I have just returned from the Young Enterprise Central London finals and boy am I impressed!  Six teams of school students, who have set up their own companies, designed products and sold them to their designated market ,made presentations about their entrepreneurial journeys.

The products were all innovative, well-researched and some have even been bought by high street chains.  They ranged from solar-powered mobile phone chargers, to baby (or handbag) minders, to a fashion brand.  The winning team, The Readables, designed, manufactured and sold a totem pole bookmark aimed at getting children excited about reading.

Each of the businesses made a profit, some producing returns on investment up to 200%.  Many of the teams donated some or all of their profits to charity.

I was blown away by the quality of the presentations made by the teenagers.  At that age I would have been terrified to give a presentation in front of an audience of around 70 business people and peers.  The presenters were professional, knowledgeable and humorous and a large proportion spoke without notes.  They could teach a thing or two to many adults I know (JCI members who've been on one of our public speaking training sessions excepted of course!).

Each team member had obviously invested a lot of time, effort and passion into their project and there was great nervous excitement as prizes were handed out for best presentation, stand, project report and company overall.  Congratulations to all the participants and winners.  There are clearly many future entrepreneurs (and hopefully JCI members) in London!