Business Idea Template
Stage 1
New Business Track
This template is for schools who are starting a business for the first time
IMPORTANT: HOW TO COMPLETE AND SUBMIT YOUR BUSINESS IDEA
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This template should be completed by students with the support of teachers.
Please use the format provided as this is aligned to our marking scheme.
There are 8 questions. Please answer ALL questions. You may use extra pages. However,
please try and keep your submission to 5 pages maximum.
The numbers in brackets e.g. (10) indicates the highest number of points that can be
awarded for that question.
Follow our top tips to score high points and increase your chances of winning a prize!
You can also earn bonus points by including supporting documents in the Appendix of this
document!
When you are ready to submit your completed business idea template to us, please follow
these instructions:- Log in to your account at: www.schoolenterprisechallenge.org/login
- Go to the ‘Progress Report’ on the right hand side.
- Click on 1) ‘Submit Your Business Idea!’
- Choose your file and upload your completed Template. Click SUBMIT!
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Any Questions
Contact the School Enterprise Challenge team at:E-mail: info@schoolenterprisechallenge.org
Blog: http://schoolenterprisechallenge.wordpress.com
Website: www.schoolenterprisechallenge.org
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Section A: Your Details
School name
Country
Lead teacher
Business Name
Business Activity
No. of students in the school
No. of students involved in
coming up with the business idea
KOILADA HIGH SCHOOL
GREECE
IOANNA THEODOROPOULOU
Com Com ( Composting Company)
Composting organic waste
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Section B: Your School
1.
Tell us about your school. For example, What age are the students? Location? Environment?
There are no marks for this question; however, your answers to this question help us to understand
your school business better.
Koilada High School is situated at Koilada village 14km away from Larissa,
central Greece.
It is situated in a rural area and the school serves nine neighboring villages
and small settlements. It is a public school which follows the secondary
educational system in Greece for students 12-15. There are also classes for
students 16-18 that provide them with a certification that they have
attended the upper secondary school. Many students live in small
settlements in disadvantaged areas where there is not much interest in
school education, so sometimes they choose to drop off school and help
their parents in small scale agriculture or in small livestock. They are so
socially excluded and furthermore not able to get appropriate skills at school
to run a successful profession /job in the future.
Almost 10% of the students are of an immigrant background and sometimes
they face difficulties to have themselves integrated into the school and local
community. The fact that their parents lost their jobs lately because of the
crisis, oblige them or give them an excuse to drop off school.
10% of the students have learning difficulties or dyslexia. Because of that
they are not able to follow the regular courses. Unfortunately there is no
official provision for those students in our school so they can’t attend special
classes, that is why they often drop off school before they have to. What is
common in most of them is that they come from a disadvantaged, isolated
and economically low family background. Nowadays many families are
stricken by crisis and they face long term unemployment. Under those
conditions they don’t care much and they can’t support their children
education.
For all these reasons many students are forced to leave school earlier than it
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is expected.
We believe that through our school ‘s participation to the School
Enterprise Challenge we’ll manage to create a more friendly, open minded
and trustful atmosphere in our school and to explore the potential of our
business idea to the real world. To motivate students in developing their
social and communication skills. To encourage not drop off school and to
strengthen their self confidence. Finally to give them a chance to be aware
of their dynamics as future employees .
TOP TIP!
To help you score high marks in questions 2-4, we strongly recommend carrying out a Resource
Assessment. You can find a Resource Assessment Template in Weekly Guide 2 and in the ‘Resources’
section of your school profile!
2.
What resources at your school could you use to start a business and how? E.g. ‘We have internet
at school and 3 computers so we could start an internet café.’ (2)
Our school is equipped with a computer lab, two interactive boards, wi –fi internet connection,
fax, and telephone connection. There is a school website and a blog. We ‘ll use that equipment to
advertise our business to the locals and keep data about its development. There is a big yard in
front of it and many trees which is very useful for our business idea, because we plan to start a
business with waste disposal and composting( we ‘ll use the tree leaves and lawn among the
others, to produce compost soil).
3.
How could you use your school’s location as a business opportunity? E.g. ‘Our school is near a
tourist attraction, so we could sell handicrafts to local tourists.’ (2)
Our school is located in a rural area, where people grown their own vegetables and corps so there is plenty
of waste available for composting plus each house’s organic waste . Since there is no organic waste
collection by the local authorities will have access to the habitants’ waste.
4.
How could you use your existing skills to start a business? E.g. ‘Six students have cooking skills, so
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they could help other students to start a café.’ (2)
Five students can easily use computers so they could organise the digital set up of the business.
Five others who have artistic skills are going to design its advertisement and create leaflets and
the business logo. Five students of excellent organising skills will carry out the business
communication with suppliers and customers. Five more students with communicational and
selling abilities will be responsible for the selling of the product. Ten students with experience at
composting at home will be responsible for the collection composting and packing procedure.
Section D: Brainstorming
5.
What business ideas did you think of when brainstorming? Please tell us your 5 best ideas E.g.
eggs, growing vegetables, bags, handicrafts (2)
1. Composting
2. Homemade jams.
3. Handmade Jewels.
4.Collecting recyclables to make handcrafts
5. Knitting bags and carpets of plastic carrying bags.
Section E: Your Business Idea
TOP TIP!
To help you choose the best business idea and to score high marks in this section, we strongly
recommend carrying out a Feasibility Study. You can find a Feasibility Study Template in Weekly Guide 3
and in the ‘Resources’ section of your school profile!
6.
Which of your ideas did you choose as your Final Business Idea and why? (6). Please give 3
reasons why you chose this idea. Remember to use the results of your Feasibility Study in your
answer.
The business we would like to set up is: Composting
Reason 1: We have access to necessary materials. We ‘ll build the equipment with recycled materials
and we’ll use free raw material to produce compost.
Reason 2: the product is easy to be made, to be stored and packed / transformed, it has a long lifespam and it is in demand all year round.
Reason 3: the procedure of making/ selling the product has educational value for students and it can
generate profit for school
7.
How does your Final Business idea meet the People, Profit, Planet criteria? (6).
People: Compost is a safe product useful to customers all year round.
Profit: It can generate profit for both the customers and school because we can offer it in a lower
price since we have free access to the raw materials, we can build the equipment without a start
up cost and students be volunteers in the composting/ selling procedure.
Planet: Starting a collection and recycling of the organic waste every house produce in our village
will offer a great service to the community and the planet at the same time, because it is both
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expensive and against the European legislation to carry this waste to landfills and our country has
been charged big penalties so far. It is not healthy for our lives either.
Section F: Start-up capital
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8.
a) Does your business need start up capital (money)? Please circle one: Yes /No
b) If yes, how are you planning to raise the start-up capital? (10) Please tell us in as much detail as
possible how you are going to raise the money needed to start up your school business.
OR c) If no, why do you not require start up capital? (10)
Our business doesn’t require a start up capital because we plan to build the necessary equipment by
recycling material with the technical support of local authorities and an NGO working on enviroment al
and sustainability issues. The inhabitans will provide us with raw material ( house organic waste) and
we’ll use used carring bags to package the compost and store it in the school’s warehouse.
Appendix (OPTIONAL Bonus Points)
If you have any additional information which supports your business idea, please add it in this space. E.g.
a completed Resource Assessment, Feasibility Study, reports or photos (4 photos Max). (5 Bonus Points)
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CONGRATULATIONS on coming up with a Business Idea! You have completed Stage 1! Submit NOW!
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