Three budding entrepreneurs from St Phillips, Bristol have scooped a national award after coming up with an ingenious marketing ploy to promote their business. The trio of student designers, which make up Drink Tea Eat Biscuits, plan to cover their company car in real-life, eye catching biscuit vinyl wrap, to wet the appetites of potential clients and provide a taster of their design business’ capabilities. Adam Hastings, Martin Jakeway and Ross Harrington, all aged twenty two and twenty three, impressed the panel of judges in the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards with their business idea and have been awarded £1,000 to develop their start-up business further. The three ambitious designers, all third year graphic design students at Weston College, set up Drink Tea Eat Biscuits in September 2009. Instead of seeking employment in a design firm, which is compulsory on their course, they decided to set up on their own with the concept that all good ideas start over a cup of tea and a biscuit and business success is all about building strong client relationships. The Shell LiveWIRE Grand Idea Awards, launched in 2009 against the backdrop of the recession, and is designed to give aspiring entrepreneurs a no-strings-attached financial boost of £1,000 to help them get their business ideas off the ground. The awards are held monthly and entrepreneurs from all over the UK can submit their entries through the LiveWIRE website.
Adam Hastings of Drink Tea Eat Biscuits, says: “Times are tough, decent jobs are scarce and the landscape can look bleak. However, I encourage those with ambitious business ideas to take a leap of faith as there is a lot of support out there. Initiatives like Shell LiveWIRE can help turn your business from a concept into reality. The financial boost of winning a Grand Ideas Award will allow us to go ahead with our car design and stand out from the crowd, but it’s also the credibility of winning an award like this that will push our business forward.”
Since launching, Drink Tea Eat Biscuits has already developed a portfolio of clients. Most recently it has secured the impressive job of creating all the branding for the Weston Ale Festival 2010, and in the meantime, the students will be busy finishing their degrees in June. Their plan is for the biscuit car to be ready later this month and they hope to get people talking through their quirky initiative. For more information about Drink Tea Eat Biscuits go to www.drinkteaeatbiscuits.co.uk.
Previous Grand Ideas winners include Luke Jefferson, 29, who set up Scratchface, a company which develops accessibility software to help colourblind people better perceive, understand and interact with colour on a computer. The award enabled Luke and his business partner to launch their first product on the Apple iPhone via Apple’s app store and the resulting publicity helped them to attract a new investor. James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK, said: “There is a wealth of entrepreneurial talent in the UK and I hope other young entrepreneurs will be inspired by Drink Tea Eat Biscuits to capitalise on their own ideas. We wish them every success and hope the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award will help them to take their business all the way.” The Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas awards are the newest innovation from Shell LiveWIRE, which has been giving free support to would-be entrepreneurs since 1982. The programme hosts a business networking community at www.shell-livewire.org which enables the best business brains from every corner of the nation to share ideas, insights and inspiration with fellow entrepreneurs who understand the challenges they are facing. To find out more or enter the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards visit www.shell-livewire.org.
