Getting a glimpse of future entrepreneurs is a show stopping moment – so you can imagine our delight when we were treated to a wide range of entrepreneurial ideas and skills from over seventy students who visited our stand at this year’s Student Enterprise Show and participated in our very own ‘Ideas MashUp!’.
This week I popped along to see Make Your Mark in the Mall finalist Benjamin Allen. Benjamin, who, along with his dad, run Raphael. With two shops already established and running in Norwich and Lowestoft, Benjamin saw the Make Your Mark in the Mall competition as a way of testing the water for some new products.
Raphael currently source their products, which include jewellery and sculptures from Indonesia - visiting the country two or three times a year and sourcing producs from over 70 familes. Benjamin pointed out that by doing this, these families were given guaranteed regular work and paid for their work fairly.
This is, as you can probably tell from the use of capitals in the title, a very excited blog post.
Why you wonder? Well, not only has summer began (A girl can hope right?) but you can now vote for your favourite Enterprising Young Brit in the People Choice award! Hurrah!
The entrants this year are all pretty ace and amazing and by voting, you will be participating in patting them on the back while saying “Hey, you know what? I totally love what you’re doing with your business, you’re way cool and I want to play a part in shouting out about how great you are. I also really like your hair.” All figuratively of course.
With the Make Your Mark in the Markets competition nearing its deadline I braved the cold (and believe me it was cold!) to talk to shoppers in Halifax about their local market. I also had budding entrepreneurs on my shopping list alongside bagging a few bargains.
I admit I didn’t quite know what to expect – but I have to say it was a great experience for all the senses. Halifax’s Borough Market was bustling, great smells and the general hum of chatter with bursts of market speech – good old booming voices from traders, a characteristic we have all come to know and love about markets.
With the help of two businesses in the region, it cost less than £320 to help 18-year old Dean Jeffries turn his life around from not having a great deal of burning career ambition to actually setting up his own social enterprise and wanting to take it forward as a real career opportunity when he leaves school.
Dean who is from Catcote School in Hartlepool has blossomed academically since undergoing the YENE Team Programme, which is an educational enterprise programme for people aged 15- 19 with learning difficulties.
The following is taken directly from the Global Fellowship website and gives and overview of the project:
2008 marked the launch of the Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship, a pilot programme for 100 young people from England, designed to take them through a series of new inter-cultural experiences that will highlight issues of language, culture, economic growth and development in one of the three of the world’s fastest and most important emerging economies. All Fellows are 18 or 19 years old and finishing full-time education or apprenticeships, are drawn from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and represent a truly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic England. This opportunity marks a conscious step in developing the skills and confidence to turn the challenges of living in an interdependent world into opportunities and the ability to make the most of them. No matter where or how they live, it matters that today’s generation of young people grow up understanding first-hand what globalization means for all people.
During Enterprise Week 3 local colleges who helped re-launch the Federation of Small Businesses’ Keep Trade Local campaign.
The winning photographs have been revealed! Here are the 6 winning shots (in no particular order!), they really capture the spirit of the campaign and will be featured on the Federation of Small Businesses’ 2009 calendar.
Well done to the students of Hartlepool Sixth Form, Prior Pursglove and The English Martyrs Sixth Form!
Mikey Naylor, from Selby High School, had a great time this week when he and nine of his mates went to visit Xing, a smoothie company in Hull.
Having launched a competition to ask students to come up with a great name for a brand new smoothie, Mikey put forward the winning idea - ‘Yum yum, healthy tum’ giving him and his friends the chance to spend a day with the smoothie entrepreneurs.
Not only were the team able to ask questions about the company and how it all started they also got the chance to whiz up their very own tasty treats – our tummies are rumbling at the thought!
Well, what a month and more importantly what a CHALLENGE - our biggest and best ever!
Special congratulations have to go to Crawshaw School in Leeds and Holy Trinity Senior School in Halifax for their fantastic efforts in reaching the Make Your Mark Challenge national finals.
The competition was fierce and although the schools didn’t take the title of national Make Your Mark Challenge winner they certainly proved that enterprise is alive and kicking in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
For some GEW may be a distant yet fond memory of fun and enterprise, but in Yorkshire the embers are still burning thanks to the Make Your Mark ambassadors and mentors who continue to support the campaign and offer great feedback about the week that was crammed with activities.
We’ve met some great ambassadors on our GEW journey – some old and some new, but something they all have in common is inspiration and a genuine desire to make Yorkshire and the Humber an enterprising region.
In 2009 WinWeb will celebrate it’s 15th anniversary by hosting a Business’09 Competition to win £10,000 or an equivalent currency value for small business owners or budding start up business entrepreneurs.
Make Your Mark are supporting this excellent initiative and recommend that you take a look at the details below.
All that is required is that you let WinWeb know what you would do with the money for your business. Would you start your dream business? Start a business from home? Invest it in your current business and finish a long planned project?
Danielle Dunn worked with students from Bedlington Enterprise Group on a the ‘Here and There’ photography project. The students went into Newcastle and took photos for the river, landmarks and all things that represented ‘Our Newcastle’.
For Enterprise week they decided to frame the pictures and sell them at market. Not even the students imagined the photos would look so good and prove so popular! The students took £1000 in orders in 24 hours! The began selling on Thursday at lunchtime, on the awards evening in school and then at the market in school and in Bedlington on Friday of Enterprise Week.
Year 8 and 9 students from Bedlingtonshire Community High School paired up with local entrepreneur Danielle Dunn over Enterprise Week. The students had great fun making soaps and selling them at the international market in Northumberland. They raised a staggering £550 over just 2 days! Their designs were stunning, I’m sure you’ll agree.
They not only used their creative skills to design and make the soaps, but also displayed selling skills and initiative when they persuaded the customers to buy their wares.
Well done to all the students involved!
Students from Hartlepool Sixth Form College, Prior Pursglove and The English Martyrs joined forces with the FSB to re-launch the Keep Trade Local campaign. The students were coached by Make Your Mark Ambassador and professional photographer, Michael Kelly and he accompanied them into town where they took photos of the high street. The students produced some high quality, well thought out photographs which made up a portfolio which was displayed in Darlington market. The students not only had the chance to display their photos on the market stall, but also chatted to local people and enlisted signatures for the Keep Trade Local campaign.
Congratulations to our North East Make Your Mark Challenge Regional Winner! The competition was fierce, the entries of such a high standard that our judges had the toughest time! The ideas were amazing and the styles of presenting were fabulous. I won’t give too much away just yet however as the competition doesn’t come to a climax until December 9th!
Congratulations to our morning winner, Spennymoore School in Durham and our afternoon winner, Nunthorpe School.
And our overall winner? Nunthorpe School in Middlesbrough. Well done for being chosen to represent the North East in the National Final.
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