GDC online at the Guardian Higher Education Network

08 June 2012

Mike Southon - serially successful entrepreneur, best-selling business author and weekly columnist for the Financial Times - recently spent a day at LJMU's Centre for Entrepreneurship sharing his knowledge and expertise in business mentoring sessions with graduate entrepreneurs. 

Mike is co-author of several best-selling business books, including The Beermat Entrepreneur, Sales on a Beermat and This is How Yoodoo It, a collection of his Financial Times columns. He is also a very experienced entrepreneur mentor, having provided face-to-face mentoring for over 1,000 people in the last ten years. Mike recently delivered his popular 'Sales on a Beermat' workshop to the new Winter 2012 Fellows during a 4-day business bootcamp.

The seven graduates put forward for the first series of mentoring sessions with Mike are all from the 2011 Enterprise Fellowship Programme, LJMU's highly-successful business support package that helps graduates start a business and offers a financial investment of £1,500. 

The selected graduate businesses are all now trading and it was a valuable opportunity for the business owners to spend time with a recognised expert on entrepreneurship who has an impressive network that includes Sir Richard Branson. Mike has a very strong relationship with Liverpool, its people and its business and his passion and enthusiasm for Liverpool's entrepreneurial spirit has resulted in his appointment as 'Entrepreneur in Residence' by Liverpool Vision, the city's economic development company. 

After the mentoring sessions, the business owners talked of how much they had got from the session and the fresh perspective it gave them as they grow their businesses. More graduate businesses will have the opportunity to take part in regular monthly sessions that Mike will hold at the Centre for Entrepreneurship. Dominique Aspey, who organised the sessions, said afterwards, "we are very grateful to Mike for his time and support for our young entrepreneurs – what a fantastic opportunity to gain insight from a leading expert in business and entrepreneurship. This, ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool in March, makes it a truly exciting time to be involved in supporting self-employment."

For more information on LJMU's Centre for Entrepreneurship, please phone 0151-231 3300 or email startup@ljmu.ac.uk 

For more information on Mike Southon, please visit his website www.mikesouthon.com and for more information about the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, please visit the website www.gec2012.com