Northwood is known for its elite academic opportunities, including the Entrepreneurship Studies Program. Entrepreneurship is a class that teaches students the tools and resources that they will need to be successful within the world of business. Throughout the year, there are three main projects that students must organize.
The first project was to get into groups to sell something to people in the Adirondacks. One of the groups in the course tried to sell T-Shirts to stores in downtown Lake Placid to raise money for LEAP program scholarships, while another group sold reusable bags to Hannaford to help Lake Placid become more environmentally friendly.
On the second trimester, Entrepreneurship students were given a new task. They had to come up with their own business ideas and create comprehensive plans before finally presenting them to a faculty team at Northwood.
A reusable bag similar to the one used by one of the groups.
This was not an easy feat though. Students needed to create an executive summary consisting of a detailed explanation about their target markets, financial expectations, start-up costs, incomes and expenditures, and their projected net income for the first fiscal year.
This past Wednesday, three students gave presentations. Jared Lambright ‘19 went first and talked about starting up a chain of smoothie shops near Albany, New York. “Well, the hardest part of creating my business plan was assessing the potential profitability of my business,” said Lambright. He continued, “Since I was talking about running a retail store, the numbers had to make sense. On an upside, though, having to present in front of Mr. Reed provided me with great feedback about not only the potential “holes” in my plan but also about how I can improve as a speaker and as a presenter.”
The Logo used by Kyle Bavis ‘19 for his startup company, UpperEdge Coaching Connections.
Lucas Rodriguez ‘20 went next and talked about organizing financial literacy courses for people in his home country of Mexico. The last student to present, Kyle Bavis ‘19, talked about creating an online website called UpperEdge Coaching Connections. The website would allow coaches to charge athletes a fee in exchange for one-on-one coaching help over the computer, and the company would then take away a certain percentage of the money and let the coaches keep the rest of the money.
The presentations have already been a success, though more students are still waiting for their turn to present. It will be interesting to see what the other students will bring to the table as they try to market their business idea to Northwood’s facility and maybe even to some real investors.
