Starting Your Own Business: Course Review

For the past two days I attended a course put on by the University of London Careers Group which was all about starting up your own business. I've been considering becoming an entrepreneur since before I started university (about 2 years ago now), and I would definitely say the course has given me an understanding of the tools and skills I can use to start up my own business. I'll review the course by day, and then I'll sum up with a conclusion.

Day 1: Skills, Networking, Planning, Guest Speakers
After the attendees all came in and broke the ice (to very cheesy music I must add), we were asked to each name a famous entrepreneur, a female entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur (someone who starts up an enterprise primarily to do good for society, whether or not it's for profit). We had to also discuss what skills and characteristics they had that made them successful. This was to get a basic idea of what it meant to be an entrepreneur. The most common names that came up were Sir Richard Branson, Anita Roddick (of Body Shop fame) and Facebook's very own Mark Zuckerberg. Their skills and traits included taking risks, spotting trends and gaps in the market determination, resilience and being shameless in promoting themselves.

We then had a talk from a UL Careers Adviser on the benefits of networking. Networking is one of those things that people scoff at, but definitely it's not. I would describe it as "socialising with a purpose", making friends and contacts with people who could offer you something, or whom you could offer some of your services and skills. You can run ideas past them, get feedback and maybe even get them to give their input as well. Some people in your network may be clients or customers. It's more focused than mere socialising, and if someone in your network might not be able to help you with something, they would almost certainly know someone who can. The guy giving the talk summed it up brilliantly: "People buy people first."

We had lunch after that, and then we played a game in which we learned about the aspects of developing a business. We were divided into groups of six, and were each given a product to sell and a business to plan for- in this case, a pop-up cardboard vase. (Hmmm.....)
Each of us had one deck of cards, relating to actions to take, marketing, strategy, securing finance, what kind of people to hire. We had an Idea for how to market the vase and to whom, and a Goal that we wanted to achieve (e.g. 5000 units sold in 6 months), each written on Post-It notes and stuck on two ends of a board. Earlier action cards, such as planning short-term goals, were put nearer the Idea, and later actions (e.g. extending product range) nearer the Goal. Those that weren't relevant, we kept to the side. Afterwards, we had to pitch our business plan to another group.
The game went on for quite a while but it was still very insightful into all the things that could go into building a business. That was not to say, however, that there was a specific way to build a business that everyone followed. Someone developing and selling a product has a different business plan and structure to someone offering a service, such as coaching.

At the end of the day, we had three guest speakers, all of them entrepreneurs. There was Robin Bennett, who started several businesses beginning in the 1992 recession; Rajeeb Dey, who runs a website called Enternships.com which offers internships in start-ups to university students; and a man from the Social Investment Company (whose name I completely forget) talking about resources available to those wanting to set up social enterprises. They were all very passionate about business and entrepreneurship. They didn't all have great presentation skills (I found the Social Investment guy's presentation a bit hard to follow) but they still had many words of wisdom and insight to give to us.

Day 2: Negotiating, the Elevator Pitch and the British Library
Whereas the first day was more about business skills and know-how, the second was more about communication, selling yourself, marketing and being confident in your own idea. We started the day with a talk about the essentials of how to market: identifying a target market and convincing them why they should buy from us and not anyone else, and also how to close a deal or a sale.

Then we played a game called MarketPlace. We each had to split off into teams of two or three. Half of us were restaurant owners, the other half were from a web service company pitching an online booking system to them. We had 10-20 minutes preparation time, in which the restaurant owners decided what kind of restaurant they would be, and the booking system people composed their pitch. Then the negotiation began. I was a restaurant owner to start with, and my partner and I had a trendy vegetarian restaurant in the City. During the negotiation, my partner and I drew cards pertaining to our needs and our objections to the system, and listened to the response of the sellers. Some of the restaurateurs and web companies closed a deal (including my group), but there was one group where negotiations descended into argument... Not good! Then we switched roles. Now my partner and I had to pitch to a Michelin-starred restaurant in Knightsbridge. Scary :O But we pulled it off. They wanted a system for a very select group of customers, and we were able to provide a distinguished service :)

The game was much easier second time round because everyone knew what to expect. I guess it was up to each side to up the ante a bit, and to see how they could make their booking system better, or their restaurant a more challenging client.

After lunch, we practised our pitching. Each of us had to write and give an "elevator pitch" for a business idea- a short presentation which can be finished in an elevator ride. We had to pitch to 16 other participants and ask for their feedback, improving accordingly as we went. I think this was an excellent way to learn about how to present yourself and your idea, because you actually learnt through doing it. For many people their weaknesses were in the structure of the pitch. For others, it was more in the body language, or eye contact or enthusiasm in the delivery. Sixteen people in about one hour was a tall order, and most of us didn't get that many pitches in, but we learnt plenty from the ones we did. In the end, it's a lot less intimidating than Dragons' Den-style pitching (and personally I think that show over-sensationalises the whole thing anyway).

Then it was off to the British Library's Business and IP Centre to find out what they had to offer to entrepreneurs. Theirs is a comprehensive collection regarding intellectual property, the essentials of starting a business, marketing, writing a business plan, securing investment and so on. I think it's brilliant that we got a chance to see first-hand this amazing resource. We couldn't go into the Centre proper- we would have needed individual Reader's Passes for that- but we still had a talk in the foyer from one of the staff. The foyer showcased brilliant inventions, entrepreneurial success stories... and of course Bloomberg was on the big widescreen telly :)

Summary
Overall, I would say that the course was a fantastic opportunity to learn the essential skills needed in starting a business. Of course, the best way to learn about starting and running a business is to actually do it, but what we learned is plenty to go on.

What I would have appreciated was more coverage on the importance of online branding and social media. In this day and age, you almost can't have a business without a strong online presence. This may include a blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or anything else. It can open you up to millions of potential buyers and investors. Some businesses, like Amazon, are online businesses anyway. There is plenty of info out there for online branding- Lifehack.org is a good source and it does plenty of other business topics too- but even so, it's something this particular course lacked in my opinion. Maybe they'll put it in next year.

Despite that, it was a fantastic couple of days. This is much more than you could ever get from a 2-hour talk by someone coming in to your uni or college one evening. My favourite bits were the elevator pitching and the restaurant game. I would definitely recommend this course to future participants. Who knows- you may even meet a future business partner there!