Who Cares

Fresh Concepts Say ‘YES’ to Helping Young People

A team of inspired young people from Who Cares Scotland recently completed a Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) programme funded by the Big Lottery at the Fairhills Lifestyles Centre. The programme was supported by key worker Ray and YES Trainers Douglas Florence and Maxine McClintock. The young people enthused by their own ideas and creativity inspired and motivated by the goal of creating something completely new decided to opt for the company name: FRESH CONCEPTS.

FRESH CONCEPTS’s ethos and inspiration was borne out of the concept of young people providing support to one another. Finding a business logo wasn’t too difficult a process: toying with the belief held by many young people that ‘pigs would fly’ before young people extended themselves towards helping one another; the group decided to employ that very image for their company logo.

A natural flair for entrepreneurialism within the group helped develop discussions about a wide variety of business issues; cutbacks in the economy, the increase in second hand buying and the use of social media and internet buying. Tying all these elements together to create a business which provides a unique service the young people decided to set up an online recycling business. Excited at the prospect of their new business FRESH CONCEPTS laboured to build a strictly non-hierarchical business; conducting market research, developing potential business scenarios, creating and supporting social media sites, refining their strategy to help create a solid business plan and a presentation.

The presentation delivered in a Dragons Den style format with a large audience included representatives from Coca Cola and Rolls Royce. The presentation included an open Q&A session. The team faced tough questioning from the panel and then a request was made for resources items such as storage space, IT equipment and donations for sale. The presentation was a great success and the group were commended on their performance and hard work by the business professionals and other guests in attendance.

FRESH CONCEPTS now aim to build and develop partnerships with a local furniture initiative that will enable them to share business knowledge and experience, enhancing their skills with experienced marketing professionals. Having further secured a mobile phone to aid them in their transactions FRESH CONCEPTS are now well and truly up and running. With many items already sold on the websites Gumtree and Facebook - flexing their savvy social media skills are ensuring a steady increase in traffic to their page.

Well done to the team and we wish them every success for the future!

FRESH CONCEPTS can be contacted via Facebook or by e-mailing freshconcepts@hotmail.co.uk