Hello I am Jack McHugh and I am 16 years old and going into my last year of secondary school. Over the summer I worked for Plan Bee, part time and had a fantastic experience. I was given the opportunity to work at several festivals all over the UK, selling, meeting the public and gaining some vital experience for what I hope can assist me to a successful career in the future. At the end of June, just a month after my exams finished I went to London with a fellow employee to the Hammersmith area where we stayed for several days working at the House and Garden show in the Olympia. This show was rather challenging for my first show in England solely due to the fact that, the public at this show were very different to those I had met at food shows in and around Glasgow. I really enjoyed this show and hope I can do others similar to this one in the near future with Plan Bee.
The following month myself and the owner and founder of the company spent a week working at the Hampton Court Flower Show in what would prove to be, once again, a great experience. Being with a man who has been selling Plan Bee produce for a long time, I was able to copy and adapt to his selling techniques. This particular week in Hampton Court was extremely warm which, as you can imagine, made it very hard for me but nevertheless we met some great people from all over the world and were able to not just sell our produce to some of them but inform them of our great small business and our environmental orientated ethos.
Following Hampton Court I worked in my final show of the summer and it was Carfest in Cheshire. This particular show may have been my favourite for many reasons but I must admit, the super cars and Kaiser Chiefs playing next door wasn’t too bad! Again, the people that went to this show were different to the ones at Hampton Court and also to those at the House and Garden Show. After the previous two shows I believe I now had the knowledge to understand how to adapt to this and try my best to sell our produce and tell the public of where we come from and why this company was started. At Carfest, we brought a display hive down and this turned out to be a real attraction to not only kids but people of all ages. Overall it was a great show and a fantastic way to end the summer for myself.
To conclude, Plan Bee allowed me to gain experience in sales, see new places, meet new people and make some friends and all in the space of 2 months. I hope to work with them as much as I can over the course of the year and if so look forward to the challenges which I will face.
