A university student at King’s College London is aiming to change the student job market.

Jack Tang, a second year student currently studying a degree in Business Management BSc at King’s College London is hoping to disrupt the student job market with his startup thestudentjob – a social network based platform that aims to become UK’s first immediate solution to flexible labour needs, an aggregator for all temporary and casual work throughout the UK.

Here is the full interview.

So Jack tell us a little about our startup The Student Job?

Thestudentjob.com was founded with an aim to help thousands of students to find casual work whilst at university. We are trying to encourage businesses to offer really flexible work such as a couple of hour shift here and there or even part-time jobs so that students can fit it around their studies. The initiative came soon after the heated debate on tuition fees and student cuts, having a job whilst at university is going to be a necessity to make life work at university.

Students will either be strong-armed from university, or, graduate with a life of debt repayments for many years. Our business is built on strong beliefs that thestudentjob.com, consist of a group of university students can make a difference, reduce youth unemployment and help students tackle the imminent financial hardship we will face. These form the foundation of our core values at The Student Job.

What makes The Student Job different from its competitors?

Firstly from a business perspective, we are a student lead initiative and student run company. We understand the student market better than any other. Aside from that, our website is second to none, thestudentjob.com is a real-time location based job site. We aim to help students to find jobs in real-time and within their local area.

For example, Ellie wanted some money to go purchase some books, her student loan has run out, she can find a one-off job on thestudentjob.com, perform the job on the day or soon after the application and then get the money she needed for the books. Ellie would have been able to save time and money on travel as she’ll be able to find jobs on her doorstep.

Further to this, we are the first casual employment social network, each student has it’s own LinkedIn style profile and each employer has their own profile for students to find out more about the company as well as following the company’s activities.

What was the inspiration behind The Student Job?

I’ve been surrounded by many amazing inspirational people with great motivations. Over the years, I’ve also developed my own internal source of inspiration; my aim is to develop businesses to benefit the masses, for the greater good. This motivation acted as my inspiration to develop creative business ideas that will socially benefit others but also I can make my mark.

Is it your first startup? If no, what was your first startup and was it a failure or success?

Thestudentjob.com is my 3rd start-up, I’ve been experimenting since the age of 12. My previous venture before thestudentjob.com was Tapalog, Tapalog is an IT system used at exhibition events that provided a self-service style information kiosk, visitors could obtain products information on specific companies by using their business card or exhibition pass. Tapalog acted as an information exchange medium, where visitors got the product information they wanted from the businesses but also left their business information for the company to contact them at a later date.

This start-up has been successful for me personally. Financially, we have not made a penny but only losses, but that didn’t matter, why? I have enhanced my technical skills, business skills, skills that are invaluable for entrepreneurs. Tapalog was trial tested at Excel London for the Grand Design Live 2011 and Natural Stone Show 2011. Without spending all the time developing the system and trying, I wouldn’t have been able to meet contacts and test my product at one of UK’s largest exhibition halls. The experience of building the business has been the success of this venture. I’ve learnt many things and being ambitious is a great thing but I was over ambitious and unrealistic with the given amount of resources I had at the time.

What have you found to be the hardest part of building a startup?

Keeping yourself motivated is one of the hardest parts of building a start-up; it really isn’t an easy task. It is a marathon; you need going and also motivate your colleagues because they are extremely valuable resource in getting your business off the ground.

Being an entrepreneur can get lonely, but have a close circle of friends you can talk to and bounce ideas off them. It will make your experience a lot more enjoyable.

What advice would you give to any aspiring entrepreneurs?

My key message has always been, start while you’re young, explore into different ventures now. Don’t wait for things to happen, because it won’t. Even you don’t have the big idea now; you should still look into setting up a small business buying and selling products or services. You will learn a lot of new skills every time you do something different. Accumulate all your skills and really go 110% when you think you have that ‘Big’ idea.

Now you’re still at university, which is great as your target market is right there in front of you, while your but how do you find managing your time around both?

Over the years I have been setting up businesses whilst in full-time education, I’ve learnt to juggle my time and always find time to get things done. I tend to plan my time in advance, equip myself with good communication tools so I can squeeze in an email whilst on the tube and send it when I get off. Those little moments you have nothing to do, I always see that as an opportunity to work on my business. Recently, I’ve started to recruit a lot of interns to work on areas they want to enhance their skills. Although I’ve spent a lot of time training and educating them, overtime, it has saved me time to do other things that warrants my attention.

There is a lot of debate about going to university or starting your own business, considering your doing both, what is your opinion on this?

Well, personally I believe that university is not for everyone. Although it is a great platform to meet new contacts and be exposed to lots of opportunities, I believe that if you are ready to venture out and take risks with your business you believe in, then university is not for you.

The reason I went to university is not the right one, but, the time I’ve spent here at King’s College London, I have met many talented individuals who I can see them working in my business later on. It has been effectively been a ‘incubating’ period for me to develop my ideas and making sure when I do chose to leave university, I am working on something that will surely take off.

For me, I’m using my time at university as an incubator to develop my business. However, theoretically I am still obliged to keep on top of my work at university, which I have if any lecturers are reading this.

How did you go about funding the business?

Funding thestudentjob.com has been a mixture of my personal savings that I have accumulated from previous ventures and by doing slide services to generate revenue that is reinvested into the business. My technical skills and our skills as a company is web development and internet marketing, we have contracted our skills as services to other companies to generate revenue to invest into our brainchild.

What does your revenue come from?

Thestudentjob.com has several revenue streams, which is great for keeping the company afloat. Our main source of revenue comes from our job listing fees; we charge a one-off listing fee per vacancy (similar to eBay). Our second revenue stream comes from advertisements on our website, we have several placements to sell each month. Our third comes from sponsorships, as we are a social enterprise, large corporations have been attracted to sponsor our cause. Fourth, we charge businesses to carried out targeted marketing services to our members and also direct marketing services we offer as apart of thestudentjob.com subsidiary services.

How many people are signed up to the studentjob.com?

To date, and since our beta launch on the 10th October 2011, we have had over 8,500 students registered on the website as job seekers. We have processed over 300 job applications and we haven’t stopped growing since!

How have you marketed your site on a shoestring budget?

Our marketing expenses so far have been less than £1,000 in total, so yes, on a shoestring budget. We have doing all the marketing we can do in-house; most of our budget has gone into printing for the fresher’s fair, which hasn’t had a great response in-comparison to our social-media efforts. We’ve got over 4,500 fans on our Facebook page without spending a penny.

Have you always been an entrepreneur at heart or is it something you grew into?

I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, I started selling cartoon trading cards at the age of 11, started my first computer hardware business at the age of 12 selling bespoke computers. At the age of 14, I started a web design and online marketing company, today it is known as Interwebs (Interwebs.org). I have had many small ventures that I have not included in my writing but I have learnt many small lessons that I have applied to my latest venture thestudentjob.com

Jack is on Twitter @JackCKTang
Thestudentjob.com @thestudentjob

If you are interested to learn more about Jack Tang and his latest venture, please contact him on jack.tang@thestudentjob.com

Interest in working with Jack? Thestudentjob.com offers you invaluable skills and contacts you can take away with you – you may even land yourself a job! Get in touch info@thestudentjob.com

Thestudentjob.com – Part-time Jobs, Student Jobs, Jobs for students

Universities are being considered amongst the best places to start one’s entrepreneurial exploitation and that’s exactly what james is doing, using the university platform as the perfect opportunity to pour his creative ideas, creating startups and making valuable contacts..as he said “The absolute worst case scenario is you loose some of your own cash on it, but guess what, your a student, your in debt anyway, what difference is another 200?

James is also the President of Fish on Toast – The Entrepreneurs Society at University of Southampton

Hope you enjoy the interview.

Hey James, how are you doing today?

Hi Joseph, Im good thanks, busy as always but loving everything thats going on at the moment!

Super! It’s great having you again on YHP, but it seem that you’re running another company this time, which we will get into in a min, but tell us about your previous startup, what happened, why did you decide to park up shop?

Ahh the joys of Yoo-Discover! Well we did the unthinkable, we didn’t market the site enough when we launched, and we didn’t get the website completely finished by the launch! It was a cardinal sin as far as those sorts of businesses go, but hey it happened, I learnt from it and jumped back into the deep end just 1 week after ending it!

What were the key lessons learnt from that experience?

The main thing I took from YD was the importance of having a strong team around you when starting a business. Me and Sadie (YD Partner) found that we were spending all our time putting the site together and working on the back end sutff, and next to no time considering the business itself.

I beleive that its much more important to give a little out in return for help, as you get to actually consider the business you are running and make strategi decisions accordingly!

I mean a lot of people try to cover up failed businesses, but it seems that you’ve learnt your lesson and moved on fast, 7 weeks fast infact right?

Haha yes around that, before I even signed off on Yoo-Discover I had an idea of where I wanted to go next, I approached a good friend of mine and a couple of people I trusted in business and got their opinions, everyone thought it was brilliant so I just ran with it (with a strong team of course). We ended up going from a basic idea to selling our product in about 7 weeks.

People may argue that you might have taken more time out to reflect on the previous business, but it seems your pluging yourself straight into it again? why start the business now?

I think the main question as cliche as it sounds its ‘why not?’. When you have a business fail sure you can sit around and feel sorry for yourself for 6 months, or you can accept why you messed up, you can analyse your mistakes and learn from them. The best time to jump back in is off the back of a faliure, you feel so incredibly driven to rectify your mistakes and create a true success!

I want us to go back a bit, What made you decide to go into business in the first place? what made you interested in starting your own business?

I used to be on a military grad scheme but left due to numerous issues, I found myself at a loose end so I joined the enterprise socciety at my uni called Fish on Toast. Instantly I knew that this was more for me, out were the military views of ‘theres only one way to do this boy’ and in with the whole idea of there being a billion things to do it and you can choose!

I found the freedom of decision incredibly refreshing so kept going along to the society. I made it my mission to go to as many events and competitions as possible in the first 4 months, I started to feel really passionate about promoting enterprise so that all students could experiance my ‘enlightenment’ that I ran for president and was fortunate enough to win the election! From there all I wanted to do was start-up, Sadie had an idea that I quite liked so we partnered up and never looked back, that didn’t work out so here we are today!

Great stuff, Lets get into Student Hero, How did the idea come about?

Personally I hate the way that student discount cards that work on a large scale only cover big blanket chains and stores, like your standard 10% off at a high street clothing chain. I wanted real discounts, from privately owned venues like local clubs and bars.

Creating a succesful discount card in southampton has proved somewhat difficult in the past, with many people crashing and burning, instead of taking that as a bad thing I considered that this must mean theres a market, otherwise why would people keep trying it?

I saw it as a challenge, almost a dare, to see if I could succeed where so many before me had failed. So I took a different perspective, I got a team together and we reached out to loads of different people and asked them what they wanted, the feedback was positive and tended towards nights out and pizza, and then Student Hero was born.

What have been your biggest challenges since starting up the company?

The biggest challenge so far has been the January exams, a problem that is finally being overcome as we do this interview! We are launching student hero with 2000 pre sale cards that get the customer access to our exclusive multi event launch night. Projections for sales were on a geometric increase but the 3 week exam period was not considered.

2 Main issues arose, 1) students were concentrating so much on their exams they wouldnt even consider an event going on after they had finished. 2) I am a student, my exams were ruling my life and making it impossible to overcome the first issue.

But alas the team rode the wave and are just coming out the other side, sales were slow so we are now putting on a massive marketing push to increase the sales at a larger rate than originally expected. I am confident this has now been resolved.

What is the business model?

We get deals from local clubs/bars/pubs/restaurants that are exclusive to Student Hero, companies give these discounts in return for us marketing the offers and as a result pushing more business their way. A student buys the card for £10 but can make a return on that in just one night out with out discounts! The card is valid for 12 months.

The sales model is an interesting one, we want students to love Student Hero, from the discounts to the opportunities. We have an ambassador scheme in effect that allows any student in Southampton to register as a salesperson for the cards, they get given a batch of tickets/cards to sell and take a whopping 30% commission on everyone they sell.

Our top performer so far sold 50 cards in 1 day making themselves a tidy 150 quid. So we do turn a profit ourselves, but we also offer a brilliant product and a way for any budding salesperson to make themselves a small fortune without impacting their studies. This acheives all my personal aims of giving people what they want, making money and promoting student enterprise.

Who are your competitors?

Hmmmmm interesting question. I suppose our biggest competitor has to be the NUS Extra card, but I do not think it really clashes with the Hero card. As mentioned earlier we purposely differentiate ourselves from these blanket chain discounts so that we can cater for every single city! I guess companies such as 1eat are competitors in one aspect of the market, restaurants, but they are not our main focal point!

From your experience, what tips would you like to give to young entrepreneurs especially students looking to start a business?

I would say that there has never been a better time to start a business than right now, your a student at university and you are up to your eyeballs in debt. You have organisations like Shell LiveWire and UnLtd which offer grant funding to young enterprise.

So you may end up spending 3 months of your life working on something you feel passionate about, and piling someone else’s money into it but at the end of the day if it fails, you have lost NOTHING. But you have GAINED a wealth of experiance, if you dont think business is for you you have made your CV absoloutely amazing to any graduate employer.

Or you still want to go into business and you have learnt a million and one things from your failed attempt, that kind of knowledge cannot be taught to you in a classroom you just have to take a punt and learn it the hard way!

The absolute worst case scenario is you loose some of your own cash on it, but guess what, your a student, your in debt anyway, what difference is another 200?

I know that sounds very risky but university is a brilliant environment to start your own career path and make your own decisions. You are surrounded by a network of talented individuals who can do everything from act (great for sales) to create websites (trust me this is invaluable). All you have to do at uni to get access to all of this is ask the right people!

In the current economic climate the world is turning to enterprise to help bring us all out of the recession, theres brilliant organisations like NACUE who act as a support unit for enterprising students, to them no question is too stupid, no person is unreachable and most importantly of all, nothing is impossible! If you want to be the next branson/sugar/paphitis/gates/bannatyne/jones etc etc then just do it, its as simple as that!

You’re also the President of Fish on Toast Entrepreneurs Society at University of Southampton? How would you describe your experience so far?

One word, wow! Fish on Toast is brilliant, the opportunities are endless and its just like running your own business but in a risk free environment. So far this year I have raised about 5k in external sponsorship, and run a month long competition for 10 students where they stand a shot at winning a paid internship with BBC Dragon Doug Richard. As a whole society we have run countless speaker events and engaged thousands of people, tell me a sports club that’s that fun!

What opportunities would you say being the president has given you so far?

I would say the best thing would be the network, my business network is mental, ranging from no nonsense Doug Richard, past the likes of Claire Young and James McQuillan from the Apprentice and onto the high ropes and advernture guru Tristram Mayhew from Go Ape.

You maybe wondering why that’s such an awesome thing, but so much in business seems to be about who you know. You can never say you won’t find a certain person useful as a contact as you never truly know what your going to be doing in 10 years! Or at least that’s my view, I am yet to ‘make it’ so it’s all guesswork at the moment!

If you had to start over, what are some things you would do differently?

To be honest, nothing! I would make all the same mistakes again, I would annoy the same people, get just as frustrated and still throw my toys out the pram when I didn’t get my way. The reason being is that I learnt so much from all of those things, from how to treat people to how to market a website effectively. I still have an incredibly long way to go, but I am looking forward to the journey and embracing every step. I reckon I am on about step 2 of a billion in terms of what I could learn.

What do you do for fun?

Haha, I play golf, drink beer and relax with my friends! I do find all of this fun though, I still view my degree as the boring job, and Fish on Toast & Student Hero as my fun hobbies (with benefits)

What should we be expecting from you and student hero in the coming months?

Student Hero launch night is on the 10th February, from there we will be cementing our presence in Southampton before expanding around the UK. We are in talks with The Student Scene about a possible UK wide expansion to 49 cities over the Summer, complete with a tourbus!

As for myself, I want to continue to build Student Hero but also wish to work for NACUE and keep pushing student enterprise initiatives all around the country. Whatever happens, the coming months are going to be the most exciting and interesting of my life to date!

To get the best student discounts, don’t forget to visit:http://www.studenthero.co.uk

And to stay updated with latest discount, Follow Student Hero on twitter and facebook

LAUNCH.ed is a free support service that helps University of Edinburgh students start businesses.

At LAUNCH.ed, students—from undergraduates, to PhDs and recent alumni—can access one-to-one help from a business advisor on all aspects of setting up a business.
They also run workshops, clinics and competitions and provide mentoring, hot desks and a library of resources and online tools.

LAUNCH.ed supports students with technical, early stage ideas as well as non-technical, near-to-market business ideas.
During the last four years, LAUNCH.ed has helped more than 50 students form their own companies, many of which have grown into successful, profitable enterprises.

If you’re a student at the university of Edinburgh, you should definitely get involved in this.

They have a competition running at the moment called New Ideas Competition -If you’re a student or a recent graduate of the university with a business idea and looking for the possibility of turning into a business, this is your chance, get involved in this. The deadline is 6 December 2010.

Interview By Bobieh Ansah

A while back I caught up with the charismatic Michael and lovely Antonia. They are the founders of a variety show called Adlib.

Adlib showcases acts ranging from singing and poetry to rapping and comedy. We discussed the high points and low points of their journey thus far and the plans they have for the future.

This is an example of a business born from university, that started crawling, then walking, but was knocked down. But now their back on their feet again!

Check out the interview.

So tell me a bit about yourself first Michael

Michael: Yea my name is Michael master apps aka Mr. fun loving enjoying life Appiah world Appiah life. Ermmm I’m 22 I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for quite a while.

What you laughing for (at Antonia)?

Antonia: because he’s not 22

Michael: I’m 24, but I’m 22 that’s my acting age and I carry on with that. So yea that’s me.

Antonia: I’m Antonia I’m 25 and yea that’s me…. (Laughing) I’m Antonia and I’m 25 that’s what defines me.

You don’t do anything extracurricular?

Antonia: Are you asking me this question because you know the answer?

Yeah

Antonia:( Laugher)I do cheerleading.

have you won anything?

Antonia: yes we’re undefeated.

Ok so what is Adlib and when did it start?

Michael: Adlib is different.

Antonia: Adlib is very wide are you talking about Adlib open mic night or Adlib?

Well everything, imagine I’ve never heard of Adlib?

Michael: Adlib is a company that we started in 2007, we don’t even know why we started it. We just thought look, there’s allot of things going on and they’re not doing quite well and we thought we could come up with something better.

Antonia: Yeah, a new idea.

Michael: that encompasses a variety of things that encompasses music comedy and poetry. But live music, because there wasn’t allot of live music at university. So we just kicked it off from there.

Antonia: it was the first night to have all different acts such as live music, comedy, poetry and lyricist.

Combined, then everyone jumped on board and started copying?

Antonia: your words not mine. (Laughter)

I think you’ve already answered this but what separates Adlib from the other variety shows?

Antonia: I think it’s definitely the live band and the mature crowd.

Michael: We always go for quality that’s the thing about us. We can bring in so many people just for the sake of it. I think we’re tough on ourselves in a sense that we always go for quality.

Because if you out to other night events and its good the first half and then the second the second half is completely rubbish. We’re our own critics and we try to avoid that.

What kind of act do you prefer and what acts do you think get the best reception from the crowd?

Michael: I like that question, well for that one, I’m going to have to say (long pause) I just enjoy people that can vibe with the crowd and bring a good message and for me it doesn’t matter what it is as long as you’re good you’re good.

Antonia: I think singers that can sing in tune and make you feel their emotion. Those are the best acts oh and rappers as well, especially the ones that show their personality on stage. I think the crowd accepts them more rather than those who just come to show their talent.

What problems did you encounter when you first set up Adlib?

Michael: Finding a venue.

Antonia: It took a whole year to find a venue.

Michael: exaggeration 7 months.

Antonia: it was a long time because it had to be right.

What been the biggest learning curve for Adlib?

Michael: Erm…. There have been many learning curves. (Laughter) one of our biggest learning curves is understanding your market. What people like, what people don’t like, because our crowds can be a bit, how….. can I say “sensitive”.

So like we’ve gotten a comedian who’s been a bit brash and it’s not gone down well and the whole nights was dead.

Antonia: I think we’ve trained people to think like that because we don’t have any swearing at the show, when people hear swearing they…. It obviously sticks out a lot more.

Antonia: The biggest learning curve would be to keep the business face on. Because everyone wants a favor. You have to stick to your guns and think from a business point of view. But still not being too harsh. It’s about finding the balance.

Can you elaborate on that?

Antonia: so say acts wants guest list or they want to be paid a certain amount, people that are coming to watch the show.
Everyone’s your friend, you build a relationship with the people that come to watch the show so everyone want freebies.

What’s been the highest point for ADLIB thus far?

Antonia: I think maybe our first year anniversary when we had a big show in the Bloomsbury theatre and probably just selling out every month.

Getting to a point where you didn’t have to promote anymore. People knew that as the doors were opening at 7.30 if you weren’t there you weren’t getting in. That was a high point. So then we could just put all our effort into the quality of the night rather than still having to promote the night.

So you mentioned earlier that there was a pause for a while in the operations of ADLIB. What caused that?

Antonia: well…. The structure of the company needed reassessing (Laughter), So we wanted to fix things internally first and get on the new road basically.

So it’s much better?

Michael: No (laugher)…. I mean yes. It works better now because we have a greater sense of responsibility. We know it’s down to us.

Antonia: there are less people now for the responsibility to fall on to.

So does seeing so many acts reduce the impact they have on you?

With our night the people we bring we try to create a lot of variety. We go to other shows and the same acts go to every show too so, we see the same act over and over, but comedians, I can watch their set 4 times and still laugh.

Michael: For us it doesn’t. There are always new acts.

Where do you see Adlib in 5 years?

Michael: Bringing international artist to Adlib in a sense that when they come over to do their promotional tours they’ll come and do a set at ADLIB.

Also having ADLIB at festivals so, we’ll have a stage, an ADLIB stage I.e. Glastonbury and tea in the park.

So what advice would you give to anyone who wanted to set up a Variety Show?

Antonia: I think the main thing is having a good team, you need to have a reliable team. People that you know will follow through and make the right decisions and have…sense basically. Because then you won’t be able to delegate roles, you’ll being doing everything yourself.

Thanks for your time guys, hope to chat up soon with you.

Check them out on facebook and follow them on twitter

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Junior ogunyemi got a taste of being an entrepreneur during college, after being named social secretary, he was assigned to put together a yearbook with a budget of £0 and 2 weeks deadline, and 2 weeks later and £50, coming up with the concept of a DVD yearbook, he made £300 in his first two hours, selling the DVD to his peers for £3.

Catch up with what he has been up to after that.

Hello junior, how are you doing? Great to have you on YHP today

Well it’s great to be here, thanks for the opportunity.

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I’m a 20 year old social entrepreneur, currently studying BSc Economics at Queen Mary University of London. My family came from Nigeria when I was only 2 years old so I guess I’m more British than I ought to be. (Laugh). I grew up with my 3 older siblings in Islington, north London.

We didn’t have the most privileged background; however I not going to sit here and complain about things I was exposed to growing up on a council estate. I can’t moan because I was surrounded by a loving family that helped instil key values, and discipline from very young. To me that’s been worth more than having £100 of pocket money a week.

At what age did you start to get involved/interested in business?

Looking back now I think I showed glimpse way back in nursery because I was fascinated by inventors. I always said to my play workers I wanted to invent something when I grew up.

The first time I started to flex my entrepreneurial muscles was at 17 when I was appointed social secretary of my college. I was given the task of putting together a yearbook with a budget of £0 and 2 weeks deadline. Instantly I had to find ways of being resourceful or risk disappointing over 1000 of my peers.

I came up with an idea of creating a video yearbook instead. So for 10 days I walked around college with my family camcorder capturing goodbye messages from students. I had a friend who was an expert at editing videos and paid him £50. I remember my brother had an old CD duplicating machine which I used to make many copies of the DVD yearbook.

At our graduation party I set up a stall and sold the DVD yearbook to students for £3. They were selling like hotcakes. In the space of 2 hours it dawned on me, not only have I made these students happy but I also manage to turn £50 into £300 in the space of just 2 hours. After that, I couldn’t stop exploring the world of business and innovation.

At what age did you start your first business, what business was it?

I was 18 when I started my first major business venture, Show Me Amazing Football. We are a coaching academy that works to motivate and develop leadership and excellence in young people. We work with children in schools and communities to create an active environment where children can express themselves and trained coached can address issues such as childhood obesity, low self-esteem and juvenile delinquency.

You got quite a few things going on at the moment? Let’s talk about show me amazing football, what inspired you to start it, what is the story behind it?

Well I was a gifted footballer when I was younger. To me football wasn’t just a hobby, it was a discipline. I never smoked certain things because I had dreams of playing premiership level. I never hung around street corners because I knew I needed to go home and rest for that cup final on the weekend.

I realised football can really be used as a vehicle to transform lives. I started coaching football from 15 years old and wanted to use my position of influence to keep the kids away from certain dangers and give them key life skills. I could spend all day training my pupils to bend a ball like Beckham, but realistically less than 5% are ever going to make it pro. I wanted to develop a style of coaching that equipped the players with more than just sporting skills, but leadership skills that they can use in any career.

How did you raise money to start the business?

I started from very humble beginnings. I knew absolutely nothing about business and literately just walked into a bank in my tracksuit and hoody. Surprisingly, I still managed to get an appointment with the business manager of the bank. I bopped in, sat down at his desk and told him to give me a loan. He laughed and explained to me it was a great idea but money doesn’t come that easy. I had to go back to being resourceful.

Thankfully I was given a car load of old equipment to use for free. I chose to employ some of my close friends, Micah Simpson and Naaman Gordon, who believed in the vision, and were willing to work for free. This was enough for us to start earning sum profit, for months we continued to work without pay as the profit was either saved or re-invested to generate even more profits.

Before long we were getting so many children joining us that we were able to pay ourselves well and still make savings and re-investments when needed. To this date we still haven’t spent a penny on marketing, everything has grown through word of mouth.

What would you say has been the most challenging part of starting a business?

Learning to turn failure into feedback is key. Taking our work into schools was surprisingly difficult at first. However, every rejection gave us a chance to go back to the drawing board and refine our product. There was a time we offered free coaching sessions to 35 local primary schools, but still did not even get one single reply.

Constantly we worked on improving the content of our sessions and our more importantly our approach. For months we worked on sharpening the sword until it was strong enough to pierce into the market and even cut any completion. Now we have a service that schools can’t resist.

You recently started a magazine called spotlight22, what is it about?

Spotlight22 is a new monthly print magazine aimed at university students. I launch it to help publish the work of up and coming writers or blogers. Readers have the opportunity to gain free publicity for their blog sites, or just freely express themselves by sending in their written work to spotlight22@london.com. Every month our team of editors pick their favourite entries to feature in the next issue. So it’s like a month writing competition.

So what is your plan for the magazine?

The idea is to create a platform for top London writers to be noticed. This has already gone off to a great start. The beauty of the magazine is that the topics people write about are all so random. It’s funny to hear some of the things people come out with when you give them a chance to express themselves.

You currently studying at Queens Mary University, how have you been able to balance school work and business? It must be so challenging?

Oh boy! Yh it requires loads of self-discipline. Naturally we won’t have enough time in life to do everything, but God does give us enough time to do the important things. It’s about prioritising what you want to achieve. There are periods where I needed to focus so I just hibernated for months.

My brother always told me, “Champions are willing to do what they hate in order to get what they love”. So I made many sacrifices. I’ve had to put my social life on hold many times because I was locked away grafting and birthing ideas. Seriously I haven’t been on a date for years (laughs).

What else interests you apart from starting a business, what do you do for fun?

If I’m not working mine, I’m giving free business consultancy to my friends. I think I’m obsessed. I do a bit of acting and get involved in drama workshops with my church. When I need to unwind I spend time with family or close friends. I love restaurants, working out in the gym, comedy shows, cinema… It doesn’t really matter what we do as long as I’m with those that make me happy and keep me down to earth. Church is something that I always get involved in.

What has been your most memorable moment so far?

2010 has been a great year, I’ve rubbed shoulders with some amazing people and been given special invitation to place like the mayor of London’s office and houses of parliament. I remember May 5th, that day was quite extraordinary. At 12pm I had an interview for a £10,000 award, and then rushed across town in my suit to write my final exams in Economics by 2pm. immediately after that, I whizzed back across town because I had to be on stage by 5pm to pitch for another £10,000.

This time it was front of a panel of multimillionaires, celebrities and entrepreneurs. It was like being on dragons den but with an audience of 200 people at the British library. I never forget the feeling and the rush of day, it was a great buzz. From that day onwards it seemed my business and I got launched into the limelight. Receiving these awards has opened many doors.

What tips can you give to university entrepreneurs out there starting up or struggling with their start-ups?

If you don’t believe in your work, then why should anyone else? Make sure your passionate about your cause or business, because your passion will be tested. Yes, of course there will be obstacles and brick walls in your way. Those walls are there to separate people that would like to succeed, from those that really desperately want to succeed. MAKE YOUR PASSION AN OBBSESSION.

And finally, what should we be expecting from you in the future?

Ok I don’t want to reveal too much yet, but after the magazine takes off I think the next big project will be to write my first book. I’m working on a business and personal development book. Similar to the classic, “who moved my cheese”. Over the next 2 years I want to also make time to do more public speaking.

Great speaking to you junior, hope to catch up with you soon

Thanks you, keep in touch, www.twitter.com/juniorogunyemi

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Interview by Bobieh Ansah

I love to see students find a clever way of doing business whilst at university and last week I was back at my old university Kingston. I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Emmanuel Oladokun Sekumade .

He is an aspiring entrepreneur who runs a removal business (Kingmaker transport) for students in the Kingston surrey area. I remember having this problem, not having anybody to help me move.

Emmanuel Has found a gap in the market.

So, Tell me about you?

My name is Emmanuel Oladokun Sekumade, from Nigeria and Kingston University, I will be starting my second year in September (2010) and I study Chemistry and Business Management.

Tell me about the whole movement, what’s the name and how did it get started?

Basically I’m into moving students and Luggages,  I run a business called Kingmaker Transport.

About a year ago, I went to Portsmouth Uni and after seeing my cousin moving into halls and realising how many students move in and out of halls, I thought, hold on a second, there’s a big market here.

I live locally in Kingston, I have a driving licence, and I thought if i could rent a van or get a car i could move students moving out of halls into storage or from halls to back home. I even do the storage myself.

What has been your main influence or inspiration?

The person I look up to is Richard Branson and the Whole of Virgin. So, I hope to be as big as virgin who knows.

So how Long have you been Running Kingmaker Transport for?

I only started this summer, I got my first customer on the 31st. It’s a new movement. I will be targeting Kingston University and Neighbouring universities.

So what’s the difference between you and a mini cab service?

The differences between myself and minicab services is that I offer really cheap services to students, being a student myself I know how it feels to be exploited by older people and I can related more closely to my customers because I’m a student I also help the student moves their things like I’m doing right now. But the mini Cabs drivers don’t help you move your things so, it’s more customer focused basically.

So how do you plan to balance your studying with you business when semester starts?

This kind of business is seasonal it’s not an everyday thing. And I’m not moving for everyday people I’m just moving for students so, because students only move at the end of semesters I’ll have nothing to do.

So where do you see you business in 5 years time?

In 5 years time I see myself with 5 mini vans (laughter) hopefully, I just see myself doing a lot better than this you know. Serving Brunel Uni and all the neighbouring universities in Kingston.

What’s the overall dream?

The dream is to be as big as Richard Branson to be a major competitor in the market. Who knows Kingmaker Airways Lagos to Heathrow, but yea that’s the dream.

Money or Love?

Love is important you know…. what kind of love are we talking about? (Laughter)

The love for whatever you’re doing, the passion should I say?

Oh yes the passion for what you’re doing .Money is not a good motivator. I’ve driven all around the country it’s the love, I like to drive it’s my hobby and hopefully the love brings money.

So how can people find out about your business?

I have a Blackberry group called Kingmaker transport and i also have a group on Facebook called Kingmaker transport group and you could also find us on Kingmakertransport.blogspot.com

Thanks for your time emmanuel.

Matt Roberts is the co-founder of Bean2Bed, A company he started with his friend Irfan Badakshi in his second year at Aston University.

He grew up in Camberley which is in the South of England about 15 miles from Windsor Castle and an hour from London.

They originally came up with the idea for Bean2Bed (Bean2Bed provides space-saving, comfortable beanbags that transform into a bed in under 30 seconds) after a weekend birthday party, a bunch of friends sleeping all over and someone said he recalled ‘I wish I could flatten out this beanbag chair and sleep on it,’

After running with the idea for two years, Robert and Irfan decided to take the next step, meeting with designers, producing prototypes and making sure everything went according to plan.

They ended up maxing out their student loan, but finally Bean2Bed was launched at a home show in July 2005 at earl’s court.

The finished product is, in effect, a mattress filled with crumb foam that stuffs into corduroy, denim, faux suede, or imitation furs sack the size of a beanbag chair. One minute it’s a comfy chair in the corner, and then presto, it’s a bed.

They have since sold thousands of Bean2Beds, which cost $285 to $475, currently available on Amazon.co.uk and more than a hundred stores in Britain. Not bad for an idea that started from a weekend birthday party and the company has also won many prestigious awards such as:

2006 Winner of Shell Livewire’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Midlands)
2006 Birmingham Best Business Awards – Work-Life Balance
2006 Business Week’s Europe’s Best Entrepreneurs under 25
2007 HSBC Start-Up Stars Award
2008 Midlands Business Award
2008 Corkscrew Events Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Runner up for Best Business Idea
2009 Business Insider Magazine Top 42 Under 42

Bean2Bed’s turnover recently hit £3m

This is an interview i did with dave scotford, A young entrepreneur and founder of a record label called Red Monster Records. A very informative interview about running a record label, and also he is still at the university.

Enjoy the interview and let me know your thoughts..

Hey Dave, how is it going? Thanks for doing this interview with me.

Hey! Not a problem!

Can you kindly give us some background information about yourself? What you do?

I’m a 19 year old first year university student at Birmingham City University and I’m currently running a independent record label alongside university work, Red Monster Records.

Tell me about your company: Red Monster Records – tell us how the company formed?

The company was formed pretty basically originally, a simple sole trader and I was the only staff member. Basically my friends were in a band and were looking to put on a few gigs so I got involved and it’s gone from there and taken off at an unbelievable rate. We’ve never looked back from the start really.

To start with we were just a promotions business putting on a small local music show each month, things went pretty well and we started to sell out a couple of venues and started working with bigger bands. Then we kind of, almost accidentally fell into being a record label. We financed a few records and we kept doing it, so we decided to officially become a label. Although we still put on show-case and our own gigs and events in and around the Midlands.

How did you finance your business?

All of the money used in the running and start up of the business was my own investment. That’s not saying I was loaded, not at all. I literally started off setting up a website myself to save money and printed all the flyers at University. So everything was bootstrapping really, as cheaply as possible but still good quality.

Can you share some of the biggest lessons you have learned personally and as a business as things have grown? If you were to start again, what might you do differently?

Things have grown pretty rapidly here at the label. Maybe we expended too quickly too early, trying to pull in too many acts too early on in life as a record label. But I suppose we’ve learnt from that and pulled back to bring quality rather than quantity is the most important thing. Now we’ll spend months and months watching an act play live, listening to their recorded stuff and getting feedback from people they’ve worked with in the past before we consider signing them rather than a couple of weeks.

Seems an obvious mistake really, but many companies go through rapid growth and struggle a bit. But we’ve adapted pretty well and come out stronger the other side.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Now we’re a bit more stable with the growth then we’ve just done anything we can to market ourselves and as more and more people have heard of us then more and more people are wanting to work with us, and more music fans are buying the music we’re releasing. Lots of people say they’ll do ‘anything’ for their business to succeed, but we really, really will. We’re passionate about the music we release and so we won’t stop until we’re one of the most well known record labels and our acts are doing really well.

Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, dealing with adversity?

For me, the main thing is to keep working. No matter how bad things are, they will get better when you roll the sleeves up and dig in. Things only get worse when the head goes into the sand and the problems are ignored, or worse, run away from.

Sometimes getting other peoples’ advice is the way to go, there are hundreds of business forums out there with members more than willing to offer help where they can. Business Link and the Princes Trust have been great for us, the hours of help and advice, information sheets and pages on their website they’ve sent me is unbelievable.

How do you keep your business focus – Do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times?

I suppose focus comes from what I do. I love music, I love new music, and I’m passionate about it. To be honest I think I’ve got one of the best jobs in the world, to run a record label is fantastic, which means I don’t need to think about ways to ‘make’ me get through the ‘to-do-lists’ – I’ve got a natural drive and ‘want’ to do the work.

What were you doing before you started Red Monster Records?

I did run a small youth football based company, which sold through e-commerce, football and sports accessories, as well as delivering coaching sessions within after-school clubs. Things went pretty well, but as soon as I saw the opportunity to work in the creative industry that I love, I jumped head first into it.

How did you get your label off the ground? Looking back, what was the single best decision you made when setting up your business?

The single best decision I’ve made is to actually get the label off the ground. It’s as simple as that; Life since the start up has been fantastic and because I spent a lot of my time at gigs, festivals or watching bands play, then it’s been good fun to. Sure, some of the work’s a bit dry – lets be honest, going to bed at 5am after a label showcase gig and then up at 7am to do the accounts can be a bit hard sometimes!

Similarly, what is the single worst choice you made when getting the label going? What one thing would you tell other to never do?

Like I mentioned earlier, We took on too many bands too quickly; But even having said that, we learnt from the mistake and have developed a better label by learning from it.

Is the business profitable?

Money wise or life experience? It’s a yes on both counts!

At a small label, budgeting is always important. How do you prioritize your promotional budget? If you could only spend money on one thing – say, a radio promotion company, a print media promotion company or advertising, what would you choose? Why?

As a label it is really important to budget, especially at the size and stage we are. We don’t prioritize the budget for a release because it’s all important. It’s like making a cake, if you miss one ingredient out then the cake won’t come out right.

Everything relies on each other, if people don’t hear the track on the radio they won’t get to know about the artist, won’t come to the gig, so won’t buy the EP. In the same way, we can spend the budget on radio, but
what about people who don’t listen to the radio too much?
We do pretty much everything in house; we’ve built the links with DJs so that cuts out having to use other companies.

How important do you think it is for bands to promote themselves on the internet? Do you think things like MySpace; YouTube can take the place of more traditional promotion routes?

In a word, yes. It’s really important bands promote themselves; otherwise people won’t get to hear the new music so you could have the best music in the world but without anyone hearing it, then time has been wasted recording it.

I think MySpace and FaceBook and YouTube are growing and becoming a really important tool in the arsenal that bands and artists can use. I think that more ‘traditional’ methods are still really important, like hitting the gig and circuit, and you need to keep a balance between the traditional and the new wave of social networking.

Although we have seen a brilliant little innovation over recent years now that internet connection speeds and becoming quicker and quicker. We’ve worked with venues that stream the gig live over the internet which is pretty amazing.

What should a small label look for in an artist? Are there any financial arrangements small labels should avoid making with artists – and of course, if so, what are they?

Really that would depend on the label. From Red Monster Records point of view we’re always on the lookout for someone willing to work hard, have fun, try anything and just enjoy the ride. Obviously we’re looking for great music to!

Financially I think that labels and bands need to be on the level with each other all the time, if everyone understands everything then that can help break down a few barriers.

What other projects are you working on at the moment?

We’re working on a massive project at the moment, so hopefully we’ll have it all up and running soon. Obviously I don’t want to say too much, but we’re looking at a way of developing a website which brings bands, labels and promoters all together and help acts ‘Get Recognised’. But my main focus is, and always will be, my label.

With the current economy in a slump, what cost saving tips would you have for a new entrepreneur looking to start their own record label?

The economy is obviously a big issue for lots of businesses in the UK. For us though we’ve been really lucky; people still want to go out for a night and forget the world, enjoy the music and have a blast. We’ve been able to provide this through our gigs and because of the quality of artists that we work with then sales of EP’s and albums have been really encouraging!

Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans?

Business wise then we’ll keep developing the label and keep putting out great music. We’re working hard at what we love and hopefully we can keep building on the successes that we’ve seen and keep learning the lessons from the setbacks.

Personally I’d like to finish my degree here at Birmingham City, going for a 1st class, or 2:1, and build my career in the music industry.

Thanks for your time and i wish you the best in the future.

Check out their website and make sure you follow them on twitter and finally become a fan on facebook

I and a friend were having a chat on how we wished we started something together in our first year at university, I mean we were all creative, ambitious and had a lot of time on our hands.

We realised how much our business would have grown by now, the traction, the support it would have gotten, instead we spent our time partying away although i admit it was fun, going to bed at 7am and getting up at 5pm were the best days/highlights of my 1st year in the university.

Only if we knew how to balance our time things might have been different, we had enough people in my halls to start at least 10 good businesses, everyone had ideas, everyone wanted to be successful, but we lacked focus and drive and i guess we dint really have anyone who gave us that exposure into the world of entrepreneurship, perhaps we didn’t have the right attitude.

Experience and failure (Start Small)

As someone that started a company in the university, i believe it is always better to start small because it gives you the time to worry less about money but more about the products and services you’re offering, ways to improve and make sure it is going in the right direction.

I started my first company and spent a lot of money constructing the website, not that the website was not worth the money, but with what i know now, i am sure i could have invested that money into something else, probably would have built up the website with cash left to invest in other parts of the business instead of focusing on how fancy i wanted the site to look.

Time

You have 3-5 years to spend in the university, that’s enough time to build your start-up into something credible, by the time you’re ready to graduate, and you will only be worrying on how to grow the business, that’s if you worry at all.

You probably spend most of your time getting drunk, facebook, twitter, YouTube, clubbing, so taking some time to build your business is not that bad.

Your Network is your net worth

I met my co-founder at university and was able to do less, which was more productive and gave me time to focus on other things in the business.

You might end up meeting an investor or a co-founder, or someone that might have the right connection that will take your business to the next level.

If you decide not to continue with your business. You will already have a bunch of contacts that either helps you in a new start-up or perhaps you’re looking for a secured job, you just never know.

Don’t forget that any business you’re going into you’ll be going there with some practical experiences of running and managing a company.

Competition/Awards/support

You can get so much support from your university , if you’re business is cool, I’m sure your university will want to brag about your success, you also have the entrepreneurial society, NACUE, FlyingStartonline, Shell livewire, Enterprise UK, Which will give you some exposures to your company, assistances, workshops and training to sharpen your skills as an entrepreneur, they also give you the opportunity to network with other entrepreneur, you never know what investor might be reading your story.

Student Loans

In total, you probably get £4,950 (Maintenance loan) + £2,906 (Maintenance grant) + Bursary (900)

1st Year – £8756
2nd year – £17512
3rd year – £26268

That is enough money to start up a business or finish up a prototype.

I would encourage you to maybe get a part-time job, and if you have a co-founder or even two co-founders, that is a lot of money and enough money to get something off the ground.

Responsibility

You have fewer responsibilities, less concerns to worry about, which gives you time to build your business.
You have nothing to lose.

Experience

Owning and running your own business is an incredible way to gain experience, it will definitely help you mature, especially as you begin to read business books and self development books to help in growing as a person and an entrepreneur.

You get to learn more about yourself, especially life and business lessons that are not taught in the classroom, you might even get more clarity on modules to choose in the next year or in your final year.
You learn how to speak, dress and act in a professional way.

The University Platform

This is your first initial market where you can experiment, get feedback, get some user experience for your products/services; it gives you such a large network to people to showcase your business to, which is invaluable. You might be able to define your target market through this experiment.

You get free advices from your university professors and tips.

You will have access to different types of people with different skills, you want your logo design- go to the design department, you want a website development – go to the computing department, thinking of getting someone that can help with admin stuff – go to the business department, you get what I’m getting at, loads of resources at your finger tips.

Tip: Everyone loves the story of a kid that started a business in the university.

John is a 19 years old entrepreneur currently studying at Oxford Brookes.

He is the CEO & Founder of JV Bouncy Castle Hire – An Events Services company.

Although he spends his weekday at oxford because of studies, he uses most of his weekend on his business, He said it allows him to separate the two areas nicely and enables him to stay focused on his studies during the week and focussed on the business at the weekends.

Let me know your thoughts on his business.