Westhaven School

'an outstanding school' (Ofsted)

    WeSMile  -  Year 10's very own business

Congratulations to WeSMile!

WeSMile came away with the Team Programme Best Stand Award

 at the Young Enterprise Regional Finals in Cheltenham on 23rd June.

see photos >

About the business

WeSMile

Our first introduction to Team Enterprise was with Tony Smith, our Business advisor. Tony gave us the information on starting our own company and he showed us a DVD.

We all voted on what we were going to produce and decided that we would not make goods for the seasons, but maybe develop our products through the year.  It was decided we would make ‘original books’, ‘tile clocks’ and provide the service of ‘car washing’.

Our next decision was to decide on our name, there were many. Our first choice was ‘ProduX’, we thought this was really good as the X represented 10, our number of company members. But after a little research we discovered that name already existed, so we started again. This time we chose ‘WeSMile’, this was because we WSM and smile in our name.

The following week it was time to decide who was going to take up the company roles. We started with the managing director and went through the positions. That all went well and Chris became our Managing Director.

Our logo came the following week, with us putting different images together. We came up with the flag from our school sweatshirt logo, with a smiling sun.

Company Roles 2007/08

Managing Director                             Chris

Deputy Managing Director              Stacey

Company Secretary                           Lewis

General Director                                 Zach

Financial Director                                 Kyle

Deputy Financial Director                    Sam

Sales Director                                        Karl

Marketing Director                            Ciara

Production Director                         Robert

Personnel Director                            Jamie

Summary of Products

WeSMile’s first products/services were ‘Tile Clocks’ and original books, which turned out to be ‘WeSMile’s Book of Favourite Winter Food’ and ‘Car Washing’.

The tiles for the clocks were donated by a member of staff and they seemed very simple to put together. But the clock movements we had to order from a supplier, which were almost £2.00 each. Using a template for where the numbers would be, we all decorated the tiles with different beads or buttons. We then inserted the clock movements and in some cases we had to cut the hands back a little as they were too long for the tile. We sold these for £4.95.

Our Recipe book was made up of staff, pupils and their family’s favourite winter food. We sent a flyer home and we got a good response from everyone. We photographed everyone who was going to be in the book and if we were able we had a photo of the finished dish. Some recipes were tried out during food lessons.  We sold these for £5.95. When we were printing we found out that we had used a whole laser printer cartage which cost £100 Approx, this was of great concern to us as we would need to pay the school for the cartridge. But thankfully it was a faulty cartridge. But we ended up with loads of spare pages so we sold them for 50p each.

The car washing was put off to the summer when hopefully weather permitting we will carry out this service during our school summer fayre.

Now getting near to Christmas, we decided to do a Christmas clock, so we managed to buy a small plate with holly painted on it. We drilled a hole for the clock movement and sold the  ‘Holly Clock’ for £4.75.

We also used the tile to make ‘Photo Clocks’. We made these to order, so our customers gave us their photo, we scanned it and printed the photo to fit onto the tile. We then varnished it and fitted the clock movement. We sold these for £5.95, these were good Christmas gifts. 

It was now the New Year, so thinking about our successful winter food book, we decided to make a spring/summer food book. So again we sent out another flyer asking for favourite spring or summer recipes. Again we had a good response from everyone. But we had a major problem, as our whole computer network was down so we couldn’t access anything on the computers. The company was under pressure to get these recipe books made, as we were going to the Galleries Trade Fayre in Bristol. We some how managed to put together a small recipe book using a laptop but we had no photos.

This book only contained about 12 pages and we had to take it to a printer to get completed, they also bound it for us. Of course this came at a cost to the company, but we had no choice if we were to attend the trade fayre in Bristol.

After a few weeks when the computers were back up and running we managed to successfully complete the

‘WeSmile Spring/Summer Book of Favourite Food’. Again we had a photo of everyone who had brought in a recipe and this time all of the company members had brought one in.

A family member of one of the company suggested that it might be a good idea to make clocks with cats on, so they would then sell them at a cat show. The company agreed to do this but they were to be made on plates rather than tiles. We were given a disc with the photos on and we made 30. We priced the Cat Plate Clocks at £7.50.

Financial Report   click here>

School Enterprise Co-ordinator's Report

This is the third year we have been using ‘Young Enterprise Team Programme’ with our year 10 students and again they are having a successful year.

After two successful years for the previous Team Enterprise, ‘Bloom ‘n’ Pots’ and ‘Friday 13^th’ this year 10 group have a two very hard acts to follow. But they have shown a good response from the start and continuingly come up with different ideas and new approaches. This was demonstrated again by the high uptake of shares bought by staff, parents and students.

This year we have some strong leaders and have established their roles well, recognising all their strengths and weaknesses.

They have shown a good understanding of how a business is formed and maintained, realising that running the business requires a lot of hard work and commitment and that mistakes can be made but have to be dealt with responsibly.

The students have become aware of how resourceful they need to be with their company money and limited time they have to put their products together. They spend important time at board meetings costing their products.

The group had to change their first chosen company name, but soon came up with maybe a better name. that all agreed that they did not want to follow the seasons to seriously this time, but they are aware that that the seasons will effect what will sell, so they have regularly developed their products. They have been successful so far.

This is the third year that I have taken part in Team Enterprise programme and it is a pleasure to see this year’s group enjoying the experience as other years have. WeSMile have not arranged a date to close their business, but I can tell already that they will not want it to finish. I have to say that again that we all gain an invaluable insight how to succeed in business.

Kath Bailey

Westhaven School Enterprise Coordinator

Business Advisors Report

WeSMile Young Enterprise Company

WeSMile is the third company set up under the Young Enterprise Team Programme at Westhaven School.

The election of company board members took place and it was obvious from early on that the selection process had appointed the right board members to the right positions.

The board meetings have been very well run in an organised and responsible manner.

The minutes and financials have been well presented and the meetings have been all encompassing.  The only problem has been time; the usual matter of items over running and thereby some items not being discussed as fully as required.  These would then be carried over to the next meeting.

The previous two companies concentrated on buying in products and adding value but WeSMile decided on a totally different approach. 

After an early board meeting and much discussion, they decided that they would cover two product areas namely Tile Clocks and Receipe Books.

The Tile Clocks began as very simple design but one of the company members came up with the idea of laying down photographs onto the tiles, and later onto plates.  The photographs were then varnished and a very high quality of product was established.  To ensure that the clocks were of marketable value a system of quality control was introduced.  The next stage was to introduce personalised clocks including family and pet photographs.  These have proved to be a big hit and all the team members wee involved in the production process which was quite intense – very good team work.

The receipe books are seasonal and involved personal and family favourites.  The latest book will consist of celebrity receipes and the pupils have written to their favourite “stars” asking for a signed photograph and a receipe.  The first of these have responded and the book will appear at the beginning of the summer.

The work ethic of the company has improved a great deal since inception and a good team spirit has been developed.  At a Young Enterprise trade event in Bristol the company members responded very well to the judging element and communicated with the general public, and their fellow competitors, in a very mature and positive manner.

WeSMile is continuing in the tradition of previous Westhaven Team Programme companies and I think have moved the experience on.

Anthony Smith

Business Advisor