On a balmy summers evening in early July, The Enterprise Pavilion proudly hosted the awards presentation for the fourth Dorset-Wide Business Plan Challenge – the Daily Echo supported annual business plan competition that truly celebrates the entrepreneurial flair and talent of the people of Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole.
The challenge, which is also supported by Dorset Business, Dorset Junior Chamber and Dorset Music Forum; has been an ongoing event in the Dorset business calendar for the past four years and each year has been attracting an ever increasing number of applicants and a growing amount of attention on a national front.
Rachel Lowe, a veteran of BBC TV’s Dragon’s Den and successful entrepreneur who was awarded an MBE for Service to Business in the Queen’s birthday Honours list earlier this year; is Patron of the Arts University College at Bournemouth’s Entrepreneurs Club and is a keen supporter of business plan challenges. On a previous visit Rachel told the young wannabe business tycoons “Don’t give up on the first no… turn every negative into a positive… each step needs a reward” and the guys that entered and won this years challenge duly got their reward.
Matt Desmier, Head of Enterprise for the Arts University College gave out four prizes on the night, from a total prize fund of £6,000. He said: “In the current economic climate more and more people will be thinking of setting up on their own, thinking it is the best option for them – and it could well be. But they need to plan their businesses and hopefully, by awarding these prizes and showing that hard work pays off, others will be inspired to write business plans.” Matt manages the Enterprise Pavilion, the South’s leading specialist business start-up centre on behalf of the Arts University College: “We have a 95% success rate with the businesses that we work with, an accolade that we’re particularly proud of and that’s because we specify, as the main criteria for entry, a well-written and feasible business plan.”
The success of the Enterprise Pavilion has drawn attention from the unlikeliest of places too, for instance last year Matt and his team were approached by the producers of The Apprentice and a key episode was filmed in the Enterprise Pavilion Board Room. “They’d heard about us through Tim Campbell who had won the first ever series and they thought it was fitting that our two activities be linked.” Matt said, he added “I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw one or more of this year’s winners on that show soon.”
The winners in the Pre-Start category were:
Joe Barnes with a plan for Radar – an idea for a high quality music promotion company aiming to provide a different type of music experience to the conurbations of Bournemouth and Poole and;
James Swindells with a plan for PixelPlex – an idea for a company specialising in bespoke high-end motion graphics for experiential live events.
The winners in the Start-up category were:
Adam Merrifield for The Media Bus – a not-for-profit community interest company which brings state-of-the-art digital media facilities to disadvantaged groups and rural communities across Dorset and the South West and;
Andy Maxwell for Press Red Media – a new and unique system of online social networking that looks set to be the next Facebook or Twitter phenomenon.