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Mum and daughter planning business success

A local mother and daughter battled it out as they pitched against each other in a bid to win £10,000 in a regional entrepreneurial business planning competition. The pair entered the Blueprint Business Planning Competition 2007 at their respective universities and both made it through to the finals. Dawn Branley and mum Elizabeth Branley are hoping that their ideas will one day develop into profitable business empires.

Newcastle University psychology student Dawn secured a place in this year’s regional grand final with her business ‘Freedom Self-Drive Horsebox Hire’, which allows members of the equestrian community to independently take their horse to tournaments and championships. Mum Elizabeth who is currently studying a full time BA course in Art and Design at the University of Sunderland, got through to the Sunderland final with her business idea ‘PhoneAnimate’, which is a 3D animation service which personalises mobile phone wallpapers and screensavers with animations of family, pets or favourite pastimes.

Dawn said: “I was strange being up against my Mum even though we were from different universities it still felt like we were up against each other. “I’m really proud of my mum who got far at Sunderland’s competition and even though she was not successful in making it through to the regional finals she will still be there to support me.”

Elizabeth said: “I’m sure Dawn will do really well. Thanks to the competition we’ve both received an extra confidence boost which makes us feel like we can achieve anything. We’re both like-minded individuals who aim high, so who knows we may end up becoming business partners some day.”

On Wednesday 17 October Dawn will go head to head with many other hopefuls from four other universities across the region to battle for the prestigious Business Award and a share of £100,000 prize money and in-kind support.

The Blueprint Business Planning Competition brings together graduates, undergraduates, staff and Alumni from all five of the North East Universities to discover the best business ideas from the region’s most talented students. For a full list of competition finalists visit the Blueprint website at www.blueprintcompetition.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .