A group of A Level Business students from HSDC lined up to pitch their company ideas to a panel of senior leaders.
Each student was tasked with putting together a business plan that included estimated costs, pricing, profit margins and expansion. They were each given ten minutes to pitch their idea to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel.
The idea behind this entrepreneurial enrichment program was to provide students who might be interested in setting up and running their own business in the future, an opportunity to do just that.
Within the delivery of the A Level Business specification, the students are provided with theory in the class environment. This enrichment gives them the opportunity to put what they’ve learned into practice, combining the theory with the students’ desire to set up and run a business.
Students gained an understanding of what it actually takes to come up with an idea, undertake market research and produce a business plan, before pitching for investment.
Some of the students’ ideas included the following:
Rebecca Crowe – The Royale Sweet Company
The Royale Sweet Company specialises in supplying consumers with vintage sweets. They are stored in jars and weighed out into paper bags for the consumer. A modern twist on traditional Victorian sweet stores, to sell on campus.
This was a nice idea that touched into current trends, it was well thought through and delivered with confidence.
Clarke Nandu-Swatton – The Bathstop
The Bathstop is a luxury toiletries company, selling gift hampers compiled of soaps, bath bombs and candles. The gifts will be presented in little baskets or boxes, wrapped in tissue paper.
A lovely idea for Christmas gifts, the panel were impressed with the array of products and felt it was a unique, well thought through idea. It could make a profit if set up in time for the festive season.
Mohammed Aqib & Junel Batulayan – M&J Cans
The concept of M&J Cans is to allow people to quench their thirst through multiple varieties of canned soft drinks.
The panel didn’t go easy on Mohammed and Junel, giving them quite a grilling on why these drinks would sell against products already on offer. The business owners stood their ground and impressed the panel with their market research and trust in their idea and brand. The pair answered all questions to reassure their potential investors.
Holly New – Airiss
A revolutionary sustainable custom clothing brand, Airiss redesigns and up-cycles pre-existing fabrics to transform them into one-off designs. Holly’s presentation was slick and included a short advert, visuals of her website and examples of her clothing line.
The panel were really impressed with Holly’s creative and confident presentation. They felt she would indeed make a success of the business if she perhaps reviewed the pricing in reference to her target audience.
Amelia Spry – Amelia’s Revision
A business that creates revision material for A Level students. Amelia’s Revision produces flashcards for all subjects for students. Working with the top
performing students per subject, Amelia offers incentives to write the content ensuring it is exactly what the revising students will need for their subject.
The panel liked this idea. Amelia was the first to present and was questioned a lot around the content, creation, time and pricing for this venture. Amelia held her nerve and answered the questions with confidence and evidence to back up her findings and calculations.
Jamie Harrison, Course Manager for A Level Business at HSDC, said: “The students spent a lot of time researching potential ideas that would suit the target market here at the Havant Campus. The ideas varied significantly between the individual students, but all ideas eventually put forward for pitch focused on a gap in the market that their research showed was not being fulfilled.”
He added: “The business plans were professionally produced and the presentations stood out – as did the students themselves who were dressed in full business attire for the presentation showing how seriously they took it.
“Whilst they were of course nervous, all students were able to confidently talk about their business and their ideas within the given time frame and were able to answer questions asked by the panel. They clearly knew their business inside and out and this showed in their responses and their passion on the day. Overall, it was a great success.”