Make your Mark - with a Tenner

This year’s Make Your Mark with a Tenner, the national challenge to see what thousands of young people can achieve with just ten pounds in one month, has come to an end. The results are, we think, a breath of fresh air amidst the doom and gloom of the financial crisis;
· The largest profit was £736 and the average profit was £42, compared with a return of just 2p from a savings account!

· Make Your Mark with a Tenner competition winners have been congratulated personally by entrepreneur and ‘Dragon’ Peter Jones, one of the funders of the scheme.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of ‘TENNER‘, here’s what it’s all about;
Thousands of young people from across the UK (20,000 registered and 16,000 took part) were challenged to make a profit AND a difference with their £10 by working alone or in groups. The results far outstrip the return they’d have got from the bank or by dabbling on the stock market. Given just one month to make as much money and social impact as they could, the idea was funded by NESTA, Peter Jones and by Michael and Xochi Birch (who founded and sold Bebo).


Here at UOE we salute the team behind Make Your Mark (and a special well done to our friend Oli Barrett). This project gives us all hope that the future leaders of industry, banking and (perhaps) politics will actually understand the importance of entrepreneurial spirit and determination to succeed and make the world a better place for everyone!

The best individual return on a single tenner was a staggering £736. Henry Pearce from St Thomas’s Church in Kent donned a 1920s bathing suit in a ‘historic costume show’ and used his entrepreneurial savvy to get people to pay for this novel experience. After returning his £10 loan, he has decided his profits will go to a Kenyan school, Molo 220, and the competition also helped the Church form strong links with a local special school.

The best group return was £493 (on £20) by two students from Cullompton Community College, Devon. They compiled a recipe book with recipes collected from local business people, then sold the books for £1 each or £1.50 for a signed copy.

Other enterprising and hugely profitable ideas included a Bollywood Dance performance, a silent disco and a healthy tuck shop. Community cohesion was a major theme amongst the entries. A team from St Kentigerns Academy in Scotland created a concert to get young people in their area off the streets, while an outstanding individual effort from Ashley Maugan – a young Irish traveller living on a caravan site near Hackney – saw her spend her £10 on bulk buying products to set up a shop for children in her community, who were previously relying on their parents for lifts to the local supermarket.

Across the top 100 entries, the average profit was an impressive £42 on £10 in just one month. That beats the stock market over the same period hands down!

Here's to Make your Mark 2010!