Enterprising students bring home the trophies

Two groups of Business and Public Relations students are celebrating following their success at this year’s Young Enterprise Regional Start-up Final.

The two student companies – Inca and Ad’nitiative – were created in September 2014 through the Graduate Enterprise module led by Liverpool Business School academic Chris Taylor and run in partnership with the national charity Young Enterprise and supported by LJMU’s Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Inca specialises in the sale of artisan produced, luxury hot chocolate drinks and Ad’nitiative delivers innovative publicity campaigns through coffee sleeve advertising.

The students underwent a rigorous judging process which required them to showcase their business through a trade stand, take questions from a panel of senior members of the North West business community (DWF LLP, Barclays Technology Centre Radbroke, Home Bargains, Gourmet Society, O2, Downtown Manchester in Business, NW UKTI and John Lewis). They also presented to a 200 plus audience. Despite fierce competition from 13 other student businesses from seven other North West universities, Inca won two awards – Company of the Year and UKTI Export Award and Ad’nitiative took home the award for Best Presentation.

Inca is one of two companies to go forward from the event to represent the North West in Manchester in May.

Jen Barry, from Inca commented:

"We are very grateful to Young Enterprise for the opportunity to showcase our passion, Inca, at the regional final. The competition was extremely tough and we feel that our hard work and determination over the last few months really paid off. We are now looking forward to the national final in May. In the meantime, you will be able to find us at events around the North West - keep an eye out for us on Twitter @Incadrinks to find out where."

Sydney Keighrey from Ad’nitiative added:

"It was a busy but very exciting day from the beginning! It was fantastic to see just how many great business ideas there were, just within the North West. We had a fantastic day and were absolutely overwhelmed with our award for best presentation. I think our audience participation and a dash of humour were the key to our success. It taught us a lot about business that we'll certainly take with us for the future. A massive thank you to all the mentors who helped us get to the regionals and make our business what it is today, we couldn't have done it without them!"

Chris Taylor, Module Leader for Graduate Enterprise:

"This year’s competition was very tough, so the fact that we came away with three awards and overall winners is fantastic. This is the fourth year in a row that the Business School will be represented in the National Finals and this is a testament to the hard work of the module team and all the students involved. Both Inca and Ad’nitiative must be commended for the professional way they represented both their businesses and LJMU."

LJMU Students interested in starting their own business can receive free support and guidance from LJMU’s Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Pictured top (left to right): Inca's Irsah Shah, Alicia Howard, Jen Barry, Rachael May, Shannon Jacobs and Rebecca Edmond receive their Company of the Year award from Tim Scott, DWF LLP)

Pictured above (left to right): Ad’nitiative's Marta Jankiewicz, Rachel Evans, Sydney Keighrey, Elaine Brasier and Hannah Pearson receive their Best Presentation award from Andy Shaw, The Gourmet Society