HOW TO SET UP A JUNIOR ENTERPRISE

Step 1.2

A contact has been established with local JADE (or JADE Headquarters, in case of no local JADE) in order to obtain more information about Junior Enterprises and on how to set up a JE

5W2H

What?

Contacting (local) JADE to obtain more information about the JE business model and JE and JADE guidelines.

When?

It is common that this step takes place simultaneously to step 2 and step 3 or even before that. It can also take place after step 2 and step 3 especially if you are not aware of the support that you might receive from (local) JADE.

Where?

Your contact to (local) JADE is mostly to be established via e-mail or phone call. Visit the homepage of (local) JADE to get the relevant contact details.

Why?

Establishing contacts to (local) JADE which is a representative and coordinative organisation for all the JEs in the (national) Network proves to be especially important if you don’t have support from other organizations or from your university. You receive very relevant and made-to-measured support. Especially if your intention is to join the JADE as soon as possible, it is very wise to involve colleagues from JADE Enlargement Team as external advisors to your own team.

Who?

The contact should be made by the team leader since this is the person who is in charge of coordinating your team work and collecting the information for the reports to be made to external supporters.

How?

One of the first tasks to be done is to contact (local) JADE. This first contact has two important aims. The first aim is to let JADE know that a student group is interested in creating a new JE in the country. You have to be aware of the fact that JADE is a lobbying organization and is working in promoting the JE concept at national and international level therefore you’ll find a strong and reliable partner in JADE. The second and very important aim is to obtain from JADE more information about the JE business model as well as about the JE and JADE guidelines.

While writing your first e-mail to (local) JADE be very precise about your team achievements, your team structure and team members as well as about the project plan. You have to create a good communication basis and providing a professional report while you take your first contact makes a good impression and is a sign of your commitment toward an organization in which in the next future you would like to adhere.

What to include in this report?

• o How did the initiative start?
• o Who are the main actors in it?
• o What is the team structure?
• o Who will be the contact person to (local) JADE?
• o How does the project plan look like? (the plan to develop the JE – if there are any certain ideas at this point)
• o What kind of difficulties have you encountered in your work so far?
• o What kind of help would you need from JADE?

Where to send your report?

JADE Headquarters: enlargement@jadenet.org ; www.jadenet.org; +32(0) 2 420 1752

JADE HQ can also provide you with the National contact for your country.

How much?

This in an internal process and there are no costs involved.

HOW TO SET UP A JUNIOR ENTERPRISE

Step1.3

A group of likeminded students has been formed, and is getting organized to set up a Junior Enterprise.

5W2H

What?

Find likeminded students to set up a student organization.

When?

You need to look for students almost during the whole lifetime of the Junior Enterprise but it is especially important in the beginning of your efforts to set up a JE.

Where?

The aim should be to find likeminded students at your university since it is common that Junior Enterprises are linked to a single university where the students (who are going to run it), are completing their studies. It is possible that you establish a group of students who come from different universities at your city.

Why?

It is crucial that you have a group of students who will work consequently in fulfilling the necessary steps until your JE is created. You can share thoughts and have constructive discussions in the group, which proves to provide a good basis for creative and more stable solutions. Apart from that you can better manage your time and be able to create a team during the whole process. You will learn by doing and this happens to be also the crucial rationale for the existence of a Junior Enterprise.

Who?

You might be a single student who has heard of business initiatives of students in your city, or in other cities of your country or at international level. You might be a group of student who has participated at a national or international event and has heard that initiatives like the Junior Enterprises are very successful and attractive ones. You might be a university professor who worked somewhere and sometimes for a Junior Enterprise. Now you are a university assistant / professor and would like to motivate your students to create and run a Junior Enterprise. You might also be a representative of a business sub entity of your university and you would like to foster the entrepreneurial initiatives among your students since in an indirect way this is also a good way to attract prospective students to become students of your university.

In the end of this step it should be at least 3-8 students who take the initiative to start working on the creation of a JE.

How?

As a single student:

Needed characteristics:

You need to be curious, open-minded, inclusive, self-convinced and enthusiastic about the start up idea and you need to have also good analytical and negotiating skills.

Needed Recruiting and marketing activities:

Talk to your colleagues with whom you already have had good experience in doing project work in preparing papers or attending courses, business events, business competitions and tell them about your start up idea at the university, tell them about JADE and about the knowledge that already exists in this network from which you might directly profit.

While participating at different university courses, observe who are the participants that are most curious ones and raise the most questions to the professors. Talk to them after the course is over or during the breaks.

Talk to colleagues from student organizations at the university that have other aims then the aims that are typical for a Junior Enterprise. In this case you already have a reference that these students are interested in participating at extracurricular activities and have own initiatives to implement project ideas and do team work. Because the organizations, for which they work for, have other aims, they might be more willing to join your initiative since they will have the chance to make different experiences, get in touch with a new environment and new challenges.

You have to prepare a good communication strategy since you have to atract students’ attention and to make them follow you and your ideas. You should able to make them think about what you told them, bring them to ask you questions and inspire them to further discussions with you and with other colleagues.

You should be prepared to have short talks and longer ones, as well as to write longer explanations and perhaps also to prepare and hold power point presentations.

As a group of students

You might start your work as a student group i.e. after you’ve met a JADE official from a JADE National Confederation or Consultative Member or JADE Executive Board during a conference or a competition or even a university project.

If you are already a group of five to eight students you don’t need to make further recruitment in the preparatory phase of your start up. You might raise the awareness among the students of the university that a new initiative will soon start activities and that they will be contacted by you in next future.

If you are a group of two to four students it might be a good idea if you involve yourselves in recruitment activities as those described in the chapter above.

As a university assistant / professor

The perspective of a university assistant / professor on the Junior Enterprise movement is a different one since a professor can act as a supporter and a promoter but not as a main actor in the start-up process as well in the enterprise development afterwards.

A professor though can be very important in the selection process of the founders of the JE and in composing the team. The choice might be based in the practical and research work of the students. The students that meet the best characteristics that an entrepreneur should have can be contacted by the professor. Training might be provided to the students so as to make them aware of the challenges ahead as well as to provide them with necessary skills especially for young entrepreneurs. Good references might be given to the students that can be used in the negotiations with various entities including the university itself.

The professor might also involve students from the created student group in a project that is being performed under his/her leadership which might be very motivating since in the beginning it’s not easy to get the chance to work in the implementation of interesting or big projects.

As a university sub entity

Universities and especially business or technology schools normally have a business center that aims at supporting business initiatives from students and young graduates.

The perspective of the university business center on a Junior Enterprise is very similar to that of a professor. The most crucial difference between them is that the business center might provide also an office and financial support on behalf of the university, something that a professor not necessarily can do. Providing an office during the start-up process is very important since having a common place where to meet and prepare for the start up and having the security that the university fully supports the initiative proves to be very motivating. The university (business center) might provide also a small start capital which might be necessary to overcome the first obstacles such as the registration fee for NGOs, preparation of flyers, or the payment of an office rent.

The university (business center) similarly to a university professor can support the selection process of the students as well as the formation of the founders’ team.

How much?

This in an internal process and there are no costs involved.

Examples

know & how Junior Enterprise (Graz, Austria): The student group that started the Junior Enterprise was composed of eight students, four students of the Karl-Franzens University and four students of the Technical University of Graz.

UNI Group Junior Enterprise (Prishtina, Kosovo): The student group that started the Junior Enterprise was composed of three students, two students studying in Austria and one student at the University of Prishtina.

HOW TO SET UP A JUNIOR ENTERPRISE

Step1.4

The group is meeting regularly and each member has been assigned to one or more tasks.

5W2H

What?

Creating the team, getting organized. Establishing and assigning initial tasks.

When?

After having formed a group of students who will work on creating a JE, you can start with this second step of creating the team, the team spirit, providing a basic structure for the group as well as establishing and assigning tasks to each of the group members.

Where?

The aim should be to create the team at your university. To get organized you can use different platforms to communicate and share information among you such as Google docs, Google groups, Facebook groups, Dropbox etc. You can have face to face meetings with all members present or via internet using different internet platforms such as Skype to have live conferences with your colleagues. Note the importance of taking minutes during your meetings.

Why?

It is crucial that you have a group of students who will work consequently in fulfilling the necessary steps until your JE is created. You can share thoughts and have constructive discussions in the group, which proves to provide a good basis for creative and more sustainable solutions. Establishing and assigning tasks proves to be important since especially at the beginning you need to be very active and work together to accomplish your aims step by step and to create a strong team spirit which will be of major importance especially in harder times.

You will learn by doing throughout the whole process and this happens to be also the crucial rationale for the existence of a Junior Enterprise.

Who?

The group of students who is working on creating the Junior Enterprise is responsible of creating the team and getting organized. It is common that the person(s) who as first took the initiative to create the JE coordinate(s) the work and lead(s) the tasks.

How?

If the initiative of creating a JE has started from a single student, it is normal that this student will at least in the beginning coordinate the team and propose a first structure for it. If you were more than one student to start the initiative, it is important that you choose one of you to act as coordinator / team leader.

The job of the team leader in the beginning consists of coordinating the work, collecting the results achieved; also observing the progress made by each team member and making this public to each one in the team. This transparency proves to be very important once the team has already achieved a few results and the decision has to be taken who will the members of the first board of the new organization. The best way to judge on people is while relying on their results. A meritocratic system proves to be the most efficient one in enterprises and in Junior Enterprises as well.

As time goes by, if no strong results are achieved, the students in the group tend to go apart, and the motivation is not anymore the same as in the moment when they joined the initiative. Especially in these cases a new task rises for the team leader who has to keep up the strong team spirit, to motivate the colleagues and to provide a sort of anchor for the whole group.

It is important to keep in mind from the beginning that being a team leader in the starting activities of the enterprise doesn’t necessarily mean that the same person has to be the president of the Junior Enterprise. The starting phase can be seen as a testing phase for each of the students involved, also for the (elected) team leader.

Apart from the election of a team leader it is important that some other positions are defined. You need people who take care of the legal questions, of the IT questions, and of the financial questions.

What kind of criteria can be used to elect/assign students to the different positions in the student group?

The most important criteria should be the experience achieved by the student until the moment he/she joined the student group. Practical experience is always good and helps also the team as whole to be more realistic in the decisions to take for each of the questions arising.

Other very important criteria are the results achieved at the university. It’s not necessarily the case that the best students are also the best entrepreneurs but commitment and ambition during the studies is a good sign that the same person might be very committed and eager to achieve big results also while working for the Junior Enterprise.

Other important criteria are the natural qualities of the students involved. They can be very creative and enthusiastic, or very analytical, or very pedant and accurate. If the people in the group have had chance to know each other and work together before, they might be already aware of the natural qualities of each other and therefore can make a decision also based upon this important criteria. As times goes by, it might result that for instance people involved in the legal questions might be more appropriate for the IT questions, or financial questions, or the external relations questions. It has again to be emphasized that you need to keep record of the results of each other, to be transparent throughout the process and give feedback to each other.

How to establish and assign tasks?

As in case of starting a project the team and the team leader need to meet and exchange ideas and individual achievements that were reached before the team was created. Brainstorming should take place where tasks should be established and assigned to singular students or to task teams created on the special purpose to get a task accomplished within a short period of time.

The team leader should keep record of the results of the discussion and based on that should prepare a project plan that has to include also a proposed timeline for the implementation of the tasks.

To the tasks to be established while starting working on the creation of a Junior Enterprise, belong:

• Keeping record of the personal details of everybody in the team, including contact details
• Creating communication channels among the colleagues in the team: e-mail list, yahoo or google group, team blog, blog on the project progress
• Establishing a project plan including a timeline for the implementation of the tasks defined in it
• Establishing first contacts to other students who might be interested in the JE
• Starting researching on project opportunities for the JE
• Starting researching on funding opportunities
• Starting researching on other JEs in the city or in the country as well as on other organizations with the aim to create benchmarks for the own organization
• Starting reflecting on the organization and its functionalities

Assigning tasks should be made in open discussion with the team members. The team leader might make proposals as well as each of the team members. Task teams might be created for each of the tasks which might provide also an opportunity for the students to get involved in more than one type of tasks so as to have the chance to discover where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Task teams prove to create also platforms for discussion and more creative solutions than the involvement of individuals for the implementation of tasks. You might also choose to make individual students responsible for each task but in that case it would be good that you assign at least a second person to supervise if and how the work is being done.

How much?

This in an internal process and there are no costs involved.

HOW TO SET UP A JUNIOR ENTERPRISE

Step1.5

The initiative has been presented to the University in order to discuss possibilities of support and cooperation.

5W2H

What?

Present the initiative to the University with the aim to get support and establish a cooperation basis.

When?

It makes sense to present the initiative to the University once you have already achieved results in organizing the student group and in accomplishing a few tasks. You can by then provide a framework for the work ahead and ask if the university might provide an office and financial support for the initiative.

Where?

The aim should be to reach the Dean of the university but in case a meeting with the Dean is not possible the aim should be to reach at least a few professors from different departments of the university.

Why?

The support of the university is very important especially in front of clients with whom you get in touch for the very first time. It proves to be important also in case you contact students with the aim to inspire them to get involved with the Junior Initiative.

Who?

The presentation should be made by a delegation of two to three students who have very good presentation and negotiation skills and who perhaps had already a course with the Dean / professor. Before the meeting takes place you can test who are the most adequate persons in the team to make this presentation. In any case the team leader should be member of this delegation.

How?

The contact to the Dean can be established through the Dean’s office. You might also ask to meet with an assistant of the Dean. Your presentation should contain information about the concept of a Junior Enterprise, the best cases from the JADE network including the relations that JEs in other countries (or cities of your country) already have with the university, your short time and longer time plans on how to establish the JE in the consultants’ market of your city. You should be very specific on what you think about the cooperation to the university, what kind of support you want from the university and what you can provide in exchange.

You can obtain a sample presentation targeted at universities from JADE Enlargement Team.

How much?

This in an internal process and there are no costs involved.