Summary: Sixteen incoming Wooster High School freshman got a crash course in entrepreneurship during the third annual Wooster City School District Youth Entrepreneur Summer Academy.
Watch out Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
There are 16 budding young entrepreneurs that may just give you a run for your money.
The week of July 25, sixteen incoming Wooster High School freshmen took part in the Wooster City School Districts third annual Youth Entrepreneur Summer Academy.
During the week long experience, which was made possible through a grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, the students learned firsthand what it takes to start and run a successful business before putting their new found knowledge to work creating business plans for a business of their own.
The students began their week with a series of team building exercises at Poplar Ridge Adventures where academy instructor and Wooster High School teacher Derek Bode used team building as a link to the importance of networking in business and learning to work together to better your own situation.
According to Bode as part of the team building exercises the students tackled the high ropes course to associate the risk taking of entrepreneurship with physical risk taking.
We get them to really step out on a limb like an entrepreneur steps out on a limb when they start their own business, said Bode.
On Monday the students also learned that entrepreneurship can take many different forms.
Some people tend to want to think its only those who works on the innovative and inventive side, said Bode adding that the dictionary actually defines an entrepreneur as anyone who takes on the personal and financial risk of starting a small business including professionals such as lawyers and doctors who open up their own practices.
It can take other forms as well.
We talk about how an entrepreneur sometimes even takes an idea thats already out there and makes it better or more innovative as a way of branching out in their own business, said Bode.
By Tuesday the students selected the businesses they wanted to pursue and began interacting with successful area entrepreneurs including Traci Carmony and Jessica Oswald of JOT Marketing, Andrew Vaeth of Optix Connect, Rita Shisler of Shislers Cheese House and Mark Morrison of Morrison Custom Welding who shared both the rewards and the harsh realities of establishing a successful new business.
The students also learned what banks look for in a business plan when deciding whether to finance a new venture from Korinne Kowell of Hunting National Bank.
After learning about everything from product development to marketing, the students set to work fleshing out the details of the product or service they planned to develop.
Throughout the week the students labored over the same types of issues that real entrepreneurs face every day - researching the competition, calculating the actual costs involved in manufacturing their products, determining the market for their products and figuring out how to reach potential customers.
With this information in hand the students developed a detailed business plan, which they presented to their families during a dinner at Wooster High School on July 29.
According to Bode some of the students concepts centered around innovative new services and products such as Logan Bowers idea of customizing snowboards with lights and Jadon Shaftics HydroCap, which replaces the difficult to clean hydration packs used by runners with an easily cleanable bottle.
New insights came from other sources as well.
According to Bode one student who runs a babysitting service had a light bulb moment when she realized that her existing business could net her a tidy profit $3000 a year rather than $20 here or there if she followed her new business plan.
It was neat to see those lights turn on, said Bode.
