Weekly Update

Today is the last day of Enterprising Minds! It’s been an amazing four weeks, and we hope you’ve all enjoyed it. We’ve had some fantastic reports from so many of you- it’s great to hear that your business have done so well! So we hope that you all give it a final push today, and help bring these last four weeks to a great end.

Yesterday was our Business Inspiration Workshop at RBS head office. Thanks to everyone who attended, we hope you all had a great time. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, here’s a quick explanation of what happened:

The day was split into four activities, each group having the opportunity to try out a range of workshops and improving their business skills. There was ‘Tell Us What You Think,’ where we had some amazing artistic representations of your experiences of Enterprising Minds. There was ‘The World of Work,’ where NatWest Money Sense gave fantastic insight into what it’s like to work in business. Finally, there was the Barnardo’s Dragons, where groups pitched ideas to our Barnado’s investors. There was also a fantastic tour of the Bank Of England provided by MoneySense NatWest.

We had some amazing posters and pitches to us, and we’re so glad so many of you were able to join, and tell us more about what you’ve been doing since you started back in November.

Even though it’s our last week, we’re still looking for updates and want to know what you’ve all been up to. Would you do Enterprising Minds again? If you went to the Business Inspiration Workshop yesterday, we’d love to know what you thought of the day. What was your favourite activity?

So congratulations to all of you! Thank you so much for taking part, and for helping to raise money for vulnerable children. Comment below, and let us know your thoughts!  

Entrepreneurs Post

Good morning Young Entrepreneurs! It’s the final week of Enterprising Minds, and we hope that it all goes well for you.

As our final entrepreneurs post, we’re featuring another entrepreneur that many of you mentioned as your inspiration in your applications. So we hope this small insight into their lives continues to bring you inspiration!

Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson is one of the most successful business men in the UK, best known for Virgin group, which has over 400 companies. Richard began his career at just sixteen years old, when he published a magazine called Student. After leaving school, he entered the music industry and began selling records at a cheaper price than the average high street stores. This was a very successful method, and after starting just a mail order business, he opened his first store in 1972.

He then moved onto opening a record label, which many famous bands signed onto, including the Sex Pistols, who no other record label would sign. He signed over his record label to EMI in 1992. His most famous enterprise, Virgin Airlines, began in 1984 and is the second largest British long-haul international airline.

Since then, Richard Branson has become involved in many different projects. These include Virgin Healthcare, Virgin Mobile, Virgin cola and Virgin Galactic, which began in 2004 and will be space tourism company.

He is also known as being a risk-taker, having stated in his autobiography that owning an airline was a huge risk that he couldn’t help but take.  He has made many attempts to beat world records in various forms. These include beating the record for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1986, and he created the largest hot air balloon, and used it to cross the Atlantic in 1987, being the first person to ever do this.

Richard received his knighthood in 1999 and has published many books including his autobiography, which is an international best-seller.

We hope that his story inspires you to do something unexpected that may seem impossible to you. You never know until you try, and although you may not be successful the first time, you continue to keep trying.

Weekly Update

Good afternoon Young Entrepreneurs! We hope that your third week has gone well. We’ve had some fantastic updates, and we’re looking forward to seeing what you all do in your final week.

Our Business Inspiration Workshop Day in London is next week. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you who’ve signed up on Thursday 8^th. It’s going to be a great day! Unfortunately the deadline has passed for the sign ups, but if you think you’ve signed up and we haven’t got back to you, please do email us.

So let’s see what you’ve all been up to!

The Bellators have had a very successful week, having raised £50 in cake sales which will help fund a gig that is happening next week. We’re really excited to see how this goes, but they are off to a fantastic start!

One of our ambassador groups, Threads have had another great week. By using innovative and interesting ways to attract their customers, including advertising in assemblies, and members of the group encouraging people to come inside and buy as they walked passed. They’ve also tailored their bracelets to appeal to the likes of their target audience:

‘My group think that we have found a niche in the market and we are striving to promote the different styles of bracelets. We have seen an increase in brand awareness and have developed a wide variety of our bracelets to cater to the demands of a wider audience. In aid of achieving this, we now have a range aimed at Harry Potter fans (bracelets in the Hogwarts House colours) and various other themed colours such as that of boy-band JLS.’

This is a fantastic way to attract a new audience, and appeal to the likes of many. We’re really excited to see how they do in their final week! Here is their poster, another great example of how advertising can help aid the sale of your product:

You can also find out more about their product on their facebook page.

Top Brew, another ambassador group have started selling, and it’s going well so far. Take a look at their final product:

It looks great, and we’re excited to see how their last week of selling goes! With only one week to go, we’re excited to see the final result.

Henna Heartz, another ambassador group have done really well, more than doubling their expenditure. This is a great achievement, and shows they’ve invested in their product well. We can’t wait to see how much more they will make in their final week.

Finally, Whizz Kids had a fantastic week, and have sent us some amazing pictures of their event.

Their cards look beautiful, their cakes look amazing and they had some amazing prizes in their tombola! They’ve done a great job of putting their £20 seed investment to use, and really used all their talents in their business.

This week has been a great success for so many groups, so we’re very excited to see what the final week of Enterprising Minds holds. Remember, please do email us with your updates so that we can feature them here, and on our news site.

This week we will be deciding on our award winners. We’re really excited to be presenting them next week! To see the categories you could fit into, see our website, and make sure we know how you’re doing. We can only consider you if you’ve been keeping us updated, so we know how you’ve met the criteria. Remember you can always email, tweet us at @EntMinds or find us on facebook. 

Comment below and let us know your thoughts!

What's In a Name?

When you first signed up to Enterprising Minds, one of the things we asked you to do was create a name for your business. Although at first it might have sounded easy, you had to make sure that your name was associated with your business, was catchy to attract attention, and was appropriate for your audience.

So let’s discuss your business names. How difficult was it to create yours? What’s the best one you’ve heard? How did you come up with yours?

Comment below and let us hear your thoughts!

Entrepreneurs Post

Good morning young entrepreneurs. We hope week 3 of Enterprising Minds has started off well for you all. Please continue to keep us updated on your progress throughout the week.

Today we are featuring another well-known and extremely sucessful entrepreneur. Remember to leave you comments below, and let us know what you think.

Anita Roddick 

Most people have heard of the Body Shop. With over 2,500 stores world wide, it’s a popular brand, known for it’s ethical trading standards and campaigns. So it’s hard to believe that this all came from one woman who started this business to help support her children while her husband was away. Dame Anita Roddick started the Body Shop in 1976. She had no training, no experience and only one piece of advice, which was to take sales of £300 a week. She saw being an entrepreneur as survival, and a way to nurture her creative thinking. From that moment, she started her journey, and has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs. She stated on her website that part of her success was her timing. She began the Body Shop just as Europe was ‘going green,’ so her ideas fitted right into what people wanted.  During her life time, Anita also published many books about her experiences and knowledge. She sadly passed away in 2007, but made sure that the ethic standards of her enterprise were maintained after her death.

The Body Shop is well know for it’s campaigns. Their first major campaign was ‘Save the Whale’ and the Body Shop Foundation to help the homeless began the Big Issue magazine.  Currently, they are running three campaigns, the first against child trafficking, another against domestic violence, and finally to stop HIV.

This huge enterprise, inspiring mission statements and campaigns, and world wide success all came from one person with an idea. Anita Roddick worked hard and put all her energy behind her idea, and she achieved so much. Her legacy lives on after her death, and she will always be remembered.

We hope that her story inspires you, and shows you just how much you can achieve with just one idea.

For more information on Anita Roddick, visit her website: http://www.anitaroddick.com/

For more information about The Body Shop, visit their website: http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/_en/_gb/index.aspx

And for information about their campaigns, past and present, click here: http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/_en/_gb/values-campaigns/trafficking.aspx?

Weekly Update

Another week is nearly over, and it’s time to see what our entrepreneurs have been up to. We’ve had some fantastic feedback this week, and it’s great to hear that so many of you have done so well!

So here are some snap shots of what our entrepreneurs have been up to:

Beads An’ Bobs, an ambassador group who were featured last week, nearly ran out of their product as it was so popular when they sold it at a Christmas fair. Congratulations to them, we knew you’d be successful. If you want to check out their product, they have a facebook page. Click here to view.

Threads, another ambassador group that were featured last week have been keeping us up to date on their progress. They have had a great response to their product, and have some fantastic values that we thought we’d share with you:

“With regards to promotion / advertising, our team is confident that our research will benefit us. We are pleased with the Card Handouts / Business Cards / Loyalty Cards and Order Cards that we had printed. The Treads team were able to find printers who produced the cards absolutely free! In addition we have had word of mouth recommendations and enquiries keep coming in.

My group and I firmly believe that customer satisfaction is key to success and with this in mind, we are also happy to take customer suggestions on board and make bespoke pieces as required.”

And here is a picture of their advertising materials:

Their beliefs in customer satisfaction and a brilliant advertising and promotion campaign will help them make sure they are getting the best from the product, and giving their best to customers. This is something for all of you to think about when running your businesses.

The Cakery Bakery made roughly £40 on their selling day, and it’s no wonder with their lovely cakes:

We hope they continue to be just as successful.

Card Closet have sent us pictures of their flyers:

They look fantastic, and we know that they will help interest people in their product. Remember to keep thinking about advertising as you go, it’s a crucial part of selling your product.

 Finally Top Brew, one of our ambassadors, have sent us pictures of their preparations so far, including a mock up of their advertising:

Top Brew have been taking us on a journey of their business, showing us exactly what they’ve been doing through diary entries. Here’s just one entry to give you an idea:

“Glorious! Amazing! Splendid! Yes, that’s the beer I’m on about. It tastes sooo good its amazing! Really pays off and yes the label design is also done, almost. Apart from some things which need re-doing e.g. - the words ‘Ginger beer’ at the bottom of the label can’t be seen and I forgot to write on, the ingredients! What a shame, I could have done it and forgot about it but no. Overall a nice day, I’m pleased. Yes, indeed (forgetting about the fact that I didn’t eat anything as I spent my lunchtime and some afterschool time doing it).
P.S. - I joined in with another group so our stalls are close by... They are selling sweets and I help them with the thirst! Good init?”

Liaising with others and potentially expanding your audience is another great idea. Think about who you know and the connections you have when running your businesses.

Top Brew also have started a facebook page, so click here to see more images and read the rest of the diary entries.

It’s obviously been a busy week, and with another two to go, we are expecting great things from you all! Keep up all the hard work, and we can’t wait to see what you do.

Want to see your business featured next week? Then send us material by Thursday 1^st December in any form you like! You can email it as an attachment, send it to us on facebook, or tweet it to us at @EntMinds. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Also, remember to check out the new section of our website here. We’ll be featuring anything you send us, and giving you news and information to keep you up to date.

Comment below and tell us your thoughts!

Location, Location...

Now that we’re into the second week of Enterprising Minds, most of you will have started to run your businesses. So what we’re going to talk about here is location. Where you run your business is extremely important. It has to be where your audience go frequently, a place where you won’t be ignored because there’s too much competition, and somewhere safe and easy to get to.

What have you learnt about location, young entrepreneurs? What’s worked for you and what hasn’t? If you had the choice of anywhere you wanted, where would you like to start a business?

Comment below, and let us know!