Founder's Hour is one lesson in which a student founds and runs a London café. It is not a business game with a quiz bolted on: every decision below is made and then justified in the student's own writing, and that writing is what is assessed.
| Decision the student makes | Edexcel 9BS0 specification area | AO skills |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 · Founding the business — seven decisions | ||
| Name it and write a one-line promiseTurn a blank page into a business with a clear USP. | 1.3 Marketing mix & strategyBranding, USP and the customer you choose | AO1 AO2 |
| Choose a market positionPremium, volume, specialist or balanced — and defend it. | 1.3 Competitive strategyPositioning against rivals in the same market | AO1 AO2 AO3 |
| Choose a London siteEight sites, each a different rent, footfall and rival set. | 2.4 Resource managementLocation, capacity and fixed costs | AO2 AO3 |
| Size the teamWages become a fixed cost the moment you hire. | 2.4 Managing peopleCapacity and labour as a cost | AO2 AO3 |
| Set the price and marketing mixPrice moves a live demand model; split a £1,500 budget. | 1.3 Price elasticity of demand & promotionMargin versus volume | AO2 AO3 AO4 |
| Calculate break-evenWork the number the whole plan lives on, then read it. | 2.2 / 3.3 Break-even & contributionQuantitative method plus interpretation | AO2 AO3 |
| Write the launch pitchLink position, site, price and crew into one argument. | 1.5 The business plan & justified reasoningSynoptic: the founding case, made whole | AO3 AO4 |
| Part 2 · Year 1 — the market answers | ||
| Respond to breaking newsAn external shock lands; diagnose it and decide. | 2.5 External influences & changeDoes it hit costs, demand or reputation? | AO3 AO4 |
| Part 3 · Boardroom — the verdict | ||
| Value the firmPut a number on the company and defend it. | 3.1 / 3.2 Objectives, growth & valuationValue as an argument, not a plucked figure | AO2 AO3 AO4 |
| One honest reflectionBest call, worst call, what you would change. | AO4 Evaluation & self-assessmentHonest hindsight, in the student's words | AO4 |
Knowledge of business terms and concepts
Applied to this café and its real numbers
Analysis: chains of cause and effect
Evaluation: weighing trade-offs, making a judgement
Ten written decisions, every AO covered, the high-tariff AO3 and AO4 skills exercised eight times. That is why Founder's Hour earns a place in a scheme of work rather than a wet-Friday slot: it is mapped to the specification and assessed on the same skills as the paper, with the teacher confirming every grade.