Northside, Southside students pitch business plans to Rotary

Students at Northside and Southside High Schools in Fort Smith are getting a taste of what it’s like to start a business in a tough economy.

Craig Pair, president of Fort Smith-based Control Technologies and a board member at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, hosted a Fort Smith Rotary presentation Wednesday (Jan. 13) during which 10 students talked about their new businesses.

In its third year, the high school entrepreneurship program is a joint effort between the Fort Smith Public Schools and the IEC. Funds for loans to the student businesses come from area businesses and the IEC.

Students who participate in the two-semester course spend the first semester learning about how to start a business, Pair explained. This includes research, writing business plans and developing marketing plans. The students then compete for a business loan fund, and those who receive a loan operate their business through April.

“This (supporting the program) has shown me that we have good people in this country … because these kids have good ideas and they know how to work,” Pair told the Rotary crowd.

Continuing, Pair said the students have yet to disappoint.

“Every year, we get our money back and the kids make money,” he said.

The student business owners briefly described their operations.

A trio of young ladies have a customized gift basket enterprise. They’ve already had 70 orders placed, and they reminded the audience that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner.

Quante Alston and Evan Burton own and operate Barble’s Clean Wheelz. They’ll come to where your car is and clean it. The service ranges from a simple wash to a detailed clean that includes a wax. Several audience members raised their hands when the two asked if anyone wanted a business card.

Alex Norman has engaged a non-profit business, and is organizing an antique car show scheduled for April 3. All proceeds will support the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Another group of students have His & Hers Boutique. The business owners make and sell beaded and braided necklaces, that make “perfect gifts” for those in the 10-20 age range.

Yet another trio of young ladies from Northside own and operate Grizzly Buttons. They provide a unique and inexpensive way to “show school spirit,” with button prices ranging from 50 cents to $2.

If buttons aren’t your thing or you need something on which to hang a button, another student-owned business sells customized t-shirts. The t-shirts come in all price ranges as long as the price is $12.

H & S Multimedia Productions can take all the old photos you have stashed in a box and digitize them, or organize your already digitized photos. “Your memories start here,” notes the tag line on the business card of company co-founder J.B. Smith. Photos can be placed in a book, transformed into a slide show or used for a personalized calendar. Again, many audience hands shot up when the young company owners asked if anyone wanted brochures and business cards.

The final student business presentation was a video game tournament built around the NCAA 10 game. The tournament is scheduled for March 20, and the entry fee is $20.

Melinda Briscoe, an entrepreneurship program leader and business teacher at Northside, said the program is unique in that it provides money to the students to operate a real business. Most other schools are hesitant to trust students with an up to $500 upfront loan.

“We’ve been very open to the idea. Why not put the money into their hands” and let them get a feel for running a business under a supervised arrangement?” Briscoe said.