Impact Award Presented to Business Support Volunteer

A business support volunteer was presented  an Impact Award  at a volunteers reception hosted by The Chairman of Kent County Council in support of Kent’s largest business support charity The Kent Foundation. Over 50 guests attended the evening at which four young entrepreneurs spoke about their businesses and their gratitude to the Kent Foundation Volunteer Business Mentors.

A special Impact Award was presented to business support volunteer Michaela Partridge who, since becoming a Mentor in 2013, has made a huge difference in the business lives of many of Kent’s young entrepreneurs. Michaela has become a ‘front line’ ambassador for The Foundation – meeting and introducing many young people to The Foundation, she became a Trustee in 2014 and has helped create a marketing strategy to reach more young business people.Business Support Volunteer in Kent presented with Impact Award

Michaela from West Malling, established her career in Human Resources and developed into Training and Business Coaching in Spain and the UK.

The Director of The Kent Foundation, Paul Barron described Michaela as:

“An extremely willing and industrious volunteer, always going the extra yard to help young people with their own aspiration”.

The Chairman of KCC, Tom gates presented Michaela with her Impact Award. Paying tribute to the small army of volunteers Tom said:

“It is a privilege to meet the volunteer mentors who work with Kent Foundation and offer their time and expertise so willingly to guide young entrepreneurs across the county.”

Become a Volunteer Business Mentor

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

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!”

The Kent Foundation appoints New Chairman

New Chairman for Kent’s Leading Business Charity

The Kent Foundation, a Kent business support charity that helps young people starting out in business has a new Chairman. Elected at the Kent Foundation Board Meeting in January 2016, Julian Kirkness from Canterbury was delighted with his new role:

“Since discovering the Foundation in 2013 I have been keen to help drive it forwards in any way I can. I am honoured to become Chairman! AlthoughKent Business Support Charity Appoints Julian Kirkness as New Chairman Allan’s Chairmanship will be a very tough act to follow, I am confident that together with the team we have in place – both Trustees and Full Time Staff – we are in great shape to improve our service and continue to support and encourage young Kentish entrepreneurs. ”

Julian Kirkness is a successful businessman in the Digital Sector, specialising in software development. He has been a supporter of the Foundation since 2013 when he voluntarily attended an induction course to become a volunteer business mentor, he became Vice Chairman in 2015 and now actively mentors two Kent businesses.

The Kent Foundation recently celebrated 30 years of success in supporting young business people. With a flag-ship service that includes over 100 trained Volunteer Business Mentors it’s clear that the Foundation is an established and essential component for Kent’s Businesses. Equally, it is always looking to be relevant and contemporary, recently launching its own Kent Foundation Business Award as an accolade to successful young entrepreneurs of the County.

Retiring Chairman of 20 years, Allan Mowatt has left the Charity in good hand, in his final remarks Allan stated:
“I am convinced that we have a Board of all the necessary background and talents to carry on and develop further our work. I am also convinced that we have a Chairman in Julian who can lead that work forward.”

Free Business advice and support for Kent's young people

Talent Match South East – Promoting self employment to unemployed young people in Kent

Talent Match South East – Medway, Swale, Thanet and DoverTalent Match South East - Self Employment in Kent

Talent Match South East is targeting young people who are furthest from the jobs market, including those who are completely outside of the benefits, work and training system. Some may face severe barriers to gaining the skills they need to get into work.

Kent Foundation will be working with young people aged 18 to 24, who are in the target group, and considering becoming self-employed in Kent. The Foundation will deliver a campaign in each of the targeted areas to raise awareness of self-employment using social media and roadshows to meet and engage with young people. This will be followed by exploratory business start-up workshops designed to enhance young people’s skills, knowledge, confidence and self-esteem in order to start their own business.

Ongoing 1-2-1 business support is available through trained Kent Foundation Business Mentors who will listen, engage and respond in order to guide business decision making.

If you are a young person interested in receiving support offered by this project call us for a chat on 03000 421163 or email us 🙂