Enterprise UK Blog

In 2008 we (Enterprise UK – or Make Your Mark as we were known back then) published ‘The Future Face Of Enterprise’, a collection of viewpoints. We asked over 50 entrepreneurs, business people, industry experts, social commentators, academics what they thought would shape the future face of enterprise in the UK.

Two years later and we’re now collating views and opinions for the Enterprise Manifesto - which is intended to inform politicians and policy-makers of what the enterprise community thinks they need in order to flourish in today’s challenging times.

I wonder how many of those original view points still stand today?

‘IF WE CAN, YOU CAN’ Challenge launches for 2010

Today marks the launch of the third ‘If we can, you can’ Challenge, a region-wide competition set to re-ignite and celebrate North East England’s entrepreneurial spirit.

The  Challenge calls upon any individual who is thinking of starting a business, running their own business or looking to grow their existing enterprise to enter the Challenge and log on to tell their story – adding to a growing online community of entrepreneurs, each at different stages of their journey. The campaign is built on the Entrepreneurs’ Forum’s well established principles of peer-to-peer support, where personal stories and guidance from experienced current business owners help nurture budding and existing entrepreneurs.

The lovely folks at Adnams Brewery have come on board to help potential entrepreneurs spark their ideas!

As part of a series of free events run by Enterprise UK, The King’s Head in Woodbridge and The Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill are both hosting events, aimed at people who want to start their own business and turning their dreams into a reality.

Speaking at the events will be local business duo Paddy Bishopp and Scott Russell (of Paddy and Scotts coffee).

Those attending the events will also:

• hear how entrepreneurs from Suffolk started their own business.

If you had the backing of a leading enterprise charity, four major business organisations and a highly successful entrepreneur, what ideas would you put forward to make the UK a world leader in enterprise?

Enterprise UK, its Chair Peter Jones, the Institute of Directors, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, and the Federation of Small Businesses are launching a collaborative manifesto for entrepreneurship. It is an online space where entrepreneurs from any industry sector, geographical region or stage of business development can submit and rate innovative and practical enterprise policy ideas.

Does the Enterprise Village have a fertile garden?

1. Escape to the Garden of England

Having pulled myself from my desk, various meeting rooms and the ever present threat of a fatal email avalanche I made time to visit an Enterprise Learning Partnership (ELP) meeting at Fulston Manor School in Sittingbourne; hosted by the impressive Karen Fingland and Rebecca Dighton

No more ivory-tower pondering, time to see how teachers in Kent are nurturing budding entrepreneurs of the future. Is the enterprise spirit blossoming in the Garden of England?

2. A cry for ‘ELP

This afternoon Enterprise UK Yorkshire & Humber held an Enterprising Places Network Event as part of the North Yorkshire Enterprise Cafe organised by NYBEP. Hosted in the rural setting of Sandburn Hall in Flaxton on the outskirts of York.

With threats of snow and bad weather conditions we were very impressed with such a great turn out of attendees. In the grand but foggy surroundings, we were seated on round tables and treated to a delicious warm buffet lunch.

The event brought together a wide range of enterprising case studies with an educational theme hearing from…

Enterprise with a social conscience was the focus of this event, with key speakers addressing both the purpose and benefits of setting up a social enterprise and instilling a social conscience in big organisations.

The two key speakers addressed different aspects of social enterprise. Robert Ashton, entrepreneur, business author and social activist, presented a motivating speech highlighting the shortcoming’s of today’s ‘for profit’ business models create real, immediate opportunities for social enterprise. His speech including ten top tips for setting up a social enterprise, with amusing and inspirations anecdotes about the many people Robert has worked with over the years.

Last week I managed to bag myself a ticket to the media140 Third Sector event held at We Are Social in London. The event focused on how Social Media is and can be used in third sector organisations with talk and debate from leading advocates in the industry. Safe to say being a bit of a social media geek I lapped up the opportunity to engage with like minded thinkers and was interested to see how charities and organisations across the spectrum of size and notoriety approached this. Here were some of things I took away..

None of us can have escaped the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti over the last few weeks.
Our friends at Save the Children have come up with a truly unique way of raising money for Haiti’s children, teaming up with corporate partners and utilising social media to create a business competition.

The Business Heroes campaign (www.businessheroes.org.uk) gives companies or individuals the chance to test their business skills by coming up with the idea that raises the most money for the charity.

Three of our Enterprise UK Ambassadors have had their entrepreneurial talent recognised and rewarded at the third annual Northwest Women in Business Awards.

Best Young Entrepreneur WINNER – Anna Heyes

Best Young Entrepreneur RUNNER UP – Lucy Byrne

Best Start Up Business RUNNER UP – Vicky Corcoran

Congratulations to all of you!

For more details about this years awards go to www.nwda.co.uk/news–events/press-releases/201001/women-in-business-awards.aspx

Crescent Arts in Scarborough leads the way in creative collaboration and partnership through their project ‘Shop Lift’. Working with young and talented artists, designers and performers based in Scarborough to take the visual and performing arts to the high street, enlivening vacant shops and offices around the town centre.

Shop Lift was launched in June 2009 with The {Apothecary’s Unbelievable} Menagerie – an exciting collaboration with Yorkshire Coast College, displaying costume design by BA (Hons) Costume students and modelled by Performing Arts students. Live mannequins in exquisite hand-crafted costumes performed in Scarborough’s Salisbury Arcade, turning window-dressing into a revelatory artform.

So, we’re back at work: it’s January, it’s cold, and Christmas has become a dim and distant memory.

The new year and return to work often serves as the occasion for some serious navel-gazing and introspection, which leads to the annual parade of resolutions, targets, and reinventions.

If you are one of the many pondering the year ahead and, perhaps, thinking about taking your life in a different direction you could do a lot worse than starting your own business.

That's one big generator!

A NEW chapter is set to unfold in Sunderland’s maritime history as the first of a new generation of wave-powered energy generators sets sail.

The first tidal generator to be manufactured at the site of the city’s former shipbuilding yards is now complete and will be shipped to Humberside where it will be put into action in a series of trials.

The million-pound Neptune Proteus tidal stream demonstrator has been built on Wearside by family- run Wear Dock and Engineering.