The youth of today can be our inspiration

Last night I had the privilege of watching six teams from Leicestershire Schools battle it out at the Young Enterprise County Finals. They had already progressed from the Area Finals and here they were, in front of a panel of Judges selected from leading businesses, to excite and impress.

Each Young Enterprise ‘company’, is set up near the start of the academic year and pupils have volunteered to participate. They set about forming a Board of Directors including finance, marketing, HR, IT and so on. A Managing Director is appointed from the pupils to head up the operation. They decide what business they want to create(sometimes they make products and sell them, or their business could be offering a service for which they get paid) and set it up under the guidance of an external volunteer business adviser and their link teacher.

The team learn about the importance of communication, working as a team, relationships, problem solving, money management, and dealing with crisis. They discover their strengths and weaknesses and realise that finding other people’s strengths in the team, and utilising them, can make the difference between success and failure. It is a fantastic initiative and one that I would have loved had it been available when I was at school.

The Keynote Speaker, Luke Pulford, told us how he started his first business when he was 15 and the lessons he had learned along his journey. He is now 21 and about to launch an exciting drinks dispensing business to be available in Night Clubs. Luke has created a special cap for bottles to prevent drinks being spiked. Let’s hope it is a roaring success. But his message last evening was that running your own business should be fun and that it isn’t just about making money. If just making money is your goal you will probably fail. A sentiment I endorse completely.

We run a franchise company – Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs – and Luke told me that while he was at University they use our franchise model to teach about franchising on their business course. Is the recession hitting us? No, because we, and our franchisees, are running our own businesses and when it’s your own, you work that bit harder when the going gets tough. You look after your customers even better, you offer them even more value for money. And if you can have a lot of fun doing all of that, everybody wins.

Check out our franchise on our website, either for classes or how to become a franchisee