Week 8 Enterprise

The apprentice challenge the aim of this challenge is to make the most profit over three challenges.
When our team leader Sander came back from the meeting he asked the entire class are we interested in the apprentice challenge. So I have decided to sign up for because it will be interesting. Our team member includes Sidsel, Katarzyna, Hanas, Jagoda, Sander and me also luckily we manage to hand in the application form before the deadline. Our team name was Bunkey, the reason why we called our team Bunkey is because it is funky and reminds us Bucks New University. I missed the first meeting due to personal issues. But Sander e-mailed me the minutes so I knew what the plan is. We were sponsored by AMT Coffee.

Firstly we got given £50 by our sponsor as starting cash so we can buy the materials that we need and our first challenge was to sell doughnuts around High Wycombe. Once we made a time to meet we discussed how we were going to market our doughnuts. Then we decided to market them as lucky doughnuts. The reason why we called them lucky doughnuts is because in each one there is a fortune message inside and we neatly wrapped each doughnut. The first stage of the challenge started at 11am to 3pm and we decided to split the team in two, I and Sander went around the university and the rest was at the city centre. We were selling for a pound each and we manage to sell most 140 doughnuts but at the end we had nine left.
The second challenge was to make our own products to sell at the Eden Centre. So we decided to sell handmade Christmas cards, decorations and offer give wrapping service. We planed out everything on a PowerPoint presentation and we presented our ideas to the Eden Centre manager and had to choose six teams out of the nine. At the end we were one of the chosen ones and this was a great opportunity for all of us to show own abilities and improve own knowledge. Also every team was given £200 extra starting cash from their sponsors. To keep our overheads low, we decided to buy most of the materials from cheap store like Wilkinson’s and 99p stores so we can make the most money out of the starting cash. During one of the planning stages we came across some misunderstanding and it was quickly solved. The misunderstanding was the location of our stand and we all decided to choose Star Bucks but at the end it was down to the Eden Centre Manager to allocate our stand. The reason why we did not get the location that we preferred is because we were marked by our presentation and we came in fifth and we ended up outside BHS which, in a dead end corner and not many customers go past that corner so it was a poor location. We all kept motivating each other throughout the day. We managed to sell couple of cards but it was not enough to break even, at the end we were down by around £30. The night before the challenge, all of us were making the Christmas cards and preparing the Christmas decorations and everyone was very enjoyed it. Near the end of the challenge we gave the Christmas cards out for free around the Eden Centre and everyone was smiling as we gave them away. At the end we did not got through to the next challenge. The last challenge was to organise an event at the Bucks Student Union and only three teams got through. The two teams have to present their ideas to the organisers of the challenge and have to pick two teams that will go head to head.

This challenge has influence me a lot because during that week I had assignment to hand in and personal plans so it have improved on my time and schedule planning also it can improve my CV.

References:
1) Buckinghamshire New University (2009). Enterprise Week events at Bucks New University [online]. Available from: http://bucks.ac.uk/newsroom/news/october_2008/enterprise_week.aspx [Accessed 17 November 2009].