Business savvy Sheffield student wins annual competition

Madeleine Hindmarch, from Notre Dame High School, Ranmoor, won the 13th annual BiG Challenge Awards for school and college students.

The competition aims to engage students across the city with 230 teams from 18 Sheffield academies, schools and colleges registering in September 2019.

Madeleine’s winning business, Y o Scrunchi , designs and manufactures hair accessories; scrunchies, hair bands, hair bobbles and hair slides.

She said: “I decided to enter as I am a creative person and enjoy sewing, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to start my own business in this area and compete against other teams.

“I enjoy working independently and thought it would be a good idea to put my skills into practice and enter BiG Challenge”.

Madeleine al so won two category awards, the Made in Sheffield Award and the Biggest Profit Award, declaring a profit of £854.

Each team started with an initial £25 investment to start and grow their business over a four-month period. Many of the businesses made more than £500 during this period.

Second Prize went to runners-up Junonia Jewellery, of King Edward VII School, who also won the best final report category.

Unfortunately, a much-anticipated trip of a lifetime to Budapest, sponsored by major law firm DLA Piper, has had to be cancelled, due to restrictions imposed by the current pandemic emergency.

However, an alternative ‘exciting’ prize will be revealed in due course and has been won by both Yo Scrunchi and Junonia Jewellery.

Petra Billing, o ffice managing p artner at DLA Piper’s Sheffield city centre office, on St Paul’s Place, said, “The BiG Challenge highlights the talents and entrepreneurial flair in young people from across the Sheffield City Region, helping students to build their commercial skills and confidence as well as finding out what it takes to be successful in business.”