BizSoc

BizSoc, Club Enterprise was launched for the Fourth Form.  Within school the new BizSoc society committee has been formed and together with members of staff ran the first ever Club Enterprise event for Fourth Form pupils. Using £4,000 in movie prop cash, pupils were challenged to invest their funds in a variety of games and events which simulated various risk and reward scenarios.

We began the autumn term with a hugely entertaining curtain raiser for BizSoc as Rob Gardner and his team from RedSTART ran their “Money Matters” game in the Wathen Hall. For a game that educated students on compound interest, how to manage their money, and the different types of risk and reward, one certainly would not have been able to tell all this given the dartboards on the wall, the building blocks used to construct towers or the tiring workout taking place in the corner.

The excitement in the air was matched with fierce competition as the pupils sought to amass the most money possible. Some of them certainly learnt the lesson of needing to question what they were investing their money in – be honest who gave some of their money to Rich Ricky? At the tail end of the busiest term, BizSoc was fortunate to have Bobby Bawa, Managing Director at Foodspeed, come and share with us the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur. In a competitive industry of delivering fresh food and dairy ingredients it was interesting to learn that reputation and the best customer service were prioritised above all else for him.

The Spring term saw BizSoc begin to forge further partnerships and work closely with Founders Factory, one of London’s leading tech start-up incubators. In February, we were incredibly lucky to have a full afternoon of workshops, hosted by the team behind Founders Factory’s F Factor Competition – a competition for young entrepreneurs to gain capital for their business ideas. We spent the afternoon designing apps to combat food waste and homelessness and were able to practise the art of pitching alongside students from Putney High, Godolphin & Latymer (G&L) and Hammersmith Academy. This was an amazing introduction to the Founders Factory’s team before our next event in March at their head offices in Kensington. Their robot receptionist greeted us in their trendy office before we listened to some amazing speakers: entrepreneurs, actresses and lawyers. This was followed by an awesome three rounds of our own take on the “Money Matters” game with our very own Fifth Form and students from Godolphin & Latymer which left us all wanting to play on into the evening.

Despite the events BizSoc has put on over the course of a year, arguably, one may still not be able to define entrepreneurship in a succinct single sentence but, we would certainly to like to claim that we have had the most fun out of any school society thinking of new ways to solve everyday problems. Just maybe that is exactly what entrepreneurship is all about!