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The Good Entrepreneur Competition

Andrew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:16:06 +0000

Are you an enterpreneur with a green idea? "The Good Entrepreneur" is a new TV series that will be screen on CNBC later this year. It's a new business competition that's backed by business and financial news channel CNBC. Also backing the competition are Allianz a global financial services provider. The aim of "The Good Entrepreneur" is to find the entrepreneur with the best sustainable, responsible and innovative eco-business concept.

Budding entrepreneurs across Europe with a green idea or business plan for a product or service are encouraged to enter online at www.thegoodentrepreneur.com.

The winner of ‘The Good Entrepreneur’ will receive a prize package worth more than £220,000 which includes financial support, advertising on CNBC and business support from Allianz. The competition closes on 31 July, with three finalists named in August and ‘The Good Entrepreneur 2009’ winner announced in November.

Support for entrants on the website will be offered by star business names including Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com; Stelios Haji-Ioannou, chairman of easyGroup and Nandan Nilekani, co-Chairman and co-Founder Infosys. Top business leaders from Allianz, General Electric International, LinkedIn and Microsoft International, alongside a leading professor from University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, will choose three finalists and select the winner.

The TV series will track the progress of the finalists as they receive mentoring and advice from leading entrepreneurs. The series, which will culminate in one of the finalists being announced as the winner, will be broadcast across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia on CNBC in the autumn.

The Good Entrepreneur website will engage leading business schools, business leaders and entrepreneurial organisations to create a new on-line community that helps entrepreneurs take great ‘green’ ideas and transform them into solid, responsible business plans.

Phil Tapia - Serving Up Success And Making Money

Andrew — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:09:07 +0000

Quote source : FindArticles
Image souce :
Tray Display Advertising

Phil Tapia can testify to the manifest virtues of occasionally cleaning out the family garage.

It was during a day spent with his dad, Mike Tapia, amid boxes and oil stains two years ago, that Tapia discovered his Tray Display Advertising business, or at least the idea for it.

Uncovering examples of the advertising Mike Tapia had done with his Billboard Bags Inc. -- on liquor store and fast-food bags -- in the early '90s reminded the Tapias of an idea Mike Tapia had hatched for selling ads on fastfood restaurant placemats.

Just about two years later, Tray Display Advertising Inc., is supplying 125,000 advertising sheets a month to 23 Wendy's locations in Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Woodland Park, with another 15 stores to come next year in Tucson, Ariz. and pizza box lid toppers for 12 Little Caesars stores in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Tapia banked sales of $60,000 in the company's first full year.

What made Tray Display Advertising take flight was its simplicity.

Tapia sells ads to a mix of a dozen or so local and national companies, has the 81/2-inch by 11-inch sheets printed in Oklahoma and then delivered to a central distribution point for his clients.

Wendy's of Colorado Springs estimates it saved $10,000 last year by not having to pay for its tray placemats. And the restaurant gets the central position on the sheets for its own advertisement, without cost.

Tray Display Advertising groups advertisers together so local businesses save on advertising costs, plus they get their ads in front of thousands of eyeballs everyday. And as far as I'm concerned, when I'm wolfing down my burger and coke, there's pretty much nothing else to do except to read what's on the tray mat.

Now isn't this one of those ideas that make you think, "I could do this!"?

Helen Pattinson And Montezuma - A Sweet Success Story

Andrew — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:02:05 +0000

Quoted from : Times Online
Image via : Times Online

Helen Pattinson and her husband Simon had given up their jobs in Britain to travel the world for a year, and were passing through the town of San Carlos de Bariloche in the foothills of the Andes. They wandered around a town that was full of enchanting chocolate shops and the experience opened her eyes.

When she walked into one shop that was laid out like a chocolate supermarket, Pattinson had a moment of revelation.

“I just thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to work with chocolate,” she said. “How is it that a shop like this is sustainable here in what is a tiny town, whereas in Britain we consume so much chocolate and yet what is available is pretty poor?

“It was a eureka moment. I went back to Simon and told him he had to come out and look at all these shops because they were amazing. He could see what I meant immediately.”

Excited by the discovery of the Argentinian chocolate shops, the couple started researching the chocolate market in Britain in 2000 when they came home. They wrote a business plan and went round the country finding chocolatiers who could make products for a shop. Then they raised £160,000 – half from the sale of their house in London, the rest from friends and family – and found a shop to lease in Brighton, Sussex.

Originally the idea was to simply open a shop and sell high-quality chocolate made by British suppliers. But just before the shop was due to open their leading supplier, who was going to be the source of 50% of their stock, went bust.

Pattinson realised they had two choices – to give up their whole business idea, or make the chocolate themselves. Within 24 hours they had decided to become chocolate makers as well. They found a production unit, some equipment, and set about teaching themselves how to make high-quality chocolate.

Just a few weeks later they opened their first shop, calling it Montezuma’s after the Aztec emperor of Mexico, where chocolate was held in high esteem.

It was an instant success. “From day one we thought we have hit on something people love.”

The business broke even in its first year and the Pattinsons opened a second shop in Chichester. With the help of a £250,000 bank loan, they now have seven shops in southeast England and sell chocolate through their website.

Helen and Simon are inspiring examples of how ideas can be turned into a lucrative business if people would not only open their eyes and ears, but their hearts and minds to the everyday opportunities around them.

As they say, "Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration". Once you get an idea, it's critical to follow through on that idea. 9 out of 10 ideas end up on the KIV pile at the back of our minds because they were never followed through. Like Helen and Simon, you have to take the effort to find out all you can about the opportunity, go through the nitty gritty of beaureaucracy if needed and when the unexpected happens - like when their main supplier went bust - to take the bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.

I believe Helen and Simon are strong souls and they complemented each other in their journey to making Montezumas what it is today. That's an integral part of how they turned a simple idea into a money making venture.

However, the first step is as simple as opening your heart and mind to the everyday, simple and often "boring" things in life, seeing the opportunity in those things and finding a way to bring them to life.