Manchester Youth Market

I was told to meet my tutor at the Northenden campus at 9am, as we had a talk that the Manchester Youth Market was hosting. This wasn't a problem for me as I actually live closer to Northenden than I do Fielden, although I still had to try find it. I left plenty of time in the morning and ended up getting there before everybody else, but without any issues.

The talk started at 9:30 and it was finished by 10ish which surprised me, I was expecting it to be at least an hour. I thought the talk went well though, I had no idea who they were before hand. I came out very intrigued by what they do, and I would like to take advantage of the services they provide, possibly when I've got a better understanding of graphics.

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The talkers today were Lisa, who works with the We Love Manchester Charity and Sade, who works for the Manchester council. From what I learnt there the Manchester Youth Market (I'll refer to it as MYM) is co funded by both the We Love Manchester Charity and the Manchester council.

Basically it's set up for 16-30 year old's that live or learn in Manchester to be able to have their business idea's heard and to have the chance to be funded and sold on test markets, for free!* It still comes at a cost though, you can't just show up with a random idea to sell on a market and be funded straight away. You have to be professional about what you're pitching and have accountability, just do your research before showing up and be able to talk directly to marketing. Makers Market has a 1 strike system, so if you're not acting professional when trading you'll lose your spot.

The market opportunities they provide are great, you get up to 20 test markets. A mass email will get sent out to us traders and lets say they'll be 4 spaces available on a market, out of everyone that responds, MYM will pick a varied range so it's not full of the same kind of stalls.

One thing that stood out to me was that you they will share your products on their social media that has a reach of 5-6 thousand. This sounds like a really good way to start up and get your name out there as social media is really pivotal these days.

I found out that some of the successful traders products they've dealt with are as follows:

- Candles

- Pies

- Waffles

- Jewellery

- Plants

- Cards

- Bracelets

- Custom Lego figures for special events (weddings)*

While in the talk I did a mini mind map about the types of products I could sell on a market, I came up with:

- Print making, cards, special events, typography?

- Free lance photography, printing on special types of material, log ends, cloth?

- *Continuing with that Lego idea I saw an artist who photographed Lego figures and framed them, possibly to a take on this and do child hood favourite toys in serious situations? (like Woody from Toy Story stuck in traffic on a 9-5 job). Make it relate-able! (Not sure if I can get away with that legally though! Also Photoshop the images to make them very visually pleasing and/or maybe have it very out of the ordinary.

Alternatively you can go to People plus for a start up if you don't want to go through MYM. The central library in Manchester also provides a free to use business centre for ideas and researching, as well as a solicitor to speak to about copy righting and a 3D printer free to use!

In conclusion I enjoyed the talk, I like to hear about the opportunities I could use whether it be now or down the road. Although I would have liked to have the talk go on for longer, it felt like people in the back didn't necessarily want to be there unlike us. Besides that, as I said I enjoyed it and it was very useful.

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Here's the links to their website and social media, check them out!

http://manchesteryouthmarket.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/MCRYouthMarket/

https://twitter.com/mcryouthmarket?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/mcryouthmarket/

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Also sorry Paolo, it's only around 700 words.