Melanie’s card is well marked

Oct 25 2007 by The Journal

CHILDREN making their own Christmas cards this year may be taking some inspiration from a Gateshead entrepreneur – just months after she was named as a finalist in an internet trading competition.

Melanie Dixon, from Dunston, was one of 10 budding entrepreneurs from across the region who each won £2,000 to start their own business via eBay, in a challenge run by regional development agency One NorthEast and e-business development agency the North-East Regional Portal.

The idea of the ‘YouTrade’ competition was to encourage online entrepreneurship across the North-East and now, only three months after launching her business Colourwithme, which sells pre-designed cartoon birthday cards for kids to colour, Melanie says she is already looking at expanding her range.

“Making it as one of the final 10 YouTraders was the funniest feeling. I was proud, happy and scared all rolled into one,” she said. “All the hard work involved in getting the business plan together and working on my presentation had paid off. It’s still very early days and there’s a lot of work to do in marketing – but ultimately I want a recognised brand out there that everyone wants to buy. I will be expanding the range to cover older children, and at the moment I’m working on some hand- finished Christmas cards ready to go online.”

Melanie had been making her own Christmas cards for many years, and seeing how much the recipients liked them was the inspiration to try the idea as a business – building on the concept of a product which parents can use to keep children busy.

YouTrade was launched last November. Among the other successful pitches to the Dragon’s Den-style panel were business plans for jewellery and accessories, fitness equipment sales, and antiques companies.

The winners have now started trading via eBay, and are competing to be the most successful in their first year of trading. To help them, they are getting support through a series of boot camps about all aspects of running an internet business and entrepreneurship in general. Andy Walton, e-business manager at One NorthEast, said: “When we launched YouTrade, we wanted to inspire people to be enterprising and to turn their ideas into something real. If we are to achieve the region’s aim of starting 22,000 new businesses in the next decade to help us close the productivity gap between the North-East and other English regions, we have to develop our entrepreneurial culture and make sure people have access to the skills they’ll need to succeed in running their own business.

“All our YouTraders are demonstrating that, with hard work, strong business advice and a quality idea, the opportunities are out there.”

Regional Portal chief executive Norma Foster said: “We are delighted that Mel’s venture has taken off so quickly. She is proving to be an inspiration and an example to us all of how a great idea, coupled with creativity and enterprising spirit, can become something big.

“As e-business champions, we want to encourage and support entrepreneurship in the region and the YouTrade competition has been a fantastic opportunity for 10 entrepreneurs to develop a business idea online.”

When it comes to the race for the YouTrade title, Melanie says it’s enough just to have Colourwithme officially trading. She said: “Being the overall winner would be a major achievement, but I’ve already won getting this far – just being able to trade on eBay and start the business running.”

In addition to One NorthEast and the North-East Regional Portal, partners of the YouTrade competition are Sage (UK) Ltd, eBay, bgroup (UK) Ltd, Platform One Ltd, BT and Business Link North-East.