{"id":3751,"date":"2019-04-16T13:53:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T13:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/?p=3751"},"modified":"2019-04-16T13:53:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T13:53:24","slug":"entrerprise-entrepreneurship-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/entrerprise-entrepreneurship-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your dreams to launch an\u00a0enterprise and start your entrepreneurship journey can come true at the University of Westminster.<\/p>\n

While most of\u00a0the\u00a0world can only dream of launching a business in the UK, here you will receive tangible\u00a0support to begin the process all throughout your studies. For example, you could enter one of the competitions organised by the University and receive real financial support to develop\u00a0your business idea further. I trusted that it would be an additional bonus for entrepreneurship minded students, and I was not an exception.<\/p>\n

If reading this far from London, it is hard to imagine, but believe me, it happens for real!<\/p>\n

To start, let me give a little bit of background about myself. I come from a family of professional musicians who also set up and ran a business. I have always dreamed of opening my own business. With 10 years of professional experience in media and PR, the time was right to step towards making my dream come true. Step one for me was to develop skills needed to run a business efficiently across international borders. This led me to the MA course in Media Management that I’m currently doing at the University of Westminster.<\/p>\n

In this blog I would like to share with my fellow entrepreneurship adventurers some of my experiences in London. I will also provide some useful professional development tips!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Enterprise<\/p>\n

To skip describing all the formal processes, I moved to London in September 2018. Over the last seven months I have focused on understanding the latest trends in the global media landscape. I have also been exploring the challenges that modern media organisations are currently facing and the ways to overcome those.<\/p>\n

\"Enterprise<\/p>\n

Given my career goals and professional interests, you can understand why I so actively participate in these entrepreneurship events and activities.<\/p>\n

One thing I really want to share with you is the huge variety of free activities you can join in London. Furthermore, the University of Westminster gives you the support to transform your ideas into\u00a0a real business.<\/p>\n

Business idea step-by-step<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The\u00a0huge amount of support at Westminster to students wanting to start their own enterprise was a massive surprise. All throughout your studies, the University provides free tips on how to develop your business idea step-by-step.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of events designed and organised especially for entrepreneurship minded students by the Creative Enterprise Centre (CEC)<\/a>.\u00a0The CEC was launched recently, in 2017,\u00a0to\u00a0match students\u2019 and alumni\u2019s\u00a0skills\u00a0with\u00a0the needs of external employers\u2019 projects.\u00a0Working with\u00a0business minded students\u00a0is only one area of the team\u2019s work<\/a>.\u00a0 Shiela Birungi, the CEC<\/a>\u00a0Entrepreneurship Programme Manager becomes\u00a0one of your favourite speakers and key contacts. She provides useful advice, and simultaneously motivates students to progress with the development of their business ideas.<\/p>\n

Despite it’s relatively young age, the CEC\u00a0has already become an essential part of students\u2019 and alumni\u2019s\u00a0lives. Many of my classmates have started their\u00a0creative careers\u00a0thanks to the help,\u00a0guidance and training provided by\u00a0the CEC.<\/p>\n

Different kinds of entrepreneurship support<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is a bunch of different available activities you can join. In this post I will tell you only about some of them.<\/p>\n

First of all, you can attend workshops and panel discussions with industry experts and graduates who already run their own businesses.\u00a0<\/strong>It gives you a chance to receive advice from those who\u00a0have\u00a0already succeeded\u00a0in the world of entrepreneurism. Speaker guests provide an insight into how to create a sustainable business and how to reduce risks. They tell the audience which mistakes they made and how\u00a0to avoid them. You can\u00a0of course also ask questions (me below)!<\/p>\n

\"Enterprise<\/p>\n

One of the latest workshops I\u2019ve attended was\u00a0called\u00a0\u201cWhat it takes to develop your own online brand and app<\/a>\u201d. Howard Pull, Strategic Development Director at MullenLowe Profero (Westminster alumnus) spoke at the event. He gave interesting\u00a0insights\u00a0on marketing and the importance of good customer service. This speaker shared with us his knowledge obtained during his 18-year career at world-leading digital agencies. Howard currently focuses on digital strategy and transformation.<\/p>\n

Students can book a\u00a0one-to-one meeting. with a Careers Consultant for tailored advice on their business idea. Others, who are more likely to socialise\u00a0actively, join competitions organised\u00a0for entrepreneurship minded students.<\/p>\n

Another great opportunity for career-focused students is the Westminster Employability Award,<\/a>\u00a0given the variety of free careers-focused activities. As a reward for your willingness and hard work you could\u00a0win money prizes or receive other valuable benefits.<\/p>\n

The Big Idea Competition<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In March I attended the final of The Big Idea competition<\/a> \u2013 an annual business competition for current Westminster students. The CEC organized the event in partnership with Santander Universities and NACUE (National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs). Students were encouraged to apply with their business ideas across four categories: \u201cDigital and Tech\u201d, \u201cSocial and Environmental Impact\u201d, \u201cFreelancing\u201d, and \u201cMaker and Inventor\u201d.<\/p>\n

The audience, who also contributed\u00a0to\u00a0choosing the best idea, \u2013 gave their votes to participants they wanted to support. Malvin Onu was selected as the winner of the main prize<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0received a total of \u00a33,000 funding.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the other shortlisted applicants also received financial awards.<\/p>\n

\"Enterprise<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Grand Prize Winner\u00a0Malvin Onu\u00a0is the founder of\u00a0the social enterprise business idea \u2018RunTrack<\/strong><\/a>\u2019. Malvin’s ‘RunTrack’ is an\u00a0online platform to develop new, stronger links between young people and community sports activity providers. He believes it will bring positive changes\u00a0to\u00a0the lives of youth and reduce UK gang violence among teenagers.<\/p>\n

Soon after, we met again at the workshop \u201cIdea Cafe: Share and get Advice on Your Business or Freelancing Idea\u201d. Malvin mentioned how shortly after having won the competition, somebody had already contacted him to discuss collaborating. Isn\u2019t it exciting?! Hopefully it will lead to a successful partnership between our entrepreneurship minded student and an external organisation\u00a0that will\u00a0want to support his business idea.<\/p>\n

Malvin’s example inspired me to work even harder\u00a0on\u00a0developing my own business idea…..I will let you know about that in my future posts \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

I look forward to sharing some more insights into London’s world of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship with you soon!<\/p>\n

Enjoy.<\/p>\n

Maria<\/p>\n

For this post and other blogs from International Students at Westminster please visit\u00a0International Student Blogs<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your dreams to launch an\u00a0enterprise and start your entrepreneurship journey can come true at the University of Westminster. While most of\u00a0the\u00a0world can only dream of launching a business in the UK, here you will receive tangible\u00a0support to begin the process…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":3827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,14,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-london","category-student-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}