This blog post is by Amy Barker, Founder of Director of Monks & Co Clothing. Amy is a Start Up Loans recipient and was their loan recipient of the month.
On day 1 after an explore around Athens, we arrive at Technopolis to kick start the summit. A huge highlight for me was Nathaniel Peat presenting on Social Enterprise. He explained his journey, what inspired him and briefly how he achieved what he has. I felt motivated by his story and ready to implement some of my higher aspirations that once appeared slightly intimidating. ’Entrepreneurs breed entrepreneurs’ and I couldn’t agree more. I always wanted to start a business but after an acquaintance had just ‘done it’, I decided with all the help and support currently available for young entrepreneurs with the Start Up Loans scheme there has never been a better time. The process was so easy in my application from start to finish and since starting my business I am aware of another young entrepreneur I have motivated to also just ‘do it’ and start their own business. Now we have been open 8 months it’s great to hear from other businesses at events like this, how they scaled up and achieved everything they have.
After the presentation we have a networking event over some food and drink. It was great to mingle with other businesses from so many different backgrounds in a more relaxed environment. My aim of the summit was to try and make some contacts that would help me grow my business by manufacturing my own brand of products, in particular high quality shirts and blazers. Conveniently I found myself speaking with a manufacturer from Egypt specialising in Egyptian cotton. As this is a new field for me I require his expertise on the manufacturing process, RRP and general guidance in the manufacturing industry. He is looking to open a shop in the UK selling Egyptian cotton bed sheets and home accessorise. Being based in Cairo without a presence in the UK means negotiation leases and finding shop units is increasingly difficult for him. Therefore we have found a mutually beneficial relationship and we have exchanged details and discussed having a meeting at his factory in September.
Since being back I’ve booked in a meeting with my business mentor, as I have so many ideas now I am looking forward to focussing them!
Day 2 started in an amazing venue called the Orange Grove, a flexible work space for young entrepreneurs to utilise. We had more discussions on a sustainable entrepreneurship future between Europe and the world and how to develop the ecosystem. However a true highlight for me was ‘what actually drives a teenage entrepreneur’ by Netherlands based Bastiaan Zwanenburg. Having a Fashion Tech company myself I was intrigued how this award-winning 17 year old set up an ecommerce site selling sunglasses. Having set up his company only 18 months ago his story was unbelievable. With over 1 million website views, over 10,000 Facebook likes and an amazing profit I was fascinated with how he had achieved so much. With the basic principles of business, buying cheap and selling with a great profit margin, they had a great website to support them and focussed on social and digital advertising where they knew there market would be.
I am totally inspired by Bastiaan’s business and afterwards went to introduce myself. We had a great conversation where we shared experiences and he took a look on our website and gave me some tips to drive more traffic to the site. We have since exchanged details and he has offered to provide me with some advice on growing our social presence.
The day ended with a networking event at the Dutch Ambassador’s residence which was an incredible experience. I spoke with somebody from the European Commission who was intrigued to hear my story and how I found setting up a business.
