But since Cashmere High School students Jayden Rosanowski, Felix Strahl and Emilia Dybka launched their STAP Card last year, the clientele list has grown to include real estate agents and police detectives.
They even won two Young Enterprise Scheme regional excellence awards for sustainability and finance while developing partnerships with universities and billboard companies.
"It’s taken off heaps, we’re getting interest from all over the country," said Jayden, STAP’s chief executive.
"We’ve got some big customers now, like Harcourts real estate agents and a police detective.
"It’s amazing to watch the business take off and to be a part of the ride,” said production manager, Felix.
STAP Card is designed to replace paper business cards altogether after the students discovered more than six million trees are cut down each year to produce 100 billion disposable cards worldwide.
The reusable business card enables employees to electronically share their contact details with others by utilising QR codes and NFC chips located inside most new mobile phones.
All a client needs to do is tap the card on their device or scan the code for the information to pop up on their screen.
The initiative kicked-off when the business studies students, who were in year 12 at the time, unleashed their inner entrepreneur by taking part in the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme.
It is a chance for young people to experience the start-up world by running a real business, with products and services brought to the market by the students themselves.
As STAP was only meant to be a school project, Felix said its ongoing success was unexpected, but keeping up with growing demand came at a cost.
Making 100 cards in the last six months for more than 80 companies meant investing in a new $3500 printer funded by company sales and part-time jobs – another commitment to juggle.
This sped up production from three to four cards an hour to 100 in four hours, and now, it can all be done from a dedicated office that the school let them borrow during business studies classes and after hours.
"One of the coolest things was at the start of the year we got to meet lots of people in business at this event, and people were using STAP Cards,” Jayden said.
But having a flourishing business did not excuse the STAP team from going to class – they were still students, after all.
"So many people are wanting them, so the turn-around time is one of the largest challenges and actually creating the cards on time,” Felix said.
"Another challenge is advertising which we pay for ourselves. But we’ve partnered with a media company doing billboards, so we have a campaign on Moorhouse Ave promoting STAP which has 25,000 vehicle interactions each day.”
The STAP team have no plans to slow down anytime soon having set their sights on the international market, particularly in Japan where business cards are a “big part of the culture.”
Recently they impressed a panel of judges at Ara when pitching the STAP Card, who were now interested in collaborating on a student ID and employee card version.
But before they venture further into the business world, the students plan to head to either Canterbury or Lincoln University to study commerce.
Find out more about the STAP Card here.
