Got a great business idea? From start-ups to existing businesses, anyone can pitch for the chance to turn a great idea into an even better reality.
Want to show your support? Do your bit for businesses. Get behind the competition and prepare to vote for your favourite idea.
Ten prizes of £50,000 are on offer from Barclays for the best new business pitches from around the UK. You can submit a simple business plan and optional video pitch to judges who will shortlist the best entries to be voted on by the public. Anyone with a website with a large user base, or lots of twitter followers, has got an even better chance of winning!
Five winners of the Metro Venture Candy competition for new business start-ups will receive an incredible package of prizes:
Advertising campaign in Metro worth £50,000
Hosted IT and communications solutions provided by Outsourcery
Marketing and branding from the co-creators of Venture Candy, The Scarlett Mark
Membership at the Hub, a network of the most inspiring places to meet, work and connect
Exclusive, tailor-made PA services from I Need a PA Now
Introductions to The Panel, a collection of the most successful entrepreneurs, business-people and investors including Richard Reed (Innocent Drinks) and Michael Birch (Bebo).
In addition the 15 finalists, 3 from each category will have their businesses featured within Metro reaching an audience of over 3.5 million readers a day.
WIN a summer job and £6,000 in the Real World Awards 2010 in association with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Open for entries nationwide, the award categories are:
Enterprising Student of the Year
Student Personality of the Year
For the Enterprising Student award in association with Enterprise Rent-A-Car five entrepreneurial students will receive a paid internship at Enterprise this summer – and prize money of£5,000!
For the Student Personality award in association with the Anjool Malde Memorial Trust the prize fund is £2,000!
Entries are now open-for each award you only need to answer five simple questions.
This competition closes on 30th April 2010. For more information and to enter visit the Real World website.
We are pleased to announce that the Royal Holloway Apprentice teams raised a grand total of £1276 in aid of The Prince’s Trust last week. Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs ran an Apprentice style competition on campus for one week, giving six teams a £50 budget and the opportunity to run small-scale companies. The winning team Dynasti Entertainment successfully raised a total of £447.45 making more than third of the total profits. They engaged in different fund raising activities from kick up competitions to wet sponge throwing!
When asked about their biggest challenge, Dynasti said that they would’ve wished a better co-operation of the SU. However, they were surprised to find a student body that was willing to help Charity. “… when they heard this was for charity, their pockets opened up, greatly.”
When we asked the team leader about his main motivation for raising money, he said that he hopes that the money raised “would help someone to achieve something, a better lifestyle.”
“We learned that there are a lot of challenges, and a lot of setbacks, which can hinder you from achieving your goal, but if you’re persistent enough, you can achieve what you set out to do.”
Dynasti also would like to thank all of the students for their support and all the other teams for their help in raising money for the Princes Trust.
Team Veritas proposed an unusual business concept based on a model featured in the best-selling Freakonomics, enabling consumers to pay the price they wish to pay. Veritas set up a stall selling bags of sweets and left a voluntary moneybox requesting for £1 per bag.
After encountering difficulties team Enigma successfully ran an event on Saturday evening taking on the challenge to mimic Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. The Chocolate Makers looked to provide campus with an endless supply of chocolate fountain and an assortment of marshmallows and strawberries. Team MATT-MC-ABE took it on them-selves to establish a company that had an ethical stances selling RHUL student’s unwanted clothing. There was such a great response to this company that students are requesting Team MATT-MC-ABE to continue selling second hand clothing on campus. We will have to watch this space! Last but by no means least, team Universal came second closely following Dynasti making £350 selling Krispy Kremes around campus.
The “Margaret and Nick” mentors from Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs, Francesca Chant and Jess Ratcliffe want to thank all the teams for working so hard for the society and the Prince’s Trust.
Although the week is over The Apprentice prize giving event will be held during Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs’ closing event in Founders’ Main Lecture Theatre (MLT) on the 25th of March. The guest speaker is the society’s Founding Patron Sir Alec Reed CBE. Also attending will be Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the event sponsor, and a representative from The Prince’s Trust. Along with awarding our winners with their prizes, a further team will be awarded for the most original and creative idea, which will be announced on the night. This event should be a really great evening also offering networking opportunities with everyone involved.
Shell LiveWIRE recently caught up with Daniel Sutherland (Milkistar), Glenn Buchan & Kilian Palop (Adspad) in Aberdeen to hear how winning an award from in 2009 provided them not only with £1,000 start up funding but the PR, confidence and credibilty they needed to launch their new businesses.
If you’re aged 16-30, based in the UK and think you’ve got a ‘Grand Idea’ for a new business or project – why not apply for one of the monthly £1,000 Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards at: www.shell-livewire.org/awards
Vote for your favourite Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award elevator pitch video and help someone win £1,000 for their new business. Read more…
Submit your business idea to the Big Leap Entrepreneurship Competition 2010.
Twenty young entrepreneurs will be shortlisted to participate in one of two, 3 day business bootcamps, which will take place in London and Liverpool during June. The Bootcamp will provide the participants with a wide range of new business skills and knowledge to achieve business success. Guest expert trainers and apprentice style activities will create an inspirational and exciting few days for those involved. . Check out the casestudies below. Following the bootcamp the young entrepreneurs are provided with one to one mentoring and coaching support. In addition, the best business will win £500.
The competition is open to young people aged 18-30 who have a business idea and have been trading as a business for less than one year.
The Apprentice launched by the Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs has been a great success raising a grand total of £1276 for the Princes Trust Charity.
I would like to congratulate all the teams for their hard work and commitment to the competition.
So, now the thing you all have been waiting for…. the results!
Dynasti with a total of £447.45
Dynasti decided to create different fun daily projects from wet sponge throwing to football and fashions quiz’s.
Universal
Universal sold a variety of products on campus catering to all students needs.
Matt-MC-ABE
This team sold second hand clothes on campus.
ENIGMA
Ran an entertainment event on campus.
VERITAS
Veritas sold small bags of sweets around campus and provided honesty boxes inviting students to pay what they wanted for the sweet packets. This team wanted to test the honesty of Royal Holloway Students.
The Chocolate Makers
The Chocolate Makers ran a chocolate fountain in the Bedford Library.
Congratulations again to Dynasti, and to all the other teams too, you all at least DOUBLED! your investment in just a week! That’s some real entrepreneurial spirit!
I would also like to thank Francesca and Jess for mentoring and organizing most of the event.
We hope to see all of the teams, and everyone else who has been following our events, for our big end of the year event / ceremony next Thursday (25th of March) with Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs’ Founding Patron Professor Alec Reed CBE.
Get expert advice from one of the minigrants judges.
The £2,000 minigrants awards close at 5pm on Friday 19th March 2010. To give you the best chance of winning, one of the judges will be available this week to give you free one to one advice about your application. So if you have any questions about the application process, about terms and conditions, or just want to get your application into the best shape possible, make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to get some expert advice.
The advice clinics will be held in the Careers Service, Horton Building, at:
12pm-2pm Tuesday 16th March
1pm-3pm Friday 19th March
All information and application forms can be found here.
Nepal is one of the 5 poorest countries in the world. The average annual income per family is about £116 but falls to just £22 for an “untouchable” family. Out of 100 untouchable women 97 are illiterate. Of its approximately 5.5 million “untouchable” population, 90% live below poverty line.
To support Comolongmo, you can buy their great products via their website or by visiting their stall at Spitalfields market.
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Got a great business idea? From start-ups to existing businesses, anyone can pitch for the chance to turn a great idea into an even better reality.
Five winners of the Metro Venture Candy competition for new business start-ups will receive an incredible package of prizes:
WIN a summer job and £6,000 in the Real World Awards 2010 in association with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
The first in a series of featured social enterprises.