And the finalists are......

The final 8 City of Liverpool College Enterprise Club Students made it through Business Boot Camp, and submitted their business plans to be in with the chance to win a £3,000 prize package at next week’s #IAmEnterprising Championship Event.

#IAmEnterprising has offered students the support to develop their business ideas with a series of events over the past few months, in order to win an over £3,000 prize package of investment. The prize includes £1,000 cash sponsorship from Morecrofts Solicitors.

The remaining £2,000 will be made up of business services to help the winner to launch and sustain their business. Contributing to the price package by way of services to support business start-up are partners; Chic Networking, Downtown in Business and Agent Marketing.

The shortlisted candidates are: 

Olga Bokova, Danny Curran and John Wilson, Suzie Higgins, Katie Johnson, Kiara Mako, Jessica Peirce, Mikey Peterson and Ashley Rose Standish. 

Between them they have an exciting range of business ideas to take forward and are all current students at the college.

Donal Bannon, Head of Commercial at Morecrofts Solicitors says ‘We are delighted with the quality of business propositions submitted by the students and are looking forward to meeting the finalists and hearing their pitches at the final event next Wednesday. Congratulations to all who have taken part in the process. The drive and determination shown by the students is essential to succeed in business.’

The City of Liverpool College Enterprise Club Students who had registered their interest in the #IAmEnterprising Project, after registering their interesting and submitting a short business brief were invited to Business Boot Camp, hosted by The Women’s Organisation and attended by Former Lord Mayor and Councillor Gary Millar who spoke to the students about the business landscape of Liverpool. Here the students learnt and developed their skills in finance, marketing, presentation and other vital areas in order to prepare them for their next challenge.

Over 20 business propositions were then submitted to The Women’s Organisation and from here a shortlist of 8 have been chosen. These finalists will be present at the Championship Event on Wednesday 29^th April 2015 at the Learning Exchange Centre on Roscoe Street, to compete for the chance to win the £3,000 prize package.

At the Championship Event, the finalists will have to pitch their business ideas before a panel of esteemed judges, made up of business representatives from the college, and partner organisations; Morecrofts Solicitors, Chic Networking, Downtown in Business and Agent Marketing.

Once the winner for the #IAmEnterprising project has been announced they will receive the prize money to launch their business, a launch event from Chic Networking, branding and design support from Agent Marketing and a year’s Business Club sponsorship from Downtown in Business. 

Well done and GOOD LUCK to all of the finalists!

#IAmEnterprising Deadline Tomorrow...

#IAmEnterprising Update

The #IAmEnterprising Project is nearly over! Today we have been down at the Learning Exchange Centre on Roscoe Street for a last-minute drop in session!

The students have been working hard over the Easter holidays to get their Business Briefs up to scratch before the submission deadline which is tomorrow (Tuesday 21^st April) at MIDNIGHT!

Both the students and The Women’s Organisation had a great day at Business Boot Camp on April 1^st and we are looking forward to reading some fantastic business briefs before the Championship event on Wednesday 29^th April.

As the deadline gets closer and closer, the pressure is really mounting. With such a fantastic prize on offer, the City of Liverpool College students are getting serious about their business ideas.

In case you had forgotten, the prize is really something else, and it includes…

£1,000 cash donated from Moorcroft’s Solicitors and £2,000 worth of business support and advice from Agent Marketing, Downtown in Business and Chic Networking and Events.

Agent Marketing will offer the winning student a day of design consultancy with their leading creative consultant to help them bring their brand alive!

 Chic Networking and Events will work with the students to plan an incredible launch party for their business.

And Downtown in Business will offer the student membership to their networking club as well as crucial introductions and contacts in the business world.

With such an incredible prize up for grabs, the business ideas will have to be top notch. The next step for those students who have submitted their briefs by MIDNIGHT tomorrow will be the Championship event.

On Wednesday 29^th April the judges will choose which entries will make it through to compete in the #IAmEnterprising Championship. There the students will pitch their business idea to our panel of judges and convince them WHY their business idea is worth the £3,000 prize!

We can’t wait to see what happens and we will be sure to keep you updated on what happens next…

If you would like to find out more about the #IAmEnterprising Project then please feel free to contact us on iamenterprising@thewo.org.uk

#IAmEnterprising Boot Camp @ City of Liverpool College LEX

April 1^st wasn’t a day for fools at our #IAmEnterprising Boot Camp! The Women’s Organisation joined with the enterprising students from City of Liverpool College for a full day of business planning for success as part of our #IAmEnterprising programme.

 The students who were present at our Boot Camp had sucessfully made it to Round Two by submitting a base business brief. The day was jam packed with activites and workshops for the students to get their teeth into preparing for Round Three, pitching their idea to a panel of judges.

The day kicked off with a fantastic invigorating introduction from Former Lord Mayor, Councillor Gary Millar, who spoke to the students about global trade, Liverpool business and the importance of Twitter! After this the students split into Red and Blue Camps and battled it out with brain teasers and quizzes.

Training Co-Ordinator Bernie Cox, ‘melted’ the brains of the students with this brain teaser of 9 dots and 4 lines and spoke about speaking outside of the box and why it’s important in business! Next there were workshops on Marketing and Market Research before sandwiches and pizza!

A quick scene change, and we spent the afternoon in the atrium of the Learning Exchange where we heard from one of the projects Ambassadors; Enola Rose of Enola Rose Designs, a Miliner and Stylist who had attended City of Liverpool College. The afternoon was tough going for the students as they had workshops on Financial Forecasting and Pitching a Presentation.

These workshops were perfect to get the students prepared for the next round of the competition, and be in with a chance of winning £1,000 cash from Morecrofts Solicitors and support to the value of £2,000 from Agent Marketing, Downtown in Business and Chic Networking.

Although the going was tough and there was lots of information to be digested, the students enjoyed the day and The Women’s Organisation had great feedback in the form of yellow post-it notes;

‘The workshops have been really helpful and I am confident enough to do a good pitch’

‘Today the Business Boot Camp has been really helpful and clear, also the staff have been LOVELY!’

‘Learnt a lot about how much more complex making a business is! It was a great opportunity to learn’

To finish off this fantastic day we had a bit of motivational speaking from Paul Corcoran, founder of Agent Marketing, inspiring students with tales of yoga, massages and pay rises for the staff that he employs, and helping them dream big when they think of their businesses.

The next round of the competition will be the students submitting a more in depth Business Plan and a number of them being invited to pitch in front of a panel of judges to be in with a chance to win the £3,000 prize!

A big thank you to all the students who attended Boot Camp, the staff at CoLC LEX, our Ambassadors Hana Awaad, Katie Pennington and Enola Rose, and Gary Millar and Paul Corcoran.