November 2022
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Over the past year, team ZYNC has been using the slogan ‘Plant for the future’ as part of their campaign for the Tycoon Enterprise; a unique national enterprise competition for students aged 6–18 where they are encouraged to kickstart and fund their own businesses. Team member Erin (11L) takes us on a journey from founding their small company to winning the Innovative Business Award at the Tycoon Enterprise Final 2022.
Over the course of a year our group, ZYNC, developed, designed and produced a small range of sustainable products. These included potting gift sets and handmade seeded wildflower cards.
The full Tycoon experience really kicked off during the trading window. We held stalls once a week and, because of this combined with other selling opportunities, we managed to produce a profit margin of 375%. After a lot of hard work on the business, we made it to the shortlist as a Top Tycoon Team from over 300 businesses from across the UK, and then eventually the finals!
The finals were held at the Tobacco Dock conference centre, London, in September where we had a stall for our cards and a large noticeboard filled with pictures from our time in the competition. Then we heard speeches from entrepreneurs and inspirational people such as digital content creator, Luke Vernon. Later, we won the Innovative Business Award which was presented to us by the Dragon’s Den legend, Levi Roots. Overall, it was a great experience which led us to work collectively and effectively as a team, and as a team, we would all recommend giving it a go!
Erin (11L)
