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New entrepreneurs find American inspiration

England's newest entrepreneurs from the most deprived areas have been given a competitive edge by learning 'the American Way' of starting and running a new business.

Twenty scholars from across England were given the opportunity to expand their skills and try out their business plans with a trip to Babson College in the US, one of the world's foremost colleges for budding entrepreneurs. More than twice as many Europeans than Americans give up on their efforts to start a business. A survey by the European Commission showed that 46% of Europeans agreed that "one should not start a business when there was a risk it might fail" against only 25% of US citizens.

A series of initiatives to help address this entrepreneurial gap, including the New Entrepreneur Transatlantic Scholarship (NETS UK), was announced in March by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. As part of the New Entrepreneur Scholarships (NES) programme, twenty scholars travelled to America at the end of June to experience business training and meet American entrepreneurs in related fields. The scheme is aimed at enabling British entrepreneurs to learn from the American's very different approach to setting up and running a new business.

The programme is part of a series of Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded initiatives, including its introduction of enterprise agents to schools, to help encourage the UK to become more entrepreneurial and more competitive. NETS UK sets out to remove the cultural obstacles to expanding entrepreneurship in the UK and learn from the Americans attitude and experience. It also provides an exciting opportunity for scholars from deprived areas, who traditionally might not have either the financial resources or the support network, to promote entrepreneurial ideas.

An intensive two-week programme was developed at Babson College specifically for the UK students. Once there they had the opportunity to really develop their business ideas and plans in conjunction with experts in the field, and needed to convince tutors that their ideas were viable. Successful entrepreneurs in similar areas were also invited into the college and students were able to shadow these people and learn from their experience. At the end of the two-weeks each student had to present their business to a panel and received critical feedback.

The 20 people were chosen following a rigorous selection weekend, which looked at their plans and their interaction with colleagues. A representative from Babson college was present and helped to decide who would benefit most from going to the US.

Jonathan Slack, Chief Executive of the Association of Business Schools, one of the NES partners, welcomes the development of NETS UK. "This has been an excellent opportunity for scholars to get valuable extra help and experience from UK and US business schools which should ensure even greater success in their new businesses in future."

Evelyn Lager, Programme & Business Development Manager at Babson said: "We were very excited to host the NETS UK scholars at Babson College. The programme provided opportunities for mutual learning and long lasting relationships between the scholars from the UK and entrepreneurs from the greater Boston area. Our visitors gained practical skills through the two-week programme, and also learned from fellow entrepreneurs who have overcome hurdles in the challenging task of becoming self employed."

Now back in the UK, the scholars are beginning to put their experience to good use. Jeweller Harriet Bedford was encouraged to think carefully about her business. "There are several changes that I am making to my business, including a guerrilla marketing campaign and use of a distribution network. The fortnight also made me think bigger. Before I could only really envisage having a business that would pay my rent and keep me going; now I can see it as something that will give proper jobs to people and the potential to trade internationally."

Jawad Rizvi runs Vision Emigration a consultancy, which helps those who want to move to America and Canada. "The most important thing that I learned was that entrepreneurship is a subject that has rules and can be learned, just like any other subject such as accountancy, law and IT. This has instilled in me the fact that if you do the right things at the right time you can succeed in business. I realised that running a successful business is not a hit or miss affair and nor is it something that is totally governed by good fortune or flukes"

George Derbyshire, Chief Executive of NES lead partner the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies said: "This opportunity was enormously exciting for the scholars, some of whom come from difficult backgrounds. We will be carefully monitoring the progress that the scholars make to build on their experience for future years."

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