Enternships

The fact that Twitter can be an incredible marketing tool is well-documented, but it is useful to have some guidelines when trying to use it effectively. I came across an article for recruiters looking to harness the power of Twitter – the advice was pretty compelling, albeit simple…but then the best advice always is!

1.    Create a profile that matches your company’s overall brand.  Treat twitter as an extension of your company’s website and image.

2.    Designate a “Twitter person” or set aside time to “tweet.”  This can be time-consuming so make sure you create defined actions for the time you’re spending on Twitter. Twitter can be a highly addictive time-waster so proceed with caution.

3.    Decide how you want to use Twitter. You don’t need to use Twitter for just one purpose you can definitely use Twitter for multiple purposes.  Just make sure you define why you’re tweeting and try to remain focused on those goals.

4.    Follow others.  Remember, Twitter is still a social network, so you want to follow as well as be followed on Twitter. To find those who might be most appropriate for you to follow use www.search.twitter.com.  You can enter appropriate keywords to find others who are tweeting using the same keywords.  For example: If you want to find people talking about “intellectual property,” search twitter using the keywords “intellectual property” and any other words related to the subject.

5.    Tweet often; but never spam.  You want to tweet at least once a day; but only tweet about things that will interest your followers and never overdo it.

Enternships has finally launched its public beta website. Thanks to all those who took part in our private beta testing – your feedback was invaluable and you will have already noticed the changes we’ve implemented as a result of your input!

We’re still very keen to hear from you – any thoughts/suggestions about how we can improve the site would be great.

If you know companies looking to recruit entrepreneurial interns / full-time candidates please do help spread the word!

Came across another great blog post entitled “The 5 Things I’d Tell My 21 Year Old Entrepreneurial Self” In the post, John Bischke shares some of his thoughts looking back on his 12 years in entrepreneurship and what he’d tell himself if he were 21 again.

What struck me was point #3 – “surround yourself by people who expect you to succeed in a big way”. Reflecting on my personal experience of starting up in entrepreneurship the support of my friends and family has been critical. Yes, entrepreneurs need strong self-belief but you should ensure that you surround yourself with aspirational peers – other entrepreneurs or business people who you aspire to be or admire.

Having a supportive family helps so much. My father in fact always says to me “it’s what you achieve at the end of the day which is what matters.” This has a profound effect on me in two ways; firstly if I do achieve something (however big/small) it spurs me to go further and continue my quest to achieve greater things. Secondly if things aren’t going so well you are reminded that you’re still relatively young (I’m 23) and just starting out; as entrepreneurs we have a tendancy to be impatient but in the grand scheme of things I am at the start of a long journey, with the “end” pretty far away!

It is important that you have people around you to remind you of these things as the entrepreneurial journey can often be lonely and daunting. The main thing is not to give up, be comfortable with uncertainty and embrace opportunity, knowing that what will happen will probably be for your best!

I was reading the latest edition of Make Your Mark’s “Enterprise Insights” – a great newsletter which highlights the “pick of the policy news”. In it I came across the Federation of Small Businesses’ submission to the Budget 2009 which called for an “Enterprise Allowance Scheme” which would enable “people who have become unemployed to start their own businesses.”

It cites a similar scheme in the late 1980s in which “over 190,000 unemployed people created their own enterprises.” This is a staggering statistic and in my view something the UK desperately needs. In fact such a scheme should also be offered to the graduates entering the job market with very few prospects.

As a graduate entrepreneur with little/no savings it is definitely hard to start-up on your own without some financial backing. A modest bursary even to cover travel costs/living costs could go a long way to encourage people to consider starting up their own businesses. Travel to meetings alone costs on average £15-£18 a day for me, which is a barrier for many people looking to start-up – especially those with student loans and no other forms of income.

The government need to be more creative in their ways of nurturing nascent entrepreneurs and unfortunately the Budget announced yesterday simply has not come up to the mark.  I am still hopefully though (not much else you can do really?!)

Andy McLoughlin (aka @bandrew) delivered an awesome presentation at TechCrunch’s Geek’n'Rolla conference on Tuesday in which he shared his pearls of wisdom on growing the team at Huddle.

Huddle grew from a team of 5 in 2007 to 30 in the space of one year. Managing the growth of your team and hiring the right people is a challenge for all start-ups so I highly recommend you check out his presentation here. You can also read the TechCrunch write up about his presentation.

We were particularly pleased by Slide 14 where Enternships.com gets a mention – thanks Andy

On that note keep an eye out for a range of exciting enternship opportunities at Huddle  for this Summer to be announced soon!

I came across an article this week-end in the Sunday Times talking about high-flyers who are keen to ditch the rat race and do something honourable instead – namely work for charities. It got me thinking about the students and graduates deciding what they want to do next and who are equally keen to avoid simply join the rat race and hurtle towards their mid-life crisis within the confines of corporate, but by the same token want to experience the world of business rather than joining a charity. Achieving that well-worn cliche ‘doing well by doing good’.

The success of sites such as UnLtd World has proven that there is a huge growth in this sector of Entrepreneurship. Even academia recognised the need for a focus on social enterprise as evidenced by the Oxford Said Business School’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Since 2003 it has produced entrepreneurs and businesses whose aim has been to change the world through business, including an Enternships subscriber African Enterprise Partners.

I can’t help looking through and beyond the negative news surrounding recruitment and career prospects. For the first time, if not in history, then certainly in a very very long time, when it comes to jobs people will be thinking deeper and setting their sights wider. This may mean the prospect of hundreds, or even thousands, of creative and talented minds joining businesses set up to make the world a better place, not just by giving but by exploiting commercially-oriented opportunities that directly benefit those who need it most.

Thanks to @OliBarrett for drawing my attention to this great blog post via Twitter. It outlines 100 attributes of people who start companies and  I thought that i’d comment on a few which have been particularly helpful / resonate with me:

# 3. Get comfortable asking for advice and help: it’s one of those things where if you don’t ask you won’t get. When you’re starting out and are young you’ll be surprised to see how many people are willing to help you out and give you some advice. The key is not to be afraid to approach people to ask for help – this is common place in the USA but I sense that British entrepreneurs sometimes hold back a bit!

# 9. Know what you are good at:identifying your strengths and weaknesses early on is crucial and then augmenting your team with the skills you lack is critical if you’re going to build a successful venture.

# 19. Is work fun for you? Work most of the time doesn’t feel like ‘work’ to me in the traditional sense as ultimately I do enjoy what I do. To some it may appear I don’t actually ‘work’ at all but that’s their personal opinion

# 93. Screw security: I think the majority of us are conditioned to seek security by knowing what lies ahead and thus settle for a secure and comfortable job with standard hours and regular income. What is interesting is that in the current economic climate there is no such thing as security; entrepreneurs have to be used to this anyway so what better time to embrace entrepreneurship than now? This is especially the case for recent graduates or those just entering the job market – with little commitments/overheads take this opportunity to start-up something new!

I do recommend you check out the full list – it’s a great read!