COGNITIVE
Principles of Accounting & Financial Management
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Helped us plan our finances well
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Aided us in our pricing model
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Handling day-to-day transactions and keeping both financial and inventory records for our orders
Project Management
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Taught us to plan & execute our plough back event from our prior experiences in working with the different communities (e.g. things to take note of)
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Learning how allocate manpower
Internship Experience
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Helping us hone specific skills that suit our roles
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Learning how a social enterprise operates
AFFECTIVE
PERSEVERANCE
Understanding that rejection is something that cannot be avoided if we want to start a business, and that we should not give up just because somebody did not believe in us.
PROFIT IS AS IMPORTANT AS PASSION
Learning that there is no point having profit if there is no passion in what we are doing as we will not be able to impact our beneficiary the way we intended it to while ensuring we have a profit to ensure sustainability.
DO NOT UNDERMINE OUR OWN IDEAS
Learning that even if we think our business is not unique, we can't stress about it but just go ahead and do it if we really see the value it brings to the community.
QUALITY OVER
QUANTITY
Understanding that every interaction with a senior counts, rather than trying to reach to as many as possible in a short amount of time, which leads to shallow conversations that brings no value to anybody.
SOCIAL
DO NOT DE-HUMANIZE
BENEFICIARY GROUPS
We have to shake off the tendency to see them as statistics due to our history of academic research, and instead see them as individual people with stories and a human life who is precious just like everyone else.
GET RID OF SOCIAL STIGMA
Removing the habit of creating assumptions and seeing them with negative perceptions and instead actually listening to their life stories and experiences about their skills and contributions to society, which are bigger than you or me.
FYP VIDEO
PERSONAL GROWTH
HONG QIAN
Throughout the entire semester of executing my FYP, I've had many opportunities to implement what I have learnt in my previous semesters. As the publicity head, the modules Business Communication and Marketing and Public Relations helped me greatly in this FYP. I learned how to communicate with partners, and accept or reject offers where necessary. Before embarking on my FYP journey, I have already had a passion in serving the elderly. Being able to finally do something for them caused me to feel a great sense of achievement and empowerment, as I know I have the ability to do something for them, and they enjoy what we are doing for them as well. This also inspired me to want to do more for these seniors as I believe everyone should have a wonderful retirement. Previously, I have always had the assumption that all seniors turn nasty once they pass a certain age. They will become more grumpy and short tempered, and difficult to work with. However, the case was not true. I realised that these elderly just want to have someone to talk to, and being there to listen to their stories makes them relive their youth, which they miss dearly.
ESTHERLYN
Since starting up Gud Ol’ Days, the experiences and opportunities I had has significantly allowed me to grow individually, as a group as well as in the community. I was constantly challenged to creating and designing new content for our social media and thinking of new ideas to reach a greater audience to sell our business as the marketing in-charge. I even managed to pick up Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop in the process! This project allowed me to see greater value in our business and further my passion to serving the seniors as we worked hard to bring these stories of the seniors (that we have gotten on the ground) to the public and I was really heartened to gain many good response from our friends, and even strangers. Our timeline was tight but I am glad we managed to utilise our different strengths in our team to execute this meaningful project of ours. Although there were only less than 5 months to ideate and execute this whole business start-up, I am really grateful for the opportunity I have gotten to practise the things I have learnt in school, and allow me to see and experience how it is like to start-up a social enterprise in the real world.
RYAN
Through this FYP project, I have gained many meaningful experiences and lessons. These have allowed me to grow tremendously, in areas such as marketing, business operations and communication skills with seniors. I have never been one to initiate conversations with others, but I managed to take a step out of my comfort zone to have conversations with seniors and open my mind to a different perspective. The modules of Business Communications and Enterprise Creation have especially been of great help to me throughout this FYP journey. Additionally, I have also managed to brush up certain skills such as my Mandarin Chinese, video editing and Photoshop due to my role in this project. Speaking to multiple seniors has allowed me to develop a deeper sense of empathy for seniors at-risk of social isolation. The effort we have all put into this social enterprise have provided me the opportunity to truly understand the amount of work that goes into the ideation, production and sales in order to bring to the customer the final product.
CHARLOTTE
The biggest takeaway for me would be learning how to separate personal and work life. Working together as it team, conflicts would definitely arise. Instead of holding on to those unpleasant memories which would affect our personal friendship, I've learnt to deal with it more professionally. Everyone of us have a different approach and perspective on things, but ultimately, we know that deep down we all want the best for our business. If I were to comment on the biggest change I saw in myself, it would be that before, I was always very sensitive to comments and too prideful to lower myself to listen to the opinions of others. However, through this, I've learnt to humble myself before others and take a step back to look at the big picture. Seeing how far we have come from starting Gud Ol' Days to getting so much recognition from our partners, friends and consumers really made me feel assured and proud of the amount of effort we've put into Gud Ol' Days. Through the 3 years in Ngee Ann, I can safely say that Gud Ol' Days was my biggest achievement as a Business and Social Enterprise student.
