How I started my own business – Too Good to Go

This week, Chris, a MSc International Business grad tells us how he founded Too Good to Go, a social enterprise dedicated to reducing food waste. Read on to find out about his journey and get some useful advice on starting your own business.

About the business:

Too Good To Go is an environmental social enterprise dedicated to reducing food waste. Through our mobile app, users can purchase food from restaurants, cafes, bakeries and other stores that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of the day for massively discounted prices.

As of March 2017, we’re active in six European countries: UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. Together we’ve amassed over one million users and diverted over 400,000 meals from landfill – all in the space of 18 months. It’s been a rollercoaster of a journey, and one that’s well worth sharing!

How I started my own business – EmTalks

This week, Broadcast Journalism grad Em Sheldon talks about how she turned her blog into a business and gives some great tips for students who want to get into blogging.

About my business:

I started Emtalks in 2012 as a way to get onto my University course, never in my wildest dreams did I expect for it to turn into my full time job. I called the admissions tutor at the University of Leeds two days before UCAS application and asked what I can do to get onto the course. He told me to start a blog. I started one and didn’t think anything of it, until I realised I was so passionate about blogging. After ten months I won Cosmopolitan’s best newcomer award, it was this moment when I realised this could be a business. I rebranded and focused on my quality. It’s only now, years on that I’m truly happy with my content, it was difficult to juggle University and blogging so I often found myself sacrificing my quality. Since then, I’ve gone on to collaborating with brands such as Clinique, asos, adidas, Nike, L’Oreal and many more. I recently won InStyle magazine’s top lifestyle blogger award. 

How I started my own business – Abigail and Chloe from Buttercrumble

Graphic and Communication Design grads Abigail and Chloe talk about how they set up their own design business, Buttercrumble. They talk us through their entrepreneurial journey and the help and support for their business they got at Spark. If you are interested in start up don’t forget to check the blog regularly for contributions from other Spark businesses.

Our Business:

We are Abigail and Chloe, a design duo, who are also known as Buttercrumble. We are passionate about collaborating with other creative people who believe in the power of good design. We’re a super-synced twin team, born and bred in Yorkshire, who graduated from the University of Leeds in 2016. We’ve had a lifetime love of art and design so it was a no-brainer when we applied to study Graphic & Communication Design. The skills we’ve developed at university have been vital to the growth of our business.

How I started my own business: WayWest Design

This week, Jack, a New Media graduate talks about his experience of setting up his own business, WayWest Design – he explains how the Enterprise opportunities at the University have helped him throughout his entrepreneurial journey and what benefits this experience has brought him. If you’re interested in starting your own business, read on and don’t forget to check out the Leeds University Start up Service page on our website for more information.

About my business:

I’m Jack Weston, founding Director at WayWest Design. We provide expert services in Web and App Development, Digital Design and Illustration, Photography, Videography, Motion Graphics, SEO Consultancy, Marketing Consultancy & Digital and Marketing Strategy to our worldwide client base. Our purpose is to deliver specialist knowledge in our field as well as maintaining a personal quality for our clients.

WayWest was established whilst I was still studying at the University of Leeds. I have always had passion for design so I began designing logos, graphics and websites for friends and family members free of charge in order to gain experience and add to my portfolio. From there, I was recommended to people and businesses outside of my network, rapidly increasing my profile and has spiraled into the successful business that it is today.

The gig guide: A new model of work?

Gig Economy Graphic by Mark Warner

Hoping for long-term, secure employment with one organisation? Or perhaps you’re planning to build your career on a freelancing model? Whatever your personal preferences, the world of work is changing, not least in the extent to which people are employed on a permanent basis.  In this post, Careers Consultant Marc Steward looks at the rise of the so-called Gig Economy and the implications of this.

If you’ve spent any amount of time around campus you will, by now, have come into contact with Uber; either through ordering a ride home after a night out, or simply by trying to avoid being run over by one of their more “excitable” drivers. Ubiquitous, they are!

You may or may not know, however, that Uber are probably the best proponents of the Gig Economy, a business model where “…temporary positions [of work] are common and employers contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.”   Whatis.com.

How I started my own digital marketing business

Rebecca Coupe graduated with a BA (Hons) in Theology and Religious Studies in 2011 and has since gone on to set up a successful online marketing business; Infinity Digital.

When it came to applying to University I had absolutely no idea what career I wanted to pursue or what subject to choose to “leave my options open.”  I finally settled on Theology and Religious Studies because I enjoyed the subject at school and hoped the research and communication skills I’d gain would help in my career (luckily I was right!).

Getting into Entrepreneurship

Are you considering starting your own business, but wondering whether it’s definitely for you? In this guest blog Christian Nellemann, CEO of XLN Telecom, explains how he became a successful entrepreneur and how you could too!

If you count being hard-working, persevering, passionate and enthusiastic among your character attributes, as well as having an eye for an opportunity, then you might just have what it takes to not only be your own boss but to strike it rich along the way.