The Enterprise Elective Team ‘Fempire’ had a bright and early start on Thursday 24 March, with a 6.50am rendez-vous at Northampton train station in order to get to the London School of Economics and Politics (LSE) in time for the beginning of their day of presentations and networking – the culmination of all their hard work on their enterprise project. Run in conjunction with LSE Generate (their entrepreneurship centre), the girls have set up and run their own business in the shape of the High Boutique.
The High Boutique is a pop-up charity dress agency, where pupils and staff were invited to donate their previously-loved clothes and accessories. The clothes are then sold with 50% of the ticket price going to local charity Baby Basics, and the other 50% being returned to the seller. The idea has proved popular with both pupils and staff and as a result of their efforts, the group are able to make a donation of £215 to Baby Basics. This sum will allow the Northampton Charity to buy 28 new mattresses for moses baskets which are then filled with essentials for newborn babies and delivered to local mothers in need. This means 28 babies will have a safe place to sleep which, without the girls’ hard work, might not have been the case.
The day at LSE began with the lovely surprise of a goody bag, packed with products donated by alumnae of the LSE Generate programme. We were then treated to a keynote speech from business woman Steph Desmond who was one of the original 3 staff who began the roll-out of Uber in the UK. She has recently launched a new app called Bloss to provide advice, classes, products and app for people navigating the tricky issue of fertility and parenting.
The Team then spent some time honing their presentation with the help of a mentor of from LSE. The girls loved their mentor on sight, “She’s so stylish, Mrs Tansley!” and Livia quickly became part of the group, staying with us for the presentations and prize-giving.
The girls gave their presentation with confidence and style. They handled questions from the judging panel professionally, bringing in their knowledge of their studies of Business and Economics. All of the presentations from the other participating schools were impressive, and it was fascinating to hear of all the different entrepreneurial roads the groups have taken.
Team Fempire were awarded a prize for the Best Business Plan. The judges acknowledged their professional approach to this and the inclusion of detailed financial analysis.
Overall, a fantastic spring day in lovely London. We even bumped into some former pupils (Maheen – Class of 2019 – now in her final year of a Geography degree at Queen Mary, University of London) and (Daria – Class of 2021 – enjoying a gap year before starting to read French and History at UCL).
