To think these kids are CFs

[IsItOnly2023]

Hi all, first post as OP, hope it's not too lengthy.

My DS (15) is running a student company with 14 others under the Young Enterprise Company Programme. He's appointed as "Managing Director" and has esentially single-handedly (with some help from others) turned it into a success.

The company does a few things but one of the things it does is buy sweets/brownies and drinks from cash-and-carry and sell it at the school's weekend sports events. He and the boy who runs that are usually at the events but DS was at Alton Towers with a friend and the other boy had an argument with his dad so couldn't go.

Anyway, 4 people went to the event with £65 worth of stock and came back with £25 and little stock. 1 boy says he tried to keep it under control but the others ate/drank all the stock. DS not impressed, and not entirely sure on what to do. Context: They are going to the Company of the Year competition on Wednesday (which DS wrote the entire entry for!) and have End of Year exams this week. Year 10 so not too bad but still important.

I said DS should get them to pay for new stock and go to the cash and carry themselves (me/DH have tended to drive DS there). Every student had to pay £20 in for share money, so it could be taken off their shares so they get less return after eating £40 of profit! Or even ask teacher to warn them/stop them representing the business at the competition.

What do you think? I am happy to answer any clarifying questions.

@Weedoormatnomore Just spoke to him, he agrees that is a good course of action and will try that tomorrow. He wants to email the teacher letting him know what's going to happen.
@WeAreTheHeroes That's about it, it's roughly a 60/40 split, he's working on motivating them and he's got most of them onside now.
@ElonMust He's really not solely responsible, other boys have for example written the website, done designs etc. He is just by far the most hardworking, don't expect others to do the same (20hr per week on top of school). It's a good experive for him of how to deal with those that are should we say less helpful.

@Waterfallgirl It's not compulsory but some are just in it for their CVs, others want to do it.
@Piony I think I've been expressing it wrong, he just works the most but there are lots of other (a majority of members) people who are pulling their weight.

Sorry to hear abou this @OP. However, I think there is an opportunity for fantastic learninghere. What should he do as 'Managing director'? his handling of this matter all points to how good a leader he is and will be. This is a business so he needs to forget they are his friends and deal with it in a professional manner. Of course he should demand repayment for all the stock they have lost, discuss it and also put it in writing. Did he think about insurance? would having i insurance have helped in this situation? if they refuse, its an automatic firing.

They might not win the competition but the learning will stay with him.

I’m sorry this has happened to your son but don’t forget YE isn’t just about making a profit. It’s also about how you deal with problems like this. So holding a meeting and seeking agreement on the way forward and how to avoid the same thing happening is a really good learning curve for all the participants. When your son talks about the YE scheme in future (I’m thinking on a university application form or in interviews) it will be helpful to talk about this bump in the road and how he tackled it and what he would do differently and what he learned from it. It’s ok if, ultimately, this isn’t a success as long as he can get some data points out of it. I hope that makes sense.

Surely if the kids took stock without paying for it they have to replace that stock.
Its not there’s to take.
Thats theft from the company.
So either they go and buy the stock, or they reimburse the company for it.

Id go the whole hog and insist on reimbursing the full cost of petrol to purchase it again if they don’t want to go and get it themselves.( but that may be a bit too much for your OP? )

It sounds OP that your ds is being very professional. So if he keeps this request professional and not personal they hopefully won’t get all narky about it.

They are kids playing at being business men…I’m surprised he’s allowed to do this in school tbh.. are the registered in Companies House?

So the clowns in the enterprise with him will be gaining a gcse/Btec qualification based off your sons hard work?

That's a bit unnecessary.

Like any tricky situation we often ask others for advice. Her son does not need to take the advice......but if it were me, like the OP, I'd like to pass on some hopefully useful advice to my child I a similar scenario

@Throwncrumbs It's an official Young Enterprise scheme, technically they are a branch of young enterprise. @HipHipCimorene DS is tempted to agree.

Only needed if it’s LTD or LLB.
There may be other reasons as it’s a Young Enterprise Co aswell but I don’t know.

They snaffled the stuff, they go to cash and carry and replace what they snaffled at their expense.

@Duckingella It's not an official qualification but yes, it will look good on their CVs. I guess it's just the way life works, you've always got someone who hangs on other people's coat tails.

That seems like a lot of stock for them to have eaten themselves entirely. Are you sure that they didn’t sell it and someone has pocketed some of the profit money?

OK but my bigger point is that him imposing a "top down" solution on the team is not really appropriate. The suggestions you've come up with - him asking for cost price Vs full whack, him going to the cash and carry, him talking to a teacher - are very much unilateral decisions you are supporting him to make.

I think he should be going to the meeting with questions rather than answers. He'll only alienate them more by going in and telling them what he's decided the next steps are.

Do they not have an external business advisor for their team? I have acted in that capacity before for teams of YE and this is the type of scenario I'd expect to be being approached about ref how to handle it within the realms of a 'business scenario' in which case I'd be sitting in on the meeting whilst the MD facilitates the meeting and present the options of replacing the stock and providing the business with the difference in price for full retail value as well (given they ate/drank it at cost price but deprived their business of the ability to sell at retail price) or having the retail value taken from their shareholding........

@Keepitweird Yes they do. He emailed him but the business advisor is more of a softly softly approach but suggested them not being allowed to represent the company at company of the year competition. He's leaving that to the teacher. As he was in twice last week to help them prepare for the competition, he cannot make it yomorrow. He will be in on Wednesday though for the competition.
@HarrietStyles Either way it's an issue, if it turns out that's the case then... Well I'm not sure. They seem more incompetent than thieving though.

They replace the stock. Then they're fired.

Your son and his friend weren’t there so they don’t have the full picture. It could be that every single child was equally to blame, that it was just a couple of the kids or anything in between.

I think your son needs to email the teacher and ask them to be present during a meeting with everyone there. Once your son, his friend and the teacher have a better idea if exactly what went on they can make decisions about next steps.

At the moment your son doesn’t know exactly what happened. Teacher should def be involved in this. Lots of good learning can be taken from this - it’s an opportunity for reflection and growth not a crisis that your son has to fix single handed.

Obviously, you have no children or they are still very young. End of year exams occur at this time of the year for GCSE, A levels, BTECs, a multitude of other qualifications and undergraduate degrees.

That's so unfair on the conscientious ones like your son! They certainly are cheeky wee sods and YANBU.

He or they, depending on how many are involved in finance/stock/purchasing directly - need to work out the maths..

Just the figures, what there was, what there should be, what there isn't, etc etc.

Then present that to the full board (ideally with the relevant teacher present!) and ask the full board what the solution is to a/ resolve the immediate problem and b/ avoid this happening again.

Once that is figured out, THEN they can determine exactly who was responsible and who pays for what.

And possibly discuss that in real life, employees would simply be sacked, immediately, for theft of stock or cash.

This is both hilarious and an opportunity for learning.

See if you can find a lawyer who will talk to them about what would happen in a real life scenario. Who is responsible for wrongdoing in a business? How do you calculate what the loss is (is this the basic cost price, or the lost profit if all cakes had been sold)? When is one partner in a business liable for wrongdoing of another? Could they have laid out more consequences to stop this kind of wrongdoing, and what would have been enough to stop it?

They could all learn a valuable lesson from it, if handled in the right way.

He needs to get them together and explain that for the competition they need to show a profit. So they need to pay for what they have eaten at the selling price of the event to balance the books.

going forward suggest they buy a small amount of snacks that they keep separate from the stock that they sell for “staff” consumption. For this they could all chip in.

And this is why I hate the whole young enterprise thing.

It doesn't actually teach kids about business. Instead it just ends up with one or two children doing everything and various parental subsidies

@ForTheSakeOfThePenguin “Obviously, you have no children or they are still very young. End of year exams occur at this time of the year for GCSE, A levels, BTECs, a multitude of other qualifications and undergraduate degrees.”

Not obviously at all. In fact, I’ve had 3 go through Y10 (2 of mine and a stepchild) and none had “end of year” exams barely more than 2/3 of the way through the year. He’s Y10, he’s doing a degree 🤣