A 17-YEAR-OLD student from TAFE Queensland's Senior College has shown himself to be a budding entrepreneur through his invention that stores home pool cleaners out of the way, but still connected to the filtration system underwater.
Along with his fellow Year 12 classmates, Daniel Woods was challenged by his Business Studies teacher to think like an entrepreneur, create a new business, run it for a month and report back on the findings.
Daniel, a Redlands local, saw a need for a product that would store the pool cleaner so it did not have to be removed and reinstalled every time the pool was used.
"It's an annoying job and it's something I often get lumbered with and I thought 'surely there is a better way of doing this'?" he said.
"Some time ago I came up with the idea of hooking the pool cleaner to the inside wall of the pool so that it is out of the way, but not out of the water."
This term, Business Studies teacher Liz Morgan signed her whole class up for the $20 Boss Program, with the goal of providing a glimpse into the real world of small business.
"The Foundation for Young Australians (provides) school students with $20 in start-up capital to create, launch and operate a new business venture over the course of a school term," Ms Morgan said.
"It is a brilliant initiative because it gives students the opportunity to put into practice what they've been learning in the classroom and it shows them they don't need huge funds to get started."
Other students' businesses included a plant sale, mobile drink stall and carwash.
In the process of creating the product, Daniel worked through several different designs, testing and re-testing, researching materials and looking for improvements.
He established a company named Handy Dandy Solutions and developed a website to sell his product once it is ready to go to the market.
"I am currently fine-tuning my prototype, but I hope to have something to pitch at the next Startup Redlands meeting as I would like to secure more funding and some mentoring as well," he said.
"Even though I hope to pursue a career in real estate after school, I do plan to keep developing new ideas and products that will make people's lives easier and grow my own business on the side."
