Twenty thousand young people are to split £200,000 today as part of a new enterprise competition.
Make Your Mark with a Tenner 2009 is to be funded by serial entrepreneur and BBC ‘Dragon’ Peter Jones, as well as Michael and Xochi Birch who recently sold Bebo to AOL for $850m, and NESTA. The annual competition was launched by entrepreneur Oli Barrett last year.
Twenty thousand young entrepreneurs will be given a £10 loan and challenged to see what profit and social impact they can achieve in one month.
Peter Jones said: “We’re aiming to show young people that by acting on an enterprising idea it is possible to both make money and make a difference. Quite rightly the next generation is becoming more and more interested in social and environmental issues and we should tap into this energy.”
Last year’s competition saw £93,000 of the original £100,000 loan fund returned and the highest profit on £10 was £410 – an impressive 4100% increase in a month. The average profit among the top 50 was £99.33 – a 993% increase.
Oli Barrett said: “When we first announced the idea, it was met with much scepticism. People couldn’t believe that we were handing out £10 notes to young people, and questioned their ability to be trusted with the money – never mind to make a profit and reinvest it.
“But, underestimate the younger generation at your peril. The largest profit was a massive 4100% and over half the young people gave money to a social or environmental cause. It’s fantastic to see the competition back, bigger and better than ever!”
The Make Your Mark with a Tenner competition will run during February 2009. For more information, go to: www.makeyourmark.org.uk/tenner.
© Crimson Business Ltd, 2008
