Henley Summer Start-Up Boot Camp

Henley Business School's Summer Start-Up Boot Camp 2024 Energises Aspiring Entrepreneurs

The Henley Enterprise Lab in collaboration with the Rebel Business School, successfully hosted an invigorating Summer Start-Up Boot Camp from June 17 to June 21, 2024.

The Boot Camp, sponsored by Westcoast, one of the UK's largest privately held companies and the leading distributor of ICT solutions, saw over 100 students and local entrepreneurs register to learn the sales focused approach to starting a business.

Innovative Approach to Entrepreneurship

The Boot Camp was designed to challenge traditional methods of business start-ups by emphasising the importance of making sales first and validating their value propositions. Participants were taught how to launch businesses with minimal resources, focusing on the essentials: a business idea, customer insight, passion, energy, commitment, and a laptop.

Inaugural Day Highlights

Jurek Sikorski, Director of the Henley Enterprise Lab, opened the Boot Camp, welcoming all participants and introducing the facilitators, Simon Paine, Co-founder of Rebel Business School, and Angela (Angie) Beeston, Rebel Lead Facilitator and coach. Angie led the first day, sharing five key strategies to bootstrap a business: getting things for free, borrowing, bartering, selling existing items, and selling before creating.

Niloofar Razavi, a past participant, inspired participants with her success story of starting a yoga therapy business saying:

"Participating in the Henley Start-up Boot Camp has been a transformative experience for me. I have had the chance of participating in the boot camp three times and each time, I have found the answer to the questions that I have had at that particular stage of my entrepreneurial journey. During this one-week long Boot Camp, I have learned the importance of identifying who my customer is and understanding the specific problems I aim to solve for them. One of the most impactful lessons has been realising that I could start a business with minimal to no initial investment, which allowed me to freely explore and test my ideas. Additionally, I have learned the importance networking for entrepreneurs. The Start-up Boot Camp has taught me that successful entrepreneurs are excellent at connecting with others to build their network and community. This boot camp has equipped me with practical insights and the confidence to pursue my entrepreneurial goals.”

Alex Tatham, Executive Director at Westcoast, also addressed the participants, encouraging them to be ambitious, agile, work fast, and have fun.

Alex commented:

“Henley Business School’s regular Entrepreneurs Boot Camp week is such a fine idea – fostering budding entrepreneurs by providing with knowledge, inspiration and collaboration. These values are very much aligned with that of the Thames Valley’s largest private company – Westcoast – and we are proud to have sponsored this fantastic week of training – effectively investing in Britain’s future,” commented Alex Tatham. “Henley is the leading Business School in our region and this boot camp is one of the many collaborations Westcoast has with education in the UK. I am delighted the week was such a success!”

Focus on Sales and Marketing

The second day, led by Simon Paine, concentrated on sales, emphasising its critical role for entrepreneurs. Simon highlighted various marketing methods such as cold calling, tradeshows, social media, networking, PR, and websites.

Participants engaged in practical exercises, including a networking session to determine how many customers do you need to be pleased. Simon stressed that "selling is not telling; it is asking," and highlighted the importance of building trust.

Website Development and Social Media Strategies

Day three, dubbed 'Website Wednesday,' focused on building a website for free. Simon demonstrated using Wix, a cloud-based website development tool, how to create an effective website, stressing that content is king and a ‘call to action’ facility is crucial.

On the fourth day, Angie led sessions on leveraging social media to engage customers. Participants showcased their newly created websites, which were met with admiration. Angie explained how platforms like TikTok could be used for making sales through TikTok Shopping and Ads and discussed ten strategies to increase visibility on social media.

Expert Advice and Closing Insights

The final day began with a panel of experts providing advice on commercial, employment, finance, IP, legal, and tax matters. Moderated by Jurek Sikorski, the panel included Ash Arif Partner at Clarkslegal LLP, David Brookes Regional Managing Partner at BDO, Neal Carey Relationship Manager, Thames Valley NatWest and David Askew Relationship Director Technology Team at the NatWest Group.

They each shared from their perspective and area of expertise three crucial considerations for entrepreneurs and emphasised the importance of professional advice.

Angie concluded the Boot Camp by discussing the '12 Rebel Principles,' which included moving outside comfort zones, building confidence, focusing on customer retention, and maintaining an urgent drive to succeed.

Participants' Enthusiastic Response

The Boot Camp closed on a high note, with participants feeling confident, energised, and excited to continue developing their business ideas. The innovative and practical approach of the Boot Camp was widely praised, leaving a lasting impact on all participants.

This is what participants had to say about the Boot Camp:

"Trust and it's what I neglected before. I simply focused on improving the product itself and treat each sale as a one-time thing. This workshop made me realized that build relationship and trust with the customer is also very important, and retain customers is cheaper than finding new ones."

"The most important thing in business is to actually take action. Thinking about the first thing that can be done to take the business from 0 to something."

"It is absolutely helpful for me. It provides this opportunity to cope up with fears and stress around how to make step 1. Now, I feel confident enough to start the steps and follow it up in a perfect way."

"‘What does success mean to you?’. This question made me feel inspired about my work. It made me realise that if I don’t work for my ideas change will never happen. This bootcamp gave me a new found confidence that even without money an idea can be launched."

"Learning that if you don’t ask you don’t get, you have to ask for the sale. There is a massive emphasis on building relationships with other business and customers and staying persistent."

Look out for the impact report on how participants benefited which will be published and available in a downloadable format here in July 2024.

Read the news release here.

Henley Summer Start-Up Boot Camp is delivered by the Rebel School.

Henley Summer Start-Up Boot Camp is generously sponsored by Westcoast.

Based in the Thames Valley, Westcoast partners with leading global tech brands to distribute IT products and solutions across the UK and Europe. Celebrating over 40 years of trading, we are delighted to support the Summer Start-Up Bootcamp again for 2024 and we look forward to supporting all the entrepreneurs as they progress through the course.