Double success for Year 10 Young Enterprise

March 6th, 2006

Tollbar BEC Year 10 Young Enterprise Group Z (Why Not?) made an excellent start to the new year with success in two competitions.

At York Racecourse for the prestigious VentureFest Yorkshire event, Z (Why Not?) was named Best Young Enterprise Company, which brought a prize of £100.

And in a competition at Princess Quay for YE groups in the Yorkshire & Humberside region, the Tollbar company won the award for Best Trade Stand 2006 – and sold £100 worth of their stress balls and novelty soaps.

Venturefest is a one-day annual event that aims to connect pre-start, start-up and growing businesses with knowledge and technology based entrepreneurs.

Professionals, financiers and industry experts provide support and this year, VentureFest featured Doug Richard, a panel member in the TV series Dragon’s Den who was one of the judges of the various awards.

Z (Why Not?) Operations Director Claire Potter and Assistant Managing Director Sophie Koltyka attended both events, with Claire giving the presentation that helped towards their award.

"It was a really good experience," she said. "We made a PowerPoint presentation which included what we’ve done so far, the problems we have had, our finances, how we make our products and even how we got our name. The judges asked a lot of questions about how it affected us personally."

The presentation was video recorded and Marketing Director Felicity Tuxworth and Sales Director Sarah Martin were also interviewed for a Yorkshire magazine

The next challenge for Z (Why Not?) is a similar event at Stratford-on-Avon in which they will be up against YE groups from all over the country, all vying for the prize of £500.

"We know this will be much harder as it is a national competition" explained Managing Director Billie Kribb. "Most of the other companies are from sixth forms and we know we have to go up a gear."

This is the first time that Year 10s have been allowed into a competition that was previously restricted to sixth formers – and the first time that a South Bank school had won an award at an event on the North Bank.

Z (Why Not?) has 15 members who each have their own responsibilities. The group manufactures all its own products, either after school or in members’ homes, and holds a business meeting every Friday.

All the directors agree that they have gained a lot of experience.

"We learn something new about business every day," Billie said. "It also helps with our other studies as we can relate back to it. We know what finance is all about now, about profit and revenue and we all recognise each others strengths in the business."

The group has so far made more than £400 profit – but at the start a number of them didn’t even realise that they would be dealing with "real money".

"We soon found out we were in a serious business and we really have a taste for it now," Billie said. "Starting my business is definitely something I will be looking at."

Z (Why Not?)’s products sell fairly evenly – the soaps go well at school events, while the stress balls sold better at Princes Quay and are popular with pupils.

"All the stress balls are unique," Sarah explained. "We have a basic style but we decorate them individually and we will also make personalised ones.

"We have an adopt-a-stress ball scheme where we put a form in the bag with the ball and ask the owner to send it back to register. This is useful for marketing and gives us good customer feedback."

Santa stress balls and soap were designed for Christmas and heart shaped products for St Valentine’s Day.

Looking to the future, and to new competitions, Z (Why Not?) know they can’t afford to relax. They have set up a meeting with an external business advisor and are hard at work on a new stand for Stratford which they hope will help make the name of their company, and of Tollbar Business & Education College, known nationwide.