Freemen’s Enterprise group provided pupils from across the School the opportunity to demonstrate their budding entrepreneurial ideas by presenting potential business ideas to a panel of Dragon’s Den judges during last term's Business Enterprise Competition. The judges were made up of teachers and Sixth Form students.
Competitors were required to present a short business pitch to sell their product/service and persuade the Dragons to part with their investments; explaining what the business was, why it was likely to be successful, who their target market was, whilst demonstrating the need for their product/service through market research. At the end of each pitch the judges had the opportunity to ask questions in order to find out just how much the pupils understood about their potential products.
The categories contested were:
- Best pitch
- Most creative/innovative idea
- Best overall business
First up saw a presentation from Lower 5 student Zara, whose business idea Straight to the Pointe was inspired by her love for dance and Zara's own experience with ballet shoes being designed primarily for white dancers and not dancers of colour. She hoped to use sustainable materials to design products that would be available for all dancers.
Luca in Upper 5 followed this by discussing his idea of creating a social enterprise Bottle Deposit Return System. Luca focused on an idea that had been suggested by the public sector but never actually carried out, and believed a greener future was in the hands of a private sector business
Lower 6 students Luke and Emmie teamed up to represent Collapal, with a most convincing pitch sharing their thoughts on the future of dog collars. Having carried out extensive market research they clearly knew their market of dog owners.
Next up saw Upper 4 pupil Mathilda present her idea on Sensi Scooter. After thoroughly researching her idea Mathilda's slick pitch demonstrated an understanding of the market adding a much-needed creative extension to the existing Scooter.
With an interest in sports memorabilia Upper 4 pupils Jacob and Ben discussed their idea of SportStar Souvenirs. Tired of spending time searching through numerous websites to find sporting memorabilia, they were inspired to create a business that sold everything in one place. To help access the products, they had the idea of donating half of the profits to chosen charities.
The second of the Sixth Form teams saw Dan and James continue with a sporting theme, 3rd Eye Production. They looked at creating a product to help smaller sports club track the progress of players. Through their own experiences they were aware that the financial outlay for such equipment was too great and it would be better to hire.
The final pitch of the day was presented by Lower 6 team, Charlie and Jay. Through Shinba they were determined to make life better for the 80% of people that at some point in their life will suffer with back pains. They clearly understood their target market and looked to develop a strong brand names in supportive footwear.
Overall, the presentations were outstanding, and it was clear that pupils had worked very hard to develop both their ideas and their pitches. The judges really were very impressed with the quality and the creativity of ideas that were put before them. The Sixth Form Judges from the Enterprise group engaged very well in their roles as Dragons, asking some challenging questions.
After some very difficult deliberations, the prizes were awarded as below
- Best pitch - Collapal
- Most creative/innovative idea - Joint winners Sensi Scooter and Straight to the Pointe
- Best overall business - Bottle Deposit Return System
- Well done to everyone involved in this fantastic event, we look forward to seeing how these ideas might develop and what next year's contestants might bring to the competition.
