Case study: Mini-Roles

Mini-Roles, a new company founded by Carolyn Gardiner has been awarded the winner of the Business Start-Up 2008 Business Plan Competition.

The annual Business Plan Competition (for companies trading less than 12 months) gives students and graduates of Leeds Met the opportunity to develop their business.

Entrants were asked to submit a short business plan in January and five finalists were chosen to pitch their idea to a panel of judges in the style of the BBC's Dragons' Den.

Carolyn and Sarah sleighed the dragons and at a recent awards ceremony were announced the winners of the competition.

Mini-Roles is a brand new company with a brand new concept offering role play kits to assist teachers/early years practitioners.

The company is run by two fully qualified and experienced Foundation Stage and Key Stage One teachers, Carolyn Gardiner and Sarah Taylor. They have a wealth of experience in planning and delivering role play within the class room.

Carolyn and Sarah, fought off the competition with their impressive pitch and thorough knowledge of their identified market. The judges awarded Mini-Roles with the £2000 prize money for developing a unique business which meets market demands.

“We are really surprised and delighted to have won the competition. Sleighing the dragons has allowed us to have more confidence about our business and we are now even more determined to make it work!” said Carolyn and Sarah, Mini-Roles

On the 9th of April 2008, Mini-Roles represented Leeds Metropolitan University at the Regional Enterprise Awards held in Hull. The competition was for winners of business competitions across the eleven Yorkshire universities to compete with each other, and Leeds Met was represented well as Mini-Roles went on to win the competition, claiming £5000 in cash and a further £5000 in-kind marketing and branding advice.


The money that Mini-Roles received from the competition has been invested in stock, as the company now has 10 ‘role play boxes’, which contains the kits for each of the different role play areas. The £5000 advice budget that was awarded has been used to develop the company profile and produce information in preparation for the launch of a wider selection of boxes in September 2008.

 

www.miniroles.co.uk

Updated August 2008