Year 9s Start Their Own Businesses
Start Your Own Business is an exciting Year 9 elective course under the umbrella of Technology & Commerce. It is designed to give students a taste for business ownership.
This project-based course allows students to learn about how businesses succeed, and the practical skills required when developing, starting up and running a small business.
The course follows a student’s own interests while learning essential business skills along the way. The girls are taught about creativity, management, and decision-making to help them develop an idea into a real business.
Throughout the process, the girls have learned a number of valuable skills including:
- Marketing: deciding on a target market, learning how best to promote to different target markets, developing eye-catching business names and logos
- Financial Literacy: budgeting, profit forecasts, setting a price, mark-ups
- Teamwork and leadership: organising the group, allocating roles, meeting deadlines
Being an entrepreneur in the business world is exciting, and this course is a great starting point for a young businesswoman who would like to learn how to turn her ideas into reality.
Before deciding on their product to sell, the girls researched well-known companies and successful start-ups to gain an understanding of the elements required to create a successful product. After deciding on a product to produce, the Year 9s decided on a vision for their business, came up with creative business names, considered the financials of developing the product and the best methods for marketing their product The girls submitted business documents and marketing plans along the way.
Students presented their businesses at market stalls on Technology & Commerce Day, this Monday. Students and staff were able to purchase from a range of items the girls had produced for their business including:
- Candles
- Essential Oil Perfumes
- Plants
- Beaded bracelets
- Cookie Dough Cake Pops
The girls will donate up to 50% of their profits from the day to charity.
Lia Sly, Head of Technology & Commerce, said “Our hope is that the girls will continue their businesses outside of the classroom, or use the skills learnt to develop other products or businesses in the future!”.
And what did the girls think of this project?
“We chose Skyline Candles as it was a business that exhibited our skills, and we are passionate about” Mary Scott & Harriet Noske
”We choose essential oils perfumes as our business product because we enjoy the thought of essential oils and wanted to expand our creativity though our product.” Stephanie Hicks & Ella Reeves
This course leads on to the Business Leadership elective in Year 10.
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Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.
