How do we give back in business?

At The Business Network South Manchester we are very vocal about The Speed Of Sight Charity we support and each month we raise money to help them with their endeavours and personally we support The Parkinson’s Disease Society. But yesterday Simon was reminded its good to give some time back.

In business we are all so caught up in servicing our clients, making sure the bills are paid and always looking for growth so it’s easy to forget we have a wealth of experience we can share.
Just over ten years ago Simon was asked to be a judge for the Trafford leg of the Young Enterprise scheme to help students at school and college develop and run a business and over those ten years all the judges have seen these young entrepreneurs develop ideas from moulded vinyl discs into bowls through to this year a very sophisticated app to help students find work experience through out the UK.
Yesterday saw six Trafford and Stockport teams battle it out for two spaces in the Greater Manchester final. All the teams had excellent ideas and competition was very stiff and every team walked away with a trophy as they all preformed very well in the individual awards categories.

There was a significant emphasis on the environment, using re-usable and recyclable materials at the forefront. They had read the demands of the public and the current climate well. Then there was the app that helped students find work experience places. The team had found a pain pint that needed resolving and with very little competition too.

Some of these young individuals will go on to be the Dragon’s of the future but the majority now have a fundamental knowledge of how a business operates, how difficult it is to manage a team and live up to customer expectations.

The main reason for getting involved is to be able to give a little bit of your experience back to these very enthusiastic students to encourage, direct and hopefully inspire them to look closer at the business community and begin their preparation for the working world.
Its also an ideal opportunity to examine your own business as you spot the flaws in these young businesses you can sometimes see where you too have been making mistakes. Sat with a panel of your peers and seeing what they have spotted in the presentations, interviews and business pans can be a revelation.

So if you are wondering how to give your experience back to the entrepreneurs of the future get in tough with Young Enterprise or organisations such as The EY Foundation or ask Simon to put you in touch, he is more than happy to do so.