Young
enterprise.

Reusing what pubs threw away.

Local pubs donated their used corks and we turned them into coasters, mats and decorations. The material was simple, but turning it into a product meant thinking about the whole process: collecting, making, presenting and selling.

Running the company.

As Managing Director I was responsible for helping the team make decisions and work towards the same goal. The programme gave me hands-on experience with sales, operations and production.

Keeping it fair.

The team started with around 13 people and went down to around 10. Some people dropped out, and some were not pulling their weight, so they had to be let go. This was quite a long process using a strike system, which was implemented to make it as fair as possible for everyone else. If people were not keeping up their side of the bargain, they did not deserve to share the profits.

Throughout the programme I learned how to delegate and get the best out of people. I went from trying to manage everything myself and micromanaging each job to being able to trust my team, which gave a much better outcome and meant my time was better spent.

Where we sold.

We sold at lots of different places: shopping centre stalls, parents' evenings, dinners and organised market square events. Coasters were our best-selling product and our staple throughout the programme. We also made specialised products for events like Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day.

Sticking with corks.

Reusing corks was originally only meant to be a revenue generator until we could launch a second product. When we had to make a decision between the two products, I took the executive decision as Managing Director to focus on the cork products. It was selling well, it was more marketable with a larger target market, it needed less upfront cost and it had a high profit margin.