Things are looking good for Michelle!

Michelle Taylor has been frantically working away on her new design range after taking an enormous risk leaving a very successful position at Playboy Intimates. She tells us about what’s on the horizon for her, and has sent through some of the designs she has been developing, including her brand new logo for her company, Design by Bluebird:

"I’ve got a few possibilities with exciting new contracts in the near future with a key quality high street retailer, and there are also potential projects with various DJs and recording artists.

I’ve also been approached by someone in New York about forming a partnership so there’s definitely a lot in the pipeline… just need to secure a few deals now!"

Michelle

Don't forget, do drop us a line letting us know about your experiences, achievements or otherwise! Send them to stephen@ifwecanyoucan.co.uk and we'll get them on the blog for you.

North East hospice gets a helping hand from Jonathan

A Newcastle teenager whose online business has turned over more than £100,000 is now giving something back to the community by announcing a partnership with his local hospice.

After successfully establishing the forfree4u.co.uk network of websites, 17-year-old Jonathan Grubin, who is from Gosforth, today announces that St Oswald’s Hospice will be the company’s Charity of the Year.

Jonathan, who recently sat his AS levels at Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School, has previously supported the hospice through a large donation in April, taking part in June’s Northern Rock Cyclone fundraising event and promotional work to make the public aware of St Oswald’s Midnight Walk, which will take place in October.

Jonathan said: "I recognise the social responsibility that my company has, and I know that St Oswald's is an amazing local charity which will put our donations to good use. The charity carries out exceptional work throughout the North East, and I'm pleased that I'm able to share my success.

“I’ve always lived in Gosforth and so I know what good work the Hospice does. I’m glad that the money I’ve earned from forfree4u.co.uk enables me to put a little bit back into the local community that has helped me build the company."

Jonathan set up his first internet business, www.minig.co.uk, which sells mobile phone accessories, in 2004, when he was just 12. Since then, he has created two other sites: forfree4u.co.uk, a rewards site where members can sign up for free mobile phones, iPods and cameras, and livenewcastle.co.uk, a listings site for Newcastle, which is soon to re-launch.

The announcement was welcomed warmly by Viv Williamson, community fundraiser at St Oswald’s, who said: "We are thrilled that MiniG Media has adopted St Oswald's as their Charity of the Year. With our annual running costs exceeding £6million, it is only through companies like MiniG that we are able to continue providing our care.

"Jonathan is an inspiration to our younger generation and new businesses everywhere. We are very grateful for his support and look forward to working with him in the future."

Well done Michelle!

Hartlepool If we can, you can Challenge winner Michelle Taylor went to the Harrogate Lingerie Show on Monday to showcase her work amongst the best designers in the world. This is the first time at the show that she's revealed her own designs for her freelance business, rather than as a representative for Playboy. Coming back on a bit of a high, she tells us about her experience:

My day at the Harrogate Lingerie Show

I am so thrilled and feeling really good and focused coming home after the show. I know I can make it happen and am even more determined now. The potential in the lingerie sector is huge!

Prior to the day I made some special business cards in the form of giant love heart lollies (you know the way ones that you get from the sea-side) I then made my own design labels with my number and my email address on it tied with a big red ribbon. The original packets were tacky and so I cut down some plastic bags that I bought and sealed them neatly creating my own packaging.

I went onto stands asking if they take on freelancers and showed my portfolio to a few companies. A lot of the companies design in Italy/France but they were impressed and said they would pass on my details.

I definitely re-newed two contacts that I hope will turn into long term freelance opportunities, (a Chinese lady that I have worked with before and lost contact with wants me to design her next swim range ) and a top designer lingerie brand was thrilled to hear I had gone freelance as she needs a luxury /high end designer for her range and wants me to work with her on it.

I also chatted to a the lady who owns a high end lingerie store in London. She has stocked my previous designs and loves my retro/pretty hand-writing...she said when my sample range is ready she would like me to go and see her again!! It would be a great honour to have my range in her store (all the celebs like Sadie Frost/Jude Law go in apparently). Mariah Carey bought one of my corsets from there too.

All in all a great day... I also was interviewed by the Lingerie Buyer editor (who I have know but we have stayed in touch) and she has said that she would love me to go and meet her again when I have my sample range done in November.

Michelle Taylor

Babel develops innovative new learning tool

Game based learning company Babel Digital, run by Teesside If we can, you can member Jeremiah Alexander, has developed the first in a new series of 'serious games' they have been working on. 'Guanxi' uses 3D graphics and advanced animation techniques to teach people about how to engage with foreign cultures and languages, especially when it comes to international business relationships. Here, he tells us how he came up with the concept for Guanxi, and the steps he's taken to bring it to market:


Like any good solution Babel Digital’s GuanXi started with a problem. The idea for using games to teach foreign languages and culture actually came to me a long time ago while I was sitting on the Metro looking over notes from my Japanese evening class and thinking, there must be an easier way to learn than this. That was the starting point, which seemed to match in nicely with the work I was doing using advanced games technologies and I began to see how video games could be applied in novel ways to solving this problem. This was the beginning of my interest in Serious Games.

Video games are often at the centre of a lot of controversy and recently have received unfounded negative criticism. Strangely enough, it’s for many of the same reasons that they are criticised that can also make them great tools for learning. Games are all about immersion that’s their real strength, they can relax you, then they can engage you and then that’s when you’re psychologically in the best mindset to learn.

Looking deeper, games have numerous strengths as a learning medium, such as the ability to accommodate all styles of learners visual, auditory and kinaesthetic due the variety of media possible. Additionally, we know that absorbing learning material on as many levels as possible is the best way to ensure that as much as possible is captured. Again games strike gold here, as the iterative nature of games increases the retention process and the challenges presented forces users to apply, and reapply their learning in immersive ways. These are the three steps required to best facilitate understanding.

With Gunaxi we asked ourselves, what is the single best way to learn a language and the culture? The answer was… actually living in the country of that language and culture! It’s all about immersion and necessity. We looked into ways to emulate this invaluable experience and this is where games came in. Using realistic games technology we can simulate real to life scenarios just like someone would face if they were in a foreign country and by making their understanding of the culture and language the driver for progression, we are able to facilitate the learning as if they were there. However, as we have full control over the environment we are able to add benefits beyond real-life scenarios, we can direct the situations that someone faces and furthermore, we can track performances and tell users how they can improve.

Alongside our bespoke development work, we have designed and developed a prototype of the system allowing us to demonstrate the concept and prove our hypothesis. As a next step we will be taking this successful model and developing a version to release online in time for the Chinese New Year. We’re really excited about launching the product; we believe it will make a really strong impact on the way people learn.

Jeremiah Alexander
MD – Babel Digital Ltd

For more info, visit http://www.babeldigital.com/guanxi.html

Red tape anyone?

The 'I need help with' feature recently installed on If we can, you can has generated some fantastic responses from the community. People who have been through certain experiences have been more than happy to pass on their nuggets to someone struggling with the same thing. Take for example Sue Harris, who very kindly offered her advice to Magdalena Fowler after admitting she struggles with doing accounts and business finance by herself. We'd like to share this with anyone who finds it tough breaking through red tape!

"The best piece of advice I can give you is to go along to your local HMRC office and ask them for information on workshops that they run, free of charge, which gives you a lot more insight into what you can and cannot do when it comes to filing returns, paying employees, being self employed and lots more. I did all of the available workshops prior to starting up and found them invaluable."

Guroo set to soar

If we can, you can member Jonathan Wells of Guroo has predicted a rapid growth is about to take place in his business, with a shake up in the education system.

The Journal published an article on Jonathan today, as he spoke about his plans for Guroo. The education software business is producing diplomas for children aged 14-19 who will be able to study ‘real life’ skills via video, podcasts, interactive online tests and downloadable solutions.

He believes the software will become a hit in schools nationally and help him increase turnover from £50,000 to £1.2m by next year and £10m by 2013.

Jonathan said in the article: “We have already had a lot of encouraging responses from the schools and colleges that we have been working with. Their input has helped us make the software even better.”

To read the full article click http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/technology-news/tm_campaign=Newcastle_email_nebusinessemail%3A20080807%26headline=education-man-to-multipy-sales%26method=full%26objectid=21481804%26siteid=51140-name_page.html?campaign=Newcastle%5Femail%5Fnebusinessemail%3A20080807

And to read about Jonathan’s entrepreneurial journey so far, click www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/entrepreneurs/jonathan-wells