{"id":22412,"date":"2024-08-22T15:08:36","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T14:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/?p=22412"},"modified":"2024-09-13T18:51:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T17:51:51","slug":"five-reasons-student-businesses-succeed-at-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2024\/08\/five-reasons-student-businesses-succeed-at-kent\/","title":{"rendered":"Five reasons student businesses succeed at Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those who have always dreamed of starting their own business are not alone. In fact, according to the Start Up Angel Report 2024, 60% of young people want to be their own boss by the age of 30. And it\u2019s clear why: self-employment can offer independence and the freedom to work flexibly. But starting a business can also come with great risks and long working hours, demanding determination, motivation, resilience, good time management, negotiation and decision-making skills. Not only are Kent\u2019s courses designed to develop these skills, but students are also able to access a unique array of experiences which them with the knowledge and support they need to take their ideas to market.<\/p>\n

Supporting ASPIRE-ations<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0ASPIRE labs<\/a>\u00a0at Medway and Canterbury offer a unique and exciting entrepreneurial education open to all students at Kent. Their flagship scheme is\u00a0the Business Start-Up Journey<\/strong>, an inspirational 15-week programme which provides student entrepreneurs with a step-by-step guide to starting a business. Those taking part in the extracurricular programme learn how to assess risk, turn challenges into opportunities and develop essential business skills. With experienced mentors on hand to advise along the way, it creates the perfect environment in which student entrepreneurs can test the strength of their ideas and develop them into rounded proposals which they then pitch to successful business leaders. This year the winning entrepreneurs were offered one-to-one coaching by none other than Touker Suleyman from BBC\u2019s Dragon\u2019s Den!<\/p>\n

\"ASPIRE<\/a>
The 2023 Business Start-Up Journey judges included BBC Dragon\u2019s Den\u2019s Touker Suleyman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Selfie Year<\/h2>\n

For Business and Management graduate Harley Mcleod, taking a Selfie Year was a major catalyst for the growth of his property development and rental business. Unlike a traditional\u00a0Year in Industry<\/a>\u00a0where a student spends 12 months on placement in an established business before their final year of study, the\u00a0Selfie Year<\/a>\u00a0provides a structured approach for students intent on developing their own business. For Harley, this gave him time to put the theory he\u2019d learned on his course into practice and access to monthly group meetings and one-to-one advice from the Entrepreneurs in Residence team.<\/p>\n

\"Harley<\/a>
Harley Mcleod completed a Selfie Year as part of his Business and Management degree which led his business to acquire over \u00a34.5 million in property by the end of 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exposure to real business challenges<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no better way to develop entrepreneurial skills than tackling real business challenges, so at Kent, students are encouraged to throw themselves in at the deep-end and do just that.\u00a0Innovation i-Teams<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Student Impact Challenges<\/a>\u00a0run by the\u00a0Careers and Employability Service<\/a>\u00a0give students the chance to use their skills and knowledge to help businesses be better at what they do. In return, they gain an insight into different sector challenges and mentoring from industry experts. So far, students have worked with the likes of Canterbury Cathedral, the Curzon cinema and local social enterprise, Lily\u2019s Social Kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The 8 week i-Teams programme sees students work in teams to come up with innovative solutions to business challenges faced by local businesses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A world of inspiration<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s widely known that the founders of Google met and launched their first website whilst at university. The world\u2019s largest express shipping company, FedX, was even inspired by an undergraduate economics class. University life is full of opportunities to meet new people and explore different needs and perspectives. Whether this comes from cutting-edge course content, an afternoon spent at the\u00a0university library<\/a>, or involvement in one of Kent\u2019s thriving\u00a0student societies<\/a>, entrepreneurs will find plenty of inspiration for their next business idea at Kent. Those looking to develop their ideas further can even access support from Kent\u2019s dedicated\u00a0ASPIRE team.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>
All Kent students have access to the Templeman Library which is home to thousands of digital and print resources.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A support network like no other<\/h2>\n

Becoming a Kent student means becoming part of a thriving community of ambitious students and alumni. It\u2019s in this unique environment that students learn not just from academics working at the cutting-edge of their fields, but from the experiences of their peers and the business leaders actively involved in the University\u2019s wider network. Students can connect with successful alumni through the\u00a0Kent Mentoring Scheme<\/a>\u00a0or garner business insight from one of the many\u00a0business talks<\/a>\u00a0hosted on campus throughout the year. The University has strong links with the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as hundreds of local businesses through initiatives such as the\u00a0Employability Points Scheme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Touker<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those who have always dreamed of starting their own business are not alone. In fact, according to the Start Up Angel Report 2024, 60% of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79181,"featured_media":22418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177066,124],"tags":[150214,872,130773,263930],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22419,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412\/revisions\/22419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}