Our mini-company module began after Christmas. On our first meeting we tried to think of a product which we could easily produce and people would be willing to buy. The suggestion which appealed to us the most was a suggestion which we had received from the sixth years, they wanted us to produce a yearbook for them. First interviews were held by the Bank Of Ireland for positions we believed the interviews were fair and we were delighted with the results.

Before we could start work on this we had to raise capital, each member of the company bought a £1 share in the company, this gave us £20, however we needed more funding and had to think of ideas. We eventually decided to have a raffle, the prize was a beautiful cosmetics hamper packed with goodies bought by each mini- company member. We sold tickets for 20p each and after four days of selling we were delighted to discover we had made approximately £90. We then had to decide on a name for our company. We each picked two names we liked and had a vote, the result - CHEEKY CHICKS!!! We then had to face the real challenge getting information and pictures from the sixth years after three weeks of chasing them we had almost all the information both collected and typed up.

We were then hit with the bombshell, the information had to be censored and a lot of parts had to be changed. The sixth years refused blatantly to co-operate with cheeky chicks so our idea had to be scrapped after two and a half months of hard work. We hadn't enough time to produce another product our only option was to sell a value added product i.e a product bought cheaper than we intended to sell it thus making a profit. We decided to hold a sweet shop at break time in our school. We bought sweets from Johnny Butler, a local entrepreneurial sole trader and Mr and Mrs Hackett of Hacketts shop, Callan. They were kind enough to give us a discount on the goods we bought. We packed the sweets in attractive bags and sold them in school making a small profit. Unfortunately we are not allowed to hold this type of sale any longer and we had to think of another idea.

Our next plan was to create a service for the teachers, getting our inspiration from the dirty cars in the car park we decided to wash cars at a low price. This idea turned out to be very popular with the teachers and we decided to wash the cars for two evenings only. We told the teachers that if they wanted their cars washed they should leave them in the car park on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. All were very happy with the service provided and we made a profit of £50 - tips included.

Our next project was a monster raffle of two tickets to see Robbie Williams and guests at Slane Castle, August 28th. This prize is worth over seventy pounds so we are selling tickets at £1 each. This project is still being carried out and our sales are doing extremely well , We are hoping to make a big profit. We have three weeks left as a mini-company and hope to come up with some more profit making ideas.

If you have any ideas please e-mail us our student account
Felicity Hanrahan - General Manager
Ann Gorman - Assistant General manager