Business Studies: Two New Zealand Entrepreneurs

 Karen Walker

Karen Walker was born on the 4th of December 1969. She grew up in the Auckland suburb of Remuera. Walker attended Epsom Girls' Grammar School to pursue a career of becoming a fashion designer. After graduating in 1995, she launched her first two boutiques, with only a hundred bucks. 

Karen Walker is a New Zealand fashion designer. She began her fashion label back in 1987 and opened her first store in Newmarket, Auckland. As time went on, her business grew, Walker started selling off her clothes in Barneys, New York, in 1988. It was the same year where she presented her first runway collection.  

Walker’s sales soared when Madonna, an American singer-songwriter and actress, also referred to as the “Queen of Pop”, wore one of Karen Walker’s designed clothes. When Walker’s sales soared, she became well-known. Walker has designed clothes worn by famous actresses, actors, singers and more. Artists such as Bjork, Sienna Millar, Natalie Portman, M.I.A, Alexa Chung, Beth Ditto, Michael Haneke, Liv Tyler, Rihanna, Claire Daines, Zooey Deschanel and Jennifer Lopez. 

In the 2000s, Walker became the first New Zealander to have a solo show at New York fashion week. Karen Walker was also appointed as the “Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit”, for her services and contribution in the fashion industry during the, "2004 New Year Honours." In 2007, Karen Walker received the prize of, “Prix de Marie Claire” for best creative talent. Later on, in 2009, she was awarded the “World Class New Zealand Awards”. Ten years later, she was promoted to “Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit,” for her excellent services in fashion designs. 

In my opinion, Karen Walker is a hard-worker designer. For instance, in her interview for the online magazine called Fashion NZ, a reporter asked how she dealt with failures and the challenges she faced during the process. Karen Walker stated, “Well, it’s not easy to build a brand or a successful business, especially over three decades. Not everyone succeeds in this way, and we’re very aware of this. Over 30 years, we’ve faced thousands of challenges and continue to. When there are failures, it’s best to embrace them, and learn from them.

The fashion business is based upon the premise of constant change and, whilst this is, in part, our reason for being, it’s also one of the major challenges. We have to be constantly living in the future and pre-empting and managing changes that are out of our control.” She could’ve given up during her 30 years of service in the fashion industry, on top of that, she had a lot of competitors who could be more creative than her, but she didn’t. In my point of view, she was ambitious, she strived to do more, to be better, to be more successful, and to prove to everyone that she is not just any entrepreneur. 

Resources: 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Walker_(designer) 
• https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/seven-world-class-kiwi-entrepreneurs/UR5VWAG6NAXQXNMTTKJK3LMLXY/
• https://www.famousfashiondesigners.org/karen-walker
• https://fashionz.co.nz/karen-walker-on-30-years-of-her-eponymous-brand/ 
• https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/12-02-2020/karen-walker-on-why-she-closed-the-department-store-after-10-years/
• https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/my-heels-are-killing-me/story/2018651799/karen-walker-the-gate-keepers-have-gone

Ray Avery

Sir Raymond John Avery is a successful New Zealand scientist, entrepreneur, inventor and author. He was born in Kent, England and grew up without having parents. He’s spent most of his childhood in orphanages to foster homes. At the age of 14, Avery used to get in trouble with the police, he slept in the streets of London, eventually, he found sanctuary in the library. Avery spent most of his time reading books, he discovered fascinating things, from there, he developed an interest in science, furthermore, he was able to educate himself. 

A teacher in London who found Avery encouraged him to attend an agricultural college. From there, Avery studied at Wye College and graduated with a degree in science. He eventually became a scientist, where he began to conduct his experiments. 

1973, Avery settled in New Zealand, where he became a citizen, from there, he continued his experiments in Auckland. Consequently, Avery took a role as technical director of Douglas Pharmaceuticals. Years later, Avery moved to Fred Hollows, where he concentrated on issues such as treating blindness. 

Motivated, Sir Avery worked blood, sweat, and tears. Because of Avery’s perseverance, he’s gained, multiple supporters. He was able to publish his first book of autobiography about his life in 2010, called “Rebel with a Cause”, where he wrote his story about living in an orphanage, following his dream and making his dream into reality. 

Sir Avery said in an interview that surviving his childhood was the hardest thing he’s ever done. From childhood, Avery suffered from mistreatment of others and abuse. He’s also had difficulties such as dyslexia and hearing problems which made his life more difficult than it ever was. 

I strongly believe that Sir Raymond Avery is a strong man. I can’t imagine myself without a mum and a dad, furthermore, a family, and Sir Avery must’ve been longing for the love from his parents, yet never received it. I don’t know Sir Raymond, I’ve just discovered him from my research of New Zealand entrepreneurs, I feel pity for him, I pretended I was in his shoes during his childhood. It was sad and lonely, walking in the streets of London, starving, crying, resentful. Sir Avery had nothing but only dreams, but he was brave, he had a strong spirit. He was able to educate himself, he wanted to learn and be out of misery, because of this, he became the successful man he is now.

Resources:  

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Avery_(scientist)
• https://www.newsroom.co.nz/who-is-sir-ray-avery#:~:text=From%20an%20orphanage%20in%20England,mistreatment%20and%20%E2%80%9Csystematic%20abuse%E2%80%9D.
• https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-mcivor-mornings/audio/ray-avery-more-creativity-needs-to-be-put-into-curriculums/
• https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/11-09-2018/why-is-sir-ray-avery-is-trying-to-take-down-the-news/

How To Make Smart Decisions? - Business Studies

 In our lesson in Business Studies, we have been learning about "Credits" and "Loans", its definitions, pros and cons and the benefits you earn from them. 

After learning about those things, we have to make a blogpost regarding those things we have learnt in order to show them that we've understood the topic.

This is mine.

Mortgage Loans - Business Studies

 What is a Mortgage Loan? It's a loan from the bank or other financial institution that helps the borrower to purchase a home. 

Positives 

• The interest rates are lower than other types of borrowing. 
• Long-term mortgages can give you more time to pay.
• No security risks.
• A stable rate of interest.
• Fewer documentary charges.

Negatives

• You pay back more than what you borrowed.
• The loan amount is larger than with a conventional, fixed-rate mortgage.
• Debt

Why would we use this loan?

It is an example of good debt because interests are low and it can be used to purchase a home.

Budgeting Venn Diagram - Business Studies

 In our lesson in Business Studies, we had to make a Venn diagram of the differences and similarities of "Savings" and "Credits". 

This is the one that I made, I listed down the things I already know and some, I researched. 

20-Dollar-Budget for Dinner - Business Studies

In our lesson in Business Studies, we had an activity to do, it's a combination of grocery shopping and budgeting. We had a budget of 20 dollars and we had to buy the ingredients and calculate how much they cost so that it'd fit in our budget. 

I decided to make "Beef Broccoli with Mashed Potatoes" on the side. 

I have looked up the costs and ingredients in Pak N Save's online shopping.  

Requirements for the dinner:

• Healthy
• Nutritious 
• Yummy 
• Under or at least 20 dollars 

Ingredients for Beef Broccoli:

• Salt 
• Pepper
• Soy Sauce
• Beef 
• Broccoli 
• Oil 

Ingredient for Mashed Potatoes: 

• Milk
• Butter 
• Potatoes 

Product	Costs
	$1.95 x 4   = $7.8
	$0.99 x 4  = $3.96
	$0.25 x 10  = $2.5
	$1.94
	$1.89
	Total  $7.8 + $3.96 + $2.5  = $14.26 + $1.94 + $1.89 =$18.09

Why Do We Need To Save Up? - Business Studies

 In business studies, we are learning about 'savings'. After learning about that topic and discussion with everyone, our classmates, including our teacher. We had to brainstorm using a Mindmap. I made mine using 'Coggle'. 

This includes the purpose, benefits, keywords and the things that will happen if you don't save up. 

In addition to budgeting, we had to illustrate the key words of budgeting; Income, Conflict between a consumer and services/goods, savings, and consumer. 

We had to work with a pair, I paired up with Rieya, my friend. 

Can you guess which one is which? 

The Ultimate Budgeting Guide!!! - Business Studies

Hello ladies and gentlemen, today, I will briefly explain everything about budgeting. Yes, that's right, this is about budgeting, unlike my previous blogpost about budgeting, that was about the key points. This is the 'guide', which tells you more about other information. 

This budgeting guide will give you knowledge and guide to budgeting, it consists of a definition of the three main types of budgeting. Not only that, but it also has information about the elements in budgeting, such as variable expenses, discretionary expenses, and fixed expenses and their definitions and examples. 

This blogpost will help you understand and enlighten you about budgeting, especially if you won't know how to or if you want to improve your budgeting skills and knowledge.  

I've always and still am having a hard time budgeting, I would ask myself, "Should I buy this? Will this be worth it?. Those kinds of questions, of course, even though I don't have a job and I rely on my parents and don't have to do work at the moment. I still need to be cautious about the things I spent the money my parents provided me with on. Learning about budgeting in 'Business Studies' has helped me improve my budgeting. And I'm pleased with my work because it shows all the things I have learnt about budgeting and I can explain and give an outlook of my learning and experiences to everyone. 

Have you also experienced those things at some point in your life? If so, did you have those same questions in your head? 

All The Budgeting Information You Need! (Key Words + Definitions) - Business Studies

 Today I have finished the presentation about the budgeting keywords and wrote down each of its definitions. This presentation is an important one because it will be marked off by our business studies teacher, Ms Eastwick. There are two blogposts in total that will be done at the end of business studies. I used google slideshow presentation to present my work. I have put down my resources, of course, I did do a little research (since it's an open book test) in the majority of the keywords but no need to worry because I wrote it down in my own words and also listed the websites. 

What am I learning? I'm learning about the budgeting keywords and its definitions and how they relate to customers and successful businesses. 

How does this show my learning? This shows how much I've learnt in a week and how I understand each of it. 

My thoughts about my work? I am proud of my work and how much I've grown and learnt throughout the week of returning to school. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blogpost.

I would gladly appreciate it if you leave a comment down below, telling me feedbacks which I can reflect on so that I know my next steps. 

The Marketing Mix: Promotion - Business Studies

I have finished my assessment on Business Studies, the topic was the "Promotion" of the product which is creating an advertisement for one's product to be known by the customers. 

I created my advertisement or promotion on Canva, I am relieved because I finished my work early and I think that it is quality blogposts and work. I am satisfied with my work and I think that I've put a lot of detailed information about all the segments of The Marketing mix and also about my group's product and the sections to it. 

This is the promotion I've made. 

P.S the websites and pages I've made are not real and they are just for educational purpose only to make it more professional. 

The Marketing Mix: Place - Business Studies

In our lesson in Business Studies, this is the third part of the assessment and I have finished it, I only need to do the fourth and last one. I first put my draft on a google doc and then transferred it on the google slideshow presentation. I've written quite a lot of information about the market day and our product, put up questions and then answered it myself. I have thought about the factors I need to consider regarding the products place.

In my slide the questions are...

• Where will our product be produced or made
• Where would be a good place, location, area to market and sell our product
• Who we are relying on when it comes to selling our product
• Who are competitions are going to be and how we are going to outsell them

I am satisfied with my learning outcome, in my opinion, I think I have improved and have more knowledge with businesses; how to manage it, what challenges will be faced in the future, competitions, benefits, profiting, etc. 

The Marketing Mix: Price - Banana Cue Update - Business Studies

 Price for the Banana Cues 

How did you work out what price you were going to sell your product at?  My group and I worked out the price in of the result of the item descriptions’ price and the quantity of it; how much a certain material we are going to need in order to make our product just the way we imagined it to be. We are sure that there are going to be competitions through the kahui, not because we have the same product because we know that no one would’ve come up the same product as ours since ours is from our country, which people are not familiar with the food. But we do have competition when it comes to the food section because most of the groups will be making food that is familiar to the customers’ eyes. Not just the food section, but we also have competition when it comes to people having a connection with customers, there are a lot of individuals who knows a lot of people and is popular, in result of this, they’re going to more likely have more customers because of their connections and how they will advertise their product and how they are going to engage and encourage them to buy their product. 

How will you ensure that your product is worth the price you are asking people to pay (quality control)? Our product is affordable not only that, our customers will be pleased with our product. The customers’ satisfaction sure will increase, the product will be worth the price we are asking them to give, we can ensure this by making our product pleasing to their eyes, yes, it may be unfamiliar to the majority of them but using our knowledge with innovation and elevation and entrepreneur skills, we can make our product something that people would want to buy and eat, that they will enjoy, this I think will earn our customers loyalty. Banana cue’s are rich in Vitamin B6, Manganese, Vitamin C , Potassium, Dietary Fiber, Protein, Magnesium, Folate, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin A , Iron, that’s why Filipinos love it, there are a lot of benefits you can get from eating this dessert and in an affordable price, each gets an equal amount of benefits from this exchange. 

What price are others (B&E group/real-world business) charging for the same good (use a table to show this)? In the Philippines, it’s very cheap. The prices are between 10 to 20 pesos depending on the size and amount you are going to purchase. In calculation, 10 pesos in New Zealand Dollars are 31 cents and 20 pesos is 62 cents. We are going to sell banana cues on market day for $2.00, first of all, it’s not that easy to afford and find “saging na saba” because it can only be grown properly in tropical countries (frozen-free). The currency of the Philippines and New Zealand are different, you can purchase a lot in the Philippines for a cheap price, it’s more expensive in New Zealand to buy products and services compare to the Philippines. We’d have to divide the bananas by cutting it in fifths or sixths so that we are able to figure out how much we are going to serve to our customers and figure out the price we are going to be asking them. 

What else will you consider when it comes to the price of your product? We will consider the quality and quantity of our product, our group and I think that the product itself is good, but not everyone thinks the same, everyone has different opinions when it comes to product. We also need to consider and find out what people in our community think of our product. Asking for advice and feedback on what else we can improve on if we need to decrease or increase the price. What we can do to make our product stand out from the rest, how it will please people, ask people if they like the idea if they agree or disagree. What we can do to make our product look appetising, if our product looks appetising then the customer will surely buy it.  

The Marketing Mix - Banana Cue Components - Business Studies

 In our lesson in Business Studies, we had to do an assessment of the product we are going to sell in Market Day. We have to make a total of 4 blog posts about the products, this highlights the components, unique selling-point and target market, market research, and the advertisement of our product.

This shows what the feautures of our products are; what the purpose is and how they are used. The quality of our product, the size, volume and shape, the packing (where we are going to place our product) and ingredients we are giong to have to buy and use to make our product.

I really like how my poster/presentation turned out, I think that there are a lot of information that I've put in that the audience and viwers are going to need to find out. It will give them the information that they need. The colours that I've used are dark and rich and it matches all of the elements in there. The language I've used is I think is very smart and will attract that people.

Marketing and Selling - Business Studies

To be successful in marketing and selling your product; product that people would want to purchase. It won't be that easy to achieve, you will have to go through steps, one of the key things in business is about producing your products or service, making it recognizable to the buyers and efficient for them. 

In our lesson in Business Studies, last week, we started learning about marketing and selling. We comprehended it deeply, our teacher showed us a couple of clips to show and make us witness how it works. 

To show our learning, we had to make an advertisement about that topic and there were a few selections of products that we had to choose from. We can work individually or in pairs. I chose to be paired with Rieya because I know that we can work well together, brainstorming both of our ideas will make a good result at the end because we are able to merge our ideas and improve it into something presentable and good. The selections were rubber/elastic bands, jandals, skipping rope, tissue box, playing cards, hot water bottle, cup.  We chose the playing cards because the both of us enjoy playing cards, we know how to play with them and we've noticed that not a lot of students in our school knows how to play it and we're pretty sure that worldwide, the majority don't know how to play it as well. They may know the basics such as the label of the cards. 

We used "Canva" and shared it with each other so we can edit it. 

 I would appreciate it and like it if you commented on my blog :)

What is a "Global Business?" - Business Studies

Global Business is the creation of an international brand, it concludes the national and local brand. 

New Zealand's exports and imports. 

Exports: 

New Zealand’s largest exports are dairy (milk powder, butter, and cheese) followed by meats, fruits, vegetables, crude oil, wood, paper, machinery, vehicles, and refined oils. 

Imports: 

New Zealand’s largest imports are machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, vehicles, aircraft and spacecraft. 

Steve Jobs - Business Studies

For the past few weeks, we've been researching famous entrepreneurs and putting information about them in a draft then transferring it to our final presentation. 

This is my slideshow.

The entrepreneur I researched about was Steve Jobs, I wrote down about his early life, the skills and qualities he had as an entrepreneur, the challenges and battles he faced and his success. I also have put down the websites I got the resources from. 

Business Studies - Entrepreneurship

I think that this quote will inspire people to work well because it's a very straightforward quote

Quote:

“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work” - Calvin Coolidge 

Business Studies - Production Line Model

This is the last day of business studies for this term. Our last topic for this term was "Production Line".
If you've seen my previous blog post about the production line, in a slideshow presentation. You'll find out a lot of information about it and this is the second part of it and the last part. 

We had to make a model of the production line, so basically, we had to visualize it. We only had 2 days to make this model and thankfully I finished it on time.

This is my drawing of the production line, it's a bag production line. A factory which produces bags.

Business Studies - The Production Line

This is the second-to-last work in business studies for this term (term 3) I'm also doing business studies next semester. We researched about "Production Line". I worked with Shiela, who's my friend. We presented ours in a google slideshow presentation.

First, we put the ideas and the information we got in a google doc and then put it in the slideshows.

This is our work.

Business Studies - Opportunity Cost

In our lesson in Business Studies, we learnt about opportunity cost. Opportunity Cost means losing something when you've chosen your first alternative (there is also another definition on the video).
We were given a scenario and was told to share what we've learnt today in our blog, such as the definition of opportunity cost. I made mine using Powtoon.

Opportunity cost helps us to make better and more profitable decisions. It allows us to compare relative prices which is the total value of each option and decide which offers the best value for our money, it also allows us to compare the benefits of each alternative.

I've put the scenario and explained which one is the opportunity cost of the scenario is.

Business Studies - DIY Games

The task we had to do in Business Studies was to create a board game, card game, and etc. that incorporates what we have learned over term 1. 

I have made a card game where you match the picture with its name/label and its definition. 

I chose this type of game because I think that it's very easy to make and play. It evolves around words that are very important when it comes to the topic "Money, Business and Finance".

It reflects on my learning because these cards are what we have already learned and studied in business studies.