If you decide to pursue Business Studies in year 10 and 11, you get the privilege to go on the highly anticipated trip! You might be thinking, “it’s no big deal, it’s only the Avenues” – that’s what I thought too at first!
But I was wrong.
As it turned out, it was actually a very enjoyable way to learn a somewhat difficult chapter in business-marketing. Win-win!
You see, quite a few people who did not take business studies were jealous of us because let’s face it, skipping three lessons in school to go to The Avenues is, of course, every student’s dream.
Let me let you in on a secret – it wasn’t all fun! This was actually an internal assessment, just not the typical kind. We did not go there just to hang out, but to do some serious research and gather reliable and important information to complete a project. This trip is actually a part of a long project and after this trip, we had to make a presentation.
Business classes were separated and half got to go on Sunday while the other half went on Thursday. We did this to do primary research on customers in The Avenues. We had to run behind nice (some weren’t so nice!) people and plead to them to answer our annoying questions. So, obviously, we had to do a lot of talking which was very tiring and extremely awkward for those of us who are scared of humans…just me?
At the beginning of the ‘nervously-running around looking for people to ask’ session, some of us experienced a huge whack to our self-esteem. People shooed us away, and gave us looks.. Some asked us to ‘please leave’! We experienced a good amount of rejection. As I left for the trip on a Sunday morning, The Avenues had a relatively low number of people and multiple groups ended up asking the same person (poor them!).
On and on we walked around the mall, trying not to question the same people we had questioned before. As time went by, we started getting used to people not willing to talk to us – let’s face it, people can only be so nice to annoying students who are pestering them on their day out! I honestly would avoid students like us and I think most of us would. But for the very few that are nice enough: keep going and good job, and thank you for sparing that person’s self-esteem!
But then as we went on, we met some really friendly people who took some time out of their lives to talk to us. It was indeed pleasant to see some people willing to talk to a bunch of confused, desperate students. We truly need more people like these in the world. Thanks to those people, we got some information for our business project which is based on this very trip.
After the whole commotion of running behind random people and trying to force out information and opinions, we deserved a break. We were given one hour to have lunch and to relax after all that running around and talking. We split into our preferred restaurants; some of us took this time to wind down, while some tried to be effective and utilize the time to talk to even more customers. Now those people are what I call smart. Only later did I realize what I should have actually done instead of stuffing my face. No regrets, though.
This business trip was very effective in teaching us an important part of Business and taught us how difficult it can be sometimes to gain primary data. As we had to ask a certain number of people within a restrained time period, we also had to effectively manage our time. I don’t think students are generally good at that…
Mostly, we ran around the mall, which had me trying to catch my breath after 10 minutes. Overall, it was a very fulfilling and exciting trip that taught us a lot of things, including marketing and dealing with rejection. For those of you young ones out there, I hope this has persuaded you enough to continue business studies in Year 11. It really is a great opportunity to get a glimpse of the real world of business.
-Avanija Menon
