Lekebergsschool- basic school in the municipality of Lekeberg, Sweden

Aim of the project

The program Business for a day aims to create understanding, knowledge and most important, an experience of entrepreneurship as well as an insight into the entrepreneurs conditions and everyday life.

Business owners may not all be entrepreneurs, they manage and run their companies and hopefully earn some money on a product or a service. All entrepreneurs do not start businesses. Lots of people, many times younger persons, goes about and does things in different situations and environments and thereby gets training in their own entrepreneurship.

The purpose of Business for a day is to get young as well as old people to train their entrepreneurship.  To develop the personal characteristics, qualities and attitudes connected to entrepreneurship and enterprise.

Activity 1 B4AD

“Business for a day” (B4AD) is a program that gives people of all ages the opportunity to try out ones ideas during one day.

The program Business for a day is created by CEED, (Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development), in Nova Scotia, Canada 1996.
The program has since been developed within the framework of the Open for Business sites in Canada, Sweden and other countries. B4AD has been offered to thousands of young aspiring entrepreneurs throughout several of regions in Sweden, since 1999.

Open for Business is an elaborate and structured concept with the overall purpose of creating active and entrepreneurial youths. The concept aims to encourage young people to dare trying, dare failing and to challenge themselves to create experience for the future.

Open for Business has created opportunities and above all a physical and mental platform where youth can sow and grow their entrepreneurship. OFB takes an overall perspective and all activities has a true line of networking, practice and creativity run through them. This is very visible in Business for a day.

The program Business for a day is spread throughout Sweden, as an example to entrepreneurship promoters and facilitators outside the OFB context.

B4AD can either be delivered as a part of a longer Entrepreneurship program or as a stand-alone-activity. It can be delivered to any age group, from 12 to 75.

The purpose of Business for a day is

•                           To create a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship.

•                           To develop entrepreneurship within the participants.

•                           To get a deeper understanding of running a business.

•                           To give hands on training in entrepreneurship, for all ages.

•                           To really get “a sense of and feeling for” entrepreneurship and business.

•                           To be able to test ones ideas under realistic circumstances.

B4AD – Business for a day – structure

B4AD is normally run during two days. The first day is exploration, idea generation and planning day. The second day is about “just doing it” and debrief.

Suggested structure:

DAY ONE

08:30 Presentation and welcome

09:00 Definition of the concept entrepreneur

09:20 Entrepreneurial characteristics

10:30 Brainstorm and creativity

11:30 LUNCH

12:30 Business development – form groups and companies.

13:30 Planning and preparing

15:00 Present the newly formed companies.

15:30 The end

DAY TWO

08:30 Welcome back – Kick off

10:00- 14:00 Participants run their businesses

14:00 Re-gathering – Presentations and debrief

15:00 Celebration

15:30 The end.

  Children’s activities: go through with the plan

Teacher’s  activities: Plan, inspire, reflect with the student. Also fix facilities, material, lunch, groups, program and other activities.

Results: In other school situations the students have tools for working in an entrepreunrial way.

 Projects relation to school subjects

Subject: math, Swedish and social science. The students look for knowledge by themselves by planning, evaluating and reflecting.

Project’ relation to real life and the world of work

The students needed to contact surrounding companies and institutions in the area. For example making phone calls and being able to chart their own network outside of school

Involving partners

The students needed to contact local business and calculate on costs and apply for permission to sell things.