Budding entrepreneurs face business boot camp
TWENTY-nine student and graduate entrepreneurs from across Yorkshire’s 11 universities are to undergo an intensive four day business bootcamp this week to learn the practicalities and pitfalls of starting and running a business.
Now in its third year, the Yorkshire Graduate Entrepreneurs Bootcamp provides legal, financial and start-up advice and brings in graduates who have set up successful companies in the region to present real-life business problems to those taking part.
Students have a chance to ask probing questions to get to the bottom of the problem, then work in groups to develop a solution.
Joining the Bootcamp this year to give the students their thorny problems to tackle are Xing, a smoothie company set up by University of Hull graduates which runs healthy food roadshows for schools and colleges, and Plus Minus Design, a product design company set up by three University of Leeds graduates with a focus on sustainability and reducing environmental impacts.
Plus Minus Design’s Adam Robinson said. “Last year when I attended boot camp, our company was just at the ideas stage and we’d been struggling to translate our ideas into a business plan and an operating business.
“Boot camp really gave us a kickstart – it gave us the inspiration we needed and also a structure of how turn our idea into a real functioning business. Now we’re in city centre premises, have a growing client base including several international blue chips and are developing our own world-changing products for release.”
Sessions will also be provided by marketing experts, solicitors, HMRC, the Chamber of Commerce and Business Link.
A pitch process will round off the week, with all those attending voting on which business idea to back.
The bootcamp is organised by the Graduate Entrepreneurship Project.
Project manager Susan McColl said: “Two of the main driving forces that are seen as critical to pulling us out of the recession are the university sector and new business start-ups.
“This project brings both of these elements together, equipping bright, enthusiastic young university students and graduates to go and start new companies that could become regional – and national – success stories. In the past year alone, we’ve assisted 91 new businesses to get off the ground, which has created 92 local jobs.”
She added: “But even if students decide after the bootcamp that running their own business perhaps isn’t for them, they’ve still gained useful business knowledge and skills that will be valuable to any future employer.”
