Reflection On The New Venture Challenge Project
The New Venture Challenge project was a unique and interesting experience for me. From both the in-class activities and the assignments I have done so far, I have learned that classes should be considered and set so that the students have to listen less and do more. In “regular” courses in business schools, the student is most of the time passive. The New Venture Challenge project was something new to me, and so was the experience of working with a CEO. And getting familiar with the New Venture Challenge concept made me discover a new and completely different way to look at a business.
Although I have done several internships in companies in the few past years, I have never gone that deep into a business understanding. As a team, we were assigned to starting and running a venture and make a profit with the money that we received from the university. In the beginning, it started as a brainstorm, and we shared our ideas with each other. We began to search for information about new venture ideas and we made some surveys to find what people need. Then we decided to make candles because candles have a wide marketing field.
Especially in Sweden in the winter time, it can be depressive without sunshine so that time candles are very useful at homes, Works, celebrities. As a new venture project, our competitive advantage from the others was using recycling and reusing materials for making candles. We used agreed with a church in jönköping and they gave us the candles that they didn’t use for free then we bought glasses from a second-hand store and some colors and smell to add candles. Sometimes we ran into a problem when we were trying to have group meetings because it was hard to fit the right time to everyone, so it made me nervous. Group projects are not easy especially if everyone is not as serious as you are, some of my group members were passive during the Project. The thing that I learned from this is, before starting a group work I should know my group-mates well.
Later we met and made the candles. After we took some photos we shared in social media and found some customers and the second day we sold all of them. Another important concept in having a business is a budget, we calculated our expenses and incomes carefully then we decided to make new candles with the profit. A lot goes on in having a business and it is very importan to keep all records/documents of everything you do. We bought new materials and that time we made candles in different shape and color. Also, we sold some of them in social media and in new venture day. These elements of creating a business in the future will definitely help me in being a successful entrepreneur. In an early age I acquired skills that will make me get better and be a step ahead of others. These skills can help me in the business world.
