“We Walk the Social Enterprise Walk”

Here’s how we take Social Responsibility seriously……

Owadally & King have the pleasure of being a sponsor of Young Start-up Talent in Croydon 2015. We love getting involved with community based projects in Croydon as we believe in giving back to our community and to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Inspired by a seminar he attended, our partner Simon Maddox showed the global charity International Needs UK how it could enable businesses to give back to projects the charity supports. O&K are leading by example;

• By giving life-saving vaccinations every time we complete an Annual Return for a client
• By giving new school uniforms to third world schools every time we finalise a company Tax Return.
• And by giving an African family a sustainable source of food and an income, in the form of chickens, every time we win a new client at O&K.

So far we have donated, 118 Child Immunisations, 478 School uniforms, 660 Chickens (33 families)

We wanted to make a real difference to our local community too, so when an innovative CIC Enterprise Cube came to us, having been let down by another firm, not only did we solve their accountancy issues within 24 hours, but we also got involved in their community work.

Enterprise Cube CIC runs business start-up training courses for the residents of Housing Associations. The courses are free to delegates, because they are paid for by the Housing Associations and give their tenants (many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds) the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to set up their own business.

Young Start-up Talent is a community based project helping 16-25 year olds with an entrepreneurial flair for business to make their dreams become a reality.

The judging will be ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch and the panel are made up of Local business leaders. The judges of the project will get to star in a video of the pitches, which will then be presented to the audience at the grand final which in the past has included heads of schools, politicians, teachers, local business leaders and the families.

This project has grown since its launch in 2010, there is a prize fund of £50,000 worth of products and services to help the winner start up their own business, and we are always looking at ways of helping entrepreneurs get their businesses up and running and we just had to be sponsors of this year’s Young Start-up Talent.

 

Enough about us here is a little bit about the last winner of the Brighton 2014 competition and her business idea. 24 year old Natalie Evans wowed the judges with her company 42juice, which produces fresh organic juices made up of 100% raw, cold pressed fresh fruit and vegetables to provide instant nutrients and vitamins, 42juice offers cleanse and detox packages. Since winning the prize fund Natalie has appeared in The Sunday Times magazine and in Cosmopolitan. Natalie recently opened a shop in Market Square in The Lanes, Brighton and we wish her and all the other winners a bright and profitable future.

Preparing to Exhibit at The Business Show 2014

 

Owadally and King will be exhibiting for the first time at this years The Business Show 2014 at the ExCel London and preparing well for it is a big task, there is so much to think about as we will be running a Business Planning Success workshop over the two days as well as a an exhibition stand. The Business Show is huge with 25,000 Businesses, 250 Seminars, 12 Workshops with much much more and it’s FREE to attend. First off we needed to think about our workshop how it would look, how many people would we want to attract for every workshop, what the attendee’s will be getting out it and what we want them to take away. Do we give each attendee a handout want should that handout be? Then there is staffing for the stand while the workshops are running, what do we need for the stand?, pens, pads, laptops, charges, Business cards etc all the little things that we cannot just pop to the office and get if forgotten. But we know this will be an exciting and challenging opportunity which we love here at OandK 

Here is our workshop at a glance.

The majority of SMEs don’t have an effective written business plan and almost certainly not one that reflects the personal goals of the business owners. This workshop demonstrates, step-by-step, how to create a powerful One-Page Business Success Plan that focuses on the key elements of the business and acts as a great business tool to monitor success. It’s an effective plan that ensures momentum is maintained throughout the whole of your business.