University Challenge

Year 9 GCSE Business Studies students enjoyed a visit to Plymouth University to take part in a marketing workshop run by staff and students from the University's Business School. The full-day visit was part of an outreach event designed to give our youngsters an insight in to university life and some of the courses on offer. After a guided tour of the campus the students worked in teams on an interactive marketing project which focused on the leisure industry. The students then enjoyed an excellent lunch, concluded their workshop with some outstanding presentations and listened to a fascinating talk on student life from one of the University's Student Ambassadors. Here are the thoughts of Charlie Bartlett on the day:

Charlie Bartlett makes his point

How would you summarise the visit Charlie?

I really liked the event. It helped me understand what marketing means and helped me to see how to apply it  to a particular situation.

Did it give you a useful insight to the opportunities available at university?

It helped me understand what I might be able to do in the future and to see what life is like in a university.

Is university an option you would consider in the future?

I would like to be a vet, doctor or a dentist so I would need to go to a university to study. Plymouth has a School of Dentistry so it might be somewhere I would consider when the time comes. I would like to set up a chain of dental practices where I can use my business studies knowledge.

Lucy Cullum, Megan Selley & Mel Bastow present their marketing plan

Cadbury World 2013: Mixing Business with Pleasure

It’s that time of year again when the Business Studies department make the 8 hour round trip to Cadbury World, Birmingham with our Year 10 Business Studies students.

The day started at 6am with 41 very excited students expecting to see something like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Incisive questions like “ Do we have to lick the walls?” and “Can you eat the grass?” were asked.

On our arrival, the students were pleasantly surprised by the huge factory building and its surroundings. Suddenly the history we have learned in Business, of how Cadbury came to Bournville and how George Cadbury looked after his employees with nice houses and recreational areas came alive.

Our arrival at the main attraction of the factory tour increased the excitement amongst students as we started to collect bars of chocolate, which were very quickly polished off. Three bars and and two cups of melted chocolate later and one student asked “please don’t give me any more chocolate!” Others believed they could eat more!

The factory tour showed students how the chocolate is packaged ready to be sent to the comany's customers, and how the factories at Bournville, Chirk and Marlbrook work together to produce Cadbury products. Half-way through the tour came the chocolate bean ride. It was time for Mr Leet and myself to ensure students were fully prepared for the ride of their lives with questions like “Do you like the dark?” and “How long did it take you to do your hair this morning? You might get a bit wet!”

Before lunch students were given the opportunity to wonder around the largest Cadbury shop in the world where they could buy plenty of Cadbury-branded merchandise as well as chocolate. A popular item is always the massive 1kg bar of chocolate brought for friends and family.

In the afternoon, students were given a lecture about how Cadbury chose their Bournville location, why the Somerdale factory in Bristol closed and a new factory opened in Poland. They also learned about how Cadbury is now owned by Mondelez International as of October last year and how the global company is organised across the continents in which they operate.

Overall a brilliant day was had by all and the journey home was a quiet one once the sugar highs had worn off.

The Enterpriser

Enterprising students: Tara Phillips, Kim Hill, Angus Masters, Charlie Bartlett & Daniela Lisik show-off their  Enterpriser Programme certificates

One of our Year 9 GCSE Business Studies groups took part in The Enterpriser project this month as part of Plymouth University's outreach programme. The project is delivered through an interactive business game and related classroom materials and aims to develop key business and enterprise skills. The Enterpriser's Donna Whitley and her team of students from Plymouth University ran three sessions here in college which focussed on the creation of an outline business plan for a restaurant/cafe. The programme concluded with a series of presentations from each of the student teams, all of which were of an extremely high standard and which once again, reflected the high quality of entrepreneurial talent that exists at Newton Abbot College. Angus Masters, who has already demonstrated a flair for commerce with his festive holly wholesaling business, found the experience really worthwhile, saying: "It was good to work with people from outside college and get the benefit of their advice and experience. It was an interesting and fun project and we were encouraged to be original with our ideas. There were some really good proposals." The Enterpriser project will now be run with the rest of our Year 9 Business Studies students during the Summer term. For more information about The Enterpriser and Plymouth University's Widening Participation programme, click on the links below.

 

Interview with an Entrepreneur

by Melis Blackford

Introduction

Melis Blackford interviews Paul Brealey of Lemon Jelli

Paul Brealey is the manager of Lemon Jelli. His business sells juices, milkshakes, teas, coffees, pizzas, crêpes, cakes, salads and breakfasts. Lemon Jelli is located in Newton Abbot and operates from a market stall in the Indoor Market, a mobile Citroën H Van and a café in Queen Street.

 

How long have you been running Lemon Jelli? 

Lemon Jelli has been running since 2007. It started off as a small café in Totnes selling juices, smoothies, coffees and sandwiches but it wasn’t very successful. I had the idea of selling our produce such as crêpes and drinks, at festivals using our French Citroën H Van and it worked! People liked this unique idea a lot and the business has been successful to this very day. 7 months ago, after owning a stall in the market for a while, I decided to expand the business to a café/bistro/bar in Queen Street.

 

What motivated you to start Lemon Jelli rather than work for an existing company?

I am motivated by a few things. The first is making sure that I am the best I can be. The next is creating employment for people; this is very important to me. Another thing is simply to be successful.

 

How have you made Lemon Jelli so successful?

I have made Lemon Jelli successful by focusing on what our customers think is attractive and desirable and also by being conscious of the point-of-sale and structure. For me, it is important to be moral and buy local and Fairtrade produce. It's also important for the ethics to be correct and to have an appropriate theme for Lemon Jelli; a French theme. Another key factor is to be prepared to work really hard and I have learnt to embrace technology and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, to advertise Lemon Jelli.

 

What top 5 tips do you have for people wanting to start their own business?

In my opinion, these are probably the things I say would be the most important to consider:

1. You need to establish the need and market for your product/business.
2. You need to ensure that you are profitable and can afford to enter the business world.
3. You must stay focused on your original goal and don’t lose sight of it.
4. You must be prepared to adapt to your customers' needs and preferences.
5. I think it is very important to choose your key staff carefully as they must be reliable and responsible.

And now a question for Melis:
Is starting a business something you would like to do, after talking to the entrepreneur? 
I think that starting a business would be very difficult and challenging because you would need to be able to cope with criticism and adapt well. Although this sounds tough, I think that creating my own business sounds like a possible career option for me because I enjoy Business Studies and I think I would enjoy the challenge.

A Real - and Special - Challenge

L-R: Aaron Lake, Abbie Wyatt, Ben Passmore, Reece Benson, Hannah Matson, Luke Sage & Toby Cook

Bristol City FC's Ashton Gate Stadium was the venue for the South West Regional Final of Coca-Cola's Real Business Challenge and a team of students from Newton Abbot College were there to do us proud. The team who devised "Frista" (see earlier blog post) had qualified as one of the top eight finalists from the region and arrived at the venue to face a previously unseen challenge: devise a campaign to promote public awareness for Special Olympics GB.

 

Special Olympics GB is a recognised member of the Olympic family with a unique role to play. Whilst we are all familiar with the Paralympics and its sports competitions for elite-level disabled athletes, the Special Olympics fosters community sport all-year-round at all levels for those with intellectual (learning) disabilities. You can find out more about it here.

Working with their business mentors from Coca-Cola Enterprises, the students were required to plan a media campaign – with associated celebrity endorsement, radio advert and campaign poster - and present their work to an audience of around 90 people including the judging panel.

It was quite a challenge, but one which the Newton Abbot College team rose to admirably and although their SOFestival idea was a great concept, it was sadly not one which would earn them a place at the National Final at Wembley Stadium next month.

Nevertheless, the Coca-Cola Real Challenge has proved to be a fantastic experience for our students and there is no doubt it was a great achievement to win through to the regional final stage of the competition. They’ve set a very high standard for our entries to meet next year and Mrs Davey & myself are looking forward to seeing if our Business Studies students can go one step further ….

Interview with an Entrepreneur

As one of their Extended Learning Tasks, Year 9 students were asked to carry out an interview with a local entrepreneur. This proved quite a challenge for some but we have had some great responses which I've really enjoyed reading. Over the next few posts we'll publish some of them. First up: Stephanie Robson-Close and her interview with Janette Harbron of Formcrete Ventures ...

Janette Harbron - Formcrete Ventures

 

Introduction: Who is the entrepreneur? What does your business sell? Where is it located? How long have you been running for?

The entrepreneurs of the business are the directors and they are Mark and Janette Harbron. Mark, the main director of the business is the person who drives the business forward. This business Formcrete Ventures sells expertise and knowledge for in-situ-concrete structures for newly produced buildings or alterations to existing buildings.  The office for Formcrete Ventures is located in Newton Abbot, but their structures are built all over Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. Formcrete Ventures has been running for almost twenty years.

What motivated the entrepreneur to start up their business?

The directors started the business by chance. A family member secured a contract for the business and needed help to complete it so he offered the directors a partnership. By starting their own business the directors were hoping for a good income rather than working for another business. One of the directors said: "I had no experience before I started the business, but as the business has developed I have learnt more about it each day that I work."

How has the entrepreneur made the business a success?

The business has been a success by competing successsfully against other businesses which also produce in-situ-concrete structures. Having fought-off the competition, the owners of Formcrete Ventures continued to make use of specific skills to make the business even better; determination, being committed to the business at all times through thick and thin and hard work. Also a little luck has helped to make the business a success.

What top 5 tips does the entrepreneur have for people who want to start up their own business? 

 

1.  To know their target market that the business is aiming at. Don’t avoid the target market - attract attention.
2. Employ a good accountant who has a working knowledge of your business and knows what they are doing. 
3. Hire competent staff who are always on time and want to drive the business further. Employ staff who have a good work ethic. 
4. Start and encourage a close relationship with your bank, meaning that you get to know the bank manager so if you get stuck you can get help
5. Every now and then take a leap of faith. Take some risks when times are tough. If you don’t take risks you will never know what could happen!

Is starting a business something you would like to do, after talking to the entrepreneur?

After talking to the entrepreneurs I would like to start my own business as I could make the decisions. I would hope that the business will drive forward into something special. There would be no set hours of when to work and where, so days off could be taken whenever needed. Once the business has been set up, the commitment that I would give my business will be the best as I would want to drive the business forward to become something that people will know and recognise. Talking to the entrepreneur made me think deeper about what actually would happen owning a business and that there is more than just being the entrepreneur of the business. There are also many other aspects that are involved, so being the owner is harder than it seems.  Starting my own business would mean that I would hopefully earn a good living from my own ideas rather than working for someone else.

The Real Business Challenge

 

This term, Business Studies students in Year 10 have been working on project called The Real Business Challenge. The challenge is run by Coca-Cola and the students' brief is to develop a new, sustainable healthy juice brand that has clear health benefits for the consumer. The juice brand must be original – including a brand name, logo and slogan - and the health benefits, packaging and ingredients must be clearly defined. Only one team can go forward to represent Newton Abbot College and after a hotly-contested competition to date, we have two finalists. In order to help us decide the winning team, we would like our blog readers to take part in a vote. Each team has submitted a 150 word pitch for your consideration. Please take some time to read the submissions below and click on your preferred choice at the top of this blog ....

FRISTA, a simple idea that works. 4 ingredients producing a flavour that would make you think it has 10. We aim for FRISTA to be consumed by teenagers, however our drink can be consumed by all ages. Raspberries have been proven to lower the risk of cancer therefore including these as our main ingredient makes our drink healthy and helpful. The lemon provides a slight tang and the raspberries give natural sweetness. Research shows 20% of 14-16 year olds are obese. This NEEDS to be addressed and our drink contains 85% fruit juice. The biggest event of the world came to London: The Olympic Games in 2012. The motto was “Inspire a generation”. How can you inspire a generation when one in five 14-16 year olds are unable to participate? We have created FRISTA to lower these levels.

Lower costs. Big flavour. Keeping it healthy.

FROOSH is a new, contemporary brand of smoothie as it’s designed for young teenagers.  Our brief was to create a healthy tongue-tingling beverage to appeal to you. Our product is priced at an economical £1.89 for 500ml. We analysed the beverage industry in the hope of enticing you as our consumers. In comparison to competitor brands such as Innocent, our product offers both an inexpensive price and an indulgent taste. We asked the public for their views on our drink. The majority of them chose a mango and passion fruit smoothie. To create the finest drink for you, we chose the most beneficial ingredients to make ‘healthy living easy’. Within FROOSH every ingredient obtains a health benefit: Mango is a source of potassium and potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids. We also use passion fruit - a rich source of minerals, vitamins and fibre