"It kind of evolved from seeing rubbish around and bringing our lunch in plastic bags. We wanted something that was more than just a lunchbox, something that looks nice. We thought it would be good to have something we could reuse," says Emily. "We had a sale outside assembly and sold 300 in the first 10 minutes."
The dishwasher-friendly bags are now stocked at homeware and gift store, Redcurrent.
Tayla's The Little Cake Company produces and sells cupcake packs that include a decorating kit with a book, icing nozzles, a reusable piping bag, 200g of fondant and patty cases.
"Hardly any cupcake kits have everything in them and are easy to use for kids our age. At our school, baking is huge."
Their workload as managing directors was also huge. They spent time with assigned business mentors, met at least twice a week with their school teams, and say social networking helped them make plans and discuss ideas.
"You'd be doing your maths homework and commenting on something to do with your product," says Emily.
Although both were initially concerned that their other school work and commitments would suffer, they have discovered the truth of the adage: the more you take on, the more you realise you can do.
"Sometimes you can survive on just a couple of hours' sleep. We learnt to keep everything the same. We've kept up our marks, kept up sports," says Emily.
Tayla agrees. "It's definitely tested our time management. We spent six hours one weekend dividing up a kilo of fondant into the 200g packs. It's taken a lot out of our social life. But it's made us realise we can cope, and we'll be more confident for the future."
The girls won prizes at a regional level and both see a future in business, following business studies at university.
FINALISTS IN YOUNG MD OF THE YEAR
The NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) Young Managing Director of the Year contest
is part of the Young Enterprise Scheme. It is an experiential business programme run in high schools.
National finalists were:
Tayla Forde, 17, The Little Cake Company, St Cuthbert's College, Auckland.
Product: A cupcake decorating kit.
Emily Fry, 16, Le Lunch, St Cuthbert's College, Auckland.
Product: A range of designer, reusable ``snap-down'' lunch bags made of oil-cloth material, snap band and velcro
which compact down after use.
Elle Scurr, 18, Back Black Enterprise, Mount Aspiring College, Southland.
Product: Roll'n Go Face Paint Compact, an instant application, white and black striped face paint designed initially for RWC fans.
Jaden Milligan, 18, Helpful Electronics, Christchurch Boys' High, Christchurch.
Product: H.E.L.P - the Helpful Electronic Locating Product; a touch-screen all-in-one computer for shops enabling customers to search and find products in the store.
WINNER James Agnew, 17, Advanced Clean Energies (ACE), St Thomas of Canterbury College, Christchurch.
Product: The Lion Emergency Power Generator, which produces electricity from waste heat to power cellphones
and charge batteries, an invention inspired by the impact of the Canterbury earthquakes.
HAVE YOUR SAY IN THE COMMMENT BOX BELOW
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