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FEATURES: • Characteristics of an entrepreneur • Creating a promising idea • Understanding the market • Ressourcing your enterprise • Working with the media • European opportunities
“There will be enough time to sleep in the grave� Benjamin Franklin
2013
For more information on the Entrepreneurship Summer School: www.entrepreneurshipwinterschool.com
EWS Project Managers:
ESS Learning Director:
Photographer:
Alexandre Egger Andrea Gerosa Abu Anwar Giulia Boschis Toki Otudeko
Steven Price
Leah Szomoru
CONTENTS
FOREWORDS SPEAKERS PARTICIPANTS I. ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEA II. NETWORKING III. ACCESS TO FINANCE IV. FAILURE V. MARKETING AND MEDIA
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FOREWORDS “The Entrepreneurship Summer School started with one idea: no professors or teachers. How can someone do a school without professors or teachers? Well, this is the story. At ThinkYoung we run surveys and conduct research on young Europeans. During research conducted and feedback from young people, we discovered that there are three key issues which need to be tackled in entrepreneurship. Firstly, there is too much bureaucracy. In real terms, this is reflected in the slow procedures by banks to lend and it acts like a deterrent to bright individuals with million pound ideas. There are also 27 different member states, each with its own laws, social security procedure and taxation. This is no longer acceptable. The single market is not one of the important things which needs to be done- it is THE priority. Secondly, there is an attitude towards failure which needs to be tackled. The risk attached to creating your own business and surviving puts off many entrepreneurs. Why is it that in the USA when people face bankruptcy they receive job offers in contrast to Europe they resort to social welfare? Finally there is a lack of education which people receive about entrepreneurship. For this final reason, ThinkYoung decided to create the ‘Entrepreneurship Schools’. These schools create a forum in which young people are allowed to learn directly from established entrepreneurs in four key elements of entrepreneurship: the business idea, access to funding, market and media and networking. These four elements are essential to the success of start ups. Moreover because entrepreneurs pass on this knowledge, which has been forged from direct experience and failures, it is more valuable for the participants’. What happens at Business Schools? Students spend most of their time with academics and professors with a high theoretical background. Sometimes speakers are invited, the majority are bankers, consultants or managers. Guess What- most of the students aspire to become bankers, consultants or managers. We wanted to give young people a “hand on the ground” experience. That has been our mission since the beginning. This is how we created the first school without professors and teachers.”
Andrea Gerosa ThinkYoung Chief Thinker
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“I believe that ThinkYoung plays an important role in Europe in a few fronts. Firstly, in bringing the voice of the Youth to the decisions that count. It is important this is represented in: company boards, parliament and the commission. This is crucial. The other reason it is important to have the youth represented because it brings an element of clarity. We support the ESS because it allows young people to be self-employed and in the future employ other people which is vital to the European economy. The entrepreneurs can give invaluable practical advice which you can’t find in any book. The other thing it does is that it brings together a group of bright individuals who naturally network themselves. It is a great program which we support.”
Abhinav Kumar Chief Communications & Marketing Officer Europe Tata Consultancy Services
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SPEAKERS A PANEL OF EXPERIENCED ENTREPRENEURS TO LEARN FROM “Surround yourself with people who know more than you and learn to learn from them.” Participants were given the chance to reflect upon their desired entrepreneurial paths, question and learn from experienced entrepreneurs to build this guide. The skill of questioning (or “interviewing”) experienced people to obtain relevant information proved to be an important success factor for many interviewees. Our findings are based on the EIIL Senior Masterclass (TM) learning methodology and the input of the following guest speakers:
Andrea Gerosa Chief Thinker of ThinkYoung
Steven Price Founder & Executive Director European Institute for Industrial Leadership ESS Learning Director
Wytze Russchen Founder & Managing Director Russchen Consultants
Madi Sharma Founder of Madi Group
Patrick Sapy Board of Director- MicroStart
Jacques Talbot Business Angel, ShareholderCockpit Group, Synthetis, Synthetis Metals
Marie-Noëlle Keijzer Chief Executive OfficerWeForest
Peter Slendsens Amway Business Owner
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PARTICIPANTS THIS GUIDE WAS CREATED BY YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDED STUDENTS FROM ALL ACCROSS EUROPE This winter, 37 students coming from 21 different countries gathered to learn, network and create entrepreneurship guides in teams. This guide is a summarized version of the work of the following participants:
YELLOW TEAM Alessandro Di Fede, Alessia Canni, Bogdan Dinu, Dimitris Vogias, Dusko Grubic, Pedro Duarte, Tara Mathilde Heuzé
BLUE TEAM Aranxta Sarria Quiroga, Donatella Basdereff, Erik Mucska, Guido Bianco Naoto Umezawa, Rodolfo Bondesan, Vasiliki Exarchou
RED TEAM Arlinda Topciu, Daniel Robaczewski, Jernej Dekleva, Ofelia Elena Grozavu Silvia Chantal Patono, Simone Santagiuliana, Spyros Kouvoussis, Verna Guia Venida
GREEN TEAM Chiara Sergio, Giulio Vietti, Mariya Nikitayeva, Mario Kuna Mathias Goldstein, Ricardo Beck, Verena Lydia Zabel
BROWN TEAM Ai Lien Bui, Alfonso Aguado Bustillo, Annabel Morgan, Ana Nicoleta Oarga Endre Olsvik Elvestad, Gerardo Salandra, Guillermo Garcia Tabarés, Patrícia Costa
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“BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR IDEA” Patrick Sapy
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ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEA When attempting to create a set up there are many factors to take into consideration. It is plausible to suggest that the idea is the most important factor because it will dictate whether you will be successful or not. The participants during the Entrepreneurship Winter School (EWS) extracted information from the speakers. The main trend was that people are full of ideas. Those who write down their ideas in a notebook and check them regularly have a better chance to become a successful entrepreneur. Another trend which emerged from the presentations was that it is vital to get a mentor. Madi Sharma stressed how this mentor should be “someone who inspires you; who will be-
lieve in you; someone who will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear”. Moreover, it is important to check the five F’s: Feasible. Is the idea feasible? There are different ways to achieve your goal and sometimes you should not hesitate to twist the idea in order to achieve better results.
Failure. Do not fear failure; be prepared to embrace it. “The chance to have another go more intelligently” (Madi sharma) is something which we can learn from. Focus. If you know where you want to go and if you have the determination to pursue this vision- you will find a way.
Find a niche. Foundation. The more original your Do you have access to idea will be the better the knowledge which is chances of success you required in order to make will have. If it is a unique your idea a success? solution to a daily problem, the chances of sucFit for purpose. cess will increase! Believe in your idea and give it 120% of your efforts. Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not easy!
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“YOU HAVE TO BE A BIT NOT MAINSTREAM. MAINSTREAM PEOPLE ARE BORING AND HAVE THE SAME POWERPOINT PRESENTATION” Wytze Russchen
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NETWORKING Another topic which the participants learnt about was networking. In business, your network can determine whether your idea will be a success or not. For example, a useful contact can save yourself a lot of time, can lead to a new partnership and it can give you new ideas to enhance your idea.
be useful as they can provide you with another perspective, introduce you to somebody or have some form of use in the future.
of making it personal with a good introduction. “People receive hundreds of emails everyday”, you need to make sure yours will stand out.
Business Cards. All of the speakers spoke about the importance of having a business card. “I meet so many people every day and I cannot remember all of their Networking is the single most faces” (Wytze Russchen). A powerful tactic to accelerate business card should be used and sustain the success of so a contact will remember your business who you are. The speakers also spoke All the speakers had a lot to about the importance of cretalk about networking. The ating a database with all of key ideas presented were: your contacts on it, this database should be detailed Everybody has something including: place you met the to offer. person, expertise and ideas If you are going out to net- discussed etc. work, at a dinner or a conference, never sit next to Follow up. someone you know. It is very This is the most important important to get in touch part of networking. with as many people as pos- Make sure you send an email sible - no matter what branch after a day. Jacques Talbot they are working for. They can spoke about the importance
Do not attend a conference on a empty stomach. You should go to networking events to engage in conversations and to meet people. Avoid the food and focus on the contacts!
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Preparation is crucial. Prepare questions to certain speakers, have some ideas of conversations and research a bit about the other people attending the event. When you meet a person for the first time, do not constantly sell different ideas or products, instead, suggest a better place to meet up (coffee for example) to go over your proposals.
“BANKS ARE NOT GOOD AT STARTING YOUR BUSINESS. THE INTEREST WILL RUIN YOUR PROFITABILITY” Jacques Talbolt
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ACCESS TO FINANCE Two of the six entrepreneurs were bombarded with questions about ‘access to finance’. Both Patrick Sapy and Jaques Talbot are involved in this sector and the participants extracted good practices which they could use in their own ventures.
your business - the interest will ruin your profitability”
will come to you, so will more customers.
Make one sell one model. In order to bypass limited financial resources, the participants found out that a useful model for a start up is the ‘buy one, sell one’ model. Madi Sharma used this iniDo not contract debt! tially when selling samosas. This The main theme which was out- means that an entrepreneur is ussourced from the interviews was ing all his income of sales to exthat you should avoid banks and pand as fast as possible without being indebted to banks as much being heavily in debt. as possible. Their structure and style of lending is not suitable to Think big, start small. start ups - they do not allow ac- For a start up in the current ecocess to loans easily and their in- nomic climate, there is no need terest is punitive. to invest millions into an idea. InMoreover it is vital that you stead, you should allow the idea should never indebt families or or company to grow by itself. use your property as a guarantee Small bold steps are the best way for loans. With an unstable eco- to avoid failure. nomic environment there is too much risk in using your property Find customers not investors. as a guarantee. Jacques Talbot Another theme which emerged said “banks are good at financ- from the interviews was the iming when you want liquidity for portance of taking care of cusachieving the sales you promised tomers. As long as you are perfect to your clients, but not starting with your first customer, investors
Invest in yourself and in your team. A business with loads of money and a okay team will have a less chance of surviving compared to a business with a little bit of money and a brilliant team! The speakers stressed the importance of investing in the team you will be working with making sure they can produce the best possible outcomes.
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When you approach investors make sure your business plan and proposals are well prepared. You need to have a deep understanding of your market, industry and competition. At last, try to create a long term relationship built upon trust and mutual understanding (if you need favours it will be more likely if he/she likes you).
“YOU CAN BE DISAPPOINTED BUT YOU CAN’T BE DISCOURAGED” Peter Slendsens
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FAILURE Failure is something part of life that simply happens. Most of the time, no matter how much effort you put into a project sometimes things do not go your way. Every speaker of the EWS emphasised how you should embrace the idea of failure and how it can be the most important learning tool. A few themes emerged from the interviews: How do you deal with failure? You can give up and choose not to learn from the experience. Or, you can take the positive points out of the negative ones and make sure you avoid this in the future. This could be choosing another manufacturer or supplier. Peter Sledsens said “You can be disappointed, but not discouraged�. We are humans and it is in our nature to make mistakes and to learn from them. Madi Sharma made the analogy of a baby learning to walk: at first it will take a step then fall over; then it will process this information and attempt to walk again; this time it will take a few more steps until it learns to walk.
How do you avoid failure? The importance of having a good mentor re-emerges again. A mentor can tell you what you need in order to succeed. An experienced mentor can tell you how to avoid mistakes which they made and can even tell you the useful strategies to overcome a problem. You must not fear failure : all of the entrepreneurs who spoke to us had all failed at least once and rose again to succeed. Underestimating is risky : don’t take uncalculated risks. Underestimating can lead to making wrong decisions which easily could have been avoided if one had planned better. Therefore in planning think rationally consider every single issue and analyse its influence and possible consequences. Plan as you go along, be dynamic and update the plan every time it is needed to do so. Do not inhibit yourself from implementing your idea in which you truly believe and for which you have analysed every potential problem and risk .
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“THE BRAND IS THE D.N.A OF THE COMPANY. IT’S EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR ” Madi Sharma
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MARKETING AND MEDIA The final topic which the participants interviewed the speakers about was marketing and media. With all of the previous topics covered, how can entrepreneurs promote their products and what media outlets, if any, should they use? The ideas of tailoring your product to the market, selling benefits and the importance of word of mouth was touched by the speakers. You should have a good product and believe in it. The product or service which you are offering should be high in quality. Furthermore, the price should reflect the durability and the usefulness. Tailor your product or service to the market. Each market has its own requirements. You need to make sure your product or
service is compatible and can fit into the market, or create a new section if it is innovative. You should make sure that your target audience is willing to accept this product or service and that there is a need for it! Madi gave the example, “Hindus don’t eat beef”.
Sell benefits of the product. When you are selling your product, talk about the benefits of it. The persuasive element of marketing and media is crucial.
Be innovative. We don’t live in the 90s anymore and most companies Word of mouth. still implement classic marArguably the most important keting strategies. Focus on element of the ‘marketing being innovative and standand media’ section. If utilised ing out from the crowd. properly, word of mouth can be the best possible form of You are the brand DNA. advertising, however, it can You represent your startup so also be the worst if there are you need to make sure that flaws with your product or people trust you. Once they service. For example, a very do this, business will come good product can be more your way. expensive than a common one, but, if you know that it is more durable and needs less maintenance your customers will recommend it to others.
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PARTNERS Founding Partners
Knowledge Partners
Corporate Partners
Location Partners
Media Partners
Students Partners
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THINKYOUNG LOBBIES FOR THE PRESENCE OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPEAN DECISION-MAKING.
FOCUSED ON CONDUCTING SURVEYS, ORGANISING CONFERENCES, PRODUCING DOCUMENTARIES AND PUBLISHING RESEARCH BY YOUNG EUROPEANS, THINKYOUNG AIMS TO MAKE “BRUSSELS” AWARE OF WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE THINK.
ITS VISION IS TO MAKE EUROPE THINK YOUNG.
6 Place du Luxembourg 1000 Brussels www.thinkyoung.eu info@thinkyoung.eu www.facebook.com/thinkyoung
6 Place du Luxembourg 1050 Brussels www.thinkyoung.eu info@thinkyoung.eu www.facebook.com/thinkyoung