Wednesday

Can't believe it's Wednesday already! Time flies when you are having fun!
This morning we watched a quick film from Dragons Den about a guy who was pitching his business plan to potential investors. We were then split into groups where we were given 1 problem from 1 of the businesses we visited yesterday. The question we got was from wiggly Wigglers regarding the breaking into the funeral flower business. I must admit this wasn't my first choice if problems but we had a really good group consisting of Bob, Gunvor, Linnea and Janis. We worked really well together. We divided the presentation into sections so each of us had a chance to contribute to it. We suggested to Phil that they could produce leaflets and send them out to funeral directors and also organisations such as churches, hotels, life insurance companies, football clubs etc. On looking at the Great British Florist website we released that their funeral section could be updated to include more photographs of what is available and to add key words to google so that they appear higher up the list. They also won the Good Funeral Flower Award and they could use this to their advantage to gain and attract new business. One more thing that we came up with was to create an app for making and customising your own bouquets.
It was really interesting listening to everyone else's ideas and solutions to other problems and what they owners had to say about them. It was a really quick day because we were so busy planning our presentations.
In the evening we had a walk up the Malvern hills...it was a perfect night and the view of all the lights from the top was amazing and well worth the hike up to the top! Would gladly do that again in the dark and in the day light!

Tuesday

So Monday night we had morrice dancers teaching us traditional morrice dancing...must say I wasn't sure about doing this but ended up having the biggest laugh ever! The guys were great and really up for a laugh! Couldn't believe how much energy it took to do these dances! It was knackered by the end of the session! Thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to do it again!

Wednesday...we visited businesses. Was very tired from the night before so I slept for an hour in the bus until we arrived at our first business. This business was Hopes of Longtown. Christine was really enthusiastic and she explained about her shop and how she started her business. She was travelling in Australia when she heard that her local shop had closed down so when she returned she went about trying to reopen it which she has now done successfully. She explained about problems she was facing and tasked us to come up with a solution to 1. Trying to get more young people into the shop and 2. Creating a sign to encourage people to stop.
The second business we visited was White Haywood Farm. They have a B&B and restaurant business. They find that they are really remote and asked us 1. How do they increase the footfall through the door of their business and 2. If one of them gets ill how do they ensure their business keeps going as currently they do everything themselves.
The last business we visited was Wiggly Wigglers. They own a gardening business and florist as well as farming land for grass, barley and wheat seed. They took us round their business and explained what they did. The problems they tasked us with were 1. How do they break into the funeral flower market and 2. How do they produce a cheaper bird seed without reducing quality.
I found these visits very useful and it was great to see how other people have started their business and problems they face.
In the evening we had a games night with a local young farmers group which was great fun! It was nice to meet some if the locals.

Monday

Well it's Monday! Had team building activities yesterday afternoon which was great! Climbed a majorly wobbly pole and stood on top of it with 4 other people...was such an achievement for me! Also did archery and team problem solving! The international buffet last night was amazing....loved trying all the different food and drink from countries across Europe. Always willing to try new food and so glad I got the opportunity to try it!
Today we have sessions on business plans which includes what to include and who you would show this to if you were to set up a new business! Looking forward to the afternoon sessions!

This afternoon we finished off our business plan workshop and we received a further a further presentation on social media and how to take full advantage of using it for promoting and advertising your business. I found this really interesting and learnt so many things that I didn't know with social media like how to put in key words into google so your business appears at the top of the search. Ready for some folk dancing tonight to finish off the day

Hi I'm Heather from Scotland. Just finished doing a presentation about Scotland and SAYFC and listening to all other country presentations which was really interesting!
Hoping to get a lot out if this week from listening and sharing ideas from other countries and forming new friendships!