How to nail the SEP Interview!

So, you’ve been working hard on your Student Enterprise Programme business, coming up with a great idea, forming your team, running your business, managing your marketing, sales and doing your accounts – you’ve even worked on submitting a great business report within the deadline, and now you have an interview at either School, County or National Final to prepare for!

Here at studententerprise.ie we want to give you some advice from our years of experience in running the programme about how to ensure you present yourselves and your business in the best possible way!

So, let’s start with the basics:

1. Know your business report inside out!

You recently completed your Business Report. Think of it as your textbook on a subject for an exam – except it’s even better than that, because you wrote it! So, you’re going to be answering some questions on a piece of work that you’ve written – that’s certainly not how exams work and makes a pleasant change, right? It is vital that all team members know the report material very well. Obviously, certain team members are in charge of certain tasks in the business, and may have written ‘their’ section of the report, but generally, it is important that all team members have a good knowledge of the whole report.

2. Know your numbers

You’ll know generally how your business developed from an idea, to the production side of the business and how sales were made, but it’s important to have certain numbers at your fingertips for the interview. For instance, if you’re producing a product, it’s very likely the judges will ask you:

• How many units (products) did you sell?’
• What was your cost of production?
• What was your sales price?
• What was your total turnover? (the amount of money earned from sales)
• If, and how much, you invested in the business?
• If, and how much LEO or school funding you received?
• What was your net profit?

Remember, the judges aren’t trying to ‘catch you out’ with these questions – they will have read your report, but want to see if you’re up to speed on how the business is performing!

3. Have an up-to-the-minute update ready

Remember, the judges love to see that you’re continually working on the business, and a good tip here is if you have made progress since you submitted the business report (maybe you’ve really increased sales, or got some new orders), summarise this progress in bullet point form on an A4 sheet and present same to them-they’ll be impressed that you perhaps see potential for the business beyond the end of the current SEP cycle!

4. Make it a team event

All members of the team need to be involved in the interview. Teamwork is vital for business success, and judges like to see all members contributing to the interview, as it shows that the success of the business is a genuine team effort! It would be good practice for the Managing Director (MD) to introduce himself/herself to the judges and introduce the other team members and their respective positions within the business. When a question is asked on marketing, it should be answered by the Marketing Manager, a finance question should be asked by the Financial Manager, etc. In this way, everybody gets to contribute and that creates a positive impression on the judges.

5. Presentation is paramount

How you present your business is also very important. You’ll have received advice on how to prepare your display stand, but some basic presentation skills are key – for instance, do you have a business uniform, like branded workwear, fleeces, etc.? If so, make sure all team members are wearing it. If you’re in you school uniform, ensure all team members have name badges to make it easier for the judges to know who is who.

6. Practice makes perfect!

Finally, remember the old saying…’practice makes perfect’! Try to develop a list of questions the judges may ask, and write them down. For instance, they may ask how you came up with your idea, what you did next, how did you decide on the sales price of your product service, financial questions like we outlined earlier, and maybe conclude with what you learned about business by taking part in the SEP. Write down answers to these potential questions and conduct short ‘practice interviews’ with your team – don’t worry about trying to learn off the answers, rather try to ensure you have an understanding of what’s being asked and how your team actually performed in that area, and what you learned.

Finally, remember to relax – you’re being interviewed by judges who’ve read your business report and are genuinely interested to see how participating in the Student Enterprise Programme has helped you to learn about business. Be honest, enthusiastic and share your passion for enterprise and you can’t go wrong!

Keep Calm, It’s Business Report time!!

Around about now, if you listen very carefully, you might actually hear the combined groans of students like you from all over Ireland who are facing into writing the dreaded Business Report!  But actually, this, seemingly daunting, but essential, part of the Student Enterprise Programme doesn’t need to be dreaded at all.

The basics:

The Report cannot be any more than six pages long (without appendices).  You want the judges to find reading your Report an interesting and pleasurable experience.  They will be reviewing up to forty reports in advance of the County/National Final and there are a full thirty marks available for it.  This is your chance to make a BIG first impression and do yourselves and your business justice! A well structured Business Report is a joy to read.

Resources:

The first thing to do is to go to the “Student Resources” link on www.studententerprise.ie  Under “Student Resources” – “Useful Templates/Forms” you will find documents which you can download including “Business Report Template” and “Business Report Cover Sheet”.  Under the “Report Template”, you will find eight different section headings from “Introduction” to “Review and Conclusion”.  Each heading features various really useful prompt questions to help you tell your own unique SEP story.  If you literally answer all of these prompt questions in your own words, expanding on each one, then Hey Presto – you’ll have your Report done and dusted!

Step by step:

It’s likely that different team members were responsible for different aspects of the business (e.g. Sales and Marketing, Finance), so one option is to have everyone write their own relevant section.  If you decide to take this approach, it’s advisable to have an editor ensure that the Report reads well and the various writing styles match.

So,

• Start with the prompt questions from the Business Report Template.
• Write bullet points under each question heading.
• Expand on these bullet points, to complete full sentences.
• Use clear, concise English and make your sentences as snappy as
• possible.
• Keep to the point!
• Try to vary your language. Avoid using the same words or phrases repeatedly. Your thesaurus can help you with this!
• Ensure proper use of grammar. (e.g. know the difference between “they’re”, “there” and “their”!)
• If you are unsure how to spell a word, look it up!
• Ensure the correct use of commas and apostrophes.
• Make sure all sections are in the same tense.
• Use a font that is easy to read.
• Ensure photos you use print out clearly.
• A bit of humour can make all the difference to the reader!
• Tell your story in your own way.
• Be professional.
• Avoid the temptation of getting someone else to write the report for you!  The judges will always know!

Some words of wisdom:

The power of the mind is amazing.  Visualisation can really help you to achieve your goals.  An excellent tip for approaching any dreaded task is to simply relax, close your eyes and conjure up the satisfied feeling you will get when you have the task completed.  So, imagine putting in the very last full stop on your Business Report.  See the Report in your hand, perfectly neat and tidy, with flowing, concise language. It is the best representation of you and your business that it can be and you are super proud of it.

Now, take a deep breath and start writing!