Business Ideas for the Young Enterprise Competition

Hi Guys,

My name is Charlie Henderson and I am 16 years old, currently still in school (sixth form) but at the same time, a keen, young businessman. I have been around these forums for a while now. I have had a small business on ebay myself which has been going great but am not allowed to use in the competition.

I have created this thread for a little bit of help from you guys, with your great ideas and different ways of looking at things.

This year at school we have had the opportunity to become part of the 'Young Enterprise' scheme. This is where pupils are put into groups of 8 and are given £500 to start up and run a business by themselves. We will have to organize manufacturing if needed, buying materials, pitching and selling the goods ect. This business could be a new product, service or anything that produces good ideas and most importantly, makes money

As we have just started this, we are in need of any ideas possible that you may have. Previous ideas at my school consist of a cookery book for kids, a new fizzy drink, biodegradable festival gear and reflective lights for kid safety, with the cookery book getting furthest in the competition to date. A quick briefing by my teacher hinted us to products that would tick the 'ethical' box, but this is not essential

Any business ideas are welcome and your help would be greatly appreciated.

Just as a little extra point, a fundraising scheme may also be needed, so any ideas on this may also be useful.

Thanks
Charlie

 

Very nice to hear!
I believe your best bet would be to find something that is wanted by many.
I have a question.
Over in the UK, are iPhone popular?
If so, here would be my example;
Buy 2-3 iPhones. New or used. Considering the popularity of this phone, at least here in the US, jailbreak/unlock the iPhone and resell for TWICE the profit PER phone. Then repeat. Buy mre iPhone, resell for more.
Or, you can buy iPhone PARTS on eBay, and fix peoples broken glass etc...
I have a guide on jailbreaking iPhones, you can start that. Jailbreak iPhones, iPods, or even iPads for people. Charge $20 for full jailbreak, and $10 for an unlock on the iPhone.
This all depends on how popular it Apple is though, considering it is extremely popular in America, this is the business I am in today, making $15K-$20K US currancy PER month.

Or find something that is fixable, mod xBox's if your good at that, create art, pictures etc...

For fundraising, do a cookout, or a bake sale.
If going the iPhone/iPod/iPad route, demonstrate what you can achieve when jailbroken or unlocked.
Buy different colored glass on eBay for $50 US and put it on an iPhone, demonstrate how it looks.

^This is an example.

Find something that you can do, or that you are good at.
Make a costume. For about $200 US I made a Predator costume (Alien vs. Predator)
That costume sold on eBay for $450.
I made it from cardboard, shoulder pads, hockey pads etc...

I wish you luck, hope this has helped bring in some ideas

Russian

 

Try a web hosting business.

Buy a web hosting resale package (make sure it includes a resale domain name cert) , domain name, a sexy but simple template for the website. After everything is set up head over to freelancer.com and hire people to get you subscribers then go to fiverr.com and hire people to promote your website SEO.

After you complete the basics listed above, hire a helpdesk, these people will take care of your customers technical and billing issues. In little time you will have quite a few subscribers as long as you keep them happy and offer content that is unique to your site. Set yourself apart from the average hosting site and you got it made.

Edit: Also add a VPS/VPN service to increase sales.

 

Invest Invest Invest. In stocks

 

Even with high risk, high yield, you're not going to make squat with only £500.

You have to spend money to make money. To gain some coin you need to find a niche. Have an athletic team at the school? School charge top dollar for electrolyte replenishing drinks? Undercut them. Then monopolize when you're popular enough. Bulk buy and resell. Repeat. Ask around what people are interested in buying. Formulate your ideas around the people you're going to be selling to.

You can charge whatever you want when the demand is high enough. The problem is creating the demand. Of course there's always going to be demand for 'high end tech' - iPhones, iPads (don't ask me why, personally I think they're shithouse) but a dollar is a dollar.

I mean shit, you can earn $150 a day by botting blog sites with google ad revenue.