Enterprise Week

Enterprise week was very successful and I managed to attend four events as well as entering the apprentice challenge.  The event I will be evaluating is ‘Ella’s Kitchen’. Ella’s Kitchen was held in the old board room and was two hours long.  The gentleman presenting was the founder of Ella’s Kitchen and he was very interesting to watch as he was so enthusiastic about his product, baby or children’s food which has a target audience of both the child and the parent. Ella’s Kitchen was rather intimate and Paul Lindley was very inspiring as he had given up a well-paid job and re-mortgaged his house to begin his journey to achieve Ella’s Kitchen.  He was extremely passionate about the products he sells and described how to get to where he is now took many long nights experimenting with different fruits and vegetables to produce the unique products he sells today.  His presentation skills were also fantastic as the whole presentation consisted of pictures, logos and symbols which made you concentrate on him and what he had to say.

The event taught me that you have to work extremely hard to achieve your goal but if you truly believe in your business idea or goal once you reach it the satisfaction will be incredible.  I feel Ella’s Kitchen was the most successful of the four events as the presentation was very entertaining and interesting.  Ella’s kitchen left me not wanting to leave the room even once the presentation was finished. Paul Lindley truly believed in his product as it helped his children lead a healthier life as well as others out there, he gained his idea from his own experiences of being a parent and developed his product around these.   He explained his journey of starting his own business and made it relevant to his audience for example talking about the recession and explaining that many successful businesses started in a recession:  Burger King, Disney, Microsoft, IBM.  He also used the quote ‘Starting any small business during a recession is a baptism by fire, but if you can survive, you will thrive as the economy recovers.’  This really shows that those who want to start a business should not be disheartened or hindered by the recession. I feel Ella’s kitchen could not have gone any better as he delivered an outstanding presentation, took the time to answer questions and then afterwards talked to individuals and was interested in their experiences and ambitions.

The presentation made me want to start my own small business about something I am really passionate about.  I am very fond of animals and it got me thinking about starting a small petting farm, as long as I found a unique selling point and really worked hard then it could be successful even in a recession.  The Ella’s Kitchen presentation was really inspiring and started making set high ambitions as Paul is an ideal example that anything you set your heart on is possible.