Date : June 2018 ~ October 2019
CAS Learning Outcomes:
1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.
2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
INVESTIGATION
Along with a group of students (Su, Ruby, David, and DH) who are interested in starting a new business, I have participated in supporting a fair trade coffee of the community of Maeramit, Omgoi. The main reason why my team members and I decided to support the community through WellFare Social Enterprise project is because we wanted to take part of raising awareness and giving positive impact to the fair trade system. These became our goal of WellFare Coffee Social Enterprise Project. In addition, we were also very interested in starting a new business, managing, and expanding it by ourselves. Thus, this project was a great opportunity to develop new skills and existing strengths related to business management. In order to minimize difficulties and challenges of starting a new business, we have planned the details of management in advance.
PREPARATION
The first member of this project, Su, was inspired by FairNIST Coffee (another non-profit student-led enterprise in NIST International School working for the fair trade coffee) and she has investigated details about the non-profit student-led social enterprise and shared those detailed ideas to rest of the members. Based on the investigations and research of how a social enterprise business works and how the students in NIST International school have managed the business, we worked collaboratively to start off WellFare Coffee Social Enterprise. The first thing we need to have before the setoff was an official name of our business. In order to fully understand and be aware of the operation of our social enterprise, I have consistently communicated with the group members to clarify important points, especially when we have big events coming up, such as Christmas show and WellFare Week. We also keep track of the cash flow and record every single details of the expenses and sales, which later help us find out where and when we have spent for what kind of products.
ACTION
Action 1 : Creating brand name, logo, and slogan that can represent our business
First of all, we gathered up together and brainstormed an appropriate brand name and log, which both shows our goal of the business and represents our school at the same time. We came up with "WellFare," which has the first four letters of our school name, Wells, and has a very similar sound as "welfare," which has a meaning of people's health, comfort, and happiness. For the logo, we also discussed for the best one, which is able to clearly represent our business. Along with the brand name and logo, we have also added a slogan—"WellFare Hopes Welfare"—in the logo to give an idea of our purpose of the business. At last, we have transformed our rough sketching to a computer program, photoshop, which we later used to print out stickers. Since the name and logo are the first things that our customers see, we tried our best to represent the identity of our business as much as possible. Therefore, we have included coffee beans in the logo, in a shape similar to heart, in order to show that we are selling coffee for the purpose of supporting welfare of the farmers in Maeramit, Omgoi.
Action 2 : Packaging our products
After we are finalized with the brand name and logo, we have printed our the logos in stick forms in order to paste those on the packages of ground coffee beans. Firstly, we ordered coffee beans and ground them with the coffee grounder. After that, we measured 250 grams of ground coffee beans, portioned and packed them to look nice. The logos are pasted on the top-middle of our package to clearly show that the products are from our business. This way, the customers will be aware of our business and visit once again later if they are satisfied with the products.
Action 3 : Distributing the products to our customers
Since coffee grounds have shelf life, we had to be extremely careful of the preservation of coffee beans. Because of this reason, we couldn't order a lot of coffee beans at one time. Moreover, we couldn't find suitable preservation space. This was one problem that we faced during the progression of our business. Regarding this problem, we together tried to find out solution and eventually decided to have a "WellFare Week" at our school. During the "WellFare Week," we get orders from the customers by using a Google Forms. This way, we could know the number of orders and the amount of ground coffee beans we need. After knowing the exact amount of coffee we are going to sell, we ordered that specific amount from our supplier. Since we are selling all the products we've ordered, we didn't have to worry about storage of the coffee grounds.
Action 4 : Participating/Organizing Events
1. WellFare Christmas Show Booth
On 19th of December (2018), we were given an opportunity to set up a booth in Christmas show booth fair. During the day of Christmas show, we are able to meet a wider range of customers, because parents of the students visit to watch the Christmas show. We were very excited to show our products to the customers because it was the first time we are officially selling the products. For this booth, we have prepared different posters to show that we are a student-led social enterprise business which supports the fair trade of the community of Maeramit, Omgoi. A lot of teachers and parents were interested to see a new and fresh type of business. We also sold many packs of coffee beans, increasing our fund in a huge amount.
2. Art Exhibition Booth
On 4th of March (2019), we again got an opportunity to set up a booth in IB Art Exhibition, where seniors of IB Art Class exhibit their art works to the people. In the exhibition, a lot of people visited to enjoy the works, including parents, students, and teachers. Although we were not able to sell many packs of coffee grounds, we got to promote our social enterprise and let a lot more people aware of our business and fair trade coffee system.
3. WellFare Week
As it is mentioned above, we have make a particular period called "WellFare Week" when teachers and students can preorder our products. Our first "WellFare Week" was from 11th to 17th of February, 2019. We created a poster, printed out multiple pieces of paper, and paste them around the school to let our potential customers know that we are having the "WellFare Week." On the poster, we have included descriptions of our social enterprise goal and information about how can they order our products. We chose to use Google Forms to receive the orders, which we think as the most efficient way of getting the orders. After the preorders are taken, we contacted our suppliers to order this particular amount of coffee. After we are done with the first "WellFare Week," we have found out that all of our customers are teachers, and there was no student at all. We had a discussion regarding our customers, and we have decided that it is better to set a target market—teachers. Since our target market is narrowed, we also decided to change the way of promoting our business. Instead of pasting multiple posters, we've decided to send out mails to the teachers along with our Google Forms, where the teachers can make orders. Our second "WellFare Week" was from 20th to 23rd of August, 2019.
REFLECTION
Throughout the project, the members and I communicated consistently through any forms of communication. One of the biggest advantages that we had was the fact that we are close to each other. Whether formally or informally, we could share our own ideas without constraint, which led to gather up a wide range of ideas and perspectives in managing the business. Every time we have to decided something (for example, aforementioned modification made in the second WellFare Week), each member's opinions were gathered to finalize our discussion. This way, we could think of the problem in different perspectives and think of different outcomes we might have. Having our own business was one of the best experience I had in my high school life, because it was the first time to start a new and such a big project.
DEMONSTRATION
From WellFare Social Enterprise Project, I learned the importance of communication when working collaboratively with the other people. It is very important to listen carefully every ideas and perspectives of every members, because they will later gathered up and produce good results at the end. At first, I was uncertain if we can succeed in even stabilizing the business. However, my friends and I were able to successfully organize, manage, and expand it by ourselves. This accomplishment also gave me confidence in starting something totally new, and provide different skills related to managing business.
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