Volunteers Give 750 Hours to Mentor Kent’s Young Entrepreneurs

by digitalbeans

Over the past year over 80 Business Mentors have contributed 750 hours of their time to help young entrepreneurs across the county to develop their business skills and initiatives. With 24 new Mentors trained during 2014 Kent Foundation is well placed to provide the valuable help and guidance that is needed to turn ideas into successful business propositions. As well as offering direct personal 1-2-1 support to 37 young people through a minimum commitment of one hour a month, Mentors have also organised, delivered and raised funding for a range of business support programmes.

Other volunteers have helped with social media, events management and promotional activities.

Allan Mowatt -Chairman of Kent Foundation for Young EntrepreneursKent Foundation Chairman, Allan Mowatt said: ‘Sharing experience and giving tangible support is key to giving young people the confidence and skills to reach their potential. Our Mentors do a fantastic job but equally important are the young people who have volunteered their time to support us. This has included work experience opportunities, placements in the office, event organisation of the Sandwich Enterprise Initiative and our annual event A Blast! Helping promote entrepreneurship has been supported by young people especially in Thanet.’

‘We also had a first this year in that two young business people volunteered their time as Business Mentors and successfully completed their training in September. Their motivation comes from recognising the key part played by their business mentor when they started their own business.’

Kent Foundation Volunteer Business Mentor

Bryan Hall a trained Kent Foundation Mentor said:

“Get on a training course as soon as possible because you’ll benefit from it either through the satisfaction of helping, or with your own business”

Kudzi Synos, Managing Director of Kudz Footwear - Photo by Tom Phillips

The benefits of mentoring are summed up by young entrepreneur Kudzi from Kudz Footwear:

“I definitely recommend it to anyone just starting out. Before I started it was just a hobby, the mentoring helped me narrow everything down to what I needed to be successful”

Allan Mowatt added: ‘The Kent Foundation is successful because many different people, do many different things over many, many hours each year. This year has been an exceptional year, with more people doing more. They all deserve our thanks for supporting the present and future Kent economy by helping young people start up their businesses.’

To find out more about becoming a Volunteer, a Business Mentor or to sponsor our charity, get in touch and we’ll be more than happy to meet and have a chat over a coffee 🙂

Small Business Saturday – December 6th 2014

by digitalbeans
Small-Business-Saturday-UK-2014-Logo-Blue
Click here to find out how to get involved…

What is Small Business Saturday UK?

A grassroots, non-political, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities. The day itself takes place on the first shopping Saturday in December each year, but the campaign aims to have a lasting impact on small businesses. In 2014 Small Business Saturday UK will take place on Saturday December 6th. Watch the Prezi Presentation below to find out more.

Get Involved…

Small businesses around the UK are planning events, promotions and other activities to attract clients and customers to them on December 6th but also as a way of creating a mindset for people to more readily think of doing business with small, local companies. Already more than 30,000 small businesses around the UK have engaged with the campaign on various social media platforms, many of which have downloaded free marketing packs and posters to display on their premises.

A Few Stats…

The research taken after the event in December 2013 also showed that some 43% of shoppers chose to do so specifically because of Small Business Saturday.  Those consumers who knew about the day and took to their local high street spent between £1 and £2000 on the day, with tills in independent shops and small businesses ringing in an average of £33 per person which equated to a total of £468 million across the UK as a whole. Indeed 45% of those aware of the day who shopped in a small business on 7 December said they spent more than usual, with nearly one in five (19%) saying they had spent at least 50% more than they would have usually done on a typical Saturday.

Share Your Small Business Saturday Stories on Twitter

We would love to hear from businesses across Kent that are getting involved with Small Business Saturday. Share your stories with us on Twitter (@KentFoundation) and we’ll be sure to give you a ReTweet, don’t forget to use #SmallBizSatUK.

Kent Foundation News

Success at Sevenoaks Business Startup Workshop

by digitalbeans

This was the final in a series of workshops we have been delivering across West Kent. After success in Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells it was now time for us to hit Sevenoaks. So on Saturday 20th September we headed over to House in the Basement Youth Cafe to deliver a workshop to aspiring young entrepreneurs to provide:

  • Introduction to business planning
  • Creating and innovating business ideas
  • Introduction to promoting a business

It was a great success and everyone who attended showed a great enthusiasm towards business and were keen to get their ideas off the ground. We are now eager to carry on working with them by providing ongoing support through our trained Volunteer Business Mentors. They will be matched with a Mentor that suits their business support needs and will be able to meet with them for one hour per month to create action plans and discuss their business issues/ideas.

Post by Kent Foundation for young entrepreneurs.

Funded by:

West Kent Partnership
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Kent Foundation News

Big Lottery Funding received for Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative

by digitalbeans

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded funding from Awards for All a Big Lottery Fund initiative that funds small, community based projects across the UK.

The Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative will work with young people aged between 16-25 to provide enhanced skills, knowledge, confidence and self esteem in order to become gainfully employed or start their own business. Although the majority of West Kent is fairly urban, Edenbridge has been identified as a rural area within West Kent with high youth unemployment, with no secondary school coupled with infrequent transport links to nearby Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks. With a lack of employment opportunities in the area this has a direct result on some of the local young people, increasing the likelihood of low aspirations and self worth.

We feel it is important to address these issues so Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs has teamed up with social enterprise Target Your Potential who will prepare young people with the necessary skills needed to enter in to employment. This will be paired with exploratory workshops delivered by us into starting a business. To further increase the chances of success young people who participate in the training will be able to access free support from both organisations through monitored work experience or Business Mentoring.

Be a part of it:

As part of the project we will be looking for local business owners and professionals to put themselves forward and get involved. In order to build a community based project and keep the support network within easy reach of young people the involvement locally is crucial. We are on the lookout for those who would be able to offer their services in the form of work experience or becoming a Volunteer Business Mentor. Your input could make a huge life changing impact to the life of a young person and not only that but we are almost certain that you will find the experience highly rewarding. It’s your chance to be a part of their future!

Big Lottery Fund Awards for AllTarget Your Potential - Youth Employment Services

Kent Foundation News

Exploring Business as a Career Option – West Kent

by digitalbeans

Exploring Business as a Career option…

Not something young people immediately think of, but we think it should be a realistic option.

So on the 14th August we headed over to Swanley Youth and Community Centre and held a workshop for 16-19 year olds to discover, explore and find out more about what’s involved in starting a business.

It involved, effective introductions, confidence building and how to sell. The day was capped off with the group split in three teams to design/create their own business, promotional materials and exhibition space. Guests were invited in to visit the exhibition, pose questions to the ‘business owners’ providing a superb environment to practice what had been learnt throughout the day. Overall a great success with plenty of enthusiasm, creativity and thought provoking ideas! Here’s a few snaps from the day:

Post by Kent Foundation for young entrepreneurs.

Do you want to get involved?

We are in Sevenoaks on the 20th September from 11:00am – 2:00pm covering business planning, effective communication and how to market/promote your business. Visit the Sevenoaks Business Start Up Workshop event here…

Kent Foundation News

Launching the Kent Foundation Promotional Video

by digitalbeans

So here’s the launch of our brand spanking new promotional video, we don’t really need to say too much here, so what are you waiting for? Get your popcorn at the ready give it a watch and let us know what you think in the comments below:

[youtube id=”TjOL-ePtEuk”]

Video produced and directed by Foxbite Media which is owned and run by two young entrepreneurs based in Folkestone.

The stars featuring in the video are: