Think about the last thing you bought with your own money. Maybe it was a coffee on the way to school, a new pair of trainers, a takeaway with friends, a Spotify subscription, a gift for someone's birthday. Picture the exact moment you handed over the cash or tapped your card.

The answers to those two questions are pure gold for any business owner. A corner shop, a cafe, a streetwear brand, a smoothie cart: they all live or die by understanding exactly that. Who their customer is, and why that customer chooses them over the alternatives.

Five ideas anchor today's lesson. Each example is one specific person or one specific decision, never a vague crowd.

Before you build your own, see a worked example. Imagine a mini-business proposed by a TY team in another school: a small smoothie cart that sets up beside the science block for 15 minutes at morning break and 15 minutes at lunch. €2.50 per cup. Four flavours. Fresh fruit only.

The team's first move was to picture their customer. Not 'students' (far too vague). Not 'teenagers' (same problem). They asked themselves: who specifically would walk over and buy this, and why?

The completed customer persona

Here's what they came up with: one specific imagined person.

Notice how specific that is. 'Sporty Saoirse' isn't a real person, but the team can now make actual decisions about her. Flavour: not too sugary, she's training. Location: right by the science block, that's where she's already standing at break. Price: €2.50, feasible from a 16-year-old's pocket money. Marketing: a sign on the GAA pitch noticeboard would reach her directly.

The 5 questions they wrote

With Saoirse in mind, the team drafted 5 questions to ask 3 to 5 real classmates. Notice none of them ask 'would you buy our smoothie?'. That's a leading question and gets a polite yes from everyone, which is useless. Instead they probe for honest information:

1. What do you usually drink or eat at break and lunch?
2. How long does it usually take you to get something from the canteen?
3. What annoys you most about your current options at school?
4. If a fresh smoothie was sold by the science block for €2.50, how often would you buy one in a week: never, once, two or three times, or every day?
5. Where do you normally find out about new things going on in school?

Quick interview drill (4 minutes)

You've seen how two open questions can surface real decision-making. Now you're going to practise asking them. Pick whichever option fits your situation right now.

Option A, on your own (the default if you're working solo at a laptop): In a notebook or scrap doc, write your honest answers to these two questions about YOUR own most recent purchase. Aim for 3 or 4 lines per answer, not a single word.

1. What's the last thing you bought with your own money?
2. What made you pick THAT one over the alternatives?

Once you've written them, plan a 4-minute version of the same interview to do with a parent, sibling or friend tonight. This week's homework survey will go better if you've already had one real conversation under your belt.

Option B, with a partner (only if someone nearby is at the same step): One of you is the interviewer, the other answers honestly. Ask the same two questions, listen, don't fill silences, don't suggest answers. After 2 minutes, swap roles.

Whichever option you used, when you're done notice: how much did you learn about real decision-making in just two open questions? That's the power you'll be using on real people this week.

Now do the same for YOUR mini-business. You locked your idea in during the previous lesson, so open up your portfolio if you need to remind yourself exactly what it is. The customer persona below is page 04_customer_persona of your Mini Business Portfolio, and it's going to anchor every decision you make for the rest of the module. Price, packaging, location, marketing message: they all have to make sense for THIS one specific person.

Instructions:

• Give your ideal customer a name and an age. The more specific the better. 'Tech-curious Niamh, 17' beats 'a teenager' every time.
• Fill in every field. If you find yourself writing something generic like 'students' or 'young people', push harder: pick one specific person and describe THEM.
• If you're working in a pair or team, agree on the persona together. You all need to be picturing the same person, or your business decisions will pull in different directions.
• It's fine if you have to guess some details. You'll test those guesses against real people this week with the survey you draft in the next step.
• The quote at the bottom is the most underrated field. A real-sounding one-line phrase your persona might say gives your team a sanity-check for every decision: 'would Saoirse actually say that?'