Since we had decided on our name and theme. Our next step was the Business plan. We were given a username and password for the build a bank challenge website and we had to do the business plan here. We had to choose whether we were going to back up the school, back up the community or go digital. We picked backing up the school, this meant that we had to fund-raise for the school, we decided that we are going to fund-raise for the special needs unit in our school. By the time we had everything agreed on we had only over 2 weeks to get the business plan done. It took a lot of hard work to get it done, Kelly did a lot of it as I didn’t know what to say in some parts. But we eventually got it done and we were delighted to have it finished.
Here is some of our Business plan!
We carried out a survey with the first year group to find out more information about the junior cycle banking habits.
Questions:
Question one – Do you have a bank account?
Yes-75.76%
No-24.24%
Question two- Who is your bank account with?
AIB- 28.95%
Credit union-36.84%
Bank of Ireland-13.16%
Other- 21.05%
Question three- Is your account:
Saving-55.26%
Current-11.84%
Unsure -36.89%
Question four – Do you have a debit card
Yes-12.50%
No-87.50%
Question five- Would you be willing to use the school bank to open AIB banking accounts and/or lodge money?
Yes-12%
No-26%
Possibly-62%
Our first observation from our results is that almost one quarter of students didn’t bank. Giving us a huge customer base to promote opening any account, saving or current accounts. As they are new to banking we plan to spark an interest with eye catching promotions and smart marketing.
While three quarters of students surveyed are banking.The majority, over 55% use saving accounts. This leads a huge market for current accounts. Only 12.5% of bankers surveyed had debit cards. Again supporting our target of opening mainly current accounts. When we questioned junior cycle students on what they think of debit cards all the feedback was positive. Leading us to focus on promotion of current accounts and advantages of debit cards.
A large amount of students 28.95%,already bank with AIB. Giving us a large number of students ready to lodge with us.
Majority of students bank with credit union, 36.84%, while another 13.16% with Bank of Ireland. Students who chose other were asked to specify where. A better part said the post office while the rest were a mixture of Ulster Bank and unsure. Concluding we would have to persuade them to open another bank account with us. The predominance of students not with AIB have saving accounts making us narrow our plan to focusing on opening current accounts and debit card applications.
Shockingly when asked what type of bank account 36.89% were unsure. This help spark the idea for banking educational modules to encourage smart and safe banking.
Only 12% of students said they would bank with us.Meaning it is important we convince the other 88% to bank with us with amazing promotions, positive atmosphere and marketing.
Our second marketing research venture was interviewing teachers on the possibility of banking with us. A greater part receives their wages in to their account or in checks so they could not bank with us. Our results concluded that it would be a wasted labour.
2.Our customer base consists hugely of junior cycle students as many have no bank accounts or current accounts. Giving us an accessible market to reach out too. Senior cycle students are still a target for us but as a new comer bank for future bank to be successful we must introduce the younger students first. Many senior cycle students already have both current and saving accounts but we plan to encourage the AIB bankers to lodge with us.
Backing school
As a new comer bank it is important that we make links firstly in the school, so we have decided to back the school. No one in the school fully understands what services and products we offer. Backing school gives us plenty of opportunity to explain and market.
To back the school we plan to fund raise for the special needs unit in school. We feel they are often forgotten for all the amazing work they do. They would like us to buy them new books.
An issue in our school which is never talked about is mental health. In the future many people have anxiety about financial stress. To counter this we are planning to create a mental health corner in the library full of other peoples stories and books on copying mechanisms. We also want to make a wall of post it notes where people can write their personnel stories. We hope this will make people feel less isolated and help remove the stigma in our school.
To back the school we are also planning a financial education module for the junior cycle classes. To support safe, smart banking.
schhol ads
Around our school we have T.V screens with power points being played on loop throughout the day. We plan to make slides advertising the bank to put up on the screens.
We are going to make posters around the school for promotions about the bank.
In our school we have an air com in every class, we plan to have reminder the day before the bank for students to bring money to lodge.
seasonal
To encourage lodgements throughout the year we are implanting a list of seasonal promotions:
To encourage opening accounts and lodging money, every student who either lodges or opens accounts is automatically entered into a Christmas raffle. To add Christmas spirit to the bank we plan to decorate it with decorations from home like tinsel for the Christmas period. In the background we will play Christmas music and in our sweet bowl we will include Christmas themed sweets.
To celebrate a new year we are planing to give one lucky lodger on the first day we are banking in the new term, a ten euro cinema voucher. As well as handing out ‘what am I saving for this year’ sheets which will help people plan how much to lodge weekly.
An unofficial holiday but still globally known is the ‘make your dream come true day’ on Friday 13th of January 2017. To support this message we are planing to either have a inspirational speaker to the year group lodging the most so far in the year or hold a fundraising event for the special needs unit.
Valentines day is a day where we will show how much we appreciate our bankers by handing out free mini chocolate hearts to all our lodgers. We also plan to decorate the bank bar with paper hearts.
For a fundraising event we are planning on pancake Tuesday at break time to sell pancakes at a pancake station. Where students can buy plain pancakes and then top them, the money raised will go to our mental health fund or special needs unit.
St.Patrick’s day we are planning on the 13th lodger to receive a bag of chocolate coins while other lodgers can receive one each.
Cash Flow
December:
We would be planning on spending about €20 on prizes, we are going to have a Christmas/ New Year raffle for everyone who sets up or lodges money.
We are planning on having a Christmas Bake sale to fund-raise money for more prizes and also for the Autism unit. We be hoping to get around €50 -€80.
January:
This is the start of a New Year so we be hoping that people will want to save for something special in the upcoming months and that they would have received money for Christmas.
February:
If we have a fundraiser on Pancake Tuesday , we be hoping to make €40
This month we are planning on having a Valentines Raffle, so we would spend around €20 on prizes.
March: .
This month we probably spend another €20 on prizes due to St.Patricks Day.
April:
Our final month in Business and we would have another fundraising event this month and be hopping to raise over €100 for the Autism Unit.
This month we would spend a lot of money on prizes as its our last and we will have to give prizes out for Top Wizard, Top Witch and a end off the banks year with a massive Easter Raffle. We would be planning spending €40.
AOIFE CASSIDY 