TITLE RACE ON FOR THE UK’S YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR
The coveted Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which recognises and celebrates the achievements of the UK’s finest young entrepreneurs, is now open for entries.
The award, run by one of the UK’s longest running youth enterprise schemes, offers budding entrepreneurs aged 16-30 the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and receive a cash injection of £10,000. Previous winners include successful entrepreneurs such as James Murray-Wells from Glasses Direct, Stewart Graham from the Gael Force Group, Lucy Cohen from Mazuma Money and James Watt from Brewdog.
Shell LiveWIRE has seen an upsurge of almost 20% in sign-ups to its 98,000-strong international online community since its re-launch in January, demonstrating a continuing appetite for entrepreneurialism amongst Britain’s innovative young community in spite of the current climate. In a recent poll of the Shell
LiveWIRE community, 90% of respondents said they feel confident about making their business a success in spite of the recession whilst almost a third (30%) say the recession has made them more determined than ever to succeed.
Jamie Murray Wells, the 2005 winner of the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, founded Glasses Direct from his parents’ living room in 2004 using the last installment of his student loan. The business, which sells cut-price prescription glasses over the internet, now has a multi-million pound turnover and sells a pair of glasses every three minutes all over the world.
James Smith, Shell UK Chairman, said: “It’s great to see that Britain’s young entrepreneurial community is not being put off by the recession and there is still a hunger to start up businesses. An external vote of confidence can make all the difference when you are trying to get a business off the ground. We hope the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award will provide a welcome boost to aspiring young entrepreneurs.”
Shell LiveWIRE supports young entrepreneurs with two award schemes and online resources for business start-ups. The enterprise scheme hosts a business networking community at www.shell-livewire.org with 84,000 members in the UK alone, enabling the best business brains from every corner of the nation to share ideas, insights and inspiration with fellow entrepreneurs who understand the challenges they are facing.
The programme has helped thousands of young people since it began in 1982. In January of this year it introduced the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards, up to five monthly awards of £1,000 for 16-30 year olds with innovative projects to launch their businesses.
The deadline for applications is 11th September 2009.
To qualify for entry, applicants must be aged 16-30 and have been trading not less than three months and not more than 18 months on 11th September 2009. To find out more or enter the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, visit www.shell-livewire.org
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