$20 Boss

$20 Boss is one of the Innovat[ED] options for year 8’s to participate in. For $20 Boss students are to be innovative and creative. Students design new and interesting to pitch to the facilitators/teachers in hope of becoming CEOs and being able to create and sell their products with help from their group. Once everyone has pitched, CEOs are chosen, and the rest of the group makes resumes and applies for which every group they would like to be in. After a few weeks of prototyping, designing and collaboration, there is a market where each group has a stall, and all the parents, junior school, and senior school come and buy or just look at what has been made.

10% of all profit made goes to a charity at the end of the market and the group decides how to split the rest of the profit depending on how much work was done by one member, or if they all did the same amount.

My Experience

Pitches

This past semester, we have been working on our $20 Boss product for Innovat[ED]. In weeks 2-6 of term one, we spent our time writing pitches and making presentations for these pitches. In week 7 we made these pitches to our facilitators and classmates. In week 8 the teachers told us who the CEOs were and those who did not get a position made resumes to present to the CEOs who were in charge of the group they wanted to be a part of. I was not picked to be a CEO. Once the groups were decided we separated into them and began our work.

Work in our group and the Capability Wheel

I was put in Ben’s group which was, Skateboard candle wax. The group consisted of Ben, Michael (Gerovich), Diego, and I. The business was called “Skateboard, Candles N’ Co.“

Our collaboration for this project started quite badly and we were not able to get much work done in the first few weeks as no one was listening to each other and we all had our separate ideas. Rather than telling these ideas to one another and elaborating on the first idea, some of those in our group did not participate as much as they could have. After the first two or three lessons, are group started to collaborate and use effective communication more, which helped us to continue with the business and make a plan of what we would have to do so that we had products we could sell at the end.

During the $20 Boss program, we had to be organised and quick problem solvers so we would be able to work at a pace that would keep us on track, and if we found any problems, we could fix/adjust our plan easily so that we could get back on track.

These are just a few of the capabilities our group used to help us succeed in this program.

Through our weeks of planning and designing for the $20 Boss market, we made many adjustments and had to work together so we could get more work done and progress easier. Working in this group was at times stressful, but was also very fun and enjoyable.

The Market

On the day of the market, it was very busy and there were lots of people there. We set up our stall and were ready for business. We were quite nervous at the start and weren’t sure if we would make any sales at all.

It was quite hectic and there were many people wanting to buy or just see everyone’s products. In the end, everyone made a profit and it was very successful. We almost sold out, with only ten or so left. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed being able to get the opportunity and participate in $20 Boss.