A BUDDING entrepreneur from Cranford has started a successful business while still studying at Royal Holloway, University of London as part of a young enterprise scheme.
Gurpreet Singh Gill, 21, is in the first year of an Economics and Management degree. He is also the Sales Director of Kwikee, an internet company, which he founded with six other Royal Holloway students.
Kwikee is an internet-based advertising medium, offering the most effective way of promoting your organisation' to the students of Royal Holloway.
The website shows pictures of Royal Holloway events, drawing a large and regular student audience. Gurpreet and his colleagues realised this was a powerful way for local businesses and employers to reach Royal Holloway's six thousand strong student population.
Six months into the business, Kwikee is thriving, and yet, in a month's time, the company will fold. This is because Kwikee was set up under the Young Enterprise umbrella. Young Enterprise is a national organisation which offers young people first-hand experience of the business world.
The projects are designed to give students the opportunity of setting up, running and closing down a business, but Gupreet's enterprise has been so successful that he and his colleagues are considering a management buyout, so they can continue to run the company.
The students came up with the business concept, registered the business, developed the product and ran the accounting and marketing functions. Through the Young Enterprise scheme, they have had first-class support from two volunteer business advisors, David Colbeck, Managing Director and Vice President of Egham-based Tekelec and Vera Hill of Procter & Gamble's RPTC Colourants Product Team. Royal Holloway has provided office facilities and hosted Kwikee's website on its server.
Gurpreet said: It's been a great experience setting up Kwikee, we were able to try out our business ideas in a real-life situation and learnt a lot about starting up businesses. I feel a lot more familiar with the world of business and the challenges that face small enterprises. After graduating I hope to draw on the experience that I have gained and try new challenges.''
May 30, 2003 12:30
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