A bit about us...
Sheffield Hallam University sees the re-launch of one of its most innovative societies, with plans to be bigger and better in the next academic year.
E-soc is a club for students and graduates who are interested in running their own business or who are already self-employed. It run events, raises money for charity and most importantly is a network of entrepreneurs.
"A business is nothing without people".
E-soc is growing at an alarming rate, proving to be more popular among students, graduates, academics and businesses across the region. It brings together people to develop ideas, creating opportunities and thus benefiting all involved..
This is an amazing opportunity for the businesses of Sheffield to get involved in some way by attending events, participating in workshops, giving support through sponsorship and helping to raise money for charity!
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Help needed! :)
I would love to hear everyone's ideas on how we can promote the society and how we can help businesses, especially in today's harsh economic climate by working collaboratively.
The new campaign is starting now! We have an exciting dynamic project planned for Global Entrepreneurship week at our student union.
The society is a brilliant opportunity to meet the next generation of entrepreneurs!


Thanks guys

An interesting initiative which is a real dilemma for me!

3 of our 4 designers are from Sheffield Hallam. A number of other design related businesses (Product and software) are ex Hallam too so I am a big fan of the quality of graduates that come out of the University.

However, the flip side is, the University actively competes against my company in Design and business consultancy (as it does with other ex Sheffield Hallam entrepreneurial graduates).

Therefore, can I suggest you approach the University's Design and Business teams for support...it would be good for you to see how good they are at practicing what they preach!

Good luck with the venture, the nations future will be reliant on the young entrepreneurs of today (including Tom Fripp, my business partner who graduated with a Masters degree from Hallam in 2005).

steveroberts, you can't eliminate competition unless you have to have a point of difference. That's your call, not theirs. While I do have some sympathy with your position 'woe is me' won't change it.

Entrepreneurial spirit in our universities and all sectors of our society is to be lauded and encouraged. That said, E-Soc shouldn't have any need for sponsorship... should it? ;) The charity aspect is great, and as long as it's not too much of a distraction to the critical business of business more power to their elbow.

Tony,

You are, of course, right. We live with it (and our business is heading in a different direction this year, we will be manufacturing our own products so will be less reliant on Design for our revenues).

However I think it is only fair to point out to those budding entrepreneurs wanting to set up their own business in our region that they face real (not theoretical) competition from the University. Quite ironic that the Uni takes 1000's off them in fees, encourages them to be entrepreneurial (whilst taking those fees) and then competes with them once they stop paying the fees!!!

Hi guys,

Some interesting points you have made, but I think it destracts from the purpose of the post, which is to help young entrepreneurs (students, graduates, businesses) across Sheffield to form a positive network of support in which we can all benefit. I didn’t want it to become a platform for other agendas. It is a society created by students not the university… Some of the main projects we are looking to do are:
• Networking events
• A club event
• Business Fairs – to showcase talent
• Promotion opportunities – newsletter, societies fair packs etc
• Workshops/ guest speakers
• And more personal development opportunities…
Sponsorship is needed to fund all of the above. We hope to raise money for the Princes Trust charity in Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Sam :)

Exactly - The enterprise society is set up by students for students to encourage potential entrepreneurs and provide as much support as possible.

Businesses throughout Sheffield can help in ANY way possible. Anything that you think your business may be able to provide, we are more than welcome for feedback! Your business name and logo will be advertised and the publicity can only be great awareness for your business.

Exactly - The enterprise society is set up by students for students to encourage potential entrepreneurs and provide as much support as possible.

Businesses throughout Sheffield can help in ANY way possible. Anything that you think your business may be able to provide, we are more than welcome for feedback! Your business name and logo will be advertised and the publicity can only be great awareness for your business.

Yes we are open to ideas... From cash sponsorship, into in-kind sponsorship! We believe that as students, we have a great understanding of our fellow students, so can really help to embed entrepreneurial skills in exciting ways... :)

The types of things we think we are looking for are:
* Promotional materials / printing
* Design
* Contacts
* Advice - people to host workshops, to stand on the advisory board
* Venues
... The world is our oyster ;)

Sam

Hi,

I met with Sara Pates yesterday to discuss some joint work and also to tell her about the funding that we have available for young people. check out my post www. sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=574490.

It would be great to chat through your ideas and see how we can get involved.

we have 4 programmes aimed at young social entreprenuers:
1) UnLtd Sport Relief Make It Happen Awards unltdsportrelief.org
2) Live UnLtd liveunltd.com
3) The Big Challenge bigchallenge.org.uk
4) UnLtd "Dare to be Different" Social Entrepreneurship Awards for uni students/ staff se-awards.org.uk

drop me an email at lucywood @unltd.org.uk or ring me on 07545 933 816.

speak soon,
Lucy

(sorry about the links, it wont let me do hyperlinks)

Brilliant!

We'd love to know about other funding opportunities that exist...

:love:

Benefits for members:
* We are part of NACUE (National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs)
* Personal development opportunities - confidence, public speaking, soft skills, etc
* Growing their career
* Access to workshops/courses/ speaker events
* Business Fairs, business skills
* Project management/ events organising
* Building portfolios of their work and upgrading their CV
* Networking, interpersonal skills, team building
* Embedding entrepreneurial skills, spotting opportunities
* Joining a community with an enterprise culture
* Raise money for charity
* Able to tap into the Enterprise Centre resources

Hello there!

First of all, good luck with it - sounds great

A few ideas that you might want to consider - contact Jill White (my other half!) at E3:Encouraging Entrepeneurship and Enterprise which is a new network for entrepreneurs only (website to be launched next week). One of the guiding principles of E3 is to support students and potential entrepreneurs via other entrepreneurs - jillwhite@competeorgetbeat.com is her email - alternatively, contact me and I'll pass your details on.

Equally, without 'blowing my own trumpet' too much, I speak at entrepreneur events up and down the country as my job - from start ups to established business leaders and would be very happy to 'do something' for you (obviously at no charge) if that suits.

Cheers

Andy

Hang on a second... Jill White rings a bell. I think Jill is my new business advisor at the enterprise centre? Sam may be able to answer that for me!

That sounds great Andy! We will definitely be in touch to get as much help and ideas as possible from yourself!

I have met Jill :) she is awesome. We would love to get you involved Andy, thanks for the offer :D

I can concur, Jill is a fabulous person. Andy is excellent at what he does too. I have hired them both separately, when I worked at SENTA.

I agree that encouragement needs to be given to entrepreneurial students with good ideas to "have a go" but I think that a warning does need to be sounded here. I work with many start-up businesses including some started by newly fledged students and unfortunately see that many have the ideas but have not crunched the numbers and set themselves up on a sound financial/organisational footing. The commercial world is very different to the cocoon of working from a publicly funded base and the failure rate among start-up businesses is very high, largely as a result of businesses not getting the right advice on the "boring bits" such as finance and admin. So, I should say to any potential Bill Gates out there, definitely don't drop the idea but do get GOOD ADVICE on all that starting a business entails before rather than after you take the plunge.

,,,and the local economy can support roughly how many "entrepeneurs"???
Typical for yet another hair brained venture addressing the "terrible plight of our dear neglected student populus" where the thousands of unskilled and unemployed indigenous (yes THAT `ol word again!) folk live in crime-plagued areas with little future in terms of banishing poverty or gaining any work other than part-time on NMW.
This is SHEFFIELD, that once proud solid city sprung up from the steel and nearby mining industries that the tories decimated and left it to rot in a 3rd world mould,
and not the silicon valley that those with their heads in the clouds seem to imagine!
Wake up and smell the coffee!
,,,we cant even ensure that every habitant can vote for christs sake???

The local economy does not have to 'support' entrepreneurs - I'd argue it's the other way round: entrepreneurs support the local economy.
Yes, we used to have steel works - my dad worked in one (Stocksbridge)
Yes, we used to have pits - I used to work down one (Dinnington)
Yes, we have universities - I went to one (Nottingham)

I have friends from all three of those areas now running successful businesses - some have had support to do so, some haven't. They all now contribute to the local economy and are 'proud' of it, the City of SHEFFIELD and themeselves.

ANYONE, regardless of education, background, location who wants to have a go at starting a business should be (and often are) encouraged and supported to start and grow their own businesses if that's what they choose to do - we don't all have to be Bill Gates - simply earning ourselves a living (or even better, helping others earn one too) should be applauded.

As an aside, I can't help thinking if a private business had organised the voting, everyone would have got a chance!!!!

Bullitt:

It's unfortunate that you have not realised that...

"Between stimulus and response... Man has the freedom to choose".

You are the creater of your own future. You shouldn't tie yourself to the limited past! Meaning - you choose to be a victim and blame others for the wrongs in the world. You could try another approach and find that your options open up.

A lot of students are locals and have had the same upbringing as yourself. A pessimist complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.

Think about it ;)

Sammyjane; how eloquently written...you have not taken the words out of my mouth; merely my thoughts!

Ditto that Steve. Good luck with it sammyjane, let those that want to, do it, and those that dont want to, stay doing what they do. I've never understood why people criticise other people trying to better themselves and helping others better themselves.

I'm a yorkshire lass and love Sheffield! I think it's a wonderful city, full of opportunities. I don't see things in terms of limited resources. I think if we work together in synergy we can create more than if we try to do everything by ourself. I don't know the exact figures, but Sheffield Hallam Uni has about 30000+ students. That's a lot for everyone to tap into. There doesn't need to be a "them and us" attitude between local businesses and the student population... Embrace it, it can work to everyone's benefit :)

e - soc co uk

Our site is up now...

Our strapline is "Skills to pay the bills" :)

SammyJane

Well done you. You're right - we should be looking to support and encourage people who are looking to set up and develop their own business - regardless of their background, age and education.

There are too many cynics around - I describe a cynic as someone who's given up, but hasn't shut up!

Let me know how I can help, and we'll get something going!

Andy

Andy, I love that description! So very true.

There are too many cynics around - I describe a cynic as someone who's given up, but hasn't shut up!



:D Love the quote!!!

SammyJane

Well done you. You're right - we should be looking to support and encourage people who are looking to set up and develop their own business - regardless of their background, age and education.

There are too many cynics around - I describe a cynic as someone who's given up, but hasn't shut up!

Let me know how I can help, and we'll get something going!

Andy

I completely agree we should be supporting new businesses, if we had not had the support from BIG I don't think we would be where we are now.

Hi Sammy Jane,

I am a former student of Hallam who is now an entrepreneur. I have been involved with the Venture Matrix this year and try to do as much as I can to encourage and assist students coming out of Sheffield Hallam. If there is anything i can do to help (a talk on my journey as an Entrepreneur for example) please get in touch. You can do so via the We Love Sleep website, the link is on my signature.

James

P.S You have got to take Andy up on his offer to give you a talk, he is really really good....

Thanks guys. I am in the process of drawing up the plan for the next academic year. Guest speakers would be great! What would you speak about Andy :)? Ex Hallam students talking about their journey would be great!

Very happy to speak about whatever you guys think imprtant / relevant! A lot of the stiff I do focuses on sales and marketing and customer care, but also quite a lot on the key factors for success in growing an entrepreneurial business. Happy to have a chat with you about what we could do - equally, if you get minute, have a look at my website and the section 'about Andy' and there are some details there that might give you a few ideas.

It cab be a presentation or a workshop if preferable - obviously depending on numbers, time available etc

get in touch and we'll get something sorted!

Looking forward to working with you!

Andy

hi all

Im part of the 4 networking group,

im new to the group but the forum gives great advice

Kym at hillsbroughdirectory may help you with somethings speak to her see what she says

Never hurt to ask

Im trying to get into Uni's across the country that have issues with abandoned cars and cars that are scrap, I.E The students dont want

Anyway

Kym may help with somethings give her a try Thanks

Hope this helps

Thanks guys. I am in the process of drawing up the plan for the next academic year. Guest speakers would be great!I give pro bono guest lectures about intellectual property to University of Sheffield 'entrepreneurship' students and to others, and run IP crash courses under contract from SENTA (among others). Feel free to get in touch (PM) if you think a talk about intellectual property/innovation capitalisation within a startup context could be of benefit :)

Thanks :) That would be great!

We have our big Xmas Fair @ The Hubs booked for the 1st December. We are going to be showcasing student/graduate businesses.. and are also looking for any local businesses that may want to get involved....

Well emailed you a few weeks back and no response.

It was off the website.

Hi, I am really sorry about that! I have just realised that for some reason when people request to sign up as a member on the website, it has been going into junk mail! Ooops. I will change the e-mail settings! What did your message say? Is it possible to resend?

Thanks, Sammy :)

Normally your contact form messages go to a fixed email address inbox. If you happen to get a spam message via your contact form (which you will if you don't have a Captcha on it) then when you inadvertanetly send that email to the spam box, the rest of the emails from there will usually automatically go there too! That's how it can happen and how you can lose them to the junk/spam filter.

I think I have sorted it now :)

We are currently in the process of finding some sponsorship... does anyone know what the best way is to go about this?

Thanks,

Sammy

I think I have sorted it now :)

We are currently in the process of finding some sponsorship... does anyone know what the best way is to go about this?

Thanks,

Sammy

First, work out what's in it for your sponsor, not you. ;)

• You will be able to have a stall at the enterprise shows which will be held in a prime location on the University's City Campus
• We are also hoping to have some PR coverage from the show which you will be referenced to.
• We will distribute your leaflets and promotional materials to students that attend the activities fair during Fresher's week
• Your company logo will be included in marketing materials, raising the profile of your company amongst students
• It is a great example of Corporate Social Responsibility
• A chance for you to engage with clients of tomorrow
• A route into Sheffield Hallam University for you

;)

SammyJane, the society sounds very interesting and seems to provide budding entrepeneurs with the vital tools required to help them succeed. I have only recently graduated myself (from Birmingham) and have set up my own business in Sheffield. However, not living in Sheffield does slightly hamper my networking potential and would be interested in getting involved at some level, whether it be giving advice or merely being a member. Please pm me and let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Chris