Page 54 - royal-times-12-13

In September we came together as a group and formed our mini company for the young Back in September we got the opportunity to set up a Mini Company in Enterprise class.
enterprise competition. We thought for a long time as what our product could be. We nally We decided to make garden wooden products we called our company Greenwood.
thought of the idea of making Piñatas. There were seven of us in our mini company. The We decided on garden products because we knew there was a good demand from
directing manager was Sandra Lowry, the sales manager was Megan Gould, the nance was our market research and we had a team that were skilled in woodwork. We bought the
Allison Wilson, the production manager was Lisa Young, and the rest of the production team timber Edward Woods’s Hardware shop in Killeshandra and then we brought it into the
was, Jamie Power Disney, Arlene Heaslip and Aebfhinn Bartley. We made our piñatas out of school and Mr Patterson helped us to cut it up into pieces. We then assembled the products and prepared them for sale
paper mache, painted them and put sweets inside them. We made di erent types of piñatas We produced the following products:
such as angry birds, owers, owls, caterpillars, snowmen and santys. They were made for
occasions such as party’s , Halloween, Christmas, Easter etc. we sent out surveys to the students Bird boxes: We made unusual bird boxes which had a cats face on the front of them. We put slate like you would see on a
in the school to nd out what sweets to put in, how much they would pay for one and what roof to give them a good look and to make the box last longer.
occasions they could be for. Window boxes: Our window boxes are made from eco-friendly treated timber which means it will not rot for a long time.
In the rst week of December we went to a Craft Fair in the Back yard in Moynehall. We had lots of sales at the craft fair for Hanging pot holders: These are made from wood. They hold two clay pots and can be hung from anything.
Christmas and had some orders. We also had some sales in school. We were busy making piñatas leading up to these sales. Envelope holders: A simple and useful rack for holding envelopes and documents. They are convenient to manufacture and
We had many sales outside of school to friends and family. We had two di erent types of piñatas. Our piñatas were sold at a works well.
cheap price, large piñatas were €12 and small piñatas were €10. We also made some sweet selections and sold them for €2.50. We sold all of these products to our friends and families, at a Christmas craft fair in Moyne hall and in the school. And overall
During our experience of Mini Company in TY we learnt may new skills and lessons which will help us in our later life. we sold around €200 worth of products; some of these products were sold to members and sta of the school and are used
We learnt and improved our skills in team work which helped us overcome problems together. We developed our for displaying owers in the courtyard in the summer term.
communication skills to help us nd out what I march we attended the Cavan Enterprise Board mini company
the buyer would like and to make sales. We competition in the Slieve Russell hotel and represented
have developed our It skills massively which ourselves and our school very well.
has helped us with research, documents etc.
We have learnt how to deal with our money The following are the members of our mini company,
intelligently with our sales and when we were Neville Hewitt – (MD), Ryan McConnell, Gary Abbott, Garry
buying stock. We learnt valuable lesson in using Hewitt, Fionan Lavin & William Bothwell
our initiative. We improved our work ethic to Overall we enjoyed our mini company experience and
reach deadlines. We came up with a bright idea learned some important lessons about teamwork, woodwork,
to do a Mini Company using something to do salesmanship and communication skills.
with confectionary and developed our idea. By Garry Hewitt.
We all enjoyed the experience of being in a
mini-company together and had fun. We all put
a lot of e ort into making our products and it
all paid o in the end.

Our Mini-Company was founded on the basis that all members of the group can play guitar.
We originally wanted to design a book to educate people in a fun and imaginitive way. The
group started o as Angus and Sam, and soon included Helen and Louise. Our company’s
aim was to design and manufacture our own guitar teaching book. We intended it to be
easy to understand and perfect for beginners of any age. We also plan to make the book
CONNECT THE DATES a ordable to all of our customers. Once we had the idea we began to design the book. The
company was soon under way and we were all assigned our separate posts. Sam was the
manager and head of production. Angus was head of purchasing and creative consultant.
In September 2012 we formed a mini company called ‘Connect Helen was in charge of nance and last but not least Louise was in charge of sales and marketing.
the Dates’. Our members consist of Rosie O’Regan (Manager), We did a survey of 50 pupils in the school asking them questions including, “How much would you pay for the book?” and “What
Courtney Byrne (Sales), Priye Joe-Otuma (Finance) and Michael songs would you like to see in the book?” Once we had all the information needed we constructed the book using Adobe Illustrator
Sheridan (Marketing). We designed a join-the-dot calendar using and Quark. Once our book was designed we sent it o to the printer in Dublin to get 150 books printed for a cost of €244 which
a program called SolidWorks, and got our design professionally was reduced due to a grant we received from the Cavan Enterprise Board. A few weeks later we collected the books and we were
printed. We have sold our product in various places, including craft delighted with the results. We soon began selling our product.
fairs, our school, numerous primary schools, Eason’s, Crannóg,
Cavan Gifts and Connelly Brothers and also to our friends and We set up a stall at a local Christmas craft fair in The Back Yard, in Cavan; we also sold our product in the schoolroom on the week
family. We entered two mini-company competitions throughout leading up to the Christmas holidays. The books were ying out of the
the year, (one of which was the regional nals) leading up to which stand and into customer’s hands over Christmas; this was our best selling
we prepared a report and worked on presentation and communication. In our second competition we received a regional time and made a lot of money. We placed several books into di erent local
nalist trophy for our school. Our product sold well and we are happy with the outcome. We enjoyed this experience shops in Cavan, ranging from music or guitar shops to simple corner shops.
and have learned and developed valuable skills in the process, such as how to co-operate as a team, including the art of Finally the big day arrived, it was competition time! We got a great stall right
compromise and communication and how to make business proposals. E.g. Being polite, explaining our product clearly etc at the front in the Slieve Russell hotel in Ballyconnell. We set up our stand
so to make ourselves a better company. with great expectations for the day. We set up a beautiful display. We all
dressed in our nest clothing for the occasion. We were soon interviewed
By Courtney Byrne & Priye Joe Otuma by a journalist from Cavan.tv. We played guitar and sang for spectators and
judges. We came in 3rd place in the senior category of the competition
and are exceptionally happy with our result. We hope to continue the sale
of our book in the future, and perhaps produce a second edition.

54 e Royal Times 2012-2013 e Royal Times 2012-2013 55