has been a busy year for us at university, not least with the launch of Oxford-based business incubator augureunet. The company has played a critical role in helping us conceptualise and launch our new business plan, fund our new first run exam preparation plan and get us through the summer holidays. We also hosted our second graders for some important afterschool programs this school year and were lucky enough to have an abundance of time to spend with them over the course of the year. We are very proud of what we have achieved so far and look forward to continuing to work towards even more success together moving forward.
Why build a new business plan?
First and foremost, we want to make sure that we are aiming for the best possible outcome for our students. This is why we design our business plan around different business goals and objectives and not just our own personal goals. As we grew in business, we realised that it was important to ensure that our business plan helped other students across the university have the same kind of success. As a result, we have designed our business plan to make sure that it is a reference point for students across the university.
Why build a university business plan?
A university business plan is essential to any new business plan, and one of the best ways to get started is with an application to the university. The application process is very similar to an idealistic startup, with the one important difference that students get to create their own business plan. Once we have a proposal and a few sample pages, we can proceed to the next step: writing a business plan.
The benefits of augureunet
First and foremost, augureunet is a registered charity with the UK Charity Commission. This means that it can be used as an educational partner as well as an employer when working with young people. We have been using this money-back guarantee from clients to help us get more students interested in business as we have been growing our business.
The challenges we have overcome so far
Unfortunately, the best-case scenario never seems to come true. It’s very difficult to get investors to fund your new business venture and the process of fundraising is very time-consuming. As a result, the majority of people who have invested in our company have not been particularly happy with their investment. Instead, they have recommended us to others, and we have therefore received a great deal of positive feedback. We are therefore hoping to see this as a great training ground for our next business venture as we move forward.
The future of tech in education
As technology has become more widespread in education, so has the opportunity for new businesses to spring up. With the advent of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning, students and researchers can now do something that was previously impossible – create software that can teach computers to overcome their learning limitations. This would mean that students would be able to create their own class schedules and assign topics to the Groningen Machine Learning Lab, for example. There has also been an incredible increase in interest in using technology in education, with more and more students identifying themselves as “tech savvy”. This is great news, as it means that there is a huge potential for tech-based new businesses in the future.
Summing up
The year has seen many changes for us at university, both in terms of the students and the departments we work within. The change has been immense, and it has been exciting to see the growth of our business. We have managed to keep our core values (honesty, integrity, respect for other’s ideas, etc.) as we have overcome the challenges we have faced so far this year. We will work hard to ensure that our new business plan is successful and that we are a valuable partner to the university community moving forward. We are very proud of what we have achieved so far and look forward to working together moving forward. As always, we would like to thank our investors, the university community, and all of the students for their fantastic support over the years.
