How perseverance and passion has brought me success
Your name: Edwin Broni-Mensah
Your company: GiveMeTap
Company profile: GiveMeTap enables users of a specially-branded
GiveMeTap bottle to get free tap water refills from a network of
cafes and restaurant owners whilst on the go, that can be located
at www.givemetap.co.uk. GiveMeTap enables users to save money,
otherwise spent on bottled water and help the environment by
reducing wastage of discarded plastic bottles. GiveMeTap is
passionate about helping others without the same access to high
quality, clean water around the world - and has therefore pledged
70% of all the profits to funding independent water projects in
regions where it's needed most.
Your position in the company: Owner and Founder
Founded: 2010
The business challenge case study - body text
Case study title:
Overview: From a young age I have been fascinated by the process of
creative problem solving, which led me to pursue a degree in
Computer Science and Mathematics and a PhD in Mathematic Finance at
The University of Manchester. During my studies, I was continually
exploring my business ideas and constructed business plans for
three of them. Subsequently I entered the university business plans
competition - Venture Further; however, was unable to even reach
the finals of the competition in two subsequent years. In October
2009 I entered the university's business ideas competition Venture
Out, where I proposed GiveMeTap, which enables people who carry a
specially-branded bottle to find water on the go from a network of
eateries. The academic judges could not see the potential in the
project and handed me another knockback by rejecting the business
idea. Despite these setbacks I persisted, as I felt passionately
that this project would work and be successful. After four months
of hard work I had created a network consisting of 26 locations
where GiveMeTap users can get free tap water refills around
Manchester and began successfully distributing the GiveMeTap
bottles around the university campus. My passion for this project
was felt by an audience of business professionals and students in
London who voted for me and my idea GiveMeTap as the Shell LiveWIRE
elevator pitch competition winner. Since winning that competition,
and securing funding from UnLtd (the Foundation for Social
Entrepreneurs), I was mentioned in the Manchester Evening News and
Crains Manchester Business Magazine and TheBusniessDesk.com, and
cited in a NACUE case study.
The challenge: Those earlier knockbacks and the skills I learnt
along the way really helped me overcome a huge challenge: the
challenge of moving quickly and actually executing the business
plan. A lot of time can be spent in planning, getting bogged down
in planning the extremely fine details. Many call this
'paralysis-by-analysis' and was something I had to continually
tried avoid, as through my research degree I have been accustomed
to performing in-depth analysis of problems before drawing
conclusions in order to derive new mathematical models.
The solution: To think, plan, and take action at the quickest time
possible. I got in the habit of testing out my ideas very quickly
and adjusting as I progressed. I often found that the answers to
many of the questions I had when planning could only be answered
once I began executing and running the business. This flexible
approach, of thinking, planning and taking rapid action coupled
with the ability to keep trying even in the face of setbacks is
what has given me even more desire to make GiveMeTap reach it goals
of making water easily accessible to anyone, anywhere,
anytime.
Key lesson: Thinking creatively and then following through with
action can have huge impacts on your business. This really showed
me how persistence and passion really overcomes almost any
obstacle.
Top tip: Persistence really does pay! GiveMeTap was rejected by
Manchester University lecturers, who thought it was not sustainable
and couldn't see how it would generate revenue to support the
development of water projects. I learnt that by taking feedback
(both positive and negative) and then moving forward nonetheless,
great things can be achieved.
Find out more about GiveMeTap
Overview
From a young age I have been fascinated by the process of
creative problem solving, which led me to pursue a degree in
Computer Science and Mathematics and a PhD in Mathematic Finance at
The University of Manchester.
During my studies, I was continually exploring my business ideas
and constructed business plans for three of them. Subsequently I
entered the university business plans competition - Venture
Further; however, was unable to even reach the finals of the
competition in two subsequent years. In October 2009 I entered the
university's business ideas competition Venture Out, where I
proposed GiveMeTap, which enables people who carry a
specially-branded bottle to find water on the go from a network of
eateries. The academic judges could not see the potential in the
project and handed me another knockback by rejecting the business
idea.
Despite these setbacks I persisted, as I felt passionately that
this project would work and be successful. After four months of
hard work I had created a network consisting of 26 locations where
GiveMeTap users can get free tap water refills around Manchester
and began successfully distributing the GiveMeTap bottles around
the university campus.
My passion for this project was felt by an audience of business
professionals and students in London who voted for me and my idea
GiveMeTap as the Shell LiveWIRE elevator pitch competition winner.
Since winning that competition, and securing funding from UnLtd
(the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs), I was mentioned in the
Manchester Evening News and Crains Manchester Business Magazine and
TheBusniessDesk.com, and cited in a NACUE case study.
The challenge
Those earlier knockbacks and the skills I learnt along the way
really helped me overcome a huge challenge: the challenge of moving
quickly and actually executing the business plan. A lot of time can
be spent in planning, getting bogged down in planning the extremely
fine details. Many call this 'paralysis-by-analysis' and was
something I had to continually tried avoid, as through my research
degree I have been accustomed to performing in-depth analysis of
problems before drawing conclusions in order to derive new
mathematical models.
The solution
To think, plan, and take action at the quickest time possible. I
got in the habit of testing out my ideas very quickly and adjusting
as I progressed. I often found that the answers to many of the
questions I had when planning could only be answered once I began
executing and running the business. This flexible approach, of
thinking, planning and taking rapid action coupled with the ability
to keep trying even in the face of setbacks is what has given me
even more desire to make GiveMeTap reach it goals of making water
easily accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Key lesson
Thinking creatively and then following through with action can
have huge impacts on your business. This really showed me how
persistence and passion really overcomes almost any obstacle.
Top tip
Persistence really does pay! GiveMeTap was rejected by
Manchester University lecturers, who thought it was not sustainable
and couldn't see how it would generate revenue to support the
development of water projects. I learnt that by taking feedback
(both positive and negative) and then moving forward nonetheless,
great things can be achieved.
Find out more about GiveMeTap
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