Students at Chilliwack Secondary showed off their business skills at the school’s Entrepreneurship Fair.
Two business education classes taught by Ashley Spriggs took over Alumni Hall on Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 12-13), selling chocolate, hoodies, handbags, Christmas ornaments, boxing lessons and much more. Twenty five per cent of their net profits were donated to local non profits including Ruth and Naomi’s Mission, Chilliwack Animal Safe Haven and Chilliwack Addiction and Prevention Services.
“Their is their big end-of-year project that they’ve been working towards where each student has created their own business,” Spriggs explained. “They had to come up with a proposal letter, business plan and poster and create their products. Then they get to sell their products here at the fair. Teachers have been bringing their classes down. We’ve invited parents who are getting their stocking stuffers. It’s a good event for right before Christmas.”
Ujjwal Arun sold chocolate bark and Rice Krispie treats and said he conducted ‘market research’ with friends and family, getting their opinion on whether his product tasted good.
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“When I thought about what people like around the holidays, it’s sweet treats. It’s the end of the year and they want to enjoy themselves, so they’ll splurge a little bit on something sweet,” the Grade 10 student said. “I learned a lot about marketing a product and how important packaging is. It’s the first thing people see and if it’s clean and simple, people are going to want to buy whatever you’re selling.”
It takes guts to put yourself out there with a product that people may or may not buy. Arun admitted to being nervous at first, and said the first sale was exciting.
“I didn’t know if these were going to sell or not, and as soon as I had that first sale I had multiple sales after that,” the teenager said with a smile. “I really love business and want to major in it when I’m older. Parts of this project were really hard to do, but at the end of the day it was really fun to do.”
It took two weeks to pull together the business plan, and Arun said he learned a lot about the financials of business. Spriggs had students seek out investors (usually parents) to provide a small amount of startup money, and she insisted they account for every penny spent. After covering every cost and repaying investors, they were able to donate 25 per cent of net profits to the non-profit of their choice and keep the rest.
Arun chose Ruth and Naomi’s Mission.
“They help families in need and they help homeless people get off the streets,” he said. “Coming around to the holiday period, some people can’t afford the same opportunities I get every day, and giving back to the people who deserve more than they get is really important to me, especially around Christmas time.”
Two classes combined to raise $550 for local charities.
The Entrepreneurship Fair also had limited edition CSS tote bags for sale. They were created by the business education classes and sold by accounting students for $5 each, with 100 per cent of proceeds going to the school’s food program which provides Christmas hampers, pantry goods and frozen meals to CSS students and families in need.
“While we want to support the community, we also want to remember that there are people in our own school that also need support,” Spriggs said.
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