Back to university...

Its now February, boy is 2010 disappearing fast, which also means I have found myself back at university for my final semester, with an assignment from before christmas to finish off for tomorrow afternoon im taking a little bit of time out to write this blog.

The assignment is an evaluation of a entrepreneurial Venture, for which I have chosen King Of Shaves, the further into I get the more im reminded of the fact that im not that much of an academic, but also that business, depsite being one of the biggest course areas isnt all that academic either, with many of my modules being much more about theory from the last century im reminded of how far the business environment has changed, which is further reflected by my position:

A entrepreneur biding my time at uni so that I can leave with a bit of paper to show I havent totally wasted the last 3 years of struggling writing assignments.

For the last year I have seen myself change how I see myself and also question my reasoning for being at university, I always saw that bit of paper as my safety blanket, if things go wrong I can always get a day job, but my heart has never been in it, reflected by my grades, my knowledge, passion and abilities are there but im a practical person, Ive learnt business by doing it, making mistakes, triumphs and failures, like most other entrepenuers, but for the first time im actually seeing myself as a entrepenuer, rather than 'a kid having a go'.

Im ready to get serious and raring to go, working crazy numbers of hours around uni and my job to get Blinky off the ground and up and running and cant wait till May, not only my 21st Birthday but also when I finish university, hand in that final assignment, answer that final exam question and step into the future, an exciting prospect.

Tonight via twitter (@Mr_Blinky) i asked my followers what they felt the barriers to young entrepenuers were, to mixed answers the general feeling was that business just isnt all that welcoming of young people, but get past the intial difficulties and show your serious and the opportunities are there, something I have learnt from my own experience. In the past I have been taken advantage by booking agents for bands when negotiating, being the novice I was I make mistakes, now Blinky thanks to alot of work by Graham and Myself has got some very lucrative agreements in place and have a business purely based on having negotiated a better deal than everyone else, meaning we can sell to them and make a profit, its not a massive margin, but then we dont have any risk either!

I guess what im trying to sum up is, yes being a young entrepenuer has its challenges, but everyone faces these challenges or other barriers, its not always a disadvantage to be young, means I have a massive head start on many other business directors and an impressive CV to boot if things do go wrong, oh yea and sometime after may a piece of paper that says im good at writing about history!

A closing comment I want to make is Business has evolved and constantly continues to do so, you can either watch it happen or make it happen!

Rant over!

Time of change

I think I may have skipped a week again on my blog, but I was away in Germany visiting friends, quick summary, lots of snow, very cold but had a awesome time!

So whats been going on recently?

Work:

First time back to work properly for about a month, which is strange, been a not so exciting week with doing the re-pricing and new shelf labels for all 3 shops, least exciting job going, especially when its 4th time in as many months we have tried it.

Uni:

Back to uni on thursday, true to form Brookes have complicated things but timetabling me in 2 places at the same time and nobody can come up with a solution, joy! Also for timetable purposes Thursday is a monday and friday a friday, go figure!

Blinky:

Co-founder of Blinky media took the decision to resign as director of Blinky, so lots going on at the moment to organise that and get the ball rolling again, Edd's role was project managing the magazine release, which so far has not happend, so im on the hunt for the software we need to get the first full issue sorted, fingers crossed we can get that sorted soon!

The promotional printing services are really kicking in great at the moment with lots of new customers coming to us for quotes, and we are now also changing supplier so that everything is printed in the UK, which is great news and means even faster turn arounds and better value.

Stuff:

This has been an awesome week generally for stuff going on, with me winning a competition to win a limited edition Rally print from http://www.motorsportinprint.com/17/173/2566/Kris_Meeke_-_Peugeot_-_2010

which is awesomeeee and will look great on my wall, so I will put up a photo when it arrives.

Im also about to start an assignment on a entrepenuerial project/business so Im working out who to feature and loving the chance to read lots of bios and information about what other people did and how they started it, one of my recomended reads is Will Kings, Founder of King of Shaves book, I will be trying to write a review soon so keep an eye out!

Thats all for now, if you want to talk to me drop me a email at chris@blinkymagazine.co.uk or tweet at me @Mr_Blinky

A new year

OK so I broke my weekly blogigng routine, so this is my first Blog of 2010, so Happy new year!

Its been a pretty crazy few weeks so here is a quick round up!

**Blinky Magazine Introduction is released at www.blinkymagazine.co.uk check it out for more info about what we do, our readers and whats going to be inside and how to get involved!

**Our first printing services customers kick of our year with a great start as we expand our offering every week, we will be getting a shiny online digital catalogue up as soon as we can with the updated price list being released on Tuesday, if you need business cards, posters, flyers, banners, lanyards, beer mats and all sorts contact Graham, graham@blinkymagazine.co.uk

**Yesterday we had a really busy day for the website with out highest ever level of traffic through the site yesterday and this week over 500 page views on the Intro issue we are off to a good start!

**Im currently out in Germany on a little bit of a holiday visiting some old friends, hvaing a great time with a insane amount of snow out here, only problem is the crazy temperatures, but was very impressed withmy Flight with easyJet which was barely delayed despite the crazy weather causing chaos! I have been site seeing around the area and yesterday we braved the cold to have a look around Coburg Castle, which is pretty huge and some amazing views, so worth checking out if your ever out this way!

** in the next week or so we will be launching our Forum on www.blinkymagazine.co.uk , which im pretty excited about as gives us a great aopportunity to talk to our readers and students in the UK about different topics and get their views and opinions, as well as our first ever poll for the site, we are just deciding on the topic/question now so any suggestions let us know!

SO thats a little bit of a breif round up very much short and sweet compared to the full story but I will leave that for next weeks blog!