Young Enterprise Ideas

[Alex Jonas]

Hi,

I am the managing director of a young enterprise team and we are at the stage of choosing a main product. This product will be sold for the 1 year duration of our team.

Please can you post some ideas for me?

Many thanks

Alex Jonas

Managing Director
Young Enterprise

 

[GRDCredit]

Welcome Alex and good luck. I did a stint a few years back acting as an adviser to a local Young Enterprise group and had a great time.

The team I worked with made clocks out of CDs - that probably dates me and is probably not a lot of use to you (I suppose the equivalent is making clocks out of iPods!)

No doubt some more imaginative minds than mine will be along shortly with some ideas. In the meantime if you decide to sell your product/service on credit (although I don't suggest you do!) then feel free to ask me for advice!!

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

What interests do your team have? It is a lot easier to sell something that you are either knowledgeable or passionate about.

 

[toastking]

I did this when in college and refused to sink my own money in when they didn't follow my advice to not do a calender. It was a stupid idea since nobody knew anyone else at college so it wasnt fun to see other people in the pictures so nobody bought them.

Moral of the story is, who can you sell to, that will largely determine what it is you sell. I think you will make more money if you do a service and put in the time, and then split the workload between you and it will make it a lot more fun.

 

[babybearcrafts]

I did young enterprise a few years ago.

We sold colouring packs and craft packs for young children and had stands at the local shopping centre at weekends.

These were quite good to do as they only cost pence to make and had large margins on, they were also priced very cheaply so people did not begrudge paying as everything was 99p to £2.99 so was pocket change.

 

[Alex Jonas]

Hi and thanks for your posts.

Basicaly we have a large busy shopping centre 20mins drive away, We are all 16/17 years old in Year 12, our school has kids from year 9 (13 years old) to year 13 (18 years old), 1200 kids total.

Alot of us have an intrest in sport and some in music/art.
We have a skilled IT Director who can make good websites so we can sell through eCommerce.

We need something like that making clocks from CDs, something original and different, just the thinking of product is what we are struggling with, so I thought the minds of this forum will produce more ideas than the 14 of us.

Please keep the ideas coming!

Alex Jonas

Managing Director
Young Enterprise Team

 

[DAbusinessconsultant]

Depending on the product a website might not be needed initially (although for the experience you could get one up and running).

If you are selling a new product to the public the best way is to pretty much find your target audience and get at them. Wether this be via specialised forums / social networking / door to door / internal / contract etc each product may have a more suitable approach to sales.

eg: An accountant would get more luck from door to door business sales and word of mouth than by having a website that is badly SEO'd and designed. A car salesman on the other hand would be better off having a good online presence to drive trade and adverts in automotive magazines.

As Christmas is approaching why not try something festive to start with? Present wrapping services at local businesses? hand made christmas cards? funky designed jumpers hand made xmas jumpers? All of these could be punted internally at your school possibly (apart from the wrapping service) as well as at a stall etc.

 

[officemunkey]

try looking at retail fairs in china, they take place once or twice a year and you can buy products ridiculously cheap

 

[MikeD08]

Gosh, is it that time of year already? I'm going to keep this brief - I've offered the same advise on 4 or 5 occassions now and each time it's been followed it has been a success:

1) Contact local bands
2) Ask local bands to contribute 1 track (alot of bands are able to record stuff in their bedrooms but you need to ensure the quality of recording is good)
3) Compile a CD of local artists & flog it for around a fiver.
4) Contact local music venue (pub, village hall etc.) with view to putting on concert
5) Ask each band on the CD to play
6) Flog tickets
7) Bask in glory as you're empire grows and you become the new Simon Cowell (only better!)
8) Pay me for me for the excellent advise.

Obviously flesh this out a bit for yourself but there's the basics for you.

 

[Alex Jonas]

Thank you for the suggestions.

We had thought about organising gigs for older kids and discos/parties for young kids, this CD idea would create a brand image and help us to promote our events.

Please keep any other ideas coming.

 

What are the criteria? Are you judged on profit alone?

From a social point of view, the market has to be sustainability (clocks from CDs being a good example). it's a bit cliched, but will always capture the imagination.

 

[Dan2525]

Thank you for the suggestions.