Virgin.com caught up with Rebecca Heath, CEO of social enterprise Internocracy, to discuss top tips for entrepreneurs, internships and David Brent impressions…

Greg Rose: How difficult is it being an entrepreneur when you are so young?

Rebecca Heath: I think it could have been more difficult than we’ve made it. We’ve turned it to our advantage, being an organisation that’s all about helping young people and improving employers’ reputations with young people. We’ve turned the young start-up figure into a good USP for us.

GR: Is a good idea always a good idea in any financial/political climate?

RH: Definitely not. We conceived the idea of Internocracy a couple of years ago, before we’d had any real experience in business. Getting that experience was really crucial. No matter what the idea, service or product is you’ve got to have that experience and start making connections as soon as possible. We were lucky in that when we conceived our idea we could see the zeitgeist of public interest, media interest and policy interest around internships really starting to take off. So, as well as pushing the way forward we have also rode along.

GR: How scary was it leaving a ‘normal’ job?

RH: I think it depends on the amount of support that you get. It wasn’t too scary for us as we had already planned out the amount of support that we would have from our funders, family and friends and that kind of thing. With all of those plans in place we weren’t too scared to leave our normal jobs. You know that feeling when you go into work and think you’re going to do so much work today. Then you get home and think ‘I don’t think I’ve done anything but answered emails all day’. To break out of that was an absolutely brilliant thing. There are definitely scary aspects to running your own business but leaving your old job isn’t one of them.

GR: What are the scary aspects?

RH: Presenting your product to people who don’t like you – or the product! Obviously that’s where being a young entrepreneur comes in again; when you’re only 24 some people don’t take you seriously a lot of the time. Some people have to have a lot of faith in you. Networking is very scary the first time – but if there is food there it helps! Generally getting turned down, trampled upon, shouted at by the press. All of the usual things that you should expect but you don’t because you didn’t know you would make such an impact.

GR: How do you deal with people doubting you?

RH: Try to turn a lot of the potential disadvantages into advantages, Being youth-led, promoting ourselves as a youth organisation, really helps. When people doubt you it is often because they don’t have enough information or they are not quite clued up about what you are talking about. Part of our campaign is to enable employers and young people to really hear what we are talking about and understand the issues involved.

GR: What are your three top tips for people starting out?

RH: Top three tips? Ah, I could do a David Brent but I’m not going to.

GR: Go on…

RH: No, no I couldn’t. If Dom (Internocracy partner) was here I guarantee he would have started with the Brent impressions. So, ok. Number one – to get people that you know and like involved, even if they are not useful at that particular time, because they will be useful in the future. Number two – to slog away at your business day after day. Just keep doing it. Because the longer you exist the more chance you have of coming across this amazing funder, or an amazing partner that you didn’t know existed. Number three – try to make friends and not enemies.

GR: Why internships?

RH: It was our own experiences with internships. I did an internship with a charity in London, which was atrocious as I was essentially the receptionist for six months. Then I did six months an internship at the Council of the European Union in Brussels and it was fantastic, I couldn’t have had a better experience. There are so many people that it affects for only three or six months and then they move into a proper job and forget all about it. For employers, they can afford to take a gamble on interns as they think even if they are a bit rubbish they will be moving on sooner rather than later. We saw the need to tackle that core. Even though it was quite transient we knew that it was a recurring problem that happened time and time again. So it was really grasping out and anchoring the problem.

GR: If this issue affects so many people, why hasn’t a business like Internocracy been done before?

RH: Exactly - that’s what we thought, so we started it ourselves. Employers get a brilliant gig out of it, as they essentially get work for free or not very much. The really smart employers – magic circle law firms and the top four accountancy firms – have really keyed into the fact that they need to pay their interns and provide an amazing experience. They have fantastic internship programmes. But if you look at someone who wants to go into the charity sector, the media, the arts, there are all of these really transient things going on and it is so easy to get exploited.

GR: What is your long-term plan? How long into the future should entrepreneurs plan?

RH: It’s difficult to plan too far ahead. Our grand goal is to completely change the culture of internships in the UK and ensure everyone has access to the information they need around internships. It’s building more understanding, getting employers to work hard to provide great opportunities, forcing more action to be taken on internships as they become increasingly important in our society and rolling out the ISIP mark.

GR: What’s that?

RH: The ISIP mark is the Internocracy Star Internship Programme, which accredits fantastic internship programmes. It’s across sectors, not just shiny corporate law firms ploughing millions of pounds into it. We’re currently accrediting a number of charities, flexible internships, across the board. It’s about all the different aspects of quality. It’s not just about getting paid, it’s about the opportunities that you get, the projects you get to be involved in, the meetings you are taken along to and the guidance you are given as a young person entering the workforce for the first time. We worked with the Young Foundation, MyBnk and Envision to develop it as more people should know about their great internships. We’ve also accredited Phil Willis MP for his fantastic quality internship. He’s put time, effort and money into it and given a great experience. As we go into work with large corporate partners and charities, who we are announcing soon, we are looking for quality of experience rather than name. It’s what they offer, that’s the exciting bit.

GR: What’s the best part of being an entrepreneur?

RH: I’ve never been one of those people who always wanted to be their own boss – but now I am, haha. I guess the best part is making something happen. It’s getting together with people just for conversation and by the end of the day you’ve come up with an idea that you all want to make happen. If you connect with the right people you can make things happen, which is a fantastic feeling.

GR: And the worst?

RH: It’s definitely feeling a lack of motivation, getting bogged down because you have nobody else to help you. So it’s time management and not having all the resources that you need.
 
GR: What is your biggest weakness?

RH: I think for a lot of new entrepreneurs the biggest weakness is expecting too much too soon and that is certainly the case with me. But if you don’t badger people then you don’t get things.

GR: And finally, your biggest strength as an entrepreneur?

RH: Just going for it. Deciding to do something and not stopping until you get there.

For more from Internocracy look up their website or get in touch on Twitter. For more information on all things entrepreneurial, take a look at Virgin Media Pioneers and Virgin.com's PitchTV.

Greg Rose