“Note to Future Self…”

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”– Vincent van Gogh Dear Future Self, About 8 months ago, you embarked on this entrepreneurial journey. The intellectual growth and unceasing lessons thus far are amazing. To my future self, I have had many experiences and ‘Aha’ moments that I am telling you…

Selling Experience (part 2) at a Trade Fair

I had an amazing experience of another trade fair. Unlike the previous fairs which were held at Kingston University, this was at Eden Walk shopping Centre, Kingston town outside the university. Because of the unfamiliar environment and access by the general public, this particular Fair was more nerve wrecking. The idea of holding the trade…

Sprint Weekend – part 2: The Value Proposition

This is a continuation of my ‘Aha’ moment and experience at the crush workshop discussed in the immediate past blog. The focus here is on another interesting concept I learnt; the value proposition.  Simply put, this is a statement which identifies clear, measurable and demonstrable benefits consumers get when buying a particular product or service.…

Sprint Weekend – part 1: The entrepreneurship Process

I was privileged to attend a crush workshop organized by Enterprise Kingston University London specifically for young entrepreneurs with impressive start up ideas. The course had several mentors and judges to help participants build their start up ideas in preparation for the ‘Bright Ideas’ competition. As a budding entrepreneur, I learned a number of things…

The selling process

A few weeks back in my Design thinking class I learned an interesting topic called the selling process that is vital for startups and business growth in general. Selling is an important skill that every entrepreneur needs to develop to satisfy customer requirements. Selling is the art of availing products and services to the target…

Selling Experience at a Trade fair

Many of us shudder at the idea of “selling” and often shy away when required to do so. It is the fear of approaching new territory, of being rejected by customers or elaborating more on a product or service that overwhelms us. On Thursday 23 January, my Design thinking class activity for the day was…

An experience of empathy mapping

Ever imagined you were visually impaired or unable to speak? How would you cope? For us to understand what people with physical challenges experience, we have to empathize with them. According to the Cambridge dictionary, empathy is the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be…

The Re-Design experience

My previous blog post on what entrepreneurs need to know about the design thinking process introduced the concept and the steps therein. In this blog, I will explain another distinct but related step i.e. redesign. A few weeks back in my class, we were tasked to redesign either a product or a service of our…

What entrepreneurs need to know about the Design thinking process

Many times, entrepreneurs come up with solutions to societal problems without the input of the ultimate users of the idea. They operate on the hope that the idea will work, which is fine until it does not. I am personally guilty of this. The time and energy spent on ideas which become a non-starter or…

Dragon’s Den

Imagine you were given an opportunity for only five minutes to present a business pitch before a panel of judges at Dragon’s Den, what would you say in such a short time…Nerve wrecking right? Dragon’s Den is a five minute opportunity given to budding entrepreneurs at Kingston University to pitch their business ideas to a…