My Entrepreneur Story

My interest in Entrepreneurship started my freshman year of high school. It was simple really, it started by identifying a problem, finding a solution for myself, and then applying that solution to the market as a whole. I attended a prestigious private school in England, which prided itself on excellence in every aspect. This meant that the vending machine food, as well as the lunch food, was always healthy. And to teenagers, disgusting.  People were literally fighting in line for the last rice crispy snack bars, because the only other food available was fruit and belvita biscuits. So I started by bringing in a few packets of Oreo's for myself and my friends, but when another student offered to buy all of them for triple the buying price, I just couldn't refuse. This is when I got the idea to start flipping candy. I briefed my twin brother that evening about the potential in the market, he agreed, and the next day we began...

It was a pretty small, tight nit operation at first. My brother and I would take our pocket money down to the local shop after school, and purchase a small range of candy. At first, it was just Maltesers, Crunchie's and Aero bars. They were the cheapest sweets, in which we could make the largest margins. The supply and demand situation was extreme to say the least. During break from 10:15-10:45, the common room would come flocking to our lockers like baby ducks following their mother. We would make, on average, about about 3 times our initial investment. Which allowed us to reinvest into a larger, broader selection of candy. We got jelly babies, doritos, and were able to afford large quantities of more exclusive goods like Flakes and kinder bueno's, that people were willing to pay top dollar for. Once our operation got large enough, we realized we needed help tapping into different markets. Because the grades were split up into different common areas, we needed help from someone in another grade to help flip the goods for profit. His name was Henri Skeens. 

Following a rugby match on the weekend, my twin and I approached Henri, asking him if he'd be interested in joining forces to make our candy flipping a full steam machine. It was a simple proposition, sell at our prices, we will supply the products, and he can keep 50% of the profits. He agreed and turns out the grade above us just as eager for these 'forbidden goods' as our grade was. For about two months we continued our services and made over $650 profit, starting will a $15 investment. Our school eventually shut down the operation, claiming it was unethical and unhealthy. But it was probably because no one was using their vending machines anymore. But i wasn't too mad, my twin and I bought ourselves a new Xbox and the brand new Fifa. Happy days. 

I enrolled in ENT 3003 because I feel Entrepreneurship comes naturally to me, and I want to learn the ins and outs of starting up businesses on a larger scale. Furthermore, I want to learn about using my resources wisely, finding out more about myself as a person and growing as an Entrepreneur!