Career Development Archives - Page 4 of 4

Happy 10th Birthday to KAYE

March 17, 2014

On Wednesday 12th March we joined the Kent Association of Young Entrepreneurs at their 10th birthday party and celebrated in true style with a bit of speed networking at Fruitworks Coworking space in Canterbury. It is a junior branch of the IoD and primarily offers a support network to young professionals and entrepreneurs.

First up Guest Speakers…

Paul Andrews a local Kent business celebrity kicked the evening off by telling us about his journey in business as CEO of jobsinkent.com and as a keen investor in local business. He referred to the County of Kent currently being home to over 50,000 small businesses and with figures like that you really can see why it is the lifeblood of the County. With young people realising that starting a business is a career option it is important to give them every chance of success with the appropriate business support.

Young entrepreneur Ben Bartlett of Bush Grub was up next. An extremely quirky business that sells edible insects and promotes them as a sustainable food source for the future. Ben captured the audience well, although he did have a helping hand in the form of ‘Keith the Chameleon’ see below. Bush Grub has been fortunate enough to secure a branding licence with ITV to use the ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ brand on their products. We were proud to recently feature Bush Grub as a Star Business on our blog and you can catch the full story here…

Let The Speed Networking Commence…

For those of you who do not know what speed networking is, it goes a little like this…

First you need two rows of people seated opposite each other
Set a time limit
Start the timer
Tell the other person as much as you can about your business
Get them to tell you as much as they can about their business
Swap business cards
Time’s up – swap seats and start it over again with a new person
Networking ends once you have spoken to every person
Remember to follow up on any potential leads

It is an awesome way to get to speak to everyone in the room without having to gatecrash other people’s conversations, which can sometimes seem like the case at the more traditional networking event. It’s a great way to start a conversation and find out if there are any potential business leads in the room. The joy of it, is that it allows you to pinpoint a lead and extend the conversation further. All in all, it is a great way to boost business contacts and for any first timers it’s a great platform to be introduced to more traditional networking.

Happy 10th Birthday KAYE

Kent Foundation News

If you don’t get a Business mentor from these guys you’ve got to be absolutely mad…

January 26, 2014

Kevin Byrne CEO and Founder of Checkatrade.com visited Medway in order to deliver an inspiring presentation to over 50 people. Kevin attended the IGNITE event which was jointly hosted by business support charity Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs and Kent Association of Young Entrepreneurs, a junior branch of the IoD.

The two organisations hosted the IGNITE event in order to promote, encourage and boost enterprise amongst Kent’s young people. And with Kevin’s support this was a roaring success.

Kevin opened up to the audience providing them with honest and sincere views on his secrets of business success. By providing many real life examples and putting them in to context really got people thinking. His business has not always been this big and he has had to go through many struggles in order to reach the successful position he is in now. Money is a secondary business objective for him with the main motivation to deliver grade A customer service.

Paul Barron, Director of Kent Foundation spoke about the success of their Business Mentoring service, which was endorsed by Kevin who said:

“If you don’t get a Business Mentor from these guys you’ve got to be absolutely mad”

Kevin took the time to network with the young audience members and gave them the chance to ask any of those niggling questions on a one to one basis.

Checkatrade.com vets and monitors trades, companies and services to help people avoid cowboy builders. It has become a monumental success in the UK and over the last 12 months has generated in excess of £1.4billion worth of work for its trade members and now employs around 120 people.

The Blog

KEI 2012 – A big step on the way to glittering business success

March 8, 2012

Client: Business Challenge 2012 Participants

Business: A range of business ideas

Description: Kent Entrepreneurs’ Initiative

Telephone: 01622 694341

Website:

Now firmly in our annual calendar and for the third year running, budding entrepreneurs have had the opportunity to develop business skills and practice presentations before heading off to the Kent Entrepreneurs’ Initiative – Business Challenge 2012.

Talking about new business ideas always creates a buzz!! Networking and chatting with other young business people, kick-started the first of our seminars. With mentor support, mock-presentations to the group helped to build up confidence in presenting the dream of growing a successful business.

Biggest and best On the 7th March 2012, guests gathered at Canterbury Cathedral Lodge for an evening of “there be dragons!” After some informal networking, we sampled a delightful hot buffet. Then ten young entrepreneur finalists gathered in the wings to pitch their business ideas to our panel of Business Partners.

This is just the beginning …… we think it’s a great opportunity to bring businesses to life, but don’t take our word for it ….

Emma wanted to create and fund an artistic studio in Maidstone “The Kent Foundation has been a great help and my mentor, Rob Bird, has been brilliant. In five years I hope the studio will have become a real artist hub, with tourists coming in, lots of events, open mic nights and art at its core”. Winner, Emma Whittall (age 23) who opened Stepping Stone Studio in April

“Thank you very much; it was a genuine surprise as I honestly didn’t think my presentation was as good as I envisioned it to be!

Clearly I presented myself and my ideas in a far better way than I considered, so I was hugely chuffed to win the Peer Award – it’s given me a massive boost of confidence as well as the motivation to move forward with my business – after all “Businesses don’t stand still, they either go forwards, or they go backwards”

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to pitch, as well as the useful workshops, it was an absolutely fantastic experience! I’m still buzzing about it now!” Peer Award Winner, Daniel Warren

Introducing our 2012 Guest Speaker

KEI – Business Challenge Success Session is known for the calibre of our guest speakers and we always aim to invite a successful Kent business person to come along and pass on their tips for success in business. This year Declan Treanor from the Kent Investors’ Network told of how he achieved his enterprising successes and happily answered questions.

There is a wealth of talent and enthusiasm throughout Kent. Together we can help young people realise their dreams.

We say a very special thank you to all our Business Partners who kindly offer a package of in-kind expert advice and help FREE to the Business Challenge finalists. This year our panel line up included:

Warners Solicitors
WSQsolutions
Cfa-Group (Marketing)
Wilkins Kennedy Accountants
Kent Association of Young Entrepreneurs (IoD) (Members’ Networking)
Enterprise Experience – invitation to attend the 2012 summer residential

Business Tip

It’s impossible to have skills in every aspect that a business requires. Networking with other entrepreneurs gives the chance to seek out solutions.

The KEI – Business Challenge ia the perfect opportunity to promote your business idea, expand your contacts, and WIN some expert help.

The KEI – Business Challenge 2013 will be formally launched in November.

See our KEI page for more information.

Success Stories

A Flexible Approach To Working

July 11, 2011

Client: Veronica Akinyemi

Business: Smart Opportunities

Description: A specialist and relationship based consultancy service that promotes flexible working. A major strand of the service is the ‘flexolution’ an online job resource for linking local business employers to skilled and flexible candidates in Kent. ‘Flexolution – flexible working solutions for employers and skilled candidates

Telephone: 0844 3579 177

Website: www.smartopportunities.co.uk

A Mumpreneur, who decided to give up her job to offer support to help people find flexible and part-time jobs in Kent.

A bit about Veronica?

Is a mum of two toddlers and as a working mum she felt that there was no option but to either go to work or stay at home, there was no medium in between, it was a case of one or the other. Being a working mum in a team that supported flexible working was both supporting and motivating and gave her and other people in the team a greater morale and improved productivity. When this was not the case and being in an environment that did not support the benefits of flexible working it proved to be more stressful and de-motivating.

A highly educated individual having attained a Postgraduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Human Resources Management along with membership of the professional body the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development means she has a fountain of knowledge on the subject area of Human Resources and people development. This knowledge has been put in to practice by working with both public and private sector organisations helping to develop, implement and deliver suitable solutions to aid their people development strategies. Training has been developed and delivered to a wide range of professionals including senior managers, frontline staff and business support functions and they have always been well received by the participants.

“I am grateful to Paul Barron and everyone at Kent Foundation for young entrepreneurs for their immeasurable support and belief in my business idea. The financial support from Kent foundation came at the right time and has helped to make my dreams a reality”

What is The Business?

The Flexolution a word derived from flexible and solution to form a flexible solution. A website that is dedicated to providing part-time and flexible jobs to Kent. A part of this is also to include a range of services which have been designed to support the professional development of women in Kent. A flexible approach has worked in London and is now being developed in Kent where job seekers can find flexible and part time careers with the additional support of various workshops that can aid career development.

What gave you the idea for your business?

Having met many women in Kent who do not work because of the simple fact that they can’t find roles that fit around their other commitments. Many of them have given up good jobs to avoid the long commute. Veronica gave up her well paid job to do something about this. The business launched now as she feels that the world of work is changing and the current economic climate gives organisations the perfect opportunity to tap into the skills of talented women who are willing to work on a part-time/flexible basis. The idea is to find local jobs for local people and being keen to partner with local schools, community agencies, business clubs to name but a few to promote this to local people and local organisations.

Quotes that motivate Veronica:

“You can do it mum” ~ Veronica’s two toddlers

“Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles, and the bigger the goal the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary aswell. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else” ~ Brian Tracy

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts” ~ Unknown source

For more information on how to post a job or become a job seeker visit:

www.flexolution.co.uk

www.smartopportunities.co.uk

Become a fan on Facebook

Business Tip

1. Never stop learning and exploring ways to make your business better. Kent Foundation for young entrepreneurs matched me to my current business mentor, and I have learnt so much from him.

2. I have observed that the world is full of reasonable people who follow conventional wisdom, doing the same thing again and again. In business, one has to be unreasonable but with good reasons. One must be passionate, determined and think creatively (out of the box..)

3. Get out there and network!!!

Tag: Career Development