Students from North Hertfordshire College’s Peter Jones Enterprise Academy received an entrepreneurial master class from Entrepreneur in Residence Alyssa Smith, as well as Louis John the National PJEA Level 2 Entrepreneur of the Year 2010, and National Entrepreneur of the Year Finalists Ravinder Deol and Nick Bannister.
Alyssa explained to the students how she has grown her business through Twitter and used the market demand to influence her jewellery design rather than her personal preferences.
Louis John spoke to students about his website, What’s Good, a resource for young people to find out what’s going on in their area. Advising students not to worry about things that could go wrong but to just learn from the experiences instead.
Ravinder Deol teaches himself one new skill each month to apply to his business and considers time management to be extremely important, along with dressing smartly to enhance self-confidence.
Nick Bannister owns his own educational toy company with investors including Fintan Donohue and Peter Jones, Nick said that pitching to Peter Jones is the scariest thing he’s ever done.
Level 3 student Yazmyn Lucey explained: “We got to learn what it takes to be an Entrepreneur as well as how to deal with the highs and the lows.”
Gobind Singh added: “With hard work you can turn your entrepreneurial spark into a roaring fire.”