The person who comes up with the next Wal-Mart or McDonald’s or Starbuck’s may just be from the northern Blair County area.
All year, students in Kerry Naylor’s ninth grade gifted support class at Tyrone Area High School have been busy brainstorming small business ideas and developing a plan to get the business up and running.
Naylor said the program is not only a great tool for teaching business strategies, but also gives the students an opportunity to apply skills in research, computer design, public speaking and organization.
“It also allows the students to work in a competitive environment, which many of the high achieving students thrive on,” said Naylor. “They really learn that starting a business involves a dream, serious planning and a lot of hard work. They see that successful businesses are successful because they’re planned to be.”
Naylor said the students break into groups of three to four and think of ideas for a small business.
“There were a lot of great ideas for this project,” he said. “The first thing they have to do is look around them and see their community. I tell them that you hear a lot of people say there is nothing to do in Tyrone and that now is their chance to do something about it. They’re then asked to assess the community’s needs and develop a business plan that would answer a need.”
This year’s list includes: an indoor skate park, a drive-in movie theater, a sporting goods store and a health club/rec center.
Once the ideas are thought out, students work through a step-by-step procedure very similar to one followed by anyone making a small business plan. They have to make decisions about location, target audience, marketing and advertising. They also have to calculate how much money they would need from a start-up loan and add in interest, create a monthly cash-flow statement that gives them an idea of how long it will take to pay off their debts.
According to Naylor, the world-wide web is a large part of the project.
“I have a list of Internet sites for this project that I acquired when taking a technology course two years ago,” he said. “I’ve also picked up a number of other ones along the way, either by searching for them myself or by having the students find them.”
He also said the class had been given a couple of sources from the people at South Hills Business School, who do a similar project.
In addition to offering sources, South Hills also sent two representatives to view a PowerPoint presentation of each of the projects, which was also designed by the students.
Naylor said the representatives from South Hills liked what they saw with the students’ work.
“They were very impressed because they followed so closely along the lines of what they were doing at their institution,” he said. “They offered some suggestions for next year and said they would be interested in coming back. They also invited us down to their school this spring to see their business presentations.”
The South Hills representatives, along with Tyrone Chamber of Commerce interim Executive Director Rose Black, rated the kids’ performances and declared a winner the next day based on the scores.
The group which won the distinctions was made up of ninth graders Josh Shaffer, Josh Wright and Justin Schopp. Their plan was “Score Big Sporting Goods.”
This was a plan for a sporting goods store that not only sold clothing, but completely outfitted high school sports programs.
“They had an excellent marketing and sales plan and they were forward thinking in including an Internet-based store in their 10-year-plan,” said Naylor.
Naylor also said the program is expanding.
He said last year, the project was shown to only Tyrone Mayor Patricia Stoner; but, this year others had a chance to observe the students’ work. Also, Nailor said this year, the students had to develop an advertising plan and actually create an advertisement – some made print ads while others made TV commercials.”
Naylor said the ideas presented do have a chance in the “real world,” but only if they were pursued.
“Obviously, a sports store or a gym is very practical,” he said. “Others, like a drive-in movie with hot tubs, is a little less practical, but there’s value in the project nonetheless.
“Someday, the creators of Score Big may decide to starting such a business is something they want to do and the initial concept will be there.”
