Pete Jenkins is the Business School's Entrepreneur-in-Residence. He runs workshops and seminars offering students an insider's guide to running a small business.
Pete says: "It's great to help students develop business plans and watch their business ideas unfold. I come away from workshops with lots of energy and excitement."
"It's not unusual for me to bump into former students who are running their own businesses. It's really satisfying to think that I might have helped turn their ideas into reality."
As well as lecturing part-time, Pete runs his own business software consultancy,
e-Advantage Solutions Ltd. Working with professionals from lots of different sectors helps him stay on top of the latest industry trends.
"Some of the most useful advice I can offer is what not to do. Over the 12 years I've been in business I've made my fair share of mistakes, but have learnt from them and they provide useful examples of real life pitfalls." says Pete.
"Last year I recruited a Brighton student to work with me as an intern for 6 months. They helped with my blog, email marketing and case studies. It was a great experience for both of us and hopefully it will help her differentiate herself in the job market. I've recruited another intern from the business school this year."
We asked Pete to share 5 tips for students thinking of starting their own business.
- Do something that interests you: The most important thing of all is to do something you are passionate about, if you don't have a passion for your business then how can you expect others to? If you have a true belief in what you are offering your customers it's a lot easier to pass this on to them and really be successful.
- Do your research: It's all very well setting up a business that really interests you, but if no one will buy what you're selling, it's only going to get you into difficulties.
- Make a plan: Work out exactly what you want to achieve and how you're going to achieve it. It's important to note you must be realistic; by setting unrealistic targets it will make the plan useless.
- Ensure you have enough funding: Making sure you have enough money is vital. If you are short of cash there are all sorts of funding available to start-ups; banks, business angels and even The Princes Trust are all ways of sourcing some extra capital to name just a few. There is an array of schemes out there to help finance start-ups so be sure to take a look into what's available for you!
- Don't be scared to seek advice: There are various ways of getting help, a lot of them free, so it's stupid not to take advantage of this. Beepurple is a prime example of this; it is the university's entrepreneurship network, made up of students, graduates and staff who are interested in developing their enterprise skills and/or their business idea.
