Hope Pham has been awarded second place in the New South Wales State Final of the 2021 Plan Your Own Enterprise (POYE) competition. The Year 11 student was selected as one of ten finalists from across the state and invited to pitch her hypothetical business enterprise to a panel of judges.
Hosted by Business Educators Australasia, the competition challenges students to devise a creative business idea and explain how it could be a profitable business in the form of a business plan. Participants must consider details such as the business’s financial and staffing requirements, legal structure and its future prospects.
Hope’s enterprise, which she called Visualist, aims to provide time-poor consumers with a more efficient way to purchase art through the use of a mobile app. Hope worked for many hours on her project and said the most challenging part was refining her idea.
“I know that for a business to be viable and successful, it needs to be cost-effective. I wanted to create an efficient online service which would make people’s lives easier when it comes to designing their homes,” Hope said.
“I shared my idea with my parents, who said that when my house was being built, it was hard to find the time to shop for art. After that, the concept for Visualist was born!”
The judges were impressed with the delivery of Hope’s pitch and congratulated her on the high quality of her business plan.
Juna Suh, who is also in Year 11 and entered the competition, received excellent feedback for her hypothetical business idea that sells smart pet collars embedded with a GPS tracker. In addition to monitoring a pet’s location and behaviours, the collars would provide a daily health summary to the owner, enabling faster detection of health issues.
Business Studies teacher, Ms Anita Kondichetty, said she was proud of the hard work the girls put into their innovative business plans.
“The competition requires business insight, practical financial skills and a creative flair for problem-solving. Hope and Juna were able to apply their business knowledge to a real-life scenario. They showed outstanding knowledge of business structures and processes as well as an excellent understanding of the financial aspects of running a business,” Ms Kondichetty said.
