|
 Thirteen students from a variety of high schools in Logan County
make up the Class of 2019. The Small Business Tradeshow is like
their final exam. They have worked throughout the year learning the
nuisances of business ownership and management, and then then take
all those skills and all that knowledge and bundle it into a
business of their own.
On Wednesday night each of the thirteen students had a booth set up
to talk about and promote their small business. Guests filed in and
made their way around the room visiting with each student.
The first booth of the evening featured Land of
Lincoln CEO board member April Doolin and CEO Facilitator Britta
Langley, both of whom talked about the program in general and also
spoke with guests about donating or sponsoring next year’s program.
Emma Aylesworth
Willow’s Wax Works
Emma Aylesworth was the first student booth of the evening. Her
business Willow’s Wax Works featured soy-based candles that she
manufactures herself. She had several candles on hand in a variety
of scents and spoke with guests about her product. She explained the
benefits of using a soy-based candle over a regular was product.
At the tradeshow, Emma was making sales. Customers were choosing her
candles and paying cash, much to Emma’s delight.
Emma is a junior this year at Mount Pulaski High School.
Parker Kistner
On the Run
Parker Kistner is a junior at Olympia High School and competes in
track at the school. As a track competitor he does a lot of training
and preparing for his meets. Parker took lessons learned from his
own workout experiences and problems, and turned them into a
business that offers a product for sale and a service to go along
with it.
‘On the run’ couples the well-known name brand Advocare with a
workout training program designed age appropriately for any athlete.
Kistner was excited to share his story about how the product he now
sells solved issues with muscle aches and pains and also the dreaded
illness of nausea and vomiting that sometimes comes after a
particularly rigorous workout. He said that the Advocare products
are better for a person because they don’t contain the sugars found
in regular sports drinks and they do a more complete job of
hydrating the body with electrolytes and needed vitamins.
In Kistner’s business, a customer can buy the workout or training
program that fits their needs and couple the program with the
Advocare products that will help the athlete reach his or her goals.
Hannah Casey
Little Miss Tea
Hannah Casey’s business ‘Little Miss Tea’ takes a fun childhood
event and turns it into a party strategy for designed specifically
for mothers and daughters. Casey hosts tea parties for a group. She
makes all the plans from food and snacks to serve with the tea, to
games and other fun activities geared for moms and daughters to play
together.
Casey, who is a junior at Olympia High School said that it is a fun
little business that offers a party plan that can be catered to the
needs of the customer.
Casey said she has held parties since starting her business and
noted that most recently she hosted a party of 20 and everyone had a
really great time.
Hannah does all the work, and the set up in your home or party
location so mom’s can provide a really fun event for their girls
without all the stress of being the official hostess.
Autumn Benhart
Dust and Shine
Autumn Benhart is a junior at Mount Pulaski High School and has
started an affordable housekeeping cleaning service. For $12 per
hour she will come to your home and do the housework, providing you
live within a 20 mile radius of Mount Pulaski.
Benharts service she believes is a very good answer for busy
families and working parents who want a clean tidy surrounding at
home but sometimes don’t have time to get the job done. Coming home
to a clean house is good for the family because the downtime spent
with children and parents together should be quality time together
not hard work time cleaning and shining around the house.
Brody Baker
Brody Baker Builds
Brody Baker said that when he started looking into what type of
business he wanted to start he really struggled. He had lots of
ideas, too many in fact. He put a lot of thought into settling into
one idea and finally did, but found it was the wrong idea for him.
He began with an upcycling business where he took old worn out items
and turned them into new useful items. However, he felt he wasn’t
very good at it. However along the way he came into refinishing and
refurbishing furniture and he really liked doing that. He likes it
so much that there are some of the products he is actually building
that he thinks he may continue on with after the school year is
complete.
Baker said when he signed up for the class he had a very specific
goal. He wanted to become a better communicator and he said that the
class has taught him so much about proper communication in the
business world and how to present himself and his ideas. For him he
said that part of the program alone is well worth taking the entire
class for. Along the way he learned many other skills and said he
would highly recommend CEO to any student who wants to become more
career ready.
Lily Escobedo
On Target Media Management
Around the room guests found examples of Lily Escobedo’s work in
many places because she is the one who designed a lot of the signage
and logos for her fellow students businesses.
Escobedo’s business On Target Media Management is a full service
business offering creating, design, and upgrading of business
websites and social media venues along with logos and other
important marketing components needed in today’s digital age.
Escobedo said she got her idea from some of the business visits the
class made. As she reviewed the websites and social media sites of
some of those businesses she felt that the digital media needed to
be upgraded and freshened up to attract a younger audience. She
loves to write and she loves design, putting the two together she is
producing website information and social posts that are exciting and
fresh and fit well with the fresh new looks she is giving to her
customers pages.
Escobedo is a junior at Hartsburg-Emden High School. She plans to
stay in the business/marketing sector as she moves into higher
education in 2020.
Evan Rohlfs
Know How Tutoring Services
Evan Rohlfs started Know How Tutoring Services as a result of his
own experiences in the classroom throughout his earlier school
years. He said that for him personally classroom learning was
sometimes difficult and he found that one-on-one instruction and
mentorship with a teacher was much more helpful.
[to top of second column] |
Now a junior at Hartsburg-Emden High School Rohlfs
has started his business in order to help elementary and junior high
students work through their learning issues. His program offers
multiple levels of one-on-one time with varying prices so that the
tutoring experience can be not only good for the student but also
fit into the parent’s pocketbook.
Evan said that teaching though is not in his future. He plans to go
on to study engineering in college.
Lexie Hoffman
Leashed Animal Photography
Lexie Hoffman, a junior at Olympia High School has a dual goal in
her business. She wants to help families capture the special
qualities of their pets for prosperity through photos. She also
wants to raise awareness for animal adoption and promote adopting
shelter animals, giving them a great life with a loving family.
On her table Hoffman had a large number of dog photos and she said
that every one of the dogs on the table was available for adoption
from a shelter in Bloomington.
In Hoffman’s business she will meet the client at a location of
their choice, either home or a public area the pet and family enjoy,
and will work to capture the perfect photo that expresses the pet’s
energy and personality.
Hoffman said she loves both photography and animals, so putting the
two together in one small business was a perfect fit for her.
Molly Schempp
Molly’s Ag in a Box
Molly Schempp is a senior at Midwest Christian Academy and a part
time student at Olympia High school. For her small business she has
taken her passions and developed them into a curriculum to be used
in grade schools to teach youth about the value of agriculture.
Schempp is planning a future in agriculture education and is getting
an early start by offering her product that includes a curriculum
and learning materials for a 30-student classroom in each box. Boxes
include a two-day classroom lesson plan and subscribers receive one
box per month during the school year.
Schempp said that the Ag in a Box is inspired by the Ag in the
Classroom program used by some local schools. The lesson plans
however, are all Molly. She said that she writes the lesson plans
and comes up with the accompanying classroom materials herself.
On Wednesday evening Schemmp had a familiar face for a helper in her
booth. Chris Weidhunner was present lending a hand. Schempp and
Weidhunner competed together in 2018 for Miss Logan County Fair
Queen. Weidhunner is also interested in agriculture and is attending
Heartland Community College with plans to transfer to a university
upon completion.
Schemmp will also continue her studies in agriculture after high
school and is still debating her choice of college.
Oliva Shew
Pronto Delivery
Olivia Shew, a senior at Lincoln Community High School is working on
a home food delivery concept for smaller communities. She noted that
she was inspired by similar delivery services found in the larger
metropolitan. Those services pick-up and deliver food from eateries
which don’t offer delivery.
Shew said services like that don’t come to smaller communities, but
at the same time, there are a lot of good places in our smaller
towns where people would order delivery if it were offered. Shew is
working to establish a website for the service where the orders for
pickup and delivery are placed. Shew then picks up the food and
delivers it to the customer.
Shew said that the service is available for anything from morning
coffee to full meals.
Austin Garriott
Austin’s Auto Wash
Austin Garriott, a senior at Lincoln Community High School took what
he already has access to, a large heated garage with water and
proper drainage, and turned it into the foundation of his business.
At Austin’s Auto Wash he will come to get your vehicle, bring it
back to his garage, do a wash, wax, and detail, and deliver it back
to you in no time at all.
The convenience of having someone else do all the work is the best
selling point for Austin’s business. He noted that he can get the
vehicle at any time, while customers are at work for example, or
doing other important things. He can do the cleaning and have the
vehicle ready to drive clean and fresh when the customer gets
finished with whatever they are doing.
Austin has a slogan “Ride in style with every mile!” A clean car
makes for a happy driver.
Cavit Schempp
Silicate Designs
Cavit Schempp loves rocks. He is always looking for and picking up
interesting ones, many from his grandfather’s farm. In looking to
build his business those rocks might have been “tumbling” around in
his mind, because what he came up with was Silicate Designs. He
takes interesting stones, cleans, polishes and then turns them into
really neat looking pieces of jewelry and other stone based
products.
Schempp is a junior at Olympia High School and says he enjoys making
necklaces from the rocks he finds. It is not a fast process as the
polishing takes a number of days, then he designs the pendants and
puts everything together.
Schempp had a number of necklaces on display for sale Wednesday
night and they were admired by many. Schempp also has a website
presence with his products and says he has made some online sales as
well.
He was also offering a pendant as his prize for the
personal drawings held at the show.
Colby Burt
Time out Training
Colby Burt is a junior at Olympia High School and is extensively
involved with sports. She enjoys basketball, softball and
volleyball. For her, building a business based on a passion seemed
like the most reasonable thing to do. So she opened Time out
Training specifically for basketball.
Burt will work with kids of all ages giving personal instruction to
help them improve their skills and learn the fundamentals of the
game.
She offers training sessions at affordable prices so that young
athletes can benefit from her more than eight years on the court
experience.
-----
As guests completed their tour around the room
talking with all 13 of the young entrepreneurs they came to the
refreshment area where they were encouraged to enjoy a cold drink
and a sweet.
All in all the evening was well attended with many people from the
community coming in to talk with the students and see the final
product of the school year.
For the students, the course is now completed. As they leave the
program, they will be leaving with a better awareness of what it
involves to build a business from cultivating an idea to creating a
business plan, working with a budget, understanding product
placement and promotion and much more. For some like Molly Schemmp,
the students got a head start on their own future. For others, they
perhaps have put something together that will help them earn some
extra bucks during their college years. Some came to learn something
specific like Brody Baker who is now a better communicator.
Regardless of how they came into the program, all the students agree
they are leaving with more knowledge and skill, and also with more
really good friends, young people from schools all around the county
that they have bonded with and built something that will last for
years to come.
[Nila Smith] |
