Saturday saw me take the day out and drive up to Warwick university for the Young Entrepreneurs Forum. A gathering of like-minded people interested in being an Entrepreneur or finding out more information and what it’s all about. I was there to deliver a talk ‘Behind The Beans’ giving an insight to how we got started and what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

It is great going to meet aspiring students full of drive, enthusiasm and self-belief about their ideas. Whilst there are those that have their idea already, others are still searching for that light-bulb moment. What I think they all have in common is they all have the opportunity to make a go of it.

Not every idea is going to work but a common phrase that is mentioned is that if not your failing you’re not trying hard enough. It’s true as well you learn far more from your mistakes than you do from getting things right all the time. It’s not just about new ideas or reinventing the wheel but it’s about doing something slightly different, or better than anyone else – with the fantastic customer service in the UK I am sure everyone reading this can think of an experience they’ve had with a company in the last week that could be improved upon by another business.

Another speaker that seems to be getting it right a lot of the time was Edinburgh schoolboy Fraser Doherty of SuperJam. He went into the jam‐making trade at the age of 14, after his homemade preserves sold well locally.

Now at nineteen, Fraser has won a number of prestigious awards and been the focus of a great deal of media coverage. The product is a range of no added sugar ‘super fruit’ spreads. These are made from the most nutritious fruits around such as blueberries and cranberries and are sweetened with grape juice rather than sugar or sweeteners. Amazingly Fraser went into an industry that existed for hundreds of years and has been able to do extremely well selling over 500,000 jars in the last year. It was great to hear his story first hand along with the creation of the SuperJam foundation which is about to launch it’s first tea parties for the elderly all supported by Waitrose his first big national distributor.

Overall it was a great event, not only to share our experiences and help to inspire others but to meet students and other speakers a like - not to mention studentbeans.com fans that share their favourite offers with us.

Feel free to contact us if there is any event you want us to speak at.

Backpacking rocks! You can go to the most beautiful places in the World, expand your mind, meet some incredible people and try some amazing new things. But if you’ve never gone away before, or are planning a new trip, it could be a bit daunting - so I thought I’d offer some travel advice. Here are my top 5 tips for backpacking that I picked up after spending over 2 years on the road.

1. Don’t plan too much

It’s tempting to plan your trip or gap year down to the smallest detail. But as I see it, part of the fun of travelling is being flexible. You could be sitting on a beach chatting to someone who says “Hey, you’ve got to go here…” or “I’m going to check out wherever. Come along…”. It’s really cool to just change your plans and tag along. Spontaneity is the key. Of course, the degree of flexibility you’ll have depends on the amount of time you’re on holiday for. So that brings me on to… (more…)