Social network buys good ideas with PayPal

Guest blog from Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation www.enterprisenation.com , a business expert, and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up’ and ‘Working 5 to 9’.

Online social network for homeworkers Enterprise Nation is giving £100 to 100 businesses and would-be businesses for their ‘good ideas’. The competition, in association with PayPal, is asking its members how they’d spend the money on their ventures, awarding £10,000 in all.

Ideas 101 in association with PayPal launched last month and asks, “If we gave you £100, how would you spend it?” And the question’s not hypothetical! PayPal and Enterprise Nation are giving £100 to 100 of its members with the best business ideas. The money can be spent on anything from training, to equipment or branded t-shirts.

Judging the ideas are Enterprise Nation founder and expert Emma Jones, Enterprise Nation community manager, editor San Sharma, and experts at PayPal. The judges are looking for the ideas that best help businesses start or grow online.

Emma Jones says: “When starting out, £100 can be a big help in securing that first customer. And for businesses that are growing, good ideas can cost little but make lots! £100 can make all the difference in starting or growing a business - and hopefully Ideas 101 will get businesses thinking about how.”

Cameron McLean, General Manager of Merchant Services at PayPal adds: “PayPal is delighted to be supporting this competition, which we see as a way of stimulating businesses to think of ideas and then turn them in to action with the funds on offer. I’m confident Ideas 101 will help small business flourish yet further in the UK.”

Enterprise Nation is announcing 20 winners each month in the run up to its annual conference in November, where one will be crowned Home Business Idea of the Year.