The Prince's Trust

After conceiving the idea of starting my own business in 2020, I had recently moved back from abroad and I decided to research any funding programmes for young people.

I came across a charity in the U.K. called The Prince's Trust. You may already know it based on the fact that King Charles is known for his long-standing support and generosity towards this charity.

The Prince's Trust seek to find ways for 11-30 year olds to learn more about entrepreneurship, business, career advice and provide direct connections to apprenticeships with companies such as HSBC and the NHS. 

What happened in January 2021

I registered my interest on the website for a programme called the 'Young Enterprise Scheme' where I had to fill out a form and explain my business idea.

I was then contacted within 2-3 days by a representative who explained that there were several free workshops coming up and whether I wanted to join them. 

As I was working for myself teaching English online, I was able to join the 5-day workshop which was about 3-4 hours from Monday to Thursday in the morning until the afternoon. 

What did the workshop include and who was it for?

The workshop is for young people aged 18-30 who are anywhere between either having an idea for their business or already trading in their business.

The 4 day workshop was hosted by the team at The Prince's Trust on Microsoft Teams with around 80 other young people on the call who were based near me in Surrey, London and Essex. 

The workshop was interactive with the ability to come onto the microphone to ask questions, (no pressure to turn your camera on) and type your questions in the chat. 

There was an itinerary each day centred upon different topics such as whether you shoud be a sole trader or open a private limited company, accounting and finances, Marketing - and the best part, was that each day included a live session with an industry professional. 

I was over the moon that we had a C-Suite level Executive from Microsoft spend an hour with us explaining how important your 'elevator' pitch is. 

I decided to put myself forward for this and pitch it to her; and her feedback was that my pitch was great because it included a part of my personal journey (which was that the business was born years of experience battling with anxiety').

After the workshop, I was then provided with bi-weekly meetings with my supervisor where I was required to fill out sections as homework for my business plan. 

Creating a business plan is important because it forces you to understand the foundations of starting your own business such as:

• Evaluating your current and expected expenses
• Understanding a profit and loss sheet
• Market research of your industry; what is it worth etc
• Competitor research; who are your competitors
• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
• Marketing Plan: where will you invest your Marketing budget?
• Identifying what you will do if it doesn't work out

After about 3 months, I then had the privilege of having monthly meetings on MS teams with a business mentor. I was assigned a gentleman who had over 20 years' experience working for some of the biggest Marketing brands in the FMCG (Fast-moving consumer goods) industry.

My meetings with my mentor explored how I wanted to sell my business and the importance of the story connected to the business. We also looked at the product range I was starting with and how I would market and name each design. 

I had heard there were a lot of free online workshops for young people to support them during the pandemic and after a really stressful year with my mental health and Marketing work, this level of support and hope was more than I could have asked for.

There were up to 5 free workshops each month with people in the Fashion, Art, Business industry - and there was never any requirement to pay or contractually commit. 

I was about 80% finished with my business plan when I was trying to juggle my sessions with my supervisor in a new job. 

It became clear that it was going to be difficult to do both to the same capacity so after one year of being on the programme I had to request to pull out because of my new full-time job. 

My supervisor was really supportive and although he was gutted (as was I), he was really understanding and I have not stopped singing their praises since. 

Why do you work on a business plan?

Alongisde the knowledge and understanding of what is required to get your business off the ground, a solid and thorough business plan is required if you were to ask for support from the bank for a business loan.

Not everyone may want to or need to take a business loan from the bank, but the aim is that after one year, you will be ready to present your business idea to a panel of judges who are able to evaluate whether your business is viable, and therefore if the training from the Prince's Trust has supported the individual.

In around about month 4-5, they provide a small grant for you to use in your Marketing plan where you have a phase called 'test trading'. This allows you to test the business and then analyse the sales and results with your supervisor so that you can tweak anything that needs changing.

I would like to make a shout out to Stuart Taylor who was my supervisor from The Prince's Trust, who was hugely kind, supportive and made me laugh at times from his digital nomad life working from somewhere like the Caribbean one point - and I was of course super jealous!

If either you or someone you know would benefit from The Prince's Trust, please feel free to visit their website and find out more information.