Young Enterprise
Loads of schools offer a 'young enterprise' scheme. Basically, you pretend to be a business for a year - sell shares at school (up to the value of £5), sell something, and if you're lucky organise a prom and make millions.

Well, that's the plan. Usual result is that the people running it run out of effort and stop bothering, and sell something crap like bubble-blowing liquid.

We thought we'd do something different. We picked the four least-unmusical in our group, raided the drama department and decided, for Valentines' Day, we were doing "Singing Valentines", using a barbershop quartet.

£3 per valentine. This was a bargain - we disturbed classes in order to sing, and it took a minute of our time. Certain teachers used it to disturb rival teachers' classes.

The best bits? Well, we got a day off school to do it. We didn't ask, we just took it.

We also made a huge profit (something ludicrous, like £500). It worked out at £40 to each YE member, even after we had paid back all the shareholders their share plus half.

Free £40 isn't bad at all. Especially when the only downsides are running around, singing at people, and having a sore throat the next morning.
(basstard, Tue 5 Aug 2008, 22:02, 7 replies)

Ahhh, YE
We spent most of our time trying to make the most hated member of our group cry (with considerable success). We made no money.
(Merrep, Tue 5 Aug 2008, 23:13, closed)

YE the easy way
This is way back in the 80s -- Thatcher's Britain.

After being told we couldn't do what we really wanted to (run our own play-by-mail role-playing game...boo, hiss), we decided that we didn't have enough time left to come up with anything really novel, so we'd work smart instead of hard. The idea: sell mugs with the school's logo printed on them. The smart bit was, we wouldn't be doing any of the hard work: basically we printed up leaflets, took orders and then just passed it all on to a local mug-printing company.

Due to slapping on a healthy mark-up, we made over £1,200 (that's profit, not turnover) for doing fuck all. Capitalism at its finest!
( reallywittyname veraciously conspues lexiphanicism on, Wed 6 Aug 2008, 10:16, closed)

Good old YE
I did the YE. I was made managing director as I was the only fool who put his hands up.

As for a get rich scheme, we decided to do a disco for years 7,8,9 at the school we were at.

The school had kindly donated the school hall for the event and we had purchased enough stock for a tuck shop etc.

Tickets were £3 per child and we did 3 nights on the trot - about 100-120 kids per night.

This and the profit from the tuck shop raked us in somewhere in the region of 500 smackers.

The DJ was sub-contracted... to myself. I had all the kit so technically they hired that off me for 150 quid, 50 per night.

£350 quid divided by 7 is 50 quid each. So i made a nice tidy profit of 190 quid! (had to buy a share at 10 quid in the beginning)

I then resigned and cashed in my shares. The incoming MD decided to sell some shite bangles or something, which eventually cost more than it made!
(stevio is on the prowl for a girlfriend!, Wed 6 Aug 2008, 13:06, closed)

YE
I ended up MD of ours, then resigned when it got difficult (i.e. the 2 others who REALLY wanted to be MD started a whispering campaign against me). Won a couple of prizes after doing really well in the business exam (this may just be a scottish thing, i'm not sure), so made 50 quid that way, then the company begged me to return, which i grudgingly did, and I ended up with shares worth 40 quid, so it was kind of worth it. If nothing else, I learnt that business is shit, so avoid it at all costs. The 2 folk who bitched about me are both working in business, earning shitloads, and hate their lives (I've met both recently), I'm working in science, earn a pittance, but am fairly happy, so YE was useful for me :-)
( ascorbate, Wed 6 Aug 2008, 13:21, closed)

Did something similar...
Wasn't YE, it was just that my Business Management class was full of enterprising young chaps and chapettes.

We bought 3 BIG boxes of fake roses, ending up with some ridiculously large number, and sold them around the school for Valentine's/Mothers' Day (separately, that isn't some sort of incestuous celebration up here in Fife).

I have no idea what the eventual profit was. My share was given to me at Prom, and I spent it all on the night, getting myself and various others fairly peeshed. Happy days :)
(SlamDunc loves orange soda..., Wed 6 Aug 2008, 13:24, closed)

not me but a mate
recorded a compilation album of tracks by local bands which they flogged for about £3.00, then held a gig at one of the local bars where all the bands that contributed would pay a set for about half an hour.

This was back in the late 90's when Mansun (Wide Open Space) were pretty big. There was a girl in his year who had a mate that was going out with one of the Mansun chaps and got them to record and donate an exclusive track.

It sold pretty firkin well but they didn't show for the gig :0(
( SpikeyPickle wishes he was mabazaritchie, Wed 6 Aug 2008, 17:07, closed)

Ah YE
We made PCB mouse mats and coasters (this was before they were freely available) and I think we made some money. We also put on a disco for years 7-9 and my chap was the DJ. Think we made more money from that than the coasters.

I do remember winning the innovation award at the presentation evening and getting a bit squiffy and falling down some steps, so I'm guessing we drank the profits!
( El Lazarus is calm now, Ish,, Wed 6 Aug 2008, 22:06, closed)