Where will the next Alan Sugar come from?
Press Release: Students and alumni, Gary Schoemann, Layla Boubker, Jide Ariyo, Blanchard Campbell, Nahom Teweldemedhin, Patrick Hardy, Holly Paine, Nathan Ghann, John Gyeni, Emma Ayers, Fahd Huda, Mohammed Ali, Maria Alema, Karl Beetson, George Marriott, Michael Kashioulis and Research Fellow Dr. Heather Straughan have all been chosen as finalists in Flare, the University of Hertfordshire’s business ideas challenge for aspiring young entrepreneurs.
The University of Hertfordshire, which all finalists attend, is committed to being an ambitious business-facing University and encourages entrepreneurship. The business ideas challenge seeks to encourage the students to create unique commercial ideas and to develop business plans to lead to successful ventures.
Jide, Blanchard and Nahom’s unique business idea is establishing a company which delivers African and Caribbean take-away food to university towns, business markets and communities; Nathan, John, Emma, Fahd and Mohammed’s idea is a property website to show students all the properties available to rent within their University town; Michael’s business proposition is a website that gives in-depth reviews on bars and nightclubs within London and London club reviews; Gary’s is an interactive sport instruction website portal to enable affiliated small businesses to enhance their electronic communications; Maria’s is a specialist lingerie company; Patrick’s idea offers services to assist companies in preparing, reacting, and recovering their business from any type of disaster; Holly’s is bespoke handmade interior products; Layla’s is a fashion brand which makes beautiful handmade Moroccan inspired clothing for women; Heather’s business idea is training products, training research and advisory services to mental health professionals, service users and carers; Karl’s is a mobile flight simulation experience and George’s is an online second hand textbook shop for students.
Their business plans impressed the judges and they are through to the final where they will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to Ruth Badger from the BBC TV show “The Apprentice”, Imran Hakim, star of “BBC’s Dragon’s Den”, inventor and entrepreneur and Mark Craigen, Senior Manager at Deloitte, one of the country’s leading professional services firms.
These entrepreneurs will be presenting their ideas on Friday 1st May 2009 in an elevator style pitch to the judges at Tower Bridge, London. The Flare Entrepreneur of 2009 will be presented with their trophy and a bespoke package of prizes valuing £25,000 at an awards dinner on Friday 8th May 2009.
The prize fund of £25,000 includes cash, training and consultancy providing the winner with the opportunity to kick-start their business idea. In addition to the prize fund Imran Hakim is giving £10,000 worth of consultancy to the winner, to pass on his knowledge gained from Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones.
Over 120 people entered Flare 2009, with 68 being short listed for round two. The students were among the exceptional entrants that have been selected for round three, the final stage judging.
Nigel Culkin, Head of Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Development at the University of Hertfordshire comments; “We are delighted with the number of applications we have received for Flare this year and all these contestants have done extremely well to get to round three. We created Flare five years ago to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of students at the University and the finalists have certainly demonstrated this in their business plans. I wish them all well with their pitch on 1st May 2009.”