Kent Foundation News

French Work Experience Student Supports Kent’s Young Business Owners

by digitalbeans

Myriam CompressedHello I’m Myriam

I am 17 years old and enjoy singing, shopping, listening to music, sport, going out at night to restaurants, cinema, etc…

Tell us about where you are from in France?

I’m from Marseille, a big city in the south of France. Previously the name of the city was Massilia, don’t ask me why, I really don’t remember 😀 Here’s something important to know about it? It is very sunny! In Maidstone the “must have” is an umbrella, but in Marseille it’s definitely the sunglasses!

beachesI think two of the most important aspects of life in my city are “The Summer” (we have beautiful beaches) and “The Football” (our team is Olympic de Marseille). We have many places to visits, many malls for shopping, and a lot of beaches to tan.

The “Marseillais” (people who live in Marseille) are proud of our accent which is unique to the South of France, so much so that a lot of French people from other regions in the country can have trouble understanding us.

Plus the foods are totally better than England.

Why did you come to England for your work experience?

Since I was 11 years old, I have loved English and am really interested in the English and American singers.

I started my studies in a College General and my English was really good so they put me in the European section but this didn’t interest me enough so I decided to change to Professional Studies. I am currently study Admin Work in the vocational High School Frederic Mistral and this is my last year.

There are 5 periods of work experience that I have had to complete during my 3 years studying Admin and 1 period is in England because I’m in European section.  Not all students in my class have the chance to do this work experience in England, you have to be responsible and good at English.

To complete work experience in England allows me to improve my English and discover a new way of working in a different culture.

What does Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs do? What was your role?

Kent Foundation is a charity enterprise that helps young peoples to start their own business. They find a Volunteer Business Mentor for each young business person to support them.

Myriam MazeThe Mentor meets the young business person and they work together on business problems. The Mentors have attended training to be prepared for this experience.

Some tasks that I completed were:
– Participated and engaged with young people and business owners at exhibitions.
– Create documents such as minutes of meetings, posters, risk assessments, organisation charts etc
– Participate in meetings with Mentors, Mentees and Volunteers.
– Redesign the notice board at the entrance.

Where did you go and what did you see on your stay to England?

During my 3 weeks in Maidstone, I went to London visiting Camden Town where you can find a bargain so I bought some clothes, I also went to Oxford Street via Piccadilly Circus. I went just the once to London because the train from Maidstone to London is expensive…

We also celebrated the birthday of a boy in my class by having a night out bowling.

When I was with my teachers in October, we visited Leeds Castle, Historic Dockyard in Chatham and Madame Tussaud’s in London and of course I went in to Maidstone Town for some shopping and souvenirs…

What have you learnt from your experience?

During my work experience I learnt to:

– Develop my language skills
– Discover a new culture, a new way of life
– Be more mature, be independent
– Be aware about the clothes i’m wearing e.g. formal/informal
– Listen and respond
I will always keep a good souvenir about this work experience in my memory, it was exceptional for me to do it in England and with great people. I met so many people during meetings and events, all the things that I did were really interesting. It was a one off chance for me to work in this enterprise with Paul and Liam, they are so passionate about their jobs 🙂

THANK YOU FOR THE EXPERIENCE

Star Business of the Month

Kent Social Media – Star Business of the Month – April 2015

by digitalbeans

Kent Social Media – What’s it all about?Kent Social Media

Kent Social Media is the small and local business set up to help to grow other small and local businesses. Kent Social Media is a full service strategic marketing agency with one clear aim:

“To deliver targeted results across several key areas; web design, app creation, social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, content marketing, digital marketing and publishing niche content.”

This combination has helped many of our clients to interact and engage with their customers on a much higher level.

We offer a personal, passionate & tailored service to each and every one of our clients, large or small.

Our team aim to define a digital strategy focusing on driving your businesses key commercial goals. Raising your profile, increasing efficiency, boosting revenue, reducing cost, training your staff or communicating better with your customers are only few business priorities that are important for all companies.

We provide local businesses with the support and expertise they need to avoid over spending with little return.

Meet Lucy Hall: The Brains Behind The Business

Lucy Hall Kent Social MediaHelping Small businesses is my passion! I come from a family of small businesses from Market Traders, antique dealers, to shop owners. I feel very lucky that I have always been brought up to know the value of business and running your own show! I’ve always been intrigued with entrepreneurs and the way they work and the reasons they do what they do. It’s not easy to run your own business and it’s very, very brave. Which is one of the reasons why I like to offer as much advice and encouragement as possible. It is one of the reasons why I started my business and the reason my own business has evolved just as the Internet has over the past few years.Lucy Hall Kent Social Media Theo Paphitis

By also running online projects – Such as – Pixiebo (online fashion boutique, Onesie Warehouse, Vintage and Upcycled which won the Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday Award last November, Inside Maidstone etc – it has helped me to understand my own customers better and what they are looking to achieve. I have learnt so much over the last 12 years about sales and marketing – what to do, what not to do, who to listen to and not too. I want to teach start-ups and business owners everything I have learned so they can use these skills to rock their business online and be in control of their own customer’s online experience! Next I will be starting DIY Digital which is an online course website to help and teach small businesses to use the various digital mediums available to them.

Business Tip:

“Remember to be brave and don’t hold back. Strategy is important but so is impulse…If you see a Bandwagon it’s too late!”

Get in Touch with Lucy Hall – Kent Social Media

@LucysHall     @KentSocialMedia   Website    Facebook    LinkedIn

Kent Foundation News

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs shortlisted as a finalist in the Kent Charity Awards

by digitalbeans

Kent Charity Awards FinalistWe are excited to announce that we have been shortlisted in the first ever Kent Charity Awards. You’ll find us in the ‘Community Charity Award Category‘ plus there’s a chance for us to win overall charity of the year. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us.

What are the Kent Charity Awards?

The aim of these awards is to showcase the hard work and perseverance that charities and voluntary groups undertake to make the lives of others better. There are currently no similar awards in Kent and these awards will be unique and become an important date in the third sector diaries. The awards will be open to both small and large charities whether a branch of a national charity, a small community based charity or a voluntary group.

When do you find out if we have won?

We will be attending a gala evening on Thursday 19 March at The Corn Exchange in Rochester, hosted by BBC South East TV’s Rob Smith.  There are six categories this year; Heritage and Environment Award, Care Sector Award, Animal Charity Award, Voluntary Award, Community Charity Award and Children’s Charity Award. There will be one winner from each category and then an overall Charity of the Year winner. We will be sure to keep you in the loop of how we get on via our newsletters but if you really can’t wait all the latest news will be on our social media channels Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

Star Business of the Month

This Art of Mine – Star Business of the Month – February 2015

by digitalbeans

This Art of Mine, arts and crafts studio Maidstone KentAt This Art of Mine we help people to enjoy their leisure time through our program of art workshops and short courses. We deliver high quality courses that encourage people to try things they may never have tried before such as glass fusing, ceramic painting, jewellery making and painting.

We also run art workshops as corporate team building events and host several birthday or hen parties each weekend at our creative studio near Maidstone. Our studio is based in a converted barn on a flower farm and seats up to 60 people.

This Art of Mine Gemma BlackerMeet Gemma:

I started This Art of Mines in 2010 when I was 24 and it has grown steadily over the last five years. Last year we launched our own range of craft kits that are sold in independent retailers and online.

I started the business because after I left university I went down the traditional route of getting a graduate job in a corporate world and after a while I realized this was not for me. I really wanted to work for myself and my hobby was art so I thought I would take the plunge and set up my own company teaching art workshops.

This Art of Mine, arts and craft studio, Maidstone KentThe biggest achievements we have had as a company has been to turn a profit. I know it sounds silly but after paying off our set up costs we turned a profit in our fourth year of trading which was a great achievement.

Being featured in the Guardian was an exciting time plus we have had the opportunity to work alongside big corporations such as the BBC, Kimberley Clark and Mylan Pharmaceuticals which have made the job really fun.

The aim over the next five years is to become the best art course provider in Kent. To do this we will need to hire more staff and tutors and possibly relocate our offices. Currently one of our biggest challenges is running a business in a rural location. The scenery is beautiful and it’s a lovely place to work but the poor internet connection and phone signal are very difficult to deal with, making progress slow and frustrating.

Business Tip:

“My advice would be that you can work for yourself and earn a decent living as long as you are doing something you are really passionate about. If the product does not get you excited then it is not going to work, find something you really love and get behind it.”

Kent Foundation News

Kent Excellence in Business Awards 2015 – Now Open For Entries!

by digitalbeans

Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015…Is this you?

Awards are one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing tools and winning a prestigious KEiBA will help your organisation to stand out from the crowd, send a positive message to your existing customers, attract new business and investors.

Entering KEiBA will help you raise the profile of your organisation and enhance its reputation by promoting the great work you have been doing over the last twelve months, whilst at the same time providing you with a platform to celebrate your success. The KEiBAs are free to enter and open to any business or organisation based and operating in the Kent and Medway area, excluding London Borough postcodes e.g Bromley, Bexley and Orpington.

There are 15 categories to choose from in the awards so it’s well worth having a look to see which ones are best suited to your business. You can enter a maximum of 4 categories.

Bush Grub, Kent Excellence in Business Start up Business of the Year

“The best thing I would say about winning a KEiBA is the credibility it gives your company. It’s helped us through making connections with a wide range of people. So if we’ve approached a bank looking for growth finance or anything like that, it’s just made us a lot more respectable in that sense, showing that we can win an award like this and run a successful business. People seem to respect a company a bit more having gone through this process and actually come out winning.”

Ben Bartlett – Director of Bush Grub Ltd: Start-Up Business of the Year 2014

 

Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA) 2015
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Need a bit of advice on the application process?

Give us a call on 01622 694 341

Star Business of the Month

Ten & Bourne – Star Business of the Month – January 2015

by digitalbeans

Ten and Bourne Digital Creative Agency“We’re a small digital creative agency who use creative and strategic thinking to help our clients create engaging experiences throughout their online marketing and web platforms.”

Ten & Bourne was founded in 2013 with a vision of a highly flexible agency that creates teams around clients in order to deliver the best possible web solutions.

Chris Mead & Anthony Bliss, both from Sittingbourne have been working together on various projects together for the last 5 years after meeting whilst working at a fast growing web agency in Maidstone and were both educated at the former Maidstone, Kent Institute of Art & Design or UCA in specialisms across Interactive Design. Each wanted to create a business for themselves since leaving full time education but knew that to maximise their chances they would benefit from real industry experience.

anthony-blissAfter leaving our full time positions we managed to secure investment for our first company together and take part in a 13 week intensive business accelerator program. The idea for the business was not strong enough to survive but still gave us an important experience and insight into the work and effort involved in starting something for ourselves. We knew from that point to play to our strengths in creative design, digital marketing and digital products as a core part of our company DNA. We have big plans to grow from being a service company to developing our own web products that will see us grow significantly as a company.

The last year has seen us provide web based solutions for some really successful UK and Global brands as more businesses begin to understand how important the internet is to their survival.

chris-meadWe have been busy enough to establish an office in Sweden with a team that reflects our values and supported us by creating new opportunities with a range of Swedish clients. As far as trade routes go, as a business we live online, we can operate from anywhere and work with clients around the world, we have clients in America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Our biggest barrier we have faced is being able to keep moving forward fast enough to serve our clients whilst dealing with a huge surge in new business, being able to stay in contact with existing clients and keep projects on track. We have grown increasingly towards full capacity which has been a struggle but fortunately we have been able to meet the demand and keep our customers happy.

We have just celebrated our first year in business and this coming year we are looking to expand our team in the UK, move to a new office and launch our new web services division, Brave Little Tank™. This will form the new brand of our agency as we begin to invest in developing our own web platforms.

We are planning to launch a crowdfunding project in the new year to help us fund the first year of a creative office space in a local town that will allow us to bring in young people for work experience and provide a placement for internships to the local area.

We’ve Re-Branded – Brave Little Tank

Ten & Bourne have rebranded to Brave Little Tank. A digital marketing agency specialising in marking digital efforts more effective. Identifying & reducing the obstacles in design and user experience often overlooked by others, improving online sales and conversions.

Brave Little Tank digital strategy and marketing

Our top tip is:

“Remember to stay as best informed as possible, but trust your instincts. This isn’t us saying make rash decisions, simply don’t compromise your own judgement without having a good reason, and learn to tell the difference between feeling out of your comfort zone and having a bad feeling about a decision.”

“You are the ones in control of your business and that is double edged sword at best.”

Get In Touch With Ten and Bourne:

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