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As an Aston alumni, I've had the fortune to see first-hand how fantastically the support is
that Aston provides for entrepreneurship and enterprise in general. Normally universities
with such employability rates just rest on their laurels
But Aston has a massive range of lots of different programmes.
My business is - I bake all my own cakes and
serve them out of my ambulance at events. The BSEEN programme has
benefited me really greatly. There are things that I hadn't even thought of
that I found out about just because I
joined the BSEEN programme. I can no longer say "I'm setting up a business" because now
the business has started and it is a really exciting time.
I'm the founder and CEO of Beat Freaks, which is a social enterprise engaging young people under 25
in arts, media, training and leadership opportunities.
BSEEN has been really beneficial in many ways. Having access to hot-desking space,
the start-up grants have been really useful, but actually just being in an environment around
aspiring entrepreneurs with a great enterprising attitude.
My company's called Oaken Place Records.
It's a one hundred percent charitable record label. Over the course of the next
month I release two albums
and came to a point where I needed not only financial support but also support
in terms of promoting the brand,
and applied with Unlimited, who helped me to find both.
The funding allowed me to pay for the first three records,
for all the production costs, and allowed me
to get access to a network as well as workshops which could help me to promote my label.
Unlimited's a fantastic organization for social entrepreneurs,
in terms of financial support to cover start-up costs
but also in terms of the network of people and the doors that it opens for you.
So I've created a company called Frumtious and we make fruit-based snacks which
only use natural ingredients.
I entered the Aston Enterprise competition a few months ago
and I managed to go through the pitching process, got to the final and
then I actually managed to win the competition which was incredible, and it gave me some market research, it gave me a
little bit of seed capital which really helped get my company off the ground.
I spent six weeks in Kenya and it was through a company called Balloon Kenya, who are a social enterprise.
I applied for the programme through Aston University - I had to have a couple of interviews
and in the end two people were offered to a £1000 sponsorship for it.
I think it's a great benefit that Aston can provide funding for you to
go to different countries and to experience how businesses operate over there.
Aston are champions of all things enterprise
and are really proactive in promoting opportunities to aspiring young entrepreneurs.
Most of this country's economy is coming from the small and medium companies which
are being developed from our generations of graduates, so it really is so important that people are encouraged
and empowered to know, feel and believe that they can create their own companies,
they can create their own wealth.