Enterprise Week Report

During Enterprise week, I went to two events. The two events I attended were the “Running a Sport Business – The Sporting Landscape” event and the “5%Idea, 95% Effort event. Both events were held in the Gateway Lecture Theatre with the Running a Sport Business event lasting just over an hour, and the 5%idea,95%effort event lasting about 45 minutes. The Running a Sport Business event was all about the sporting landscape. Jonathan Miller, who is the Marketing Director of a business called 110% and who previously worked for the FA was the speaker. He discussed the types of skills and attitudes people would require to be successful. The 5% Idea, 95% Effort event, was presented by Nico, the creator of the business Letterboxchocs, a business which posts chocolates through the door. He talked about how he started his business, and the help he received along the way. He even met Gordon Brown!

During the events, I sat and listened intently to what both speakers were saying and took a fair amount of notes. I feel that both activities were very beneficial to me, as I learned a lot. During the Running a Sport Business event for example, Jonathan spoke about how each and every one of us would need to stand out somehow, as there would be thousands of people competing for just one position in a business. He opened my eyes a bit more as to what I may need to do, other than just work hard and get good grades. I am considering doing volunteering after his talk, something which I would have laughed at in the past, having the attitude of “why should I work if I don’t get paid, as I would be working for no benefit”. I understand now that it would be to my benefit to maybe go and do something along the lines of volunteering as it would help me to stand out and gain better life experience. Nico helped me to understand where I could go for help if I ever thought about starting up a new business. He said that after he went to the UK Trade and Investment he was able to receive a loan of £120,000 to help get him started. He also made me aware that marketing and PR is much better than advertising as advertising is riskier and more expensive.

Personally I feel that the 5% Idea, 95% Effort event was better as it helped me more. The Running a Sport Business event was very much about general skills about standing out and competing with people of similar calibre’s to you. John stated commonly known facts such as needing to have a positive work ethic and attitude to work hard. Most of this I already know, however with the 5% Idea 95% Effort event Nico helped me understand that it is very possible to become successful in a short space of time if you go to the right places. I did not know about the UK Trade and Investment before him. I always thought that advertising was the best way to promote something, however now I know that it is not. I also learned it is very helpful to research other markets, for example abroad, rather than just our home market. By selling internationally, you spread your risks, but also increase them.

I think that the Running a Sport Business event could have gone better if John had had more time to speak, as you could tell he was rushing towards the end and he even went over his time limit. It should also have been more sport related rather than being so generic, and I know that although John had a good sporting background, he could have emphasised more on that side of things. I felt that both John and Nico were excellent speakers, however Nico had a set duration of an hour and a half to speak, and we ended up leaving nearly an hour early. They were both able to keep my rapt attention for the duration of the events which is a compliment to them both, considering that saying that my attention span is poor would be a major understatement. Overall though, I felt that both presentations were very helpful for me and I am glad that I went to them both. Although I found both events extremely helpful, I feel that neither influenced my career aspirations, as neither of them had much to do with accounting. They did however provide me with extra motivation, as there is solid proof that you are able to get rich from virtually nothing.