The Entrepreneur’s Journey Global Entrepreneurship Week UK

The Kent Foundation and The Business Terrace in Maidstone kick started Global Entrepreneurship Week UK by playing host to almost 50 local business people who joined them on The Entrepreneur’s Journey to The Entrepreneur's Journey - Global Entrepreneurship Weekget involved with the world’s biggest celebration of entrepreneurship.

The idea behind the inspirational event ‘The Entrepreneur’s Journey ’ tied in with this year’s GEW theme ‘Compass Points’ which identifies the various stages of business. Paul Barron, Director of The Kent Foundation, a charity providing free support to young business owners across Kent tells us more:

“The event was designed to project real, personal, factual stories of entrepreneurs who are at various stages in business. We achieved this by inviting four Kent businesses along to speak Paul Barron Director of The Kent Foundationand inspire others with their journey in business. Interestingly, collaboration was a common topic amongst all the speakers and this was confirmed as a vital link to running a business.”

“Collaboration in Business is the Way Forward”

The event featured speakers; Josh Bates from Cove Videos, Jo Hage and Sarah MacDonald from Rise Communications and Roger Williams from Intelligent Linking. Freya Briley, aged 23 and owner of Jest 4 Entertainment a recently established Maidstone based events company presented ‘Starting the Journey’:

left-to-right-jo-hage-and-sarah-macdonald-rise-communications-josh-bates-cove-videos-freya-briley-jest-4-entertainment-and-roger-williams-intellegent-linking“I’ve just started this journey which is interesting and really exciting. The idea for starting Jest 4 Entertainment came from my personal experiences through my drama degree and working for various private event companies. It became clear to me that I could build something for myself and add significant value to schools and businesses by boosting their interpersonal skills using drama based approaches. It is scary but there’s so much support, I am learning so much about myself and I’m loving it.”

Business support charity The Kent Foundation is dedicated to supporting young business owners such as Freya to reach their business goals. Paul Barron, Director reflected:

“This has been inspiring and portrayed a perfect example of a variety of entrepreneurial journeys from all backgrounds, business lifecycles and ages. The thing here is that at some point every one of them all recognised a gap and had to take that step to start their own business.”

The event was perfectly timed to celebrate the one year anniversary of The Business Terrace which provides a collaborative working environment for businesses to build a network, work with others and access free business support every day of the week.

Also a special mention to Ibi’s Kitchen who kindly sponsored the event by providing the catering – Absolutely amazing grub, do check them out!

Sean Dobbins Fashion Designer in Kent – Talent Match South East

Sean Dobbins fashion designer in Kent endured unemployment for over a year and confidence had hit rock bottom. Find out how The Kent Foundation and the Talent Match South East project helped him develop the skills and confidence he desperately needed to start a business.

Sean Dobbins Fashion Designer from Kent

Sean Dobbins Fashion Designer, aged 23, from Kent, has turned his life around and started his own women’s clothing brand.

After finishing his degree, Sean struggled to find employment. He had been unemployed for over a year when he came across the Talent Match Outreach Team at a Chatham Jobs Fair in September 2014. Sean was split between the need to earn a wage and his career goal of becoming a fashion designer. This was coupled with nervousness surrounding potential challenges presented by self-employment and setting up alone.

With support from Talent Match South East, Sean was able to overcome these nerves. He secured valuable work experience at a number of fashion houses in London (including Amanda Kelly and Emilio de la Morena). However in a sector where so many young people volunteer their time for free, a paid role in fashion proved hard to obtain. Sean realised that a longer-term approach would be needed and began applying for vacancies outside of fashion.

After a lot of dedication and persistence, in July 2015 Sean successfully gained full-time employment at Tesco as a Personal Shopper. Sean has recently reached the six month sustainment success milestone but his story is only just beginning.

The wage and confidence that full-time work brought has allowed Sean to pursue his dreams of designing and creating clothes. Sean can do this at his own pace, having established his brand, S Dobbins, last year.

“Talent Match has helped me to explore my full potential and has given me the confidence to thrive within the fashion industry and explore new and exciting ideas to help create my label.”

He is making plans for the year, including pricing, ecommerce and marketing. Talent Match South East and The Kent Foundation will continue to support Sean in his career progression. With a number of local events scheduled to display his creations and media features scheduled this year, Talent Match will be a proud observer as his talents continue to flourish.

Talent Match South East - Self Employment in Kent

French work experience student supports Kent’s young business owners

Tell us about yourself:
Work Experience student Cyntia
Name: Cyntia Correia
Age: 19
Hobbies: I like dancing, shopping, laughing, watching movies, listening to music, going out with my friends or family, sometimes I like staying home by myself and relaxing…

Tell us more about where you are from in France…
I’m from Marseille a city in the South of France. About 1.7 million people live in the metropolitan area and about 850,000 in the city itself. This makes it the second largest city in France by number of people. It is the third largest by size. Marseille is in the South, just at the Mediterranean Sea. It has the biggest commercial port in France. The port is one of the most important ones in the Mediterranean. In Marseille we have very hot weather with beautiful beaches…

Why did you come to England for your work experience?
I’ve always loved English, learning new languages and new cultures, and I’ve always had a good level in English, so when I went to College on the first year they made us pass a test to decide if we had the right education to be in the European Section, and I passed the test (I had my best friend with me so it was great) 🙂
The European Section has a project called Erasmus and every year students travel to England for work experience.
That’s why I was interested in entering the European Section, because I was so excited to know that I could have the chance to travel to England.
It has been an incredible experience for me that I will take with me for the rest of my life.


French Work Experience StudentsWhat does The Kent Foundation do and what was your role? 

Kent Foundation helps young people open up their own businesses. They train “Mentors” that are men or women that have experience in business and can help young business people. To decide which Mentor goes with which Mentee they have a “Matching” step which consists in interviewing the Mentee to know what their business plans are for the future, their ideas, their experiences, their skills and based on that they match the right Mentor and the Mentee hoping that everything will go just fine. My role at Kent Foundation was to support Liam and Paul with both office based tasks such as administration, preparing for events and managing/inputting data right through to external events such as meeting people at workshops, events and exhibitions.

Where did you go and what did you see in England?
During my stay England I went to London on the first week, me and my friends went to Camden Town and Oxford Street, it was very nice, but the most important thing was all the people I met during my work experience, English people are so nice, I participated in so many events and meetings. Everywhere I went people started talking to me without knowing me and asking me questions about my life and that for me, was so lovelyyyyy.

What have you learnt from your experience?
During my stay in England I’ve learned so much about myself and my motivations in life.
Kent Foundation Work ExperienceOnce, in the office I had a conversation with Liam and Paul and they told me that everything that happens in your life it’s based on the choices you make, you got to know what you want, fight for it and work for it, not just wait for something to happen. That conversation made me think so much about what I want for my future, I’ve got to be more motivated in what I do so I can get what I want, they told me that if I’m not happy with something in my life I need to change it or just leave it like that.

I’m only 19 and it would be hard to continue with something that I don’t like for the rest of my life. I just want to say thank you to Paul, Liam, Stuart, Rob, Camellia and every other person that I met, I can’t remember the names of everyone because my memory is horrible, but I will never forget them. This work experience made me grow up so much.

Merci Beaucoup, Muito Obrigada, Gracias

Cyntia

Day One Wellness – Star Business of the Month – April 2016

Day One Wellness is a holistic personal training company. We create and deliver programmes that make it as easy as possible for busy people to restore their health and transform their bodies naturally.

Day One Wellness - Be More BootcampsI started the company in October 2014 because like everyone, I absolutely hate seeing people suffer, so I wanted to create something that provided a real solution to all the problems I was regularly getting asked about. It seemed like no matter who I spoke to, people were complaining of low energy, low self-esteem, health problems or battles with their weight that was making them unhappy.

At the time I was working on a public health contract helping obese children and their families embrace a healthy lifestyle. A large part of my role was collaborating with dietitians and psychologists where I was exposed to a variety of different nutrition principles and behavioural change theories, from there I emerged myself in anything I could get my hands on to do with these topics. I’ve never been to university (apart from a brief soccer scholarship in the states – but that’s another story) but I’ve probably paid Amazon a similar amount to tuition fees in the amount of audio-books and paperbacks I’ve purchased!

The ‘Ah-Ha’ Moment for Day One Wellness

Day One Wellness Personal Training & Nutrition CoachingLike most business ideas, my ‘ah-ha’ moment for Day One Wellness was less of a light bulb and more of a combination of life experiences. I think particularly in customer facing roles you have to serve your time in the trenches first to discover and develop your own unique style. For me it was the combination of personal training in both the public and private sectors as well as the numerous life lessons, cultures and environments I experienced whilst travelling through Asia, living in New Zealand and experiencing my most physically demanding job to date; being what my mum liked to call a ‘Chalet Bitch’ for 5 months in Austria.

I eventually decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge after about 6 months of living with a nagging feeling that I should be doing something more. The first goal I set myself was to be 100% self employed within a year of starting which I’m pleased to say, not only did I achieve but by the time the year was up I was paying myself more than my last job too!

Day One Wellness As I’m writing this the business is still in its infancy – just 19 months old, and I’d never of predicted where we are now from where I started. We’ve recently moved into a new base at Southcote Chiropractic Clinic, working alongside some exceptionally experienced and educated health professionals. Our team of trainers are growing by the month to keep up with client demands, both for our 1 to 1 coaching programme and group coaching services, plus I’m doing a lot more ’empower workshops’ in the corporate sector to meet the wellness demand on the County’s workforce.

The vision for Day One Wellness is to be Kent’s most influential well-being company by 2020, providing inspirational outdoor venues and exercise referral schemes that make ‘healthy’ affordable, accessible and most importantly enjoyable for as many people as possible. It may seem like a big goal but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in the last 19 months, it’s to keep faith and focus on one step at a time!

Business Tip

“My advice to any young entrepreneur, as cliché as it is coming from me is to invest in yourself first, you are the driving force behind your business so reserve some of your energy for you! Provide your body with real foods that fuel you, move hourly to stimulate more blood to your brain, switch technology off when you are socialising with friends and family (trust me you’ll need them) and prioritise your sleep because you are much more productive at 5am if you’ve got to bed by 10pm rather than attempting to pull an all nighter!”

Business Networking…What’s the Point?

Business Networking…What’s the Point?

So you’ve decided to bring your ideas to life, you’ve started a business and taken that first step in to a whole new world, so now what…business networking?

What is all this talk about business networking and what use is it to you. You’ve been researching a few events online, none of them seem to make much sense. Plus you have this niggling voice in the back of your head: “What exactly is the point?” “What am I going to get out of it?” “I could be doing something way more productive than chatting to a load of random people”
Well here’s where you might be wrong!

We’ve had a chat with a few successful young entrepreneurs from across Kent and how they have used business networking as a tool on their road to business success:

 Alex Auger – Think Press

I started my business THINK Press from the kitchen at home by myself, I had little to no idea about what networking entailed. Being only 23 my knowledge and access to the right contacts was extremely limited. With no friends or family working in the industry I was starting up in, taking the first steps towards getting the business going was quite daunting.

THINK Press - Cold Pressed JuiceI decided to look locally for some support in starting up, and came across the Kent Foundation ‘A Blast!’ business networking event. It looked like the perfect first step so I signed up. I remember the evening before the event suddenly having that sinking feeling. I had absolutely no idea what ‘networking’ events were like. I quickly printed some business cards onto some card I found at home (cut out by hand!) which made me feel a little more professional, and spent a bit of time Googling. Alas, this wasn’t overly helpful so the next morning I found myself standing outside the event feeling unbelievably nervous about what I was even going to say to people.

These nerves were completely unnecessary as the structure and atmosphere of the event was fantastic. I quickly found I had things in common with lots of the young entrepreneurs that I met. The more experienced business people were also more than willing to give me advice and point me in the direction. I met Paul and Liam who subsequently matched me with my business mentor Matt who has been instrumental to the development of the business, and made lots of other contacts who I have kept in touch with since. This also gave me the confidence to start networking, which was crucial to the start-up phase of the business.

Oliver Trailor, Runway Training

The age old adage of “it’s not what you know but who you know” is of key importance to all businesses and networking gives organisations opportunities to expand their connections, raise brand awareness and generate referrals; all leading to increased opportunities.

Runway Training and ApprenticeshipsAt Runway Training we enjoy business networking at traditional Breakfast events, B2B Exhibitions and after-hours clubs. In addition to this, other events can provide an opportunity to network, show off your products or services and expand knowledge on sector developments. Presence on social media can also help create new connections as well as provide an opportunity for offering advice and your professional opinion on matters, all helping to raise your company profile.

Runway Training utilise networking as an opportunity to reinforce the positives of apprenticeship recruitment and staff development. With many organisations expanding in both business and team members, Runway Training are keen to spread the message about this cost effective way of growing all areas of business.

Amy McManus, AM Marketing

AM Marketing KentBusiness networking is a great tool for any business, but particularly for startups. Budget is often an issue for a new business and networking is a very effective (and inexpensive) type of marketing that gets your brand out there. When I started AM Marketing two years ago, I went to every networking event in the area, and still do! It’s a fantastic way to meet other local business owners and introduce yourself, but most importantly LISTEN. There are so many different people and industries who have a wealth of experience and knowledge to learn from. They can give you a real insight into your own business and potential avenues or products you hadn’t considered.
The beauty of business networking is that it can happen at any point; it’s not always set to a specific time and place. If you talk to someone at a bus stop about your business? That’s networking. When you get into a conversation about your products at a dinner party? That’s networking. Always take business cards out with you; you never know who you’re going to meet!

Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative has Launched

Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative Employment and Self Employment Training for Young People

Click Here for Training Dates

The Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative programme will provide you with enhanced skills, knowledge, confidence and self esteem in order to become gainfully employed or start your own business. The three week programme starting 30th April consists of interactive and practical workshops. We will equip you with practical skills to be used in finding employment or starting a business. If you want to attend any of the sessions get in touch by booking below. Just meet one of the criteria below to apply:

    • Aged 16-25
    • Not in employment
    • Not in training
    • Not In Education
    • Looking to build your career prospects
    • Looking to start a business

CLICK TO BOOK YOUR PLACE!

Ongoing Support:

Target Your Potential is offering a superb chance to get ‘one of a kind’ work experience. Through the Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative they will connect you with a work experience opportunity at a local employer giving you the chance to put the skills you have learnt into practice. Fear not though you will not be alone, they will still be there to support you every step of the way, if you have a question…just ask! Once work experience is completed continued personal support will be offered to help you create bite-sized steps in achieving your career goals.

IMG_2539Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs is offering support to help you create your own employment and start a business. They will meet with you on a 1-2-1 basis to find out more about you, your business ideas and your vision for the future providing you with some all important information, advice and guidance. It doesn’t stop there…we have a strong network of trained Business Mentors with whom you can be matched with and meet once a month to help you keep on track of your business goals.

Venues:

House, The Eden Centre, Four Elms Way, Edenbridge, TN8 6BY

Business Innovation Zone, Unit One, Norton House, Fircroft Way, Edenbridge TN8 6EL

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