A student-led business at Vanier Collegiate overcame the challenges and obstacles of having 22 people on the team and exceeded its goals by tripling product sales.
Clothing company Prairie Sky — “The sky has no limits” — was one of two student-run businesses during this year’s Entrepreneurship 30 class. The groups held their board of directors’ meetings on Jan. 19 and summarized how their Junior Achievement projects went.
Soup-focused company Mix Inc. — “Everything but the kitchen sink” — was the other business.
Warm and fuzzy
Prairie Sky planned to sell 150 pieces —bunnyhugs, crewnecks, sweatpants, T-shirts and bundles — but exceeded expectations by hawking 465 items, the company’s report said. The students made $4,451.71 in net income, and after donating 20 per cent — $890.34 — to Journey to Hope, it was left with $3,561.43.
The 22 students split the profit and took home $161.88 each.
Life lessons
“This class taught us a lot of life lessons (and) business lessons. And even though we had lots of challenges, we all came together and gave back to our community, which was one of our main goals,” said co-president Kate Waldenberger.
Some challenges the group faced included not having enough jobs for everyone, a lack of motivation, and difficulty setting up e-transfers and an online website, she added. However, the group overcame those issues by finding more opportunities for members to be involved, working ahead to finish future tasks and learning how to use various payment methods to help expand profits.
Another challenge was understanding how to issue receipts, the report noted. Members made mistakes in filling out the sheets, while clarification was needed to decipher the handwriting.
The group decided to sell clothing because they knew it was easier to market, would have a bigger effect on people, and they could choose colours — green and yellow — that reflected Saskatchewan, said Teagan Bennett, who had various tasks.
He added that the group initially thought about selling socks and toques, but there was little interest from people who responded to a google survey.
Positive feedback
“Our objective was to provide warm and affordable clothing to the people in our community … ,” said Colton Ebbett, business plan assistant for corporate sales.
“After delivering our product to our customers, they had amazing feedback, telling us that our clothing (was) super warm and comfortable, which is just what we were looking for.”
The students attempted to partner with a community business by selling it a bulk supply of bunnyhugs, but the deal was unsuccessful because of time constraints, he added. However, the students still found that to be a good learning opportunity.
Communicating well
Communication turned out to be the company’s biggest strength, even though there were some initial challenges, said Waldenberger. Most people felt comfortable asking questions during meetings and working in smaller teams.
It was a struggle to make decisions with 22 students, especially at the start when determining what they wanted to sell, she continued. But everyone pulled together, and they made decisions using a majority rules process while also looking for reasonable solutions during close votes.
“Overall, we all enjoyed what we got, especially with our partners, our sponsors and what we go to do,” she added.
The main message was to be patient since progress doesn’t happen overnight, other students said. Furthermore, they knew they couldn’t procrastinate since they only had two months to sell, so they had to trust the process, take it step by step, remind each other about deadlines and believe they would be successful.
Katherine Gagne, a rep from Junior Achievement (JA), told the students that they did an “outstanding job” with the business and had a great presentation. She also thought those who submitted their names for a national JA award were strong contenders to win.
“It’s something of great value to put onto your resumé,” she added.
