Filed under: Journalism, News comment | Tags: Bright Ideas Trust, Business, Economy, Hackney, Hackney Post, The Apprentice, Tim Campbell
Tim Campbell won The Apprentice in 2005
It’s that time of year again; I am getting swept up in the fever surrounding The Apprentice.
I sat down to watch the new series on Wednesday night and it lived up to expectations. There were already arguments and bitchy comments being thrown around. I am not usually a fan of reality TV but something about the show has me hooked.
So I was rather excited when I got to speak to Tim Campbell- first winner of a place in Sir Alan Sugar’s company- as part of my role as business editor of The Hackney Post this week.
I spoke to him about The Bright Ideas Trust, a company he has set up to help young entrepreneurs. The scheme is working in partnership with Hackney council to encourage business-minded people to start their own companies.
Tim and two of his colleagues assured me that now is a good time to set up a business.
This defies all my instincts about setting up a business during a recession but I could see their point. There are opportunities out there because there are gaps in the market left by businesses closing.
Consumers are wary of spending, before they may have stretched their budgets, but now they are cutting back. New businesses can offer quality services for cheaper prices than their more established rivals. And as Tim said, if they can make it through the recession things will seem a lot easier afterwards.
In other Hackney Post business news, jobseekers are now looking to other, perhaps more unusual fields to find work. The BBC reported last night that McDonalds is opening up new job opportunities for the long-term unemployed.
This trend is being echoed in the borough and it reflects what some people have been saying for a while; that there are jobs out there but people need to expand their searches.
Perhaps this is the difference between those who succeed in business and those who don’t. People with the drive to do well able to see beyond what is in front of them and- to use the cliché – think outside the box. And this is probably what Sir Alan will be looking for from his next apprentice.
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There is no box.
I have usually found that the very people who encourage others to think outside the box are the ones who created them.
@teenbizcoach
Comment by Shonika Proctor, TeenBizCoach March 29, 2009 @ 2:40 pm