TWO aspiring business management students have taken out top gong in a La Trobe University competition for an innovative idea which would combine beauty products and mental health treatment.
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Catholic College Wodonga Year 11 students Bethany Whitehead, 17, and Abbey Fry, 16 were awarded first prize in the Dream it, Plan It, Pitch It event, and pocketed $1000 for their efforts.
It involved dreaming up a business idea, submitting a plan and then answering questions from roaming judges on the day, which was held at La Trobe’s Border campus.
Bethany is interested in pursuing a career in allied health, while Abbey has a strong interest in makeup, managing her own YouTube channel.
The pair skillfully blended these seemingly unrelated areas to come up with an original idea.
They had noticed there were several beauty boxes on the market, but none of them gave back to the community.
Beauty subscription boxes work similarly to receiving a magazine or newspaper, where customers test out varying mailed samples of products.
“We thought it would be a really cool idea if we could do something with beauty boxes that isn’t purely for profit,” Bethany said.
“We made a prototype of an online website and we were going to make it a place where women could come together and talk about about mental health. We would also get psychologists on board.”
Bethany and Abbey called the business Beneath the Skin, and profits would go to themselves to manage it but also a mental health organisation.
In turn, they hoped it would address widespread social stigma associated with mental health.
The pair was up against 30 other groups who pitched ideas in everything from hygiene programs to renting hats.
But Bethany and Abbey held their nerves, and were well-prepared.
“We’d thought thoroughly about our plan and the pitch was probably the easiest bit,” Bethany said.
Abbey said they set up stalls to showcase their business plans.
Their business management teacher, Alison Leahy, was proud of her students who submitted a business plan.
“It brings the content to life, and the students got so into coming up with an idea,” she said.
“We had an excursion down to Bunnings and Office Works where they bought props, and they put a lot of effort into their pitch as well.”
Both Bethany and Abbey agreed their prize would be a neat addition to their CVs.
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