Budding entrepreneurs at Barnsley College hear from business start-up specialist

@BarnsleyCollege’s iTrust students who are setting up their own businesses, have had the chance to talk to Kevin Steel, Business Development Manager at Barnsley’s Business Village.

Kevin’s virtual workshop was packed with hints, tips and expert information as he discussed a range of topics from business collaboration, mass production and trademarks to unique selling points.

Each student presented their own business plan to Kevin and had the opportunity to receive one-to-one advice that was tailored to their chosen industry and position on the journey to business launch.

Kevin said: “I really enjoyed my digital meeting with the students from iTrust at Barnsley College. Listening to them present, with such passion, their fantastic ideas and the services that they’re looking to develop was exciting. It reinforced the fact that entrepreneurship in Barnsley is alive and kicking, despite the difficult circumstances we all currently find ourselves in.

“Being able to collaborate with them on their start-up businesses, and support them with introductions to relevant sectors in industry, is what being involved with The Business Village team is all about.”

Barnsley College’s iTrust programme is an entrepreneurial initiative which allows students who are interested in setting-up their own business, to receive a wealth of support. This includes access to an array of information and guidance such as mentoring from industry specialists and local businesses representatives. The programme also offers the opportunity to receive a £250 grant to be invested in each student’s business.

iTrust student, Megan Timms, attended Kevin’s virtual session and added: “The session with Kevin was really interesting and he gave lots of ideas on how to grow our businesses. He spoke to everyone individually about their plans and gave us specific things to work on which was really helpful. One thing I learnt was that word of mouth recommendations when growing a business are really important and are the perfect first step for getting your business out there.”