We are excited to be taking part in The Tycoon Enterprise Competition again this year, with our Year 12 teams already busy setting up their businesses!

Tycoon is a national entrepreneurship competition for pupils aged 6-18. Teams are granted a loan by Tycoon Enterprise for their businesses subject to a successful submission of a business plan, before starting up and trading, while competing against other businesses from other schools and colleges via a kickstarter-style platform in a safe and controlled environment.

The teams’ business plans include executive summary, costs, market research, competitor analysis, a financial forecast plus a marketing plan. The finalists for the competition will be announced at the end of the summer term and invited to an awards ceremony with Peter Jones CBE, founder of Tycoon Enterprise and regular on Dragons’ Den. In previous years, the ceremony has been hosted at prestigious venues such as Buckingham Palace, Tobacco Dock and Windsor Castle. The overall winner of the competition will receive £1000 to be invested in their business or their school.

This year we are delighted to announce that we have four Year 12 teams (four businesses) – who successfully submitted their business plan to receive their loans. They have ten weeks to trade, including taking part at the NHEHS Christmas Bazaar. Year 9 will be joining in at the start of the new year, with Year 8 taking part in the 10X Challenge.

Here’s what two of our Year 12 teams have been working on so far:

Carmen, Rani and Sophie

“We are Carmen, Rani and Sophie and our business is called Seasalt. We are offering unique, ocean themed home decor and our main product is our seashell candles. Each shell is 100% real and special, made with organic soy wax and our best selling product is the ‘classic’ made from white wax and mixed with ethereal shimmery white pigment. We are striving to create high quality goods and to establish a luxury brand. Furthermore, we have high priority on the environment so we’re sourcing our materials from other small businesses and using ethical products which are sustainable and free of animal testing.

You can find us on Instagram @seasalt.smallbusiness and we are hoping to have a stall at the Christmas Bazaar on December 2nd! We will be sending out a google form to all year groups within the next week so that students in the school can order our products easily. Lastly, we are incredibly grateful that Tycoon themselves have requested our products to showcase at their Business Network on 12th December so we will soon be sending off a few products from our range for them.”

Katherine and Aila

“We want to introduce you to the new way of accessorising: Happy Jewels.

Happy Jewels is a sustainable handmade accessories boutique, with customisable options to find your perfect fit! Our business ethos is built on uplifting and empowering everybody to express themselves and to leave the world a happier place than we found it. We express these values through 15% of our profits going to a charity called Binti fighting Period Poverty. Our varied collections mean that you will find your perfect product(s), and our guaranteed quality is ensured.

The process to set up our business consisted of 3 different stages. The first was brainstorming possible proposals as a group and we had many different ideas ranging from styling services to personalised keyrings, however after more thought and research, we landed on the idea to do a collection of different accessories including necklaces and stickers. Then, once we decided which items we would be selling, we filled out a business plan. The business plan was extremely useful and educational as we had to do market research, financial forecasts and figure out different sales strategies. Additionally, we learnt how to create our own logo, a website and social media account for the business which would increase our chances of reaching a wider audience due to the rise of technology and social media. Our next task is to focus on maximising our sales and we will do this through sending out Google forms to advertise and selling our products at big events during the holiday season including the Christmas Bazaar. Keep your eyes open for our Google Forms!”

Good luck to all our entrepreneurs!

Image by Megan Rexazin Conde from Pixabay