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A Guide t

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FEATURES:• Characteristicsofanentrepreneur

• Creatingapromisingidea• Understandingthemarket• Ressourcingyourenterprise

• Workingwiththemedia• Europeanopportunities

“There will be enough time to sleep in the grave”Benjamin Franklin

EWS Project Managers: Alexandre Egger Andrea Gerosa Abu AnwarGiulia BoschisToki Otudeko

Photographer: Leah Szomoru

ESS Learning Director: Steven Price

For more information on the Entrepreneurship Summer School: www.entrepreneurshipwinterschool.com

2013

CONTENTS

FOREWORDS SPEAKERS PARTICIPANTS I. ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEA II. NETWORKING III. ACCESS TO FINANCE IV. FAILURE V. MARKETING AND MEDIA

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“The Entrepreneurship Summer School started with one idea: no professors or teachers.How can someone do a school without professors or teachers? Well, this is the story. At ThinkYoung we run surveys and conduct research on young Europeans.  During research conducted and feedback from young people, we discovered that there are three key issues which need to be tackled in entrepreneurship. Firstly, there is too much bureaucracy.In real terms, this is reflected in the slow procedures by banks to lend and it acts like a deterrent to bright individuals with million pound ideas. There are also 27 different member states, each with its own laws, social security procedure and taxation. This is no longer acceptable. The single market is not one of the important things which needs to be done- it is THE priority. Secondly, there is an attitude towards failure which needs to be tackled. The risk attached to creating your own business and surviving puts off many entrepreneurs. Why is it that in the USA when people face bankruptcy they receive job offers in contrast to Europe they resort to social welfare?Finally there is a lack of education which people receive about entrepreneurship. For this final reason, ThinkYoung decided to create the ‘Entrepreneurship Schools’. These schools create a forum in which young people are allowed to learn directly from established entrepreneurs in four key elements of entrepreneurship: the business idea, access to funding, market and media and networking. These four elements are essential to the success of start ups. Moreover because entrepreneurs pass on this knowledge, which has been forged from direct experience and failures, it is more valuable for the participants’. What happens at Business Schools? Students spend most of their time with academics and professors with a high theoretical background. Sometimes speakers are invited, the majority are bankers, consultants or managers. Guess What- most of the students aspire to become bankers, consultants or managers.We wanted to give young people a “hand on the ground” experience. That has been our mission since the beginning. This is how we created the first school without professors and teachers.”

Andrea GerosaThinkYoung

Chief Thinker

FOREWORDS

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“I believe that ThinkYoung plays an important role in Europe in a few fronts. Firstly, in bringing the voice of the Youth to the decisions that count. It is important this is represented in: company boards, parliament and the commission. This is crucial. The other reason it is important to have the youth represented because it brings an element of clarity. We support the ESS because it allows young people to be self-employed and in the future employ other people which is vital to the European economy.The entrepreneurs can give invaluable practical advice which you can’t find in any book. The other thing it does is that it brings together a group of bright individuals who natu-rally network themselves. It is a great program which we support.”

Abhinav KumarChief Communications & Marketing Officer Europe

Tata Consultancy Services

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A PANEL OF EXPERIENCED ENTREPRENEURS TO LEARN FROM

“Surround yourself with people who know more than you and learn to learn from them.” Participants were given the chance to reflect upon their desired entrepreneurial paths, question and learn from experienced entrepreneurs to build this guide. The skill of questioning (or “interviewing”) experienced people to obtain relevant information proved to be an important success factor for many interviewees. Our findings are based on the EIIL Senior Masterclass (TM) learning methodology and the input of the following guest speakers:

Steven PriceFounder & Executive DirectorEuropean Institute for Industrial Leadership ESS Learning Director

Wytze RusschenFounder & Managing DirectorRusschen Consultants

Madi SharmaFounder of Madi Group

SPEAKERS

Peter SlendsensAmway Business Owner

Andrea Gerosa Chief Thinker of ThinkYoung

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Marie-Noëlle KeijzerChief Executive Officer- WeForest

Jacques TalbotBusiness Angel, Shareholder- Cockpit Group, Synthetis, Synthetis Metals

Patrick SapyBoard of Director- MicroStart

THIS GUIDE WAS CREATED BY YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDED STUDENTS FROM ALL ACCROSS EUROPE

This winter, 37 students coming from 21 different countries gathered to learn, network and create entrepreneurship guides in teams. This guide is a summarized version of the work of the following participants:

YELLOW TEAM Alessandro Di Fede, Alessia Canni, Bogdan Dinu, Dimitris Vogias,

Dusko Grubic, Pedro Duarte, Tara Mathilde Heuzé

BLUE TEAM Aranxta Sarria Quiroga, Donatella Basdereff, Erik Mucska, Guido Bianco

Naoto Umezawa, Rodolfo Bondesan, Vasiliki Exarchou

RED TEAM Arlinda Topciu, Daniel Robaczewski, Jernej Dekleva, Ofelia Elena Grozavu

Silvia Chantal Patono, Simone Santagiuliana, Spyros Kouvoussis, Verna Guia Venida

GREEN TEAM Chiara Sergio, Giulio Vietti, Mariya Nikitayeva, Mario Kuna

Mathias Goldstein, Ricardo Beck, Verena Lydia Zabel

BROWN TEAM Ai Lien Bui, Alfonso Aguado Bustillo, Annabel Morgan, Ana Nicoleta Oarga

Endre Olsvik Elvestad, Gerardo Salandra, Guillermo Garcia Tabarés, Patrícia Costa

PARTICIPANTS

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“BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND

YOUR IDEA”Patrick Sapy

When attempting to cre-ate a set up there are many factors to take into consideration. It is plau-sible to suggest that the idea is the most impor-tant factor because it will dictate whether you will be successful or not. The participants during the Entrepreneurship Winter School (EWS) ex-tracted information from the speakers. The main trend was that people are full of ideas. Those who write down their ideas in a notebook and check them regular-ly have a better chance to become a successful entrepreneur. Another trend which emerged from the presentations was that it is vital to get a mentor. Madi Sharma stressed how this mentor should be “someone who in-spires you; who will be-

lieve in you; someone who will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear”.Moreover, it is important to check the five F’s:

Feasible.Is the idea feasible? There are different ways to achieve your goal and sometimes you should not hesitate to twist the idea in order to achieve better results.

Foundation.Do you have access to the knowledge which is required in order to make your idea a success?

Fit for purpose.Believe in your idea and give it 120% of your ef-forts. Becoming a suc-cessful entrepreneur is not easy!

Failure.Do not fear failure; be prepared to embrace it. “The chance to have another go more intelli-gently” (Madi sharma) is something which we can learn from.

Focus.If you know where you want to go and if you have the determination to pursue this vision- you will find a way.

Find a niche.The more original your idea will be the better chances of success you will have. If it is a unique solution to a daily prob-lem, the chances of suc-cess will increase!

ENTREPRENEURIALIDEA

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“YOU HAVE TO BE A BITNOT MAINSTREAM.

MAINSTREAM PEOPLE ARE BORING AND HAVE THE SAME

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION”

Wytze Russchen

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Another topic which the par-ticipants learnt about was networking. In business, your network can determine whether your idea will be a success or not. For example, a useful contact can save yourself a lot of time, can lead to a new partnership and it can give you new ideas to enhance your idea.

Networking is the single most powerful tactic to accelerate and sustain the success of your business

All the speakers had a lot to talk about networking. The key ideas presented were:

Everybody has something to offer.If you are going out to net-work, at a dinner or a con-ference, never sit next to someone you know. It is very important to get in touch with as many people as pos-sible - no matter what branch they are working for. They can

be useful as they can provide you with another perspective, introduce you to somebody or have some form of use in the future.

Business Cards.All of the speakers spoke about the importance of hav-ing a business card. “I meet so many people every day and I cannot remember all of their faces” (Wytze Russchen). A business card should be used so a contact will remember who you are. The speakers also spoke about the importance of cre-ating a database with all of your contacts on it, this da-tabase should be detailed including: place you met the person, expertise and ideas discussed etc.

Follow up.This is the most important part of networking. Make sure you send an email after a day. Jacques Talbot spoke about the importance

of making it personal with a good introduction. “People receive hundreds of emails everyday”, you need to make sure yours will stand out.

Do not attend a conference on a empty stomach.You should go to networking events to engage in conver-sations and to meet people. Avoid the food and focus on the contacts!

Preparation is crucial.Prepare questions to certain speakers, have some ideas of conversations and research a bit about the other people at-tending the event.

When you meet a person for the first time, do not con-stantly sell different ideas or products, instead, suggest a better place to meet up (cof-fee for example) to go over your proposals.

NETWORKING

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“BANKS ARE NOT GOOD AT STARTING

YOUR BUSINESS. THE INTEREST WILL RUIN

YOUR PROFITABILITY”Jacques Talbolt

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Two of the six entrepreneurs were bombarded with questions about ‘access to finance’. Both Patrick Sapy and Jaques Talbot are involved in this sector and the participants extracted good prac-tices which they could use in their own ventures.

Do not contract debt!The main theme which was out-sourced from the interviews was that you should avoid banks and being indebted to banks as much as possible. Their structure and style of lending is not suitable to start ups - they do not allow ac-cess to loans easily and their in-terest is punitive. Moreover it is vital that you should never indebt families or use your property as a guarantee for loans. With an unstable eco-nomic environment there is too much risk in using your property as a guarantee. Jacques Talbot said “banks are good at financ-ing when you want liquidity for achieving the sales you promised to your clients, but not starting

your business - the interest will ruin your profitability”

Make one sell one model.In order to bypass limited finan-cial resources, the participants found out that a useful model for a start up is the ‘buy one, sell one’ model. Madi Sharma used this ini-tially when selling samosas. This means that an entrepreneur is us-ing all his income of sales to ex-pand as fast as possible without being heavily in debt.

Think big, start small.For a start up in the current eco-nomic climate, there is no need to invest millions into an idea. In-stead, you should allow the idea or company to grow by itself. Small bold steps are the best way to avoid failure.

Find customers not investors.Another theme which emerged from the interviews was the im-portance of taking care of cus-tomers. As long as you are perfect with your first customer, investors

will come to you, so will more customers.

Invest in yourself and in your team.A business with loads of money and a okay team will have a less chance of surviving compared to a business with a little bit of money and a brilliant team! The speakers stressed the importance of investing in the team you will be working with making sure they can produce the best pos-sible outcomes.

When you approach investors make sure your business plan and proposals are well pre-pared.You need to have a deep under-standing of your market, industry and competition. At last, try to create a long term relationship built upon trust and mutual un-derstanding (if you need favours it will be more likely if he/she likes you).

ACCESSTOFINANCE

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“YOU CAN BEDISAPPOINTEDBUT YOU CAN’T

BE DISCOURAGED”Peter Slendsens

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Failure is something part of life that simply happens. Most of the time, no matter how much effort you put into a project some-times things do not go your way. Every speaker of the EWS emphasised how you should embrace the idea of fail-ure and how it can be the most important learning tool. A few themes emerged from the interviews:

How do you deal with failure?You can give up and choose not to learn from the experience. Or, you can take the positive points out of the negative ones and make sure you avoid this in the future. This could be choosing another manufac-turer or supplier. Peter Sledsens said “You can be disappointed, but not discour-aged”. We are humans and it is in our nature to make mistakes and to learn from them. Madi Sharma made the analogy of a baby learning to walk: at first it will take a step then fall over; then it will process this in-formation and attempt to walk again; this time it will take a few more steps until it learns to walk.

How do you avoid failure?The importance of having a good mentor re-emerges again. A mentor can tell you what you need in order to succeed. An experienced mentor can tell you how to avoid mistakes which they made and can even tell you the useful strategies to over-come a problem. You must not fear failure : all of the entrepreneurs who spoke to us had all failed at least once and rose again to succeed.

Underestimating is risky : don’t take un-calculated risks.Underestimating can lead to making wrong decisions which easily could have been avoided if one had planned better. Therefore in planning think rationally con-sider every single issue and analyse its in-fluence and possible consequences.Plan as you go along, be dynamic and up-date the plan every time it is needed to do so.

Do not inhibit yourself from implement-ing your idea in which you truly believe and for which you have analysed every potential problem and risk .

FAILURE

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“THE BRAND IS THE D.N.A OF

THE COMPANY.IT’S EVERYTHINGYOU STAND FOR ”

Madi Sharma

The final topic which the participants interviewed the speakers about was market-ing and media. With all of the previous topics covered, how can entrepreneurs promote their products and what me-dia outlets, if any, should they use? The ideas of tailoring your product to the market, selling benefits and the im-portance of word of mouth was touched by the speakers.

You should have a good product and believe in it.The product or service which you are offering should be high in quality. Furthermore, the price should reflect the durability and the usefulness.

Tailor your product or ser-vice to the market.Each market has its own re-quirements. You need to make sure your product or

service is compatible and can fit into the market, or create a new section if it is innovative. You should make sure that your target audience is willing to accept this product or ser-vice and that there is a need for it! Madi gave the example, “Hindus don’t eat beef”.

Word of mouth.Arguably the most important element of the ‘marketing and media’ section. If utilised properly, word of mouth can be the best possible form of advertising, however, it can also be the worst if there are flaws with your product or service. For example, a very good product can be more expensive than a common one, but, if you know that it is more durable and needs less maintenance your customers will recommend it to others.

Sell benefits of the product.When you are selling your product, talk about the ben-efits of it. The persuasive ele-ment of marketing and media is crucial.

Be innovative.We don’t live in the 90s any-more and most companies still implement classic mar-keting strategies. Focus on being innovative and stand-ing out from the crowd.

You are the brand DNA.You represent your startup so you need to make sure that people trust you. Once they do this, business will come your way.

MARKETINGANDMEDIA

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PARTNERS

Founding Partners Knowledge Partners

Corporate Partners

Location Partners Media Partners

Students Partners

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6 Place du Luxembourg 1000 Brussels

www.thinkyoung.eu info@thinkyoung.eu

www.facebook.com/thinkyoung

THINKYOUNG LOBBIES FOR THE PRESENCE OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPEAN DECISION-MAKING.

FOCUSED ON CONDUCTING SURVEYS, ORGANISING CONFERENCES, PRODUCING DOCUMENTARIES AND PUBLISHING RESEARCH BY YOUNG EUROPEANS,

THINKYOUNG AIMS TO MAKE “BRUSSELS” AWARE OF WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE THINK.

ITS VISION IS TO MAKE EUROPE THINK YOUNG.

6 Place du Luxembourg 1050 Brussels

www.thinkyoung.eu info@thinkyoung.eu

www.facebook.com/thinkyoung