The entrepreneurial initiative ‘Young Start-up Talent’ has returned for a second year after its success last year in West Kent. The team have been conducting workshops and assemblies to local schools and colleges to inspire and encourage young entrepreneurs in the area to start up in business. The initiative has £50,000 prize fund worth of business products and services to entice them which is donated by the local business community.
Four made it through to work more closely with the team and who think that they have what it takes to take their business ideas to the next level.
Held at K-College in Tonbridge, the finalists were invited to a ‘121’ speed networking style session where the candidates were asked to present their businesses to the sponsors and judges. The candidates where questioned on their businesses by each judge and sponsor of the project, breaking their business plans down bit by bit to understand each aspect in more detail to further develop their business model.
The team was made up of professional businessmen and women in the local area and included Jo Ellis – Town & Country Housing Group, Paul Roe – Reeves Accountants, Roy Laming – Enterprise Foundation, Julie Askew – K-College, Katherine Parker – Bowles Learning Development, Chris Endersby – Grammar Printers, Chris Thomas – Let’s do business and Start-up Loans, Erica Dennett – Cripps Harries Hall along with Founders of the initiative Lorraine Nugent and Matt Turner. All who attended were very supportive offering each candidate advice and support on how to develop their business ideas.
One of the candidates – Karis Gill mentioned “I learnt so much throughout the evening and came away with invaluable knowledge to further develop my business plan in ways that hadn’t even occurred to me”.
Brian Cosham, aged 18 and a student currently studying hair and beauty at K-College has a new innovative hair and beauty concept called La Bella Vita, Karis Gill, just 18 and currently studying A levels at Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School believes she has spotted a gap in the market for innovative advertising, Karis has created a business called Katchspace.
Rajan Musha a local resident and currently studying at Christ Church Canterbury University is looking to produce an app where students can keep up to date with local events and get the best deals at restaurants and bars – the app is called the Student Life App.
Eden Tiltman, aged 19 who is an A level student at Hugh Christie Technology College in Tonbridge has a passion for the care industry whose business is called BALES – a specialist agency for care workers.
Each candidate gave an informal presentation to each of the judges and sponsors who then fed back with some useful tips on how they could each improve their business. All then received further guidance to help them further prepare and take their business to the next level in readiness for the more formal ‘Dragons Den’ style presentation that was filmed at K-College in May to decide who would take away the huge prize fund.
See Michael introduce the video of the Dragon’s Den presentations here.