More Rotorua business students competing in young enterprise challenge

Rotorua Boys' High School students Karearea Bowden-McClutchie, Rohm Dixon and Koan Hemana. Photo / Andrew Warner

Meet 16-year-old businessman Rohm Dixon.

The Rotorua teenager has started his own coffee business.

He runs it from his school grounds during school hours.

Dixon is the chief executive and sales marketing manager of Coffee Direct, a business he started as part of the growing Young Enterprise Scheme.

YES is an opportunity for students to set up and run a real business and the number of students participating have grown in the last year.

Rotorua Boys' High School had their biggest intake ever with 20-plus teams taking part.

Dixon's business also employs communications director Koan Hemana and finance director Karearea Bowden-McClutchie.

Earlier this year, the Year 12 Rotorua Boys' High School students discovered their teachers were making special trips to get coffee before arriving at school.

"I was like: 'Far out that's a long way to go and get one coffee'," Dixon said.

So they created Coffee Direct.

Teachers order their coffees through a New Zealand online ordering app called On The Go and minutes later they receive their brew.

Dixon said business had been "very busy" since launching the business last month with the boys selling up to 40 coffees a day.

"It's been a great hit."

Dixon, who wants to study business management and finance, said the Young Enterprise Scheme had given them a lot of "great skills".

"It has really put me on to business owning early. I'm like a 16-year-old business owner."

The teenagers spent last term completing an NCEA barista course.

"We're all trained baristas," Dixon said.

"That was our main thing. It's all good and well having a business but if we sell bad coffee then it's not going to be a hit.

"We had to make sure we were making good coffees before we could actually start selling them."

They source their coffee beans through local business Croucher Brewing.

"We like to say they are the best beans in Rotorua."

Dixon said a highlight of the business so far was seeing their coffees were making a difference to his teachers.

"They're saving in time, money and effort."

But Dixon admits running a business was a lot harder than he expected.

"It's not as easy as just starting up a business.

"The hardest part has actually been getting teachers to download the app and getting around those technology barriers."

Rotorua Boys' High School business studies teacher Joseph Burke. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua Boys' High School business studies teacher Joseph Burke said this year the school had about 20 teams taking part in the challenge.

"This is by far the biggest intake we've had. I think last year we had about seven or eight teams."

Burke put the jump in numbers down to the students wanting to put what they've learned at school into practice in the real world.

"It comes down to transferable skills. It's about the students being empowered to go and talk to suppliers themselves and all sorts of people who are in the business world already so they already feel immersed in what life will be like after school."

He said the teams had come up with some "really cool" ideas, including a Māori-design chessboard to promote Māori culture and a strapping tape with essential oil for athletes and manual labourers.

Teams across the country are competing in a series of challenges as part of the young enterprise challenge.

The top-scoring teams from each region will qualify for the regional finals at the end of the year when they will pitch their business to a judging panel. The top team will then go on to the national finals in Wellington.

"If we can send our boys to the nationals this year it will be amazing."

YES regional coordinator for Rotorua, Taupō and Tokoroa Atawhai Gillies said numbers had increased in the last three years to 113 students this year from 64 in 2020 and 44 in 2019.

Rotorua Boys' High School had the most entries this year with 24 teams registered to take part, she said.

"The increase in numbers this year has really been beneficial for us.

"More people are talking about it in the community, which is great for our rangatahi."

Gillies said the mid-year pitches were in two weeks and she was excited to see what the students had been working on during the last five months.

"Our vision at Young Enterprise is to build a pipeline of entrepreneurial-minded young people who will boost prosperity in Aotearoa...

"Students experience life beyond the school gates by setting up and running their own business developing a range of important skills that will support them career-wise and in life."

There are five YES challenges that each company needs to complete:

Challenge 1 – Validation
Challenge 2 – The Pitch
Challenge 3 – Promotion
Challenge 4 – Sales
Challenge 5 – Annual Review

Source: YES