4 months, 3 weeks and 1 day later the infamous Business 2257 feasibility report (or as some may call it… the never ending 20% report that takes over your life) is finally over! Throughout my first year at Western, I heard people say over and over, “off to my feas meeting” or “pulled an all nighter with my feas group last night”. It seemed to go on for months; I remember thinking “you are still doing that same project??” The thought of months of countless long meetings and all nighters was terrifying to me. How could a report worth 20% of your overall mark entail more work than I could ever imagine? This feas project was one of my biggest fears and intimidated me upon beginning 2257 this year.
In late October, the topic of the feasibility study was announced; we had to select groups and start brainstorming potential business ideas for the report. My group started out with the best intentions of getting started early and being organized. It wasn’t quite so simple. Our first meeting ended after 3 hours of hard-core brainstorming…but mostly off topic. We left that first meeting right where we started, idea-less (if that’s a word)! After that, we had 3 more meetings before December break; each consisted of trying to come up with some ingenious business venture that all 7 of us were excited about. Although kind of scary at first, it started to dawn on me that this is actually a very cool project; we are being asked to come up with a new business venture that we could actually develop in the future.
After December break we knew we really had to put this in high gear because we all had a busy February month ahead with mid-term exams and other course work. After finally solidifying our idea, we met weekly; we created a detailed work plan and divided up writing responsibilities for the report. By the last week in January, 2 weeks before the report was due, we definitely had a lot left to do.
While stressful, this is when the real meat of our project was flushed out. We approached real businesses around both London and Toronto (which is where our start up business was going to be based) to inquire if any of them would sign on to use our service. When we actually received positive responses from many of these businesses, our project began to feel even more real and “feasible”; we were exhilarated! We then started meeting a few times a week for up to 7 or 8 hours at a time! (Don’t worry! It wasn’t all work…while we definitely spent a great deal of this time doing the necessary research and writing, we also made sure to take time to chill by taking lots of breaks and trying out many of London’s top take out restaurants. I know all the good ones now, so feel free to ask me).Once the final week rolled around, I have to admit that panic set in! Can we get it all done?? Will it be good enough? The good thing about panic is that it really gets your adrenaline going, which is exactly what we needed to push through the next 5 days. We dedicated full days and nights towards finishing this report. The night before the report was due, we realized we needed to pull an all nighter. Uh, oh… My fear from last year was now my reality! Both sleep and food deprived, we kept writing and re-writing until we had a final product that would be the best report it could possibly be. What I discovered is that all nighters are nothing to fear. Our group had become so close and enjoyed spending so much time together that the night flew by. As we put the last words on the page, completed our final edits and secured all additional exhibits and financials, we were finally feasible!!
After handing in the report, although it felt great and was a huge relief, feas was still not completely over. We still had to prepare our presentation! A few days after reading week, we started at it once again. We put in more long days and nights; this project had become our baby and we were fully dedicated to making our presentation flawless. We practiced over and over again, memorized our speeches and were ready to kill it! At long last, it was presentation day and in a few hours feas would officially be over. I was so proud of what we accomplished together as a group; we were confident and ecstatic with our presentation and hope to make it to the next round. It was definitely worth all the work!!
Although stressful at times, requiring a huge amount of work, without question this project has been the most rewarding and memorable experience so far at University. The end of the feas project was actually bittersweet; I was definitely happy it was over, but kind of sad that I wouldn’t be hanging out for hours on end with my group. In the end feas did not prove to be the “scary” project I had feared it to be.
So, a few tips for all you first years fearing feas:
Pick your group carefully- Make sure all members are going to be equally engaged- the process will be a lot easier if everyone is on the same page, working towards the same goal and equally involved.
Start early- Work on feas as soon as you can to minimize stress and all nighters. But know that in the end no matter how organized you are you are probably going to have to pull one or two all nighters anyway.
Split up the work- It is important to divide up the work equally between members, so one person doesn’t feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that they have to take on. At the same time, you are still a team and everybody needs to pitch in whenever or however they can.
Feas is a bonding experience- These 6-8 people will be your best friends throughout this journey. They will be the people you will be with almost everyday and you will slowly feel as if you have known them forever (even though you have probably just met them for the first time this year).
Don’t fret…The work will get done.
Take time to remind yourself what a cool project this really is.. .you are developing a business! It is truly unlike any other project you have done so far at University.
Feas builds confidence- Accomplishing feas really makes you feel that you can handle anything that comes your way at Ivey.
Have fun! Don’t forget to laugh and create memories. Every stressful and overwhelming situation turns into moments you will never forget!
All The Best,
Lexie