Think Enterprise April 2017

Think Enterprise Publication | April Edition

READ INSIDE

NOVUS

TRANSFORMING ENTERPRISE EDUCATION IN PRISONS

IOEE ENTERPRISE ACADEMY NOTTINGHAM COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY SERVICE (CVS)

INTRODUCING

ENTERPRISINGLY ME IOEE’S NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL FEATURE!

Vol. 7

MAGAZINE April Edition Vol. 7

CONTAC T US 53 Coniscliffe Road Darlington DL3 7EH 0845 467 4928 newsletter@ioee.uk ioee.uk

2 | Think Enterprise

SARAH TROUTEN, IOEE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Welcome to our April Edition of Think Enterprise – how the last month has flown by! What with school holidays and bank holidays it seems like only last week we were finalising the March Think Enterprise.

It’s been an action packed month here at IOEE and we’ve got so much to share with you.

A warm welcome to Nottingham CVS, a new Enterprise Academy who have just joined us and who I’m very much looking forward to working with to support their exciting plans. You can read all about them in their featured article.

In this issue we feature the results of two interesting surveys - the first reflects upon our own survey conducted in collaboration with EEUK to determine the current landscape for development needs amongst enterprise educators in the UK. I was delighted to see so many people took the time to respond and we’re very much looking forward to providing professional recognition to enterprise educators as well as development opportunities in the coming months.

The second survey featured was conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers and is something that truly strikes a chord with me, family businesses. I know from experience that they are truly unique. Yes, they have their own challenges, however the possibilities are great and I’m really pleased to see PWC providing these valuable insights in to how family businesses across the UK can be better supported.

I’m very proud to showcase our work in over 60 prisons across the UK, helping to create new lives and reduce reoffending rates through delivery of enterprise and entrepreneurial programmes in hand with through the gate mentor support. So often I hear how entrepreneurial ex-offenders are and how a small amount of support in prison can help redirect their entrepreneurial spirit in such a positive way – I feel honoured to play a part in this. This month we hear from Novus an IOEE Academy spearheading innovative delivery across the UK in Prisons in collaboration with IOEE. I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months regarding our important work in this area.

Finally, I’m thrilled to be able to include two new blog contributions from IOEE members this month, both make fantastic reads and have had us smiling away in the IOEE office this month - enjoy (maybe with a glass of Prosecco as ‘Enterprisingly Me’ would).

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Content 08 New IOEE Enterprise Academy brings enterprise thinking to voluntary sector

10 NOVUS embraces enterprise learning with SFEDI Awards

13 Gain recognition for your excellence in enterprise and entrepreneurship

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14

IOEE and EEUK launch first survey together

16 Mobile cinema joins the fast lane to success

18 Enterprisingly Me x

20 City Business Library upgrades service with SFEDI professional qualifications

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22 10 things you should know about Apprenticeships in 2017

25 Interested in finding out how mentoring could help your business?

26 UK Family Business Survey 2017

28 Spotlight On ...

Paul Freeman

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30 A patently great idea

32 Why are entrepreneurs like rugby players?

Because they keep on trying.

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New IOEE Enterprise Academy brings enterprise thinking to voluntary sector

Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service (CVS) is an IOEE Enterprise Academy with premises in the heart of the city. Business Development Manager Jules Sebelin talked to us about her organisation’s work and how its fresh IOEE status is shifting perceptions of how entrepreneurial thinking can create impact in the third sector.

Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service (NCVS) is a registered charity limited by guarantee with a board of trustees overseeing its strategic direction and an operational team that looks after dayto-day matters. Although the organisation does have a number of volunteers working within its own walls, primarily it functions as a ‘volunteer broker’, helping individuals find suitable volunteering roles in all sorts of different settings. Jules Sebelin says: “We broker around 1000 volunteering opportunities every year to a diverse range of organisations across the city of Nottingham.

It’s our role to support the voluntary sector. Rather than delivering frontline services ourselves we help other organisations to do their jobs better.”

The social enterprises NCVS has supported are incredibly diverse.

There’s Phoenix Learning Academy, which uses car / bike mechanics to engage with young people who have been excluded from school, winning direct contracts from local education authorities and achieving an amazing success rate in its quest to encourage youngsters either to stay in education or to re-enter mainstream education. Then there’s the community recording studio using music to welcome young people disenchanted with school to return to learning in a different guise. NCVS also works with a cultural and heritage consultancy that goes into small museums training staff on low-cost solutions to keeping museums open and providing training

8 | Think Enterprise

and experience to heritage sector professionals hoping to stand out in a crowded market. Social care is another area in which NCVS has many partner organisations, and environmental social enterprises are also big news. Nottingham CVS has worked with a large local allotment that functions as a social enterprise producing fruit / veg and running courses and workshops. The allotment engages people through the environment with the objective of strengthening their mental health and wellbeing. These are just a few examples of the types of organisations Jules liaises with. Having worked for Nottingham CVS for over three years, before taking on her current role as a Business Development Manager, Jules worked intensively with various social enterprises, helping them to strengthen their output. In fact, she initially joined Nottingham CVS to run a social enterprise programme. In her current role, Jules delivers some training but also spends time looking for opportunities to take the business forward. She says: “Those opportunities may be funded work, consultancy projects or the delivery of training. I get involved in quite an array of projects. I enjoy going to work. The variety is great and every day is completely different.

“Becoming an IOEE Enterprise Academy has helped Nottingham CVS change people’s perceptions of us and how we can help them develop their organisations. For example, we can offer start-up support and advice on how to grow your enterprise. There have been some significant cuts to local authority budgets in recent years. These have played havoc with the voluntary sector and its ability to find the funding to deliver services. The answer, we feel, is for the sector as a whole to look at how it functions and become more entrepreneurial about it supports itself.”

Many of the organisations Nottingham CVS works with, including

those concerned with children and young people’s services, and working with older people and vulnerable adults, must now balance the challenges of bringing money in and achieving a social good.

Jules says: “The voluntary sector has had to become more entrepreneurial.

Having a stamp of acknowledgement from the IOEE clearly says we’re focusing on the business side of our organisation. It’s a different tone and one that people are very responsive to.

“Being an IOEE Enterprise Academy means that we can actually offer something to organisations to help them with their business practices. We often find that individuals have been given significant responsibility within an organisation simply because they’ve been working there for a long time and they’re very good at their shopfloor job. For example, a play worker with lots of experience may suddenly find themselves managing people or even running financial matters. Although that person may have had lot of training to become a playworker, they don’t necessarily have any business or organisational management training. By linking ourselves to the IOEE, an organisation with enterprise in its DNA, we’re able to offer voluntary sector people best practice training that will ultimately make their organisations more commercial and more businessfocused.”

Nottingham CVS has recently joined forces with its counterpart in a neighbouring city –Community Action Derby. This is a partnership that makes sense as some 40,000 people commute each working day between the two cities. Additionally, Nottingham and Derby share a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Together Nottingham CVS and Community Action Derby can apply for large opportunities which, for one agency working alone, would be out of reach, as Jules outlines:

“We’ve been trying to put some structures together that allow us as voluntary sector support organisations to bid together for the larger contracts before cascading those down to smaller organisations for actual delivery. That was the starting point for our getting together with Derby Community Action but we’re also exploring training and sharing various other aspects of each of our offers. Why would we duplicate our efforts? We’re so close, it makes sense to work together and provide a much more comprehensive offer.”

Jules, who is originally from America, worked in the public sector in the US for around 15 years before moving to the UK almost two decades ago, when she found a position working for a social enterprise: “I’ve worked in a lot of different places but when I discovered social enterprise as a concept I thought ‘this business model is fantastic.’

Using business practise to tackle a social problem still excites me and I really enjoy what I do.”

A spokesperson for Community Action Derby said: “Community Action Derby are pleased to be working in partnership with Nottingham CVS on accredited training for the voluntary sector. We chose to become an IOEE centre to support our members with developing their organisations to become more enterprise focussed. We have developed a range of bespoke accredited courses for our members including: How to improve your bid writing skills; Introduction to Corporate Fundraising; Introduction to Project Management; and Introduction to Social Enterprise, which sit well alongside NCVS’ Impact Measurement and Investment Readiness courses.”

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NOVUS embraces enterprise learning with IOEE and SFEDI Awards

David Morgan is Enterprise Partnership Lead at Novus, an IOEE Academy delivering SFEDI Awards qualifications.

For the 2015/16 contract year, SFEDI Awards was ranked as the eighth most used Awarding Organisation within the prison estate and the most used specialist enterprise Awarding Organisation in a table of 42 qualification providers.

Working in more than 60 prisons located across five English regions, Novus deliver a diverse range of high-quality qualifications, preparing people to find employment upon their release

and thrive in the world of work. The

SFEDI Awards enterprise and employability qualifications Novus offers have been particularly well-received by programme leads and learners alike.

SFEDI Awards’ fast rise to the upper ranks of this table is down in large part to its relationship with Novus. The two organisations have worked in tandem to design and deliver enterprise qualifications that offer prison learners real value upon release, with the aim of meeting both the needs of the individuals and wider society in supporting the reduction of reoffending.

Novus first began working with SFEDI Awards four years ago. For enterprise learning, they took a strategic decision to start sourcing their qualifications from SFEDI Awards as their provider of choice.

Each year, the Skills Funding Agency under the Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) contract, ranks all Awarding Organisations according to the volume of individuals in prison undertaking their qualifications.

8

TH

most used Awarding Organisation within the prison estate out of 42

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David Morgan, as Enterprise Partnership Lead at Novus, has watched SFEDI Awards’s rise up the OLASS table with interest. He says: “That ranking is significant because it demonstrates SFEDI Awards’ growing provision. When we first began working with SFEDI we carried out a pilot that involved only four prisons. Just a few years on, dozens of the prisons in which we operate across five regions are accredited to deliver SFEDI Awards qualifications. That fast growth recognises the value we put into SFEDI Awards qualifications.”

In a government review published last year, entitled ‘Unlocking Potential: A Review of Education in Prison’, Dame Sally Coates highlighted the importance of self-employment as a ‘key route for offenders where the nature of their offending may make them unsuitable or unlikely to get jobs with employers.’

David continues: “The review identified that our learners need to enhance their enterprising skills for use post-release and what we know is that people in prison can’t always go back into their previous career. They have to consider a different career path if there are issues around disclosure or the type of work they can do.”

To counter this, some people develop entirely new skills while in custody, for example in a vocational trade like plastering, plumbing

Since working with prisons, SFEDI Awards have had

7,430

learner registrations for enterprise qualifications

2013/14

or painting and decorating. To turn the new trade into a viable selfemployment option, they also need guidance on business start-up matters. David says: “It’s about helping prisoners answer questions like ‘how do I trade legally, how do I get funding, how do I do my accounts…,’ because they don’t want to go back to the way they were living before.

Typically, those who have an enterprising flair perhaps don’t want to work for a boss, don’t want set hours, and don’t want to be in a position where they’re told what to do. They’re self-sufficient people who need guidance on channeling their abilities in the right way.”

For Novus, SFEDI Awards’ qualifications are part of an arsenal of tools to be used to help learners reframe their innate enterprising spirit in new ways that are both legitimate and profit-generating.

And, across the board they have been very well received in all the prisons David works with. The flexibility built into the courses has been particularly welcomed.

“The feedback we’ve had is that the course content is relevant to learners’ needs and that the structure of the programmes is such that it allows tutors to be creative in their delivery,” he says.

“They can offer learners a wide range of support and information depending on their needs.”

As well as its SFEDI Awards programmes, Novus runs a wide-ranging curriculum with career-relevant qualifications, which helps to make the organisation the UK leader and innovator in offender education, skills and employability interventions.

2014/15

2015/16

2016/17 YTD

% increase in prison registrations through the funding years

David believes that it’s important to help prison learners develop enterprising skills, even if they then go on to use them as paid employees rather than entrepreneurs. He explains: “It’s also about helping people develop enterprising skills generally – not everyone wants to work for themselves. “Newly-released prisoners can find work in other people’s firms and still be enterprising as employees, adding value to that company, which is what employers are looking for.”

Moving forward, David and the Novus team are looking beyond inprison learning to see how, working alongside SFEDI Awards and the IOEE, they can continue to support ex-offenders after release.

Although it’s still early days, Novus is using past learning to develop its Offender to Entrepreneur initiative.

David says: “In the past we’ve worked with Achieve NW on a NOMS/ ESF co-funded self-employment project in Greater Manchester to support men and women who had been through the custodial system and wanted to work for themselves. What we found was that a large number of the participants did not possess the underpinning knowledge needed and so weren’t able to take the steps to self-employment.

“In response, we’ve spent time working with SFEDI Awards and the IOEE developing the learning provision in custody and now we have better-educated learners coming through the system. The next phase will be to work with them as they move into the community post-release. We’re just starting that now and it’s part of our Offender to Entrepreneur initiative.”

Right now, this project is commencing in the North West and David Turn over to continue ...

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is going into prisons to identify those learners who will ultimately respond to self-employment support post-release.

David adds: “I’m trying to select individuals with the promise of potential to take further, maybe they’ve done a vocational qualification and an enterprise programme, they’ve done their research and I can see they’re serious about it. Once these learners have finished their prison terms they’ll be given access to support and business advice upon release.”

For its part in this scheme, the IOEE is also offering post-release support to prisoners who have completed SFEDI Awards enterprise qualifications while in custody, as David explains: “These learners can gain membership to the IOEE upon release which then allows them access to the IOEE Campus, its mentor database and its mentor matching service. Although it’s very early days, already people are beginning to register for these advantages.”

The IOEE is already a familiar name to many of those working in the Novus-supported and wider prison network, and on 4 November 2015, one of them was named IOEE Centre of the Year for provision.

HMP/YOI Hatfield and the Lakes is a resettlement prison that offers learners the SFEDI Awards Level 1 Award in Understanding Enterprise and the Level 2 Diploma in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. We asked David’s colleague Zahda Qayyum, Deputy OLASS Manager at the prison, about the significance of Hatfield achieving this status.

exciting new opportunities.

“Since being awarded IOEE Centre of the Year, we continue to have visitors from other establishments come in to see our teaching delivery and share our resources. It also gives distinction to external visitors when coming in to the Corporate Business Suite and the atmosphere is very good.”

Since first starting work together, Novus and SFEDI Awards have been fine-tuning the enterprise qualifications offered to prisoners, amending and perfecting both the range and specific programmes.

Currently, depending on where learners are located, prisoners can choose to undertake a variety of SFEDI Awards qualifications including the Level 1 Award in Understanding Enterprise, the Level 1 Award in Passport to Enterprise and Employment, Level 1 Certificate in Self Marketing and Personal Enterprise and the Level 2 Certificate in Preparing to Set Up in a New Business.

David adds: “We’ve just started to deliver the new Level 1 Award in Passport to Enterprise and Employment in some locations because as well as the nuts and bolts of working for yourself, it covers important topics like citizenship, personal development and being an enterprising person at work.

“All the SFEDI Awards qualifications are used to help learners explore what self-employment is, what it is to be enterprising and whether it’s the right path for them as individuals. A qualification like the Level 1 Award in Understanding Enterprise gives us a kick off and then those who want to progress might move on to a qualification like the Level 2 Certificate in Preparing to Set Up In a New Business, to gain more in-depth knowledge.”

David sees the way Novus and SFEDI Awards works together as a mutually beneficial, productive relationship. Speaking about how programmes are selected, he says: “We look at which courses are the most appropriate, and statistically which are most popular.

Since the partnership began we have supported more than 5,000 prisoners to develop their enterprising knowledge and skills. My role enables me to work across multiple prisons and see how they deliver enterprise differently, the various barriers that they face and the types of learners with whom they engage.

She said: “Being IOEE Centre of the Year gives meaningful recognition to all staff and students that this provision maintains quality standards. As this is a resettlement prison, students eventually will work in the community, and the SFEDI Awards qualifications we deliver give them the opportunity and time to put together their business idea so they’re ready to go out and take ownership of their

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“I get to meet people who are enterprising and have a genuine desire to do something different – I get a lot of pleasure from being able to take someone from initial business idea to fully blown working business, getting it set up and seeing the business flourish.

Plus, I get to work with organisations like SFEDI Awards and the IOEE that are really open to suggestions on improving delivery. It’s a great relationship and one I believe will only get stronger.”

Gain recognition for your excellence in enterprise and entrepreneurship Are you an entrepreneurial Higher Education Institution?

Then join our network...

Join our growing network of leading Higher Education Establishments who have demonstrated; •

A culture of entrepreneurship

•

Innovative approaches to curriculum development

•

Impact through enterprise education

Working with IOEE provides a wealth of opportunities and benefits including; Recognition of excellence in enterprise and entrepreneurship research and teaching Collaboration on national and international projects Staff development opportunities Validation of enterprise modules Student membership Academic membership Collaborative research opportunities

Times Higher Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2016

Times Higher Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2014

Shortlisted for Times Higher Excellence in Entrepreneurship and the Business School 2016

Entrepreneurship is part of the core strategy for the University of Worcester and, as such, we are developing a world class environment for students, staff and local entrepreneurs. IOEE Centre of Excellence recognition that we have demonstrated our commitment to enterprise and also working with our local partners.”

David Bozward Strategic Lead in Entrepreneurship, University of Worcester The Business School at London South Bank University is delighted to have been recognised as a Centre of Excellence by the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs. The accreditation is recognition that the School is a learning organisation where and enterprise culture is positively encouraged and supported.”

Professor Mike Molan Dean of the School of Business, London South Bank University

IOEE and EEUK launch first survey together

Working in partnership, during March the IOEE and Enterprise Educators UK conducted a comprehensive survey of each organisations’ membership. We asked this diverse set of individuals for both their views and their experiences as enterprise education professionals. Here, we’re sharing the survey’s most pertinent findings with you.

Enterprise Educators UK is a national network of enterprise and entrepreneurship educators and practitioners. Its 1,600-strong membership base is represented in institutions of further and higher education across the country, as well as in multiple other educational organisations. Like the IOEE, Enterprise Educators is committed to furthering the reach and impact of quality enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

In recent years, the IOEE and the EEUK have developed a strong partnership and they’re currently working together to build a professional programme that will recognise the skills of enterprise educators. The two bodies are uniquely placed to undertake this ambitious project; the EEUK’s position as a leading enterprise education membership organisation and the IOEE’s skills and experience as a professional awarding body make a great combination. Last month, in preparation for the work ahead, the two organisations launched the first survey of its kind in the UK. The Enterprise Educators Survey was designed to take an invaluable snapshot of the sector right now, revealing to us the lived day-to-day experiences of enterprise education professionals and helping to define what this set of people want and need from future accredited training programmes. The sheer diversity of respondents was great – everyone from advisors and tutors, mentors to enterprise leaders, and lecturers to MDs took the chance to have their say. A large proportion of respondents (46%) defined enterprise and enterprise education as forming the main element of their workload, with a significant majority (62%) citing enterprise or entrepreneurship

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education (either credit or non-credit baring) as their primary area of work. Also well-represented were those operating in business and management (28%).

When asked which stage of the enterprise and entrepreneurship journey they most frequently worked with learners on, the split amongst participants was quite well balanced, as follows:

Developing awareness of enterprise and entrepreneurship (27%); Developing an enterprising and entrepreneurial mindset (23%); Developing enterprising and entrepreneurial capabilities (31%); Being effective in starting and managing a new venture (19%).

34%

of respondents cited a formal learning and skills development programme as valuable to their own professional development

We asked participants to share the three key challenges they face as enterprise and entrepreneurship educators. There was a great deal of variation in the answers. However, some issues arose time and time again. These were a lack of time, and too few resources (both human and financial). Respondents also repeatedly expressed difficulty in helping those around them understand what enterprise and entrepreneurship in education entails. They wrote answers like: ‘communication – getting the message across’; ‘putting enterprise into context’; ‘colleagues not understanding the term enterprise’; ‘Supporting student[s] and staff to understand what enterprise is’; ‘understanding and buy-in from academia’; ‘Trying to get academics to understand fully what we do and its benefits’.

When asked what their employers / organisations could do to better support individual enterprise and entrepreneurship educators like themselves, the answers given corresponded to the challenges outlined above. Respondents asked for ‘awareness raising and practical support’; ‘more money and time’; ‘expand to allow more time’; ‘obtain funding to do more of it’; ‘greater resource to bring in external experts.’ Training also came up many times in response to this question. Some of the ideas given include: ‘commit more educational resource to entrepreneurship education’; ‘further training within this area’; ‘invest in some appropriate training.’

Another person said: ‘further training and development, having a recognised qualification for the work I do would be great.’

76%

of respondents have cited peer-to-peer learning as a key way in which they’d invest in their own professional development

some 35% of the respondents said they had undertaken some formal learning and skills development programmes. However, much higher numbers of people cited discussions with colleagues in their institutions and discussions with peer networks (76% and 80% respectively) as ways in which they’d invested in their own professional development. This suggests there could be both scope and demand for more accredited, formalised learning programmes in the field.

Sarah Trouten, Chief Executive of the IOEE, said: “I am encouraged to see so many positive responses to this survey and I now look forward to working closely with EEUK to provide professional development and accredited learning opportunities for enterprise educators across the UK.” Dr Susan Laing, Director of EEUK, added: “The Enterprise Education Survey provides valuable data for our members to review and consider how best to offer support our community in delivering fit for purpose learning across the UK and beyond in a very dynamic and challenging environment.”

To learn more about the work of Enterprise Educators UK, visit www.enterprise.ac.uk

Asked about their own routes to continual professional development,

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Mobile cinema joins the fast lane to success Enterprise learner Kerry Hector took part in an innovative scheme run by IOEE Enterprise Academy GGT Solutions on behalf of her social housing provider, A2Dominion Housing Association. The initiative gave her the skills, knowhow and funds to develop MovieMobil - a brilliant social enterprise that takes cinema into communities. We chatted to Kerry about MovieMobil and her journey from enterprise learner to fully fledged social entrepreneur.

L-R Photo caption: Georgina Thomas (GGT Solutions), Kerry Hector (MovieMobil), Lennox Thomas (GGT Solutions) and Bassam Mahfouz (A2Dominion Housing Association).

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Kerry Hector, 34, is a resident of A2Dominion Housing Association in the London borough of Croydon. Over the summer of 2015, A2Dominion sent its thousands of residents an email - about a new scheme it was delivering via GGT Solutions.

The email appealed for residents with a business idea that could help young people in their local community to get in touch for the opportunity to receive £5000 funding to back them up.

Kerry was someone with the very beginnings of an idea already stirring in her mind, as she recalls:

a luxury mobile cinema. Kerry explains how the two sides of the enterprise work together:

“My 16-year-old daughter often wanted to go to the cinema.

I’d thought before that if there was a bus that rocked up downstairs, then all the children on the estate could just go on it without paying travel costs and the additional vendor costs, for refreshments. It was just a fleeting idea but when I got the email I thought maybe it could be more.”

MovieMobil’s central objective is to offer screenings that are more affordable than a visit to the local cinema and the films screened on-board are new DVD/Blu-ray releases, plus the latest films to be streamed online. Some of the events taking place on MovieMobil are charity screenings and Kerry partners with various organisations, who may foot licensing costs themselves to screen movies. She explains:

Kerry responded to the email she’d received and joined the GGT Solutions programme in September 2015. The programme Kerry had enrolled on was a six-month initiative. Each Saturday, she and around 15 other A2Dominion residents attended workshops designed to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and help them develop their individual business plans. Her fellow residents’ ideas covered areas as diverse as counselling services, events management, private tutoring and an advocacy service for people with English as a second language.

The programme culminated with a Dragon’s Den style event in March 2016, at which five finalists pitched their carefully honed enterprise ideas, each hoping to take home the £5000 business funding. Kerry was successful at this event and secured £5000 to invest in MovieMobil, a mobile cinema bus that takes film into communities and creates an opportunity for face-to-face socialising, specifically for children and young people. The enterprise learner, who has also received ongoing enterprise mentoring support from the GGT team, explained her enterprise concept to us: “MovieMobil is designed to make the cinema more accessible and more affordable to young people, particularly those in disadvantaged communities. But it’s not just about cost because there are lots of cheap ways to watch movies these days. For me, nothing beats the magic of the cinema experience and this is a way of bringing that experience to more young people.”

MovieMobil has a capacity of 31, is wheelchair accessible and has on board refreshments, just like in any cinema so it also has a commercial side and can be hired for private parties, weddings, festivals and other events. Additionally, Kerry has worked hard to reach out to corporate organisations who can use the bus as

“Businesses can use the bus for events, team-building workshops, delivering presentations… all sorts of different activities. We’ll also offer them the chance to sponsor screenings in disadvantaged communities, either subsidising them, where the young people are charged a small entrance fee, or funding a full screening.”

“We believe film is a great way for children to learn and engage at school and will partner with Into Film this month, screening a movie at one of our local schools during their Media and Arts Week. This will be a great opportunity for us to showcase what we can do when we work together with other organisations to bring the magical world of movie directly to young people.”

Right now, Kerry plans to primarily service the Croydon community, but she also has ambitious plans to ultimately take her unusual social enterprise further afield, eventually building a fleet of buses, with one in every London borough or certainly in each region. She has recently gone down to part-time hours in her job in internal communications for Virgin Atlantic, to free up time to focus on MovieMobil. Right now, she’s filling almost every role on the bus, from arranging events to ushering audiences to their seats. However, as well as getting some help from her mum, who, helpfully, is a qualified bus driver, Kerry credits GGT Solutions with setting her on the road to success: “GGT has been absolutely pivotal in bringing my idea to full fruition. They helped me work out what I needed to do to make this happen by breaking the process of business planning down into bite-sized chunks. Georgina and Lennox Thomas, who run GGT Solutions, are entrepreneurs themselves. They’ve been there and they shared with us the life skills they’d gained along the way.”

To learn more about Kerry’s cinema bus, you can visit www. moviemobil.co.uk. For more details on IOEE Enterprise Academy GGT Solutions, visit www.ggtsolutions.co.uk.

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‘Enterprisingly Me’ is a monthly feature where you can follow my entrepreneurial adventures. Names have been changed to protect the innocent but everything you read really happened.

I hope my story inspires you to take your first steps, or if you already have, then it lets you know you’re not on your own. Starting and running a successful business isn’t about being perfect. It’s about loving what you’re doing, learning from your mistakes and keeping the faith!

There’s something about enterprise Oh no, the dreaded pre redundancy letter! Every year at this time we all receive our letters notifying us of possible redundancies linked to the fact that the training business I am employed in depends on external funding contracted annually. Every year I make the decision to either look for another job or start my own business. Is it ever the right time? My mother often asks me why I am so good at my job but so useless at running my private life – thanks mum… Maybe this is one of the reasons that I doubt my ability to start my own business. Or maybe its because I have: • • • • • •

Recently separated from my husband Two children to support Just taken on a mortgage No spare cash Got used to having a guaranteed pay check at the end of each month A great appetite ( more of that later ) for Prosecco, clothes and especially shoes…

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On the other hand I am told that I’m good at my job as a Training Manager, which I love. I’ve also recently been asked to go to work for someone else in the same role with a slightly higher salary, which is tempting but with the same annual funding challenges.

I’m doing some work for a local hotel and the owner, who I have got to know really well, asked me why I wasn’t working for myself – well isn’t it obvious given the list above? I shared some of this with him – obviously not the Prosecco and clothing challenges, and as I am on a constant unsuccessful diet I’m thinking the other appetite I have is obvious! His response? This was one of the best times to do it as I had so many things driving me to do well. He shared his experiences of starting his business and it started to make me think seriously about whether it was something I could actually do.

Maybe it was fate but the same day I visited one of our suppliers who owns and runs a very small printing company and I asked how she had started her business.

She shared her experiences of raising money and said that she treats her bank just like any other supplier and

never had any problems raising the finance she needed to start and grow her small business. I have realised that many people running small businesses love to talk about what made them do it and I’m always fascinated by the different things that make people step out on their own.

So, maybe I’m worrying about nothing. I know I’ll need some help in the early days from my bank or some other funder but I had been thinking that no one would want to lend me what I would need to get started.

•

Things going for me: •

•

•

I’m healthy – well, physically but not so much financially! However I don’t have any credit problems and no debt apart from my mortgage (Oh, and the essential House of Fraser account which I must treat with much more care).

I am educated – I left school with 5 GCE’s (OK one of them was a resit and they were in subjects that you may say showed my ‘creative’ side) but since leaving school and after 10 years in the pub and restaurant trade I’ve been back to college and now have the right qualifications for my job. I can deliver and manage training, pull a mean pint and make a great spag bol (always handy if times get hard).

I’m a smiler – you know one of those people who smiles through the very best and worst life can throw at you? It’s a blessing and a curse. Sometimes my sense of humour makes me think and say inappropriate things at inappropriate times. Some people call this a wicked sense of humour but I have realised it doesn’t work for everyone. I have through

•

time recognised this and have used my positivity to gain friends and influence people. You won’t believe the things people have told me in shops, bars, on the train and in queues. I could write a book (or another blog). The good news is that in all the books I’m now reading on starting a business this seems like a good approach to finding and keeping customers.

I’m nosey – I’m a people watcher (I have actually been accused of being a starer so obviously as with previous trait I have to be careful with this one) I love finding out about people and things and I think I’m very intuitive in terms of picking up on the things people aren’t saying. I think this comes with job in both the pub and also in my work as a trainer. As a 24-year old running a pub for the first time you quickly learn that how to deal with people is key to the success of a business.

I’m actually quite good with money – although sometimes a bit frivolous I think I understand how to manage my money. I realise it will be very different if I don’t have a regular amount coming in every month, though so this is probably an area I will need help with if I decide to take the plunge.

So what do you think – should I do it?

Me x

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City Business Library upgrades service with SFEDI professional qualification In 2016 London’s City Business Library began using SFEDI professional qualifications to add value to its existing services. We spoke to Richard Wingate of Quality Leadership and Management (QLM) who delivered the training, as well as to some of the librarian learners themselves.

London’s City Business Library provides its users with an invaluable array of enterprise information, advice and signposting so the librarians who work there need to be prepared to dispense knowledgeable business advice and support to people on all sorts of enterprise journeys. As part of their own personal development, last year three of the librarians embarked on the SFEDI Level 5 qualification in Professional business and enterprise support services, which was delivered by training company Quality Leadership and Management (QLM). Although QLM started life in 2010, owner Richard Wingate has been running training businesses for almost two decades and he told us how the QLM / City Business Library training came about: “City Business Library identified a market for business librarians to provide business support and advice and approached QLM to find out what qualifications we could offer. We suggested that the SFEDI Level 5 in Professional business and enterprise support services (a competency based, assessed programme) might be appropriate to their needs.”

Having agreed with the Library that this was the right training programme for their staff the first stage was for Richard to carry out individual knowledge and skill audits with the participants, allowing him to better understand the daily interactions the librarians have with library users and the structure and processes they follow when providing business support. The audits also identified skills and knowledge gaps enabling the SFEDI workshops to be designed to meet these.

The training consists of two day-long workshops with learners also receiving coaching to help them implement their learning on a practical level. Since achieving their qualifications the three business librarians have gone from providing occasional business advice for a few businesses, to providing regular advice to users who visit repeatedly.

Richard says: “The focus of the training was to help business information

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providers (the librarians) to add advice giving to their skills. They had good understanding of enterprise, were eager to learn and to ensure their learning could be applied to providing an effective business support service.”

As well as catching up with Richard, we also spoke to the librarians themselves about how the training has improved their everyday interactions with those using the library. Esther Greenwood has worked at City Business Library for three years and previously worked in Croydon libraries. We asked her what new skills the training had given her that could be applied in her day-to-day role: “We often work one-to-one with people who want to run their own businesses, helping them to look at the information we have in the library about start-ups or markets. The training gave me more confidence but it also means I can help someone look at their business plan and spot what might be missing. For example, this morning I was with a lady who would like to open a beauty salon and we spoke about the different licenses she would need, as well as the start-up costs she’d have to cover. It’s about looking at the nitty-gritty.”

As well as gaining generally in confidence, Esther has also found herself using specific enterprise tools taken from the SFEDI programme. She says: “One thing I particularly appreciated was using the Business Model Canvas, which helps people to visualise what they have that they can offer customers but also what they need to make their offer accessible to potential customers. I’ve found that to be a very useful way of helping people.”

Esther’s colleague Sophie Dean also felt that her professional output had benefited from having undertaken the training: “This qualification was a way of taking what we offer clients a little bit further and being able to give advice alongside the information we provide. The training helped me to understand that these sessions should be led by the customer and that we as advisors

Richard Wingate of Quality Leadership and Management (QLM). shouldn’t have our own agenda on topics to discuss.”

in the quality of her work:

Additionally, Sophie found the course was useful in exploring the ways in which people take in and digest new information. She says:

“Now that I give advice sessions, I’m doing more research for each new client so by default this has expanded my knowledge. This is knowledge I can then relay to other customers within the library.”

“We did some work around learning styles and looking at our own ways of learning. In turn, this made me think about customers’ different learning styles. So, as well as reviewing the many resources we have at our disposal, it also helped me think about how we conduct conversations with customers and how we can build on those.”

Wendy Foster was the third librarian to undertake the training and as a City Business Library employee of 14 years standing, she’s been doing the job for the longest of the three. Despite her longevity in the role she still found there was much to learn: “I wanted to take what I was already doing further, giving customers more detailed advice on business plan writing. I also wanted to have more authority on the topics I talk to customers about.”

Although there hasn’t been a dramatic shift in how Wendy interacts with the people she supports, she has noticed a discernible change

Working with the librarians at City Business Library demonstrates to Richard just how versatile and effective the SFEDI qualification is in helping a wide range of organisations to deliver business support services.

“The SFEDI qualification offers a clear route to professional status for individuals from both traditional and non traditional settings as it provides the required process and structure for undertaking the professional business support role.”

“I think if someone wants to deliver business support they must have an interest in enterprise and in helping people achieve their goals; a flexible approach and the confidence. to use knowledge, information and experience to advise and/or sign post each client, according to their needs.”

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10 things you should know about Apprenticeships in 2017 Apprenticeships are big news right now. During April and May there are some crucial ‘go start’ dates for a number of reforms to apprenticeships, all with an objective to increase the quality and quantity of apprenticeships.

To ensure you’re up to speed, and can make newly informed decisions on whether apprenticeships are right for your business, below is our guide to ten things you should know about apprenticeships in 2017.

1. From May 6th, anyone, of any age, can do a funded apprenticeship, even a graduate From May 6th apprenticeships training will be funded at an equal level for all adult learners, so whether your apprentice is 18 or 60, 90% of the training cost will be covered by government. And if your business has less than 50 employees and your apprentice is 16-18, 100% of the training cost will be covered. Prior to this change there has been little or no funding for over 24 year olds so this is great news as it allows people at all ages and stages of the business to benefit from developing their skills - something far more in keeping with a life long learning approach to careers these days. The change happily coincides with more apprenticeships being available at higher levels too, indeed gone are the days when apprenticeships just applied to entry level positions. Another welcome development is that having a degree is no longer necessarily a barrier to doing an apprenticeship. As long as the apprentice is learning ‘substantive new skills’ the apprenticeship could be eligible for the 90% funding.

2. From May your business must ‘co-invest’ 10% towards training ‘Co-investment’ is a key word in the new funding system. As of May 6th businesses are required to co-invest 10% towards the cost of the apprenticeships training. This represents great value for money, as you can offer at least one year of intensive skills development to an employee and only have to pay 10% of the cost. Apprenticeships have been proven to deliver increased staff loyalty, lower recruitment costs, and a boost in productivity. The co-investment required is likely to be an extremely cost effective method of gaining 22 | Think Enterprise

the skills your company needs compared to alternative routes, not to mention the other benefits it brings.

3. A grant of £1000 is available if you take on a 16-18 year old A grant of £1000 will be given to all employers that employ a 16-18 year old apprentice, irrespective of business size or payroll amount.

And, if your business has less than 50 employees the government will fund 100% of the 16-18 year old’s training costs too.

4. You can train an existing employee on an apprenticeship Although this isn’t new, it’s definitely worth reiterating. Your apprentice doesn’t have to be a new addition to your business. They can be an existing employee that would benefit from the quality and focused training, and the subsequent career development that an apprenticeship can offer. The apprenticeship doesn’t have to be in your core business area either. If you’ve got an excellent office manager that currently manages the finances, could they develop their skills to become the in-house Accountant? Could your administrator develop into the Marketing Manager for the business? The skills of your team could develop at the same rate as your business.

5. Newly designed apprenticeships are being made available to employers Apprenticeships have been experiencing a major refresh, not just in terms of funding, but in terms of content too. For the last couple of years the government has been encouraging and supporting groups of employers (known as trailblazer groups) to rewrite, and develop from new, apprenticeships that apply to job roles in their business.

This has been to ensure that apprenticeships are completely fit for purpose and employer led. These new apprenticeships are called apprenticeship standards. By 2020, all existing apprenticeship frameworks will be switched off and all apprenticeships will be structured around the learning outcomes and assessment plans of the new standards. The introduction of standards is part of the government’s objective to increase the quality of apprenticeships, and this, along with the legal protection for apprenticeships, makes them an increasingly appealing option for apprentices and

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businesses alike.

6. 20% of the apprentices’ time must be spent ‘off the job’ learning, but that doesn’t necessarily mean in a classroom According to the new funding rules, the apprentice must spend at least 20% ‘off the job’ on activities that constitute learning. However, before you think that means your apprentice will be at college one day a week, be aware that the 20% could encompass a whole range of learning activities that will both develop the apprentice and bring benefits to your business too. This might include coaching from an experienced employee, online learning, attending workshops, mentor support, and research. Also, the 20% isn’t necessarily done on a weekly basis. It might suit your business better for this to be done in chunks of time, or for a couple of hours a few times a week.

Your training provider will be able to advise how the off the job requirement will work and will be keen to try and build it around the demands of your business.

7. Larger businesses are getting to grips with paying the Apprenticeship Levy right now Businesses and organisations with an annual wage bill that exceeds £3 million are currently experiencing their first month of paying the compulsory Apprenticeship Levy. The levy is calculated at 0.5% of a business’s annual wage bill, minus a £15,000 allowance. The reason it’s called an Apprenticeship Levy is because levy payers can recoup their payments to pay for apprenticeships training. To do so they must register on the Apprenticeships Service, where they can use the amount they’ve contributed, plus a 10% top up from government. The new levy is encouraging many larger employers to upscale their apprenticeship activities and therefore will be a significant driver in helping the government achieve its £3m apprenticeship starts target.

8. The National Minimum Wage for apprentices and abolished NI contributions make apprenticeships an affordable choice for small businesses Growing a team is a significant investment for a small business, and apprenticeships can offer an affordable way to bring on new members of staff that will grow their skills in line with the business’

growth plans. The minimum wage for apprentices aged 16-18, and for apprentices over the age of 19 and in the first year of their apprenticeship, is £3.50. Many employers pay more, and particularly for older apprentices it may be appropriate to do so, but if you’re taking on a junior member of staff and this is the only way to employ them this can be an affordable option. An added incentive is that as of April last year, employers no longer need to pay National Insurance contributions for apprentices under the age of 25.

9. Finding the right training provider is key!

A critical success factor in an apprenticeship is an effective partnership between the training provider and the employer.

Finding the right training provider for your business is essential, shop around to find out what different providers can offer you, and be sure to ask other employers what’s worked for them. Questions to ask a potential training provider might include; whether they’ve got some candidates that would be interested in your business (if you’re recruiting), how the course will be delivered, the experience and background of the teaching staff, the possible progression routes, and how well the apprenticeship will integrate with the demands of your business. A good training provider will be able to answer these questions and more, and will be enthusiastic about helping your business make a success of the apprenticeship. Get more ideas on questions to ask from Apprenticemakers. You might also consider finding out if an Apprenticeship Training Agency could provide additional support to your small business too.

10. Developing mentoring skills can help make the apprenticeship a success Once your apprentice (or apprentices!) are in place you’ll want to do what you can to ensure they’re happy in the business, and ideally providing a return on investment as soon as possible. One way to do this is to develop mentoring skills that can help you empower your apprentice, drawing on their resourcefulness to achieve their work and study requirements. You might even appoint an existing team member as a mentor which can develop their management skills and free up your time too. Apprenticemakers provides mentor training to businesses and organisations, and is also helping smaller businesses develop mentoring skills too.

Key dates for apprenticeships in 2017:

Where to find more information

Feb 13th - Registration opened for the new Apprenticeship Service which enables levy payers to access their levy fund (plus the 10% government top up) and pay their training providers online too.

Apprenticemakers’ new interactive guide to apprenticeships which includes info on the new funding and an overview of the apprenticeships journey for business.

April 3rd - The Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) started its first official working day. The IfA has a remit to oversee the quality of apprenticeships standards and assessment plans.

Infographic showing the 4 main areas of funding for SMEs from May 6th.

April 6th - Businesses with a payroll exceeding £3m were required to start paying the apprenticeships levy to government, calculated as 0.5% of their annual payroll, paid monthly.

May 6th - The new funding structure for apprenticeships comes into operation and is applicable to all businesses.

Throughout the year - new apprenticeship standards are coming online all the time, gradually replacing apprenticeship frameworks which will be phased out by 2020.

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Gov.uk’s guide to employing an apprentice.

INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT HOW MENTORING COULD HELP YOUR BUSINESS? Mentoring has a strong track record of helping businesses meet their objectives. The Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) helps match businesses with mentors from the banking industry, who are able to give an hour of their time per month, across the following regions:

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North East

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Yorkshire

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West Midlands

Central London

The volunteer bank mentors offer a wide variety of business experience and expertise with small and micro businesses, social enterprises and creative businesses.

Are you interested in meeting a mentor?

For more information contact Christine Dryden christine.dryden@ioee.uk or 07720 681591 if you are based in the West Midlands or Central London, and contact Paul Harper paul.harper@ioee.uk or 07715 905638 for the North East or Yorkshire. * To be eligible to receive support you business must be established and begun trading.

Our dedicated volunteer mentors are passionate about helping their mentees.

“

The key skill I have taken from this experience is true active listening. I have applied those skills at home and at work and I am finding the results are having a lasting impact.

The reason I continue to mentor today is the positive feeling I get when I help others achieve their dreams and ambitions. It’s a great way to give something back to the local community through sharing my knowledge and experience.”

“

My mentor’s support and level of understanding has been exceptional, which was the key in identifying and overcoming issues as they arose.

With his experience I have become self sufficient working through the challenges my business faces and to identify new business partners who have exporting experience.”

Dorota Grabkowska

Founder of Fanatic House

Carl Beardon

IOEE Volunteer Mentor IAB Small Business Mentor of the Year 2016 award winner

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UK Family Business Survey 2017 PwC recently released their eighth annual Family Business Survey. This year, the results shone the spotlight on the potential impact on UK family businesses in the wake of the Brexit vote.

The survey showed that family firms are facing new challenges, but that they remain confident and optimistic about what the future holds, as well as passing down their businesses through the generations. However, some may underestimate the impact of short-term challenges that have arisen since the EU referendum.

Although over a third of UK family businesses are concerned about the effects of Brexit, more than 90% say that they are still anticipating robust growth. The spectre of Brexit has not affected their pre-referendum forecasts - 93% of family businesses expect to see considerable growth in the next five years, and 94% say that they are certain of seeing significant growth of their core business in existing markets.

Brexit has also failed to dampen export ambitions, with UK family businesses predicting that their collective exports, as well as a proportion of their overall sales, will increase from 19% to 24% over the next five years.

Commenting on the Family Business Survey findings, Sian Steele, UK Family Business Leader, says: “Despite tough economic conditions and the accelerating pace of change, the family business sector remains vibrant and ambitious, with almost one-in-five (18%) expecting to grow quickly and aggressively.”

However, this unfailing confidence may suggest that some family businesses are underestimating the impact of Brexit on their business’ forecast – as less than half of all UK family businesses have taken any measures to mitigate the potential impact that leaving

26 | Think Enterprise

the EU may have on their business activities. Sian Steele says that Brexit needs to be considered in order for a business to thrive in a changing economic market: “In some areas, UK family firms are not demonstrating the resilience of their global counterparts. It’s also of concern that so few plan to diversify in their current core markets, or have strategies to combat digital disruption. It will be interesting to see how these plans are impacted by new trade agreements being brokered post-Brexit, but overall, it does raise concerns about the survival of some of these businesses.”

However, the confidence of family businesses may be due to a deepseated belief in the importance of family values and the strength of community. Eight in 10 feel that they have stronger culture and values than non-family businesses, while seven in 10 feel that they are more streamlined, have a quicker decision-making process, and take a longer-term approach to decision making than non-family businesses.

Clare Stirzaker, UK Family Governance Leader at PwC, says that these strong values coupled with a long-term strategy, are the key to success: “A robust, documented, and well communicated succession plan, will stand the best chance of success. The next generation are the future. They bring continuity of family and business, new ideas, energy and enthusiasm. Engage them at the right time, support and nurture them and, crucially, talk to them about the shared value and purpose in the role they play.”

Source: PwC, UK Family Business Survey 2017

Sian Steele concluded:

‘family firms fail for family reasons’.”

“Family businesses are certainly up for a challenge, and those that we speak to feel confident and excited about the future and the opportunities that it poses. There is no room for complacency, and those that survive from generation to generation focus on robust, strategic planning, taking them from where they are to where they need to be in the long-term. The family firm also has to tackle issues around the family itself. Here, the issues are more personal, more complex, and the risks if it goes wrong are potentially terminal -

IOEE’s Chief Executive, Sarah Trouten, said: “I’m delighted to see this research being conducted by PwC in to Family Businesses. Family businesses contribute hugely to the UK economy and as such we should be providing the correct tools and resources equipping them to become stronger more resilient businesses thus able to grow, succeed and contribute to UK PLC.”

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Spotlight On ...

Paul Freeman Paul Freeman is the CEO of PMH Digital Solutions; a mentoring business he founded to ‘promote the digital lifestyle’. It offers a range of digital products and courses to help people who are looking to discover how they can embrace digital opportunities in order to work for themselves, and get a healthier and happier work-life balance. This month we shone the spotlight on him to find how his personal journey inspires him to mentor others.

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Paul originally studied electrical engineering, and began his career working in audio and lighting technologies. He spent a number of years operating the lighting in theatre productions, before building up a successful portfolio of prestigious production management positions, working on everything from large-scale corporate functions and sellout pop concert arena tours, to touring the UK on numerous conferences.

Paul then transitioned into the sales and distribution of technology, including LED lighting products, where he was responsible for overseeing annual turnover levels of up to £5million. However, despite his success in these roles, it was his personal experience of working for corporate companies and organisations that inspired him to set up his own businesses on his own terms. Paul says: “The journey getting to where I am today is a very personal one. I became the victim of workplace stress, it was negatively affecting every area of my life, and I had become the stereotype of the stressed salesman; spending hours sitting in traffic jams, going for days and days without properly seeing my family, bullying bosses, overworked and undervalued. I became quite ill with it all, until I thought ‘enough is enough’. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had to hit this low so that I would make a change.

It turned out to be my motivation – sometimes you have to reach that point so that you take the leap into something new.”

Paul set up his own LED lighting company, PMH Digital, and he continues to do business in this area. He recently completed a big project for a local company that saw an energy reduction of 73% by switching to LED lighting – but it was that first taste of working for himself that motivated him to set up his mentoring company, PMH Digital Solutions. Paul says: “For the first time, I was working for myself, in my own way, and it was incredibly liberating. I

began to understand how digital advances have changed the way we work today - you don’t need an office and all the overheads that come with it; we’ve got technology everywhere. I enrolled on social media marketing courses and read everything about digital marketing that I could get my hands on, and then I launched PMH Digital Solutions. We provide a range of digital products and solutions ranging from eBooks, independent and interactive online learning, and one-to-one mentoring sessions - helping people to embrace digital opportunities, find freedom, create income and choose their own lifestyle.”

Paul has written three books: An Introduction to Financial Training, How to Create a Digital Lifestyle, and Diary of a Depressed Salesman, which documents his journey: “In a way, I was my own case study, and it’s imperative to have a good grounding in what you’re talking about. For all the inspiration and excitement of ‘going it alone’, the reality is that it is really hard work. You face challenges and have lots of questions, but you don’t have a team to bounce ideas off. It can be lonely at times, which is why I’m so passionate about mentoring. It would have helped me immeasurably when I was starting out, and being able to pass on my experience and knowledge is extremely rewarding.”

It is this passion for mentoring that led Paul to become a member of the IOEE: “Being able to be a part of an institution that ‘gives something back’ is a perfect fit with my business ethos. The connection with the IOEE also gives my business ‘official’ credibility – as there are so many ‘unofficial’ online getrich-quick schemes out there that people are vulnerable to. There are no shortcuts or cheats to successful entrepreneurship, it’s hard work and it’s demanding – but it’s absolutely worth every second of it.”

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A patently great idea Simon Krystman, who has recently become an IOEE member, is the man behind IdeasPatch, an innovative route to funding the filing of patents for talented inventors, who often find themselves in a catch-22 situation of no-patent, no investment. We chatted to him about his unique business model and his own route to entrepreneurship.

Despite graduating with a degree in bio-chemistry in the early 1990s, Simon Krystman worked as an employee for just six months after leaving university. Like many people who are naturally inclined toward individual enterprise, he soon found himself on an unrelated career path as a ‘serial entrepreneur’, starting up several traditional technology companies. Remembering this time he says: “I followed quite a standard entrepreneur’s path of coming up with what I thought would be good ideas for businesses. A few worked, and they compensated financially for the ones that didn’t.”

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It was during that time that Simon realised his primary interest lay in the early stages of business start-up. His fledgling enterprises were concerned with data and data mining, reselling software, email marketing and related business-to-business support services. He says: “It was the start-up stage of things that I really found exciting. When a business reached a stage when it started to look promising, began to develop reasonable cash flow and needed growth, I’d know it was time for me to put a management team in place and step back, perhaps to a role on the board.”

This passion for beginnings has remained with the entrepreneur, who explains why the start-up stage holds such appeal: “I like looking at a new idea and trying to make it work. When a business gets to a certain size you start getting involved in procedure, you have to get into the detail. That requires a different sort of skillset from that of an entrepreneur.”

Most recently, Simon decided to focus his entrepreneurial abilities on local communities. He and his partners began to seek ‘pain points’ in an attempt to identify a problem that needed solving for businesses, searching for a gap in the market. Alongside a business partner, Simon noted the slow demise of local newspapers and how this negatively impacts local trade. This, in turn, revealed another deep-rooted economic issue for potential new businesses. Simon explains: “Local newspapers have an ageing readership, their business model is moving online and we wondered if we could tackle the gap this was leaving for local businesses and social enterprise projects by creating online community hubs. However, while we were setting this up it became apparent that the real problem for business was a lack of local government funding and a lack of bank lending.”

Here, Simon realised, was where the real opportunity lay so he set up crowdfunding website CrowdPatch. Designed to fund social projects in local communities, CrowdPatch provides crowd-funding of around £3000 to, for example, projects raising cash for 3D printers in schools or community cafés. Essentially, when a project or social enterprise can’t borrow money anywhere else but it has a positive impact on the local community it can get going on CrowdPatch.

CrowdPatch was a precursor to IdeasPatch and continues to thrive.

Simon appreciated that while this model of crowdfunding was ideal for small community-based projects, it would require some re-design if private start-ups were to be the ultimate recipients of funding. Additionally, the entrepreneur had noticed that for many potential start-ups there was one large and costly barrier standing in the way. He says: “People would approach me and say ‘I’ve got a great idea for a business. I can’t tell you about it because you’d have to sign a confidentiality agreement’, or ‘if I launch too early one of the big boys will steal it.’ Invariably these people would never start their businesses because they were scared someone would take their ideas.”

Simon set about deciphering how to remove this barrier to potential start-ups that had innovative inventions to sell. His first move was to consult with an Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer. This led to Simon learning about the proper way to protect IP via patenting, a costly process that few fresh-faced new start-ups can afford: “Patent attorneys aren’t cheap, and if you’re going to start a business based on an invention you probably haven’t got the £30,000 or £40,000 it costs to protect it.”

IdeasPatch, which launched in late 2016, can solve this problem.

Although the idea of filing a patent via an online platform may sound counterintuitive because the task is by its nature a highly secure and private one, in fact Simon’s model offers hope to those stuck in the catch-22 situation of not being able to afford a patent but not being able to pursue potential investors for fear of their idea being stolen. IdeasPatch is open only to professional investors

who have paid a £50 membership fee. Meanwhile, individuals with innovative business ideas that they want to protect apply for free to IdeasPatch via an encrypted process, together with a non-disclosure agreement, to be considered for patent funding.

Simultaneously, they submit a business plan. Once each of these documents have been professionally assessed, IdeasPatch may offer to ‘run a campaign’ on an idea and its corresponding enterprise, appealing to the Angel investors to put their cash behind them. It was essential for Simon to make IdeasPatch attractive to investors, specifically Angel investors who may be looking for fresh areas of enterprise in which to place funds, as he outlines: “Our customers, the Angel investors, have told us what they’re looking to invest in and now we’re building stock, as it were.

The sorts of inventions we’re working with here are in fields like advanced engineering and bio-technology. These are high-growth areas where if an invention works out well, the inventor can potentially enjoy a lucrative monopoly with their technology.”

Having set the scene for serious investors to connect to brilliant inventors, IdeasPatch also works towards giving inventions the best possible chance of success in the business world. However, as Simon explains, the skillset of an inventor is often very different from that of an entrepreneur: “Most inventors don’t make good business people. They’re good at inventing, not commercialisation. So, in an ideal world an investor would want an inventor to either have a track record of commercialising their invention, or to be tied up with an entrepreneur or mentor to provide that skill.”

To answer this need, IdeasPatch provides a higher-grade investment application and, right now, the social enterprise is looking at ways of sign-posting inventors to the extra business expertise they’ll require to secure the very best investment opportunities.

Currently, Simon and his team are working hard to get news of IdeasPatch to the people who need it most: “It’s important for individual inventors to know IdeasPatch is out there. For them, this is a completely new option and there isn’t anyone else yet offering them a solution where, if they haven’t got the money, someone may still be willing to take on the risk of their invention.”

It’s Simon’s hope that, as the years go by, IdeasPatch will become the catalyst for numerous ambitious inventions to come to market.

He says: “Particularly in these uncertain economic times, I foresee that people will come to regard companies like ours as instrumental in enabling future new inventions to emerge and rewarding economic activity to take place.”

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Why are entrepreneurs like rugby players?

Because they keep on trying.

For March’s edition of Think Enterprise, the IOEE’s monthly newsletter, we interviewed IOEE Fellow Paul Boross. As well as being a respected authority on the art of excellent enterprise communications and someone who has worked with high street banks, household-name media corporations and leading broadsheets, Paul is ‘The Pitch Doctor.’ This role sees him travel the world sharing his expertise on “the art and science of persuasion.” You may also recognise Paul thanks to his regular TV appearances on popular Sky TV show School of Hard Knocks, in which he features as both psychologist and presenter. Here, blogging exclusively for the IOEE, Paul draws out an interesting analogy on why rugby players have lots in common with entrepreneurs.

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Sky TV’s series ‘School of Hard Knocks’ has been running for a few years now, taking the game of rugby to disadvantaged young men all over the UK. In each series, the same patterns and stories play out - born on the wrong side of the tracks, dropped out of school, fell in with the wrong crowd, made too many mistakes to turn back. Those stories might be familiar, because we all have more in common than we think. You might also recognise that this is the way that most entrepreneurs’ autobiographies start. Is your life story an excuse for failure, or is it the springboard for your success?

Maybe this is what makes an entrepreneur – when everyone else is saying, “I can’t do that because...”, the entrepreneur has the courage to say, “I’ll prove them wrong.”

The resilience of the lads who take part in the show is astonishing.

Darren in Glasgow had, on two separate occasions, been stabbed in his back. He had a tattoo put between the stab wounds which said, ‘better luck next time’, which tells you a lot about the attitude you sometimes need to survive as an entrepreneur. Of course, one of the misconceptions is that the entrepreneur is some kind of lone wolf, a solitary animal who relies on no-one. You cannot be successful by yourself, and even if you’re self-employed you need clients, suppliers, partners; a team around you. Your success depends on learning to trust and rely on these people, and letting them rely on you. Jason Leonard, the former England Rugby Captain, told us: “Everything in a scrummage is ultimately team work because you are turning ‘round and saying to your mate, I am with you, I won’t let you down. I can look someone in the eye and say I am right beside you - that is what a scrum is all about.”

You don’t have to be strong or tough to run a business. You just need to make the decision to carry on. One of our young men said that he couldn’t turn his life around because, “I ain’t got the mental strength.” Whether you’re resisting the wrong choices in life, or one more late night at the office, it’s nothing to do with strength. If you’ve got good people around you, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

Bad things happen to everyone. Businesses fail and sometimes ‘serial entrepreneurs’ get a bad reputation, as if getting up and trying again is somehow a bad thing. Maybe it’s not very ‘English’ - you should know when you’re beaten. The most successful entrepreneurs know that they can never be beaten, they can only give up. The people who achieve genuine, lasting success, are the people who take life’s events and choose to see them in a positive way. For example, Michael Henderson, captain of the School of Hard Knocks Croydon team, told the players, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” Is it true? It doesn’t matter – it’s an attitude.

Mark Prince was one of our guests, a former boxing champion, who tragically lost his son to knife crime and became a campaigner for knife safety. He told our young men, “life can bang you up. What are you going to do? Are you going to throw in the towel? Are you going to cut your wrists? Are you going to drink yourself into a stupor? You need to remember that you’re still living, you’ve still got life, if I can do it then anybody can.”

I’ve heard many entrepreneurs complain about things in their own businesses; maybe their customers, or their staff, or even their processes and procedures. Well, if something’s not right in your business, you can change it! Even for giant corporations with policies ‘set in stone’, those policies were still written by someone and can just as easily be changed, if the desire is there. Sammy is one of the young men who really turned his life around following his time in the School of Hard Knocks. He said, “It’s more than what you think it is, it’s not just rugby, it’s life, you can change whatever you want to do in your life and the amazing thing is how quickly you can change it just like that, with a click of the finger. If you stay positive and stay strong, the future is bright.”

Communication is one of the things that makes us successful as a species. In rugby, if you don’t communicate you get hurt, it’s as simple as that. You might have an idea about where you’re heading, but if you don’t communicate your intentions, you either get left behind or trampled on. Communication is the fabric of team work, and one of the most valuable lessons that I’ve learned is that we’re always communicating, whether we think so or not. If you retreat into yourself under pressure, you’re communicating that you’re not there for your team. If you lose your temper, you’re communicating your frustrations and putting pressure on your team, which compounds the problem that you’re trying to solve.

On the other hand, since you’re always communicating, you can choose what you want others to see and hear, not just in the words that you choose but in the way you move, the way you act, the way you react. All of these non-verbal communications form the impression that other people create of you, so if you really mean business and, if you really want to create something special, have that intention at the front of your mind every day, and that intention will create communication and relationships that you couldn’t imagine.

I hope these few lessons that I’ve learned at the School of Hard Knocks help you in your own business. Just remember the most important message of all – that you can never fail, you can only give up.

Keep on trying!

Paul Boross is “The Pitch Doctor”, an internationally recognised authority on communications, presentation, performance and “the art and science of persuasion”, and appears regularly on worldwide conference programmes, at international television and media events and in feature articles. Paul has worked with many executives in a range of organisations such as the BBC, Google, The Financial Times, Barclays and MTV, as well as public figures such as Sir Richard Branson, Ainsley Harriott and Sky newscaster, Dermot Murnaghan.

Paul is the resident team psychologist and presenter on the on-going SKY TV series School of Hard Knocks. The new series of SOHK starts on 4th May at 10PM on Sky Sports 1 and is repeated on Sky One. Paul has now authored three books; The Pitching Bible, The Pocket Pitching Bible and Pitch Up! Visit www.thepitchdoctor.tv to learn more.

Think Enterprise | 33

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