Written by Fatima R
We began Young Enterprise’s company program in October, as a group of students eager to learn about the world of business. With our team of 15 selected, we brainstormed possible ideas for a product, and our two strongest ones were organic soap bars and self defence key chains. To understand the market better we held a survey which was sent out to the whole school and price-trialled with the products at the Christmas fair, which led to us choosing self defence key chains as our product. In addition to the popular demand for them, we were concerned about the news of misconduct in the Metropolitan police force, the case of Sarah Everard, and many personal stories that led to our group feeling a real connection to the product and its background.
We then learned how to market our product, by building a website and creating numerous social media platforms, our Instagram averaged 100 views per post, and our TikTok ten times more. This was followed by even more successes, as the advertising video we had produced won the national Young Enterprise Advertisement award! To strengthen the image of our brand we created organic cotton tote bags that we screen printed ourselves with our fashionable logo, which was very popular with the younger years.
Our first public trade event was in Kingston, where we sold many Key chains and tote bags, and even had the chance to high-five the mayor of Kingston. Then the second, and more difficult, event was a trade fair at the Old Spitalfields market in the heart of London, competing with the metropolitan businesses was a daunting task, but our sales team pulled through!
Finally, after months of hard work, and persuading unwilling customers to spend their hard-earned cash, it was time for the company presentation. We rehearsed our presentation over and over again to ensure that we did not stumble in front of the judges. Seemingly, our rehearsals worked as we won the Second Best Company, enabling us to progress to the next round where we won the marketing award.
The journey has been long, and often we were stumbling in the dark, particularly when contacting suppliers for the first time and setting up our company bank accounts, but we have learned invaluable skills, which I’m sure many of us will use to set up a company in the not so distant future.
Well done to everyone who attended the South London final in Croydon:
- Fatima R (Managing Director)
- Vaisika T (Deputy MD)
- Priya P (Finance Director)
- Beatrice C (Social Media Director)
- Amy P (Marketing and Technology Director)
- Sophie B (Sustainability Director)
- Kate E
- Chloe L
- Alice P
Categories: Senior School Sixth Form Uncategorised