National Finals - Here we come!

The Young Enterprise Regional Finals was held at Loughborough College on April 4th. Thirteen Young Enterprise Companies arrived early to set up their trade stand and to practice their pitch, nerves were high among Kitless but we knew we could only do our best. The events management team did an excellent job orchestrating the event, it ran smoothly and they were more than happy to deal with some random requests.

The day started with setting up our stall, it was more frustrating than we anticipated it would be but we got there in the end. Slowly we had visitors, lecturers and students visit our stall, asking questions not only about our product but about our passion for sport - it was lovely to know that they were not just there for the product but for us too. Just before lunch Kitless was called into practice, this is where the nerves kicked in, after our allotted ten minutes of practicing (felt like an eternity) we were faced with the judges. This was it, all our months of research and weeks of practicing would all come out in our twenty minute judging slot. The pitch went very well, it was clear that we were nervous but the judges were less intimidating than we anticipated. We crossed our fingers and hoped to be announced as one of the top six to pitch for a second time in front of a considerably larger audience.

After lunch and once all the groups had presented, the judges went around all the trade stands asking further questions, giving feedback on our pitch and judging the trade stands. Once this was done, everyone was ushered into a large lecture theatre where the top six was announced - we were in, we had to present again for a spot in the top two to go through to the National Finals in Liverpool! The nerves kicked in again but this time they were more prevalent, hands were shaking, palms were sweaty and stomachs were turning but all of us wanted to get up onto the stage and show everyone why their company deserves a place in the final.

Our second pitch went a lot more successfully than the first, despite being more nervous we looked more relaxed and at ease with the audience, we even managed to make them laugh! There was a guest speaker who entertained us whilst the judges left to deliberate on award winners and who should be the two finalists, he was entertaining and informative, something that is hard to achieve. The judges came back to announce the winners, Kitless won three awards, BEST BUSINESS PLAN, BEST TRADE STAND and BEST INVESTMENT PROPOSAL. We had secured our place in the Young Enterprise National Final alongside Dynamic Sporting Solutions.

We are extremely excited for the journey ahead and will be keeping you updated of our progress over the next few weeks on our facebook page.