Simply Do Ideas is a trailblazing new online platform which provides young people who have enterprising ideas with the tools they need to shape them into viable business plans. In the past month, the organisation has achieved IOEE Enterprise Academy status. We caught up with Chief Executive Officer Lee Sharma, who told us more about Simply Do Ideas and what its new IOEE Enterprise Academy status means to the organisation.

Before setting up Simply Do Ideas, Lee Sharma had himself enjoyed a number of entrepreneurial adventures. Most notably, the Chief Executive Officer of this fresh new enterprise software company founded a successful specialist recruitment business and he also spent many years delivering enterprise curriculum and start-up programmes. However, before enjoying these successes, in 1999 aged just 25, Lee endured one particular setback which seeded the idea for his future business. He recalls an early and ill-advised attempt to secure finance:

“I just walked into a bank, dressed casually and said ‘I have this idea, what do I do?’ They took me to the bank manager and he looked down his nose and said ‘Have you got a business plan, have you got three years’ cash flow forecast?’ Of course I didn’t and he shooed me off the premises. I felt awful so I know what it’s like to be a young person with a business idea and no clue what to do about it!”

This experience and later more successful forays into the world of enterprise, along with an interest in information technology, created the perfect storm for Simply Do Ideas to spring into life. Having worked in the enterprise sector for over a decade, and through conducting his own research, Lee had come to understand that while young people have fantastic business ideas, they often become stuck at the planning stages. Although the ideas were good, these entrepreneurs-in-waiting were often confused as to how to test them or how to realise them in the real world. Simply Do Ideas was the answer. Lee explains how the tool works:

“Simply Do Ideas exists to simplify the enterprise process for young people. We’re the bridge between having that brilliant, slightly mad idea in your head and the formal, completed business plan. A young person who has an idea can use Simply Do Ideas to collate thoughts and content within the platform – video, images, text. That helps to capture all their creativity and they get something that looks like a business presentation, or a pitch deck which they can then use to progress their idea.”

Lee trialled the software with young people directly, via the universities and colleges he expected to form the bulk of his client base. However, having conducted extensive research, Lee and his team and have realised that demand for their product is far wider reaching, as he explains:

“Originally we were looking to only target universities and colleges, but because the curriculum is changing, comprehensive schools have an agenda to encourage more enterprising skills. We’ve even started working with primary schools and we’re having discussions with other organisations too, ranging from banks and charities to prisons!.”

Simply Do Ideas is so flexible that Lee and his team themselves used an early prototype of the software to create their own successful £75k pitch to investment angels, without using a separate business plan. As young people use Simply Do Ideas, teachers or lecturers can access their students’ work and comment on it as it develops. Lee and his team have identified three primary scenarios in which the platform can be used most effectively. Firstly, it can be utilised by start-up support teams within universities, colleges and other enterprise support organisations. Start-up managers or enterprise managers use it to help young people with real world enterprise ideas that they want to pursue to fruition. Secondly, it can be used by educators teaching in specific curriculum areas to introduce an element of entrepreneurial thinking to almost any subject. Lee uses the example of a textile class to demonstrate his point:

“A textiles lecturer may not know much about business planning but they’re required to deliver an enterprise module, as almost all universities must now. That lecturer would issue their students with a code to access Simply Do Ideas. Even those young people who have never considered an entrepreneurial future will be engaged in early stage business planning. Universities see the platform as a stepping stone to more serious business planning.”

The third area where Simply Do Ideas is extremely effective is in providing a level playing field from which universities, colleges and schools, plus other organisations can hold enterprise competitions and awards for young people. Most recently, Cardiff University has used the software as part of an enterprise funding competition, as Lee explains:

“Cardiff University ran a competition called Spark with a prize fund of £7000. In that competition, rather than having entrants send in clunky PDFs or Word docs to explain their ideas, Simply Do Ideas was used by all entrants to manage their application process.”

Right now, Simply Do Ideas is expanding as a business, reaching into new markets. For example, there is a version in development for primary age children, designed to instil an enterprising attitude in kids from the very start of their education. They are also currently running trials in China. The team, still just four-strong, is thrilled that Simply Do Ideas has secured its IOEE Enterprise Academy status. For Lee, who has been an individual IOEE member for a number of years, this new title is extremely significant, lending his ambitious young enterprise an important stamp of approval. He says:

“It’s about showing our credibility above and beyond other organisations. There are lots of companies springing up saying they can provide advice to young people who want to start their own business, and that terrifies me! I’ve been through a long training process, working hard to gain this status. To be an IOEE Enterprise Academy sets us apart from unscrupulous parties – it’s an endorsement that tells the world we’re professional, trustworthy and recognised by a solid industry body.”