Fostering Experiential Learning: Creating a Student-Run Business

Committed to Entrepreneurship - NACCE 2012 10th Annual Conference – Chicago, Illinois Presented by: Tony Fontes

Overview

Bunker Hill Community College has embarked on several initiatives to expand the spirit of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial studies across the BHCC campus. Specifically:

• Creating an Entrepreneurship Club • Developing an on campus, student run business.

Club’s Intent The BHCC Entrepreneurship Club’s purpose is to inform, support, and inspire its members to be entrepreneurial and seek opportunity through enterprise creation.

Club Mission: The mission of the BHCC Entrepreneurship Club (The Firm) is to provide an environment in which students with an entrepreneurial spirit can meet to share ideas, forge new friendships, establish networking opportunities and develop business skills to be utilized in the real world.

The Business

Create a student run business, which entailed building a mobile kiosk as the catalyst to help in vending BHCC themed apparel and related soft goods.

The Goals Short Term:

• Progressive Sales • Profitability • Grow Awareness • Foster School Spirit

Long Term:

• Continuity of Operations • Self-Sustainability • Pay for Labor • Contribute Funds Back

Why apparel and a mobile kiosk?

• Space • Location Flexibility • Frequency of Set-Up • Lack of Staffing • Start-Up Costs • Simplicity • Foster School Spirit • Student Inspired Designs

Completed Kiosk Versions 1.0 & 2.0

Why is starting a business with an eco-friendly business beneficial?

• Being a green entrepreneur means that you are helping to save the environment.

• Potential customers will support businesses that are doing the right thing.

• The creation of a green business can help translate to positive marketing efforts, increasing the venture’s popularity.

• Capitalize on the rising status and exposure of green initiatives. • Supports the overall BHCC commitment to sustainability.

Project Funding

• Perkins CVTE Grant

• The Hughes Foundation

• The Coleman Foundation

Obstacles & Issues • How to handle cash, accounting, state sales tax • Sustainability products cost more • Staffing: (paying students to run the business?) • Club membership constantly changing • Inventory tracking/control • Credit Card processing • Determining price points/product mix • What to do with the proceeds • College contractual obligations (vendors) • Vendor minimum orders • Future Funding

Learning Outcomes

Skill Attainment: Entrepreneurial Creation

• Venture Creation and Start-Up • Capitalization (or lack of) • Management Team • Location and Managing Territories • Vendor Relations (internal & external)

New Business Creation of additional revenue streams

Skill Attainment: Marketing Skills

• Promotion • Advertising • Social Media • Retailing • Pricing • Sales • Graphic Design • Market Research • Merchandising • Guerrilla Marketing

Skill Attainment: Management Skills

• Scheduling • Recruiting • Employee Motivation • Continual Training • Conflict Resolution

Soft Skills/Life Skills

• Bureaucracy (shirt design, location set-up) • Interpersonal Dealings (facilities, co-workers) • Financial Limitations (managing to a budget) • Protocols (scope and approach) • Legal (contracts) • Cross collaboration with other clubs

Interdisciplinary Impact • Business • Visual and Media Arts • Hotel/Restaurant • Computer Information Technology • Communications • Culinary Arts • Education • Meeting & Event Planning • Psychology

General Learning Outcomes

• Provide “real world” experiential and concept learning;

• Improve student’s ability to work as a team (organization skills, communication skills, time management and delegation skills);

• Provide a platform for students to build their experience for integration into future employment opportunities and workforce readiness;

• Help cross promote other college initiatives and campaigns;

General Learning Outcomes

• Ensure that BHCC students understand the doctrine of the college’s overall sustainability commitment, and work to manage this venture to that end;

• Encourage building goodwill amongst students in relation to the BHCC culture;

• Provide the platform for students to develop a collegial environment through the business operation;

• Engage students in a creative, meaningful endeavor that can further connect them with BHCC and their peers.

Business Specific Learning Outcomes • Engage students in the logistics of starting a small-scale

operation; • Encourage group problem-solving, decision-making, and

personal responsibility; • Operate a business from a socially responsible (sustainable)

perspective; • Participate in real-world business practices (e.g. ordering

equipment and inventory); • Understand basic accounting and money management practices; • Develop and execute marketing strategies;

Business Specific Learning Outcomes • Develop customer relation skills; • Implement quality control/inventory control

practices; • Hone effective communication skills with a wide

range of constituents including students, faculty and staff;

• Make decisions regarding product offerings; • Work with school administration to navigate

internal bureaucracy; • Work through roadblocks and issues regarding the

business.

Questions?

Thank You! Tony Fontes

Asst. Professor & Department Chair Business Administration afontes@bhcc.mass.edu

Business Trivia for bragging rights (and a tee shirt)

1. What bottled product did Henry Heinz start selling to Pittsburgh residents in 1869 that led to the creation of H.J. Heinz, Inc.?

2. Mattel, Inc., the world's largest toy manufacturer, got its start in 1945. What was the company's first product?

3. In which city was Coca-Cola first introduced in 1886?

4. What company occupied the first fully air-conditioned building in New York City in 1940?

5. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating this from each salad served in first-class.

ANSWER 1.What bottled product did Henry Heinz start

selling to Pittsburgh residents in 1869 that led to the creation of H.J. Heinz, Inc.?

Horseradish. Heinz introduced the phrase “57 varieties” in 1896.

ANSWER 2.Mattel, Inc., the world's largest toy

manufacturer, got its start in 1945. What was the company's first product?

Picture frames. The company got its name by combining letters of the last and first names of its founders, Harold Matson and Elliot Handler.

ANSWER 3.In which city was Coca-Cola first introduced in

1886?

Atlanta. Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist, first concocted the caramel-colored syrup in a brass kettle in his backyard. Pemberton sold out in 1891 to Asa Candler for $2,300.00.

ANSWER 4.What company occupied the first fully

air-conditioned building in New York City in 1940?

Tiffany & Company

ANSWER 5. American Airlines saved $40,000 in

1987 by eliminating this from each salad served in first-class.

One Olive

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