The Office In Action
You’ve heard of Forbes 30 under 30. Introducing Enfield’s 5 under 15. Lyra (14), George (12), Olive (10), Miles (8), and Audrey (5) have unrivalled entrepreneurial spirit and we fully expect to see them create a FTSE 100 business in the future.
The 5 cousins that make up Office In Action were inspired to create their company by their Grandmother who was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. Office In Action have put on a range of events (with more to come) and have donated some of their money raised to The Nightingale. We sat down with them to find out more about how their company started.
“Well, it really all started on the 19th November 2022 when Olive went to her school disco. Audrey was in bed and Lyra and Miles were a bit bored and thought ‘What should we do?’. So we came up with an idea to create an office.
We started putting together a mini website. We told Olive about it when she came home and she said she wanted to join, then we asked George to join and he said yes. Then when Audrey woke up we asked her and she said yes too.”
Everyone in Office In Action has a key role in making sure the company works.
- Audrey – Top Filer
- George – Finance Advisor and Receptionist and Body Guard
- Lyra – Head of Public Relations
- Miles – The Boss
- Olive – Head of Organisation
Their first event was a Christmas Event. I was assured that their summer event (which they were planning when we met) was going to be much bigger.
“We did a Santa’s Grotto. George dressed up in his tartan uniform and put a pillow under his top and Miles made him a beard. We had little gifts for everyone who came in.”
The Christmas Event was so successful that they came back again for Easter. Olive was the Easter Bunny! For the Easter Event they designed their own tickets and Olive made Easter Party bags with little chicks and mini eggs as well as holding a raffle at the event. They even decorated the house with loads of Easter decorations found in our Baker Street Charity Shop, creating an Easter Grotto.
“There’s entertainment too! Olive and Lyra always perform a lovely dance, George and Miles sometimes do a little song.”
But how do Office In Action organise and plan all of this?
“There are many meetings and lots of facetime calls. Normally when the family is all together, we hand out the tickets that we’ve designed and they have to pay £1 or £1.50 to buy their ticket. Then very stressfully we give them all a date.
Since we’ve had a few very successful events, we thought that The Office in Action could open a few more things. At the end of some events we’ve had leftover money that we can put in our bank to open them up. So we decided to create something called ‘Relax World’, Olive does lovely facials and Audrey fans. ‘Jet Your Car Services’ a car cleaning service by Miles and George.”
When we met with Office in Action, it was one of the most well prepared meetings we’ve ever been to. Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, future ideas and several established companies. They already have sponsors for their upcoming events!
This incredible group could easily enjoy the benefits of their hard work themselves. So we asked why they’ve chosen to donate what they’ve raised to The Nightingale.
“We chose The Nightingale because our grandmother recently got cancer and we thought we might be able to help other grannies. We don’t want other people to go through what we did. We want to try to help in some way to make a bit of difference.”
Office In Action Grandmother, Lesley, volunteers at our Baker Street Charity Shop and is overwhelmed by what her incredible Grandchildren have achieved.
“I’m overwhelmed by what they’ve done. I have to say, since my diagnosis I’ve never been alone, they’ve all supported me right from the word go. My children all made the decision to tell my grandchildren about my diagnosis, so they were very young but they all supported me in such beautiful ways, writing me letters. They all dealt with it very well. They were obviously upset. Lyra, she did an obstacle run in the mud to raise money for cancer. So they’ve all been very proactive.”
We agree! We asked Office In Action, what’s their favourite part of it all…
“Well, one of the most amazing parts for everybody is when the event is over and it’s been successful, after all the stress. The worst part is when someone has asked you to get something and you don’t realise they’ve asked you to get something. So on the day no one has that thing.
Christmas 2022 was our first event, then Easter and we’re looking to grow bigger and bigger as the company grows. We’ve attended other events and talked about other ideas for the future. For the Summer Fayre Olive is running archery, George is running the sports area. So there’s so much going on.”
They’ve thought of absolutely everything and it’s incredibly impressive. Before they left The Nightingale Centre, no doubt straight onto another business meeting, we asked them for some final words of wisdom and they didn’t disappoint.
“No matter what your age, you can always achieve something if you put your mind to it.”
With a strapline of ‘We Make Things Happen’, Office In Action, really does what it says on the tin. We look forward to seeing everything they achieve in the future because we have absolutely no doubt that it will be extraordinary!
A big thank you for all Office In Action’s hard work and generosity in donating to The Nightingale.
