The Rise of the Social Enterprise

Activist and writer, Gloria Steinem once said, “It is more rewarding to watch money change the world, than to watch it accumulate.”

 

As part of their BTEC Enterprise and Entrepreneurship course, LWC Upper Sixth students have been tasked with making a difference to the world around them.

 

They’ve created goods and services ranging from fundraising bracelets to grow your own bamboo plants, in a bid to satisfy a simple challenge.

 

“Pupils were tasked with planning and running a social enterprise,” explains Anna Berney, LWC’s Head of Business, Economics and Enterprise. “They were asked to identify a need in the local community and produce a product or service to satisfy that need, whilst raising awareness of the problem.”

 

It all sounds very Dragons-Den-esque. Maybe without the dragons, but inevitably with the challenges.

 

“Our first idea was shut down due to a lack of preparation and planning,” admits Jack from the Bambooya group. “We didn’t follow compliance rules and forgot to ask permission before ordering products. This meant that we needed to be refunded before we could start to buy the new products for our new idea. We lost three weeks to an idea that wouldn’t work.”

 

All was not lost though. Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that perseverance is crucial to success.

 

“We then created Bambooya,” Jack continued. “We sold bamboo shoots that people can grow, because research shows there are multiple psychological benefits of growing plants and taking care of them. We sold out on our first day, so we were definitely successful.”

   

Starting a business is as much a feat of logistics as endurance. For Woody and his group, The Wash Pit, the start-up arrangements initially seemed overwhelming.

 

“We decided to provide a car wash service to teachers and Sixth Formers,” he explains. “The social issue that we chose to tackle was helping children who have lost a parent. We were supporting them by raising money and awareness of the LWC Foundation.”

 

But it wasn’t all plain sailing through soapy waters.

 

“The most difficult part was figuring out when we were going to run the car washes,” Woody admits, “along with which products and equipment we would need. There was such a wide range of products we could have used. Mr Fuller (LWC Operations Manager) was really, really helpful to us when we were organising this. In the end, both car washing days were sunny and we raised a total of £120 in profit, which will be donated to the Foundation.”

 

The charity at the heart of Lord Wandsworth College was also the focus of the Bands For Change group. Member, Charlotte revealed that selling bracelets was not their original plan though.

 

“We only had a month to plan, create and sell our products. We initially worked on a business called ‘Better Brollies’. We began meeting with a supplier to create personalised LWC Foundation umbrellas that would raise awareness through branding, but that would also be high-quality products that people would want to buy. But we realised that this would take too long and we would need to pay a lot of money upfront. Instead, we went in another direction. In two weeks, we had to come up with a whole new idea, create all of the products and market the business on a much smaller timeline.”

 

The bracelets hit the market in time for LWC’s Giving Day and Charlotte admits that despite the stressful build-up, the sales window actually provided the most rewarding moment for her team.

 

“We managed to create about 100 bracelets, all in lace bags, with business cards explaining our motivations and business goals. All of the bracelets sold out very quickly and we received significantly more demand for them than we believed we would. We sold everything and have raised £239 for the Foundation.”

 

The social enterprise challenge forms part of the Upper Sixth students’ BTEC coursework, but also gave them a valuable glimpse into some of the real-world challenges of business.

 

As Gloria Steinem also said, “You’re going to make mistakes and you will learn from them….ask what you could have done better and move on.”