LION FOUNDATION YOUNG ENTERPRISE SCHEME – AMAZING JOURNEY T he past year, Common Scents have had the pleasure to be a part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme competition, (YES), where students set up a company, create real products or services, compile and implement a business plan and make a real profit or loss. Our business is called ‘Common Scents’ and is focussed on supplying, branding and marketing candles as gifts for the corporate sector. Our target market is the real estate sector who use our scented candles as gifts of appreciation for clients, customers and for use in open homes. Common Scents also support the charity Habitat for Humanity, which provides better homes for people in need by donating money from every candle we sold. We thought this was a worthy cause and was a good fit with our focus on corporate gifts for the real estate sector. The five Year 12 Iona College girls who serve as directors of Common Scents learnt a lot about the entire process of starting and running a business. Each of
the directors was appointed responsibility for a part of the business of Sales and Marketing, Finance, Production, Communications and the Managing Director. We work together as a team with regular meetings to make sure everyone is involved in the decision making and managing our business. During June this year we lined up with all of the other businesses in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme at the regional ‘Dragons Den’ to compete for funding to further develop our business. We were very fortunate that the judges liked our business idea and progress enough to invest further in Common Scents. We continued to grow our sales following this investment and grow our profits as a result of this opportunity. The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme has been fantastic learning for all of us in Common Scents keen to develop our skills in business. The business knowledge we have developed has been supplemented by improved skills in teamwork, communication, problem solving, negotiation, and decision
making. We have also learnt the value of innovative thinking and developed enterprising attributes as we have grown the business of Common Scents. We have been very lucky to be working with two incredible business mentors throughout our time in YES. One of the benefits from being involved in YES has been the opportunity to talk with our mentors and other business people to learn from them about the process of starting and running a business. YES is an incredible learning experience and it has been an amazing journey for us so far which hasn’t ended yet. In October we won the Hawkes Bay regional title of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme at the awards evening which means we travel to Wellington in December for the National Finals where we will be competing against 19 other regional finalists across New Zealand. We are looking forward to representing Hawkes Bay with pride in the National Finals of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme in Wellington.
AJ
L-R: Taylor Davis, productions manager, Bronte Spierings, finance director, Adrienne Pierce, mentor, Smart Business Ltd, Ella Petersen, managing director, Sophie Hay, mentor, PWC, Olivia McLeod, sales and marketing director, Holly Black, communications director - Common Scents, from Iona College, Havelock North won the EIT Hawke’s Bay Young Enterprise Company of the Year, awarded at a function at the Hawke’s Bay Business Hub, Ahuriri, Napier. 29 October 2015 Hawke’s Bay Today Photograph by Duncan Brown.
Small to Medium Business
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