Hi there! I have some exciting news! But before I blurt it all out, I’ll tell you a bit about how I got to this point.
Beginning of the year I attended an event held by The Prince’s Trust and Innovate UK, a government organisation, which runs all kinds of programmes supporting a variety of people with funding and mentorship. This year they launched the Young Innovator Award programme and the event I attended was an introduction to that. It was a day filled with activities to get to know the other young people in attendance, all eager to start their own businesses; talks about what innovation really means; and interviews with people who had successfully set up their own businesses. It was hugely inspiring!!
Towards the end of the day they explained to us about the new Young Innovator Award, which is awarded to 24 young people all over the UK, providing mentorship, a grant and an allowance for 6 months to help get those 24 innovative business ideas off the ground. The application process included a written part all about the business idea, and a short video explaining the idea visually in a little more detail.
I had not thought of my business idea as innovative before, but after the event I decided to apply anyway. What did I have to lose? And I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice for these kinds of applications. More than that, it really helped me to figure out my plan in more detail and to actually make some firm decisions. I spent a whole week on the application, mostly on the video part of it.
I roped in my parents to help me with the making of the video, as I was going to be in front of the camera standing next to the clothes I had made in University as samples, explaining my idea. My Dad filmed the whole thing on my phone, while my Mum was crouching beneath my Dad, holding up the prompt pages I had made, because I couldn’t remember three minutes worth of words. It was a funny sight, made even more hilarious by me accidentally making up weird concoctions of the words I couldn’t read and ending up in fits of laughter. It was a really fun process!
So I submitted my application, and to be honest from then on I pretty much forgot about it – uuuntil April. I had just gotten home from food shopping (glamorous, I know!) when I got an email from Innovate UK telling me that my application had been successful and I was one of the 24 young innovators.
I was so surprised and shocked I actually forgot to breathe for a moment. I just had not expected to win. Firstly, it’s very unlike me and secondly, I obviously didn’t know what other business ideas there had been, but I just hadn’t thought of mine as that innovative.
I had to get through quite a bit of paperwork after that. And yesterday Innovate UK held a media launch for all of us winners in London, where I finally met all the other winners in person, all of them super nice and interesting. And we got our certificates to make it all official. It was truly a great night, and I’m kind of sad that it’s over and I’m back home. But now the real adventure starts! I cannot wait to meet my mentor, get the funding, and to get going. Let’s see where it takes me…
Love,
