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!

Entrepreneurs Post

Good morning Young Entrepreneurs! We hope you’ve had a good weekend, and you’re ready for the week to come.

For our Monday blog post today we are featuring one of the most well-know British Entrepreneurs, who many of you said in your applications is an inspiration to you. Remember to leave your comments below, and keep us updated on your progress.

Lord Alan Sugar

One of the first names that comes to mind when thinking of entrepreneurs is Lord Alan Sugar, helped by his BBC1 TV series The Apprentice and Junior Apprentice. Alan Sugar was born in Hackney, and left school at sixteen. In his early days, he sold T.V aerials and cigarette lighters out of a van he bought for £50 before founding his company Amstrad in 1968. He sold this company in 2007 to Sky,  but this was not the end of his entrepreneur career. From Amstrad other companies emerged,  such as Amscreen, which his son owns and Lord Sugar is CEO of, and Amsprop.   He was the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur FC for ten years and was 85^th on the Sunday Times Rich list 2010, after famously starting out with only £100 in his pocket.

He was knighted in 2000 for his services to business, was made a Labour peer in 2009, and holds the title Baron Sugar of Clapton.  He had two honorary degrees, from City University and Brunel University. He has published five books, two of which were published this year. The current series of Young Apprentice is on BBC one now, at 9PM on Mondays. He has generously supported great Ormond Street Children’s hospital and Jewish Care.

Alan Sugar’s inspiring story demonstrates that it doesn’t matter where you start from; it’s all about taking your idea and pursuing it.  We hope that this small snippet of Lord Sugar’s life helps encourage you all as you continue with your projects.

His facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/LordSugar?sk=info

His twitter: @lord_sugar

The first week of Enterprising Minds is nearly over, and it’s time for our Friday blog post. This will let you see what some of our Enterprising Minds have been doing this week, and what their projects involve.

We’ve had some fantastic reports so far, one group saying they’ve already made just over £100! We hope you’re all just as successful, so please keep letting us know how you’re doing.

Here’s just a taster of what some of our ambassadors have been doing. Henna Hertz have sent us a copy of their amazing flyer:



Advertising is a huge part of Enterprising Minds- how will you gain interest if people don’t know what you’re doing? We know this group are going to do brilliantly with a flyer like this!

Beads An’ Bobs have sent us pictures of their jewellery:

These look amazing, we’re sure that they are going to sell really well. Watch this space for more information!

Lastly, Threads have also sent us pictures of their bracelets:

These are brilliant, and they’ll definitely get a great profit with their product. We can’t wait to see how all our Young Entrepreneurs do!

Keep sending us updates of your progress, and let us know what you’re doing. We’re always looking for pictures and media for our Friday posts, so please do send them to us. You can email them to us as an attachment, or if you’re 13 and over, you can contact us on facebook or twitter.

If you haven’t joined the facebook groups yet, you can still do so! You can find us under Enterprising Minds. Also add us on twitter at @EntMinds.

Have any stories about your first week that you want to share? Comment and let us know! We can’t wait to hear from you all.

Inspiration

Good morning Young Entrepreneurs! It’s only the first week of Enterprising Minds, and we’ve had some fantastic achievements already. Remember to send in your pictures, videos and write ups of your experiences for the Friday’s blog post. While you’re here, take a minute to vote on this week’s poll, the results will be out on Monday.

Today we’ve going to talk about inspiration. Who motivates and inspires you to reach for your goals? How do you look up to as a good role model? It could be anyone- family, friends or celebrities. Let’s get a discussion going, and talk about our inspirations!

Welcome Post

Welcome to all our Enterprising Minds! We’re very excited that you decided to join us here, and are looking forward to hearing from you over the next four weeks. This blog is a place for you to gain exclusive content, chat about your enterprises and shows everyone what you’ve been doing. You can also contact us through here at any time if you need us. The help button will give you our email, and there’s always our facebook and twitter if you want to contact us that way.

Take a look through the blog and see everything we’ve got to offer you so far! On top of this, we’ll be posting three times a week on different themes that we think you’ll be interested in. Keep commenting and chatting to us- this blog is about all of you, and we want you involved every step of the way.

On Mondays, we’ll be posting our Entrepreneurs post. Each week, we’ll be profiling an Entrepreneur, giving you inspiration and information to show you what just one small idea can do. On top of that, we’ll be giving you a weekly tip from our partners at MoneySense; something that will keep you on track and on the ball.

Wednesdays is for your post!  We’ll start off a discussion, and it’s time for you to jump in and ask anything you want that’s related to the project. We want to hear your thoughts and ideas, and anything you feel might help others. Have some things really worked for you that you want to share? Or something that really didn’t work and want opinions on why? Know an entrepreneur that we haven’t featured that you want to talk about? Wednesday is the time for all this and more.

Finally on Fridays we’ll have our news post, catch up with you all and let you see what other young entrepreneurs have been up to. So throughout the week, send us your entries telling us about your enterprise- what did you do, where did you do it, how successful was it? These will be put up on Friday ? so we can congratulate you all! It doesn’t matter how little you want to write, any amount is welcome. Also feel free to send us your pictures and videos of the events that we can upload on here and facebook. This post will be in tandem with the news on the Enterprising Minds website, so you’ll have lots to discuss with us.

Finally, remember to think before you post. We screen all comments and media that come to the blog, so any inappropriate language or content will not be published. This is a place for fun and exploration, so please respect and be mindful of all the users who come here. Make sure you’re certain that you want your pictures and videos online before you send them to us- while we will remove them if you ask, as soon as they are up, people can click on them. Always think before you post!

So go explore, comment and start getting ready to start your businesses! We can’t wait to see how it all goes.