RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS:

Transcription

1 RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS: ACTIVITY PACK The Scout Association Registered Charity Numbers (England and Wales) and SC (Scotland).

2 introduction If you dream about starting your own business, passion is the first thing you need. After that, it s a roller coaster ride. Planning. Excitement. Hard work. Reward. Start your own business, and you ll experience all these things. Do you think you ve got what it takes to be the new Richard Branson or Bill Gates? This activity pack will help your dream become a step closer to reality. Five qualities that will help you get started: 1. Initiative: Using your initiative means doing things for yourself and knowing when to ask for help. It s about looking ahead to spot opportunities or problems and then taking responsibility for getting things done. 2. Determination: Starting and running a business will be harder than you imagined, but hopefully even more rewarding. To enjoy the good times, you ll also need to get through the tough. And that s when you ll need your determination. 3. Leadership and team work: Many businesses are a team effort. As an owner it s your job to lead your team, and be a part of it. You need to set goals and set a good example. 4. Organisation: Owning a business can mean doing everything including managing your finances, keeping your records up to date, and marketing your business to attract new customers. This takes organisation. With the right systems and habits, you ll stay on top and in business. 5. Words and numbers: You can t avoid working with words and numbers. From describing your business to working with money, you ll need your literacy and numeracy skills every day to work with customers, suppliers and your bank. Badges This will help towards: Creative Challenge Promise Challenge Administrator Activity Badge We ve worked with RBS MoneySense to help us create this pack and if you want some more information on it, please go to:

3 Activity: Get down to basics This activity will encourage you to be creative and think about how you might start your own business. With talk of strategies, business plans and USPs, at first glance the world of business can seem hard to understand. But it all boils down to basics. You need a good idea that is based on your strengths, which you can make money from. Plan out your idea. Think about what you want your business to do and by when. With a bit more detail, you ve got your strategy or business plan. Explain to someone in 50 words why your business is special and what your USP (Unique Selling Point) is. Quiz answers 3. To cover your operating costs until you start making money 2. Business plan 1. Determination How to do the activity 1. Your Scout leader will ask you to partner up and work together to complete the form overleaf. 2. You will then be asked to present your idea to the Troop. 3. Complete this quiz in your own time. Business basics quiz plan 1. What personal quality would best help you to set up and run your own business? Determination An easy-going approach Good sense of humour 2. What document will help you to carefully think through all aspects of starting up a new business? Business card Business plan Promotional letter 3. When starting in business, why might you need more money than just the cost of your start-up equipment and stock? To cover your operating costs until you start making money To pay yourself a good salary To buy new equipment and stock if you change your plans

4 Activity: Get down to basics What is your business idea? What will you do and why would people want to buy it/use it? What equipment do you need to buy or hire to make it happen? Add up the costs of the equipment. Can you afford everything you want? How much do you want to sell your product for? How will you describe your business? How will you run your business? Assign roles to staff you may need.

5 Activity: trading post This activity will help you think about what strengths you already have in business and try business basics like costings and strategy. how to do the activity 1. Your Scout Leader will divide the Troop into four teams of about five. You are going to start up a business using equipment that is laid out for sale or hire on the two tables in your meeting room. Take a look round the room and think about what you could make using the equipment. Each item will cost a different amount to hire or to buy and each team will have a start up budget of 25. The task will be to use the equipment to create something or sell a service which the Scout Leaders and adult volunteers at the Trading Post will buy from your team. The winning team is the one that has been paid the most by the Trading Post at the end of the game not the team with the most cash. 2. Put together a business plan for the task. Keep in mind: When they re sold, all items and materials become the property of Trading Post. Trading Post staff (adult volunteers) will offer to pay for the teams products based on quality, so the amount you charge for products or services is negotiable. It s a chance for to practise your bartering skills. Staff are firm but fair. Your team can decline an offer and improve your item before finally selling it. Each item a team sells to the Trading Post has to be different. Teams can sell stuff to other teams, but you are responsible for getting tools back to the Trading Post if you hired it. 4. You ll get a ten minute warning before you have to start wrapping up business. In that time your team needs to return all tools to the Trading Post or you will be fined 5. At the end the Trading Post will announce the winner the team who was paid the most during the evening by the Trading Post. 3. Start work on your product when the Scout Leader says it s time to start trading.

6 Activity: The Scout Apprentice Inspired by TV s The Apprentice, this activity will help you learn the skills needed in business and to work as a team. 'You re fired! Ever dreamt of saying that? The catch phrase of The Apprentice's Sir Alan Sugar. These words might spring to mind when you think about what it means to be an entrepreneur. But having your own business isn t all about hiring and firing or tantrums and tactics, as it seems to be on The Apprentice. It s about having brilliant ideas, a good attitude and the right approach. I ve always wanted to have my own restaurant because my parents run one. I help them out at the weekends and it s good fun, so I think I can do it too. Luke, 12, Cardiff how to do the activity 1. Your Scout Leader will split the Troop into four teams of about five people. 2. Each team will have a stall at an upcoming community event. You need to plan, organise and run your stall. The Scout Leader will provide your team with start up costs. The team which raises the most money wins. Your team will have at least two meetings ahead of the event to plan your stall. A leader will work with your team to help with ideas. Your team should spend the first meeting thinking about: What you want to do What roles you will each have What equipment you will need for your stand and where you think you might be able to get it from Why people will buy your product How you can promote your product At the end of the first meeting, your team must be prepared to present your ideas to the rest of the Troop and submit a list of the equipment you need to your Scout Leader. 3. At the next meeting your team will further plan your stand. The Scout Leader will let you know what equipment they will be able to provide and what you will need to find yourselves. Post activity discussion After the event hold your Scout Leader will hold a Troop discussion on how you think your project went, how you would do things differently next time and what you think you ve learnt from the experience. Four entrepreneurs who were Scouts 1. Richard Harpin is the multimillionaire boss of insurance company Homeserve and a former member of the First Stocksfield Cubs and Scouts in Northumberland. 2. Wesley Downham runs a security company in Lancaster. He made such a striking impression with his pitch on the BBC programme Dragons Den that all five Dragons offered to invest in his company. 3. Richard Branson owns the Virgin Group which consists of 400 companies including a train operator and an airline. 4. Bill Gates founded the computer software company Microsoft and was a Scout in his home town of Seattle in the United States.

7 Activity: Fair trade chocolate game This activity will help you think about the chain of people involved in business (called supply chains) and their own business values. Business can be a competitive world. But that doesn t mean it can t be fair. An aspect of fair business is fair trade, which helps farmers and workers in developing countries get a decent price for their foods or goods. If you ran your own business you could think about how you could use fairly traded products or how you could reduce your business s impact on the environment by recycling, for example. Becoming a fair business can attract customers because many people care a lot about the environment and these issues. But it also makes good business sense. Reducing, re-using and recycling can all save your business money. how to do the activity 1. Your Scout Leader will divide the Troop into two teams of cocoa growers, five teams of supermarkets, four teams of traders. 2. You re going to start trading in fair trade chocolate. Your leader will brief your team using briefing cards about your role in this activity and give you a budget. 3. Then it s time to start trading. When the whistle is blown the traders will start the game by first buying beans from the growers and selling chocolate on to the supermarkets. Every time the whistle is blown a new session starts. Your leader will guide you on how eachseason affects what the supermarkets need to buy. Each team should keep track of what they buy and sell. Your team s aim is to trade each season and end up at the end of the game with more money than you had to begin with. 4. Once the game is over each team should report back on how they did. Did you have to make any compromises to make money? Your leader will lead a Troop discussion on how you all found the activity and what you think you learnt from it. I ve had my newspaper round since I was 13 and I enjoy working so I think I d like to have my own business. I m not sure what I d do but I m always trying to think of ideas. Angela, 13, Bristol Make it fair Do some research online around the questions below. You can make notes in the spaces underneath. Then have a discussion about what you ve discovered and what your views are with a group of friends or your Scout Troop. Three questions for a sustainable business: 1. How can we reduce the amount we need to buy? 2. How could we re-use old items for our new business? 3. How can we recycle as much as possible to minimise our waste?