January 20, 2009
Young visionaries with an eye for e-commerce win top awards
Five young entrepreneurs were recognised for their vision and e-commerce skills last night at the BT Scotland Young Entrepreneurs Awards in Glasgow.
Organised by the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT), the BT Scotland Young Entrepreneurs Awards recognise and reward the ‘Most Visionary’ Business, ‘Best Website’, ‘Best E-Commerce’ led business and ‘Most Environmentally Responsible Business’ from the group of recipients who benefited from the BT Scotland Young Entrepreneurs scheme during the year.
This year, a Scottish food enthusiast and founder of The Foodie Company Ltd scooped the Most Visionary Business award and a £1,000 cash prize. Peter McLean, 25, from Edinburgh launched his business in 2007, spotting a gap in the market for a modern, contemporary version of the Scottish hamper. In the lead up to Christmas, sales of his striking, luxurious black food boxes, which are filled with top quality Scottish produce, and include gourmet themed offerings such as dinner party boxes, tea boxes and sweet tooth treats, increased by 400 percent. Website enquiries [www.foodieboxes.co.uk] came in from all over the UK as well as some from Europe.
McLean is currently awaiting licences to fulfil enquiries from the US and Canada and is also expanding the business this year with the launch of Foodie Gadgets, selling coffee machines, pizza slicers and other kitchen essentials.
In the last eight years, BT Scotland has invested more than £300,000 in the Young Entrepreneurs programme, helping around 150 young people to start-up in businesses. The funding programme encourages PSYBT-backed business start-ups to embrace electronic means of doing business and use the internet to deliver new markets, with support through grants and loans.
Edinburgh-based psychology PhD student Alexa Ispas, 25, originally from Romania, received the award and a cash prize of £750 for Best Ecommerce Business. Having been involved in several research projects at universities in Australia, Wales and Scotland Alexa Ispas was acutely aware of the difficulties early career researchers face when looking for research vacancies and like-minded individuals to share their research ideas with. That’s why in April 2007 she launched Research is Cool, a global recruitment and social networking website for academics and researchers who are looking for career moves and information on postgraduate courses. It’s also a forum for exchanging ideas and information with people who have a keen interest in research.
With a number of awards already under her belt including 1st Prize in the Scottish Institute for Enterprise competition, Ispas has aspirations to make Research is Cool [www.researchiscool.com] the academic equivalent of Facebook, and globally recognized as the number one website for everything related to research.
Winner of the Best Website and £750 cash prize was Lynn McEwan, 26, who started her own jewellery brand, Sparklyn, last year. From her home in Torrance, Glasgow, Lynn McEwan designs bracelets, rings, necklaces and bag charms which she sells through her website [www.sparklyn.co.uk], and at local retail events and children’s birthday parties. Having come from an administration background with no prior experience in jewellery making, Lynn’s sparkling designs are proving very popular and with increased marketing investment planned for the forthcoming year, Lynn is looking forward to building on her early successes.
Ryan Carlton and Lynne Foster, founders of PoLR in Glasgow were awarded Most Environmentally Responsible Business and a £750 cash prize. PoLR is a creative agency based in Glasgow’s Merchant City specialising in web design, e-commerce and search engine optimisation. Since July last year, all of PoLR's clients have benefited from a 100% carbon neutral hosting provider which supports tree planting in Ransomwood Business Park in Nottinghamshire to offset carbon emissions. PoLR staff also blog about environmental issues in an effort to encourage others to do the same and raise awareness. In addition, the agency runs a paperless office, energy saving policies and recycling schemes.
Alan Bonas, head of communications, BT Scotland, said: “When we launched these awards in 2000 e-commerce was very much in its infancy. Today, it is an essential part of our everyday communications and yet our young entrepreneurs continue to find new and imaginative ways to exploit and develop applications for their own audiences.”
Mark Strudwick, chief executive of PSYBT, added: “The popularity of e-commerce has also presented a fantastic opportunity for young entrepreneurs to not only get their feet on the self employment ladder but also build successful businesses as a result.”
