34
In School
Young Enterprise
In life there are some things that a textbook and a
classroom can’t teach you: how to cash a cheque, how to
design an advert and, arguably most importantly, how to
survive in the world of business. To develop these skills you
have to do something extra, and for eight Borlase students
that came under the name of “Young Enterprise”. Young
Enterprise is a national competition where students across
the country are given the opportunity to create their own
business, sell a product or a service, and hopefully make
some money.
After our first few meetings, subsequent to us introducing
ourselves and brainstorming initial ideas, we settled on
a product and a company name. We would be trading as
“Wood ‘n’ Letters” and selling personalised door signs for
children. We pursued this idea for the best part of a month
until finally surrendering to the inevitable. Complex
production and high start-ups made it an unsustainable
business.
Whilst general morale was low our managing director,
Ben Traves, was still hopeful. He had an idea that would
both solidify the death of “Wood ‘n’ Letters” and lead to the
formation of a new company. We decided to manufacture
novelty clocks created from used bottles and old records.
We needed a name that would fit our product. It had
to emphasise our company’s environmental qualities,
describe our product, and symbolise the reformation of
our company. ReWind was born.
Fast forward four months and, after a very successful
Christmas, it was the day of the Wycombe district finals.
We had to produce a trade stand which displayed our
product, branding, finance etc. We then had a series of
interviews where we pitched our company to different
judges in the hope of winning an award and cash prize.
The awards included one for marketing, the environment,
manufacturing and many other categories summing up
with a final award for the best overall company. For the
latter award we also had to submit a business report and
do a short presentation.
By the end we were satisfied that we had done our best
and hoped this would show. It didn’t. Apart from the very
first award for “corporate image” we proceeded to lose
every single award. We had given up hope and regressed
to the mentality of toddlers, sneering and insulting other
teams as they went up to claim their, retrospectively,
well deserved awards. Finally was the award for “best
company.” The winner of this award would go on to
represent Wycombe district at the county final. We won
this one. Needless to say it was quite surprising. Then,
whilst giggling like little school girls, we approached the
stage to collect our award.
