fantastic video blog of some fo the amazing people we went yesteday and at 1.30 this morning it was still struggling to load!! Technology hey? Well maybe i was just being a bit optomistic thinking i could load a video via a dongle!!!
Anyway, yesterday was fantastic. We met so many incredible people and saw somw brilliant businesses but i will have to fill you in on all of that later. Today you see we are gedding over the Lancaster University to interview some of thier young businesses followed by the Golden Mile of Blackpool and the Hero Project.
T-4 hours!
Welcome to the first of a week of blogs tracking the adventures of Helen ‘Phileas’ Kerr and my trusty companion Paul’partout’ Corcoran. We are to to set sail in 4 hours and already have hit trouble. Earlier in the week I was required to have very nice AA man fit my car after it broke down, and we have had to contend with a potential stowaway!
Three Make Your Mark Ambassadors have been nominated for Juice fm’s Liverpool Style Awards in the Business Enterprise category. Tom Stanley - The Jamm Factory, Lucy Byrne - Dot Art and Phil Kirby - Brew Tea Bar have all been nominated and are looking for your votes.
You can vote online at http://www.juicefm.com/promo/093008_styleawards/vote_business.php and voting closes at 5pm Friday 14th November.
The awards ceremony itself takes place during Enterprise Week on Saturday 22nd November at the Palm House in Liverpool so get voting and come back after Enterprise Week to find out who won!
Get charged up! and accelerate your business success at an inspiring group coaching circle.
This fun, stimulating, energy fuelled session is for young people with a business idea, or a start-up enterprise on Merseyside. The session will not only help you to achieve your business goals, but also provides a valuable opportunity to build strong referral relationships and broaden your contacts.
The FREE event is brought to you by Striding Out in Liverpool - a new scheme dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs in Merseyside.
The Paul O’ Grady show yesterday featured Scouser’s breakfast, a loose leaf tea available at Brew Tea Bar set up by one of our newest Make Your Mark Ambassadors – Phil Kirby.
Scousers breakfast is one of the many delicious loose leaf tea’s available at Brew Tea Bar, others include Skinny Tea, Mint and Chilli and a selection of tea smoothies and lattes. However it was the Scousers breakfast which appeared on Paul O’ Grady’s Channel 4 show yesterday earning it its first celebrity fan! Not bad for tea!
On Tuesday night the team here hosted the launch of Striding Out at the Make Your Mark Ambassador meet up which was held at the exclusive Hard Days Night hotel.
The evening was a great success with a fantastic turn out from the Make Your Mark Ambassadors and local partners including Liverpool Vision, Blue Orchid, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Liverpool, School for Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprise Network.
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