The 2012 Business Week Experience

          Stained in hot pink and cruised the streets of the Orchid City, the freshmen SBME students of ABC lead the convoy of the schools’ 2012 Business Week. After which a short but esteemed opening program was held. One phrase that I remembered from the department’s Entrepreneurial Skills teacher, Mrs. Barbaso, was that “In business there are risks that are to be taken, and these should be calculatedrisks.” To a student who never had experience in an actual business, the phrase had menial meaning, but little that I know that it was worth to be pondered on.

          By the end of the program, we started endorsing our products to the public thinking that selling would be easy and anybody can do it. We started off good, our products were selling, the purse that was holding our sales began to fill up, and buyers were bringing more friends to us. From bookmarks to chips almost a fourth of the products were sold and the day was yet to be over. We were filled with adrenaline and encouragement and so we decided to buy more products to sell, thinking that the sales would actually be higher.

         But as the day grew weary, our way of thinking seemed to prove us wrong, our prospect buyers were not interested. Our marketing skills that were yet to be tested were not much to lean on to and on our products that were supposed to be a “catch” were not. The only driving force that we had was that if the other students can do this, then why can’t we? And so we began to sell and believed in what we sold. We tried to show the benefits of our products telling them how affordable it is. Luckily there were also more people which meant more buyers. And so, by the end of the day, our profit was 30 percent of our sales. And it was all because of conviction and hard work.

         From all this, I learned that business is not just about money, it’s about the choices and mindset that we have. We have to make reasonable choices and possess a mindset that calculates the risks we are taking, bearing in mind our capabilities and as well as our limitations. All of us should ponder on that entrepreneurial phrase not only in the duration of our Business week but for the rest of our productive years. -Natasha Kaye V. Angeles (Contributor)