Final dragon’s den

On twenty-seventh March, we had final dragon’s den to compete with all the young enterprise teams in Kingston university which is a nervous and exciting event to the MACErs. All the MACErs had kept practising for the final battle.

But, I got a serious headache on that day…

Yes, I dressed up a suit, but feeling really ill! (maybe it just showed how nervous I was… )

Afterwards, the dragon’s den began…

le petit sac was the forth team on that day. After hundreds of practices, we did good in the pitching. There are something we learned  from this. For example, we need to react appropriately when others challenge the product and some revises should be done in the future which are better stitching and making the clutch more easier to transform to a fancy bag. When the tough task finished… we feel so relaxed. 🙂

After the final DRAGON’S DEN, Kingston university picked ten teams to have another 2 minutes pitching to all the judges and other participants. And the MACErs got three tickets to attend the second round: HERO, Helping hand and… le petit sac! Of course we have prepared for the second round:

le petit sac in Kingston university

It was a fresh experience to had another really quick pitching in a short time. I think one task in this pitching is just to show our USP (unique selling point); the other one is… to make the audiences LAUGH 🙂 (it is usually my main job). One idea is enough to the audiences who already had a tiring day. In addition, presenting in a humorous way dose not mean you should like a joker. On the contrary,  you should looks serious and confident (I already tried my best and hope the outcome is good enough). By observing other teams, I found that as a young entrepreneur, flexibility in choosing your clothes and the style of presentation is crucial. For example, le petit sac is a luxurious brand. We dressed up with the red handkerchief to match our product (we apply red to all of the images in branding) as well as another team is selling the book for kids. Colourful wear and vivid pitching style is suitable to the product for children. Dressing formally is no longer the only option. 🙂

 

 

 

Heading to London!

Thursday 3 April 2014. Celebrate Enterprise

It is  an annual event in Kingston university to celebrate success and achievement in entrepreneurship and enterprise. Also, Best Young Enterprise Teams 2014 would be announced in this ceremony.

Ruby McGregor Smith, the CEO of  MITIE, shared her experiences and ideas with the new entrepreneurs for encouraging them to create new businesses. However, there was filled with nervous atmosphere in the ceremony (Or they felt dizzy). All the young entrepreneurs expected to know who the winner is…  

 

Finally… le petit sac MADE IT !!!

 

We won two awards:

• Best Young Enterprise Team 2014– lepetit shares this award with Bookworm. We are the two teams which will represent Kingston university to final Young Enterprise competition in May in Canary Wharf (on the other word, we won’t have the Easter holiday…).  
• Dragons Den £3,000 Seed Money 2014- It means we have money to develop our business, refine the product and expect to take back our investments ( It is really a big money for us).

I learn many skills during the process such as turning ideas into business, communications between team mates from different countries and making excellent presentation. There is no fashion designer in our team, owing to this, we make efforts on refining the smart clutch by communicating with the designers. It spent us a lot of time and money to find the appropriate supports especially in a foreign country. Secondary, we come from three different countries as well as endure the pressures from learning and life. In the process, we worked seriously, also, had serious arguments between us. But we dealt with them with a mature attitude. Moreover, Judy, the manager in le petit sac, she is a great presenter who shows me how to make persuasive and attractive pitching.

Now, we have new task-Heading to London for winning the final young enterprise award. It is stressful but exciting to see the best young entrepreneurs in the UK. We will have full supports from Kingston university. With their assistances and non-stop training, it is optimistic to have a great outcome!

GO! le petit sac 🙂

Bye-bye Easter holiday and keep working on… 🙂