Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Course at Christian Brothers University Bold and Do-able
High schooler ideas for businesses win professionals' praise
By David Flaum, The Commercial Appeal
May 27, 2004
The Lounge – a coffee and dessert bar and music club for 14- to 18-year-olds – may not be coming to a shopping center near you.
But the business idea hatched by four high school students had business people who looked at it ready to invest.
The proposal was one of six made during The Memphis Challenge free enterprise and entrepreneurship class at Christian Brothers University.
"Each one of those business plans could very well become a reality," said Michael Brown, one of three judges who named The Lounge the winner over the five other plans.
The proposals were the end product of the 18 students who took the course.
The Memphis Challenge is a leadership and professional development organization for black students intended to encourage them to return to Memphis after college graduation.
"There was no idea in there that was far-fetched or wasn't well thought out," said Brown, a Memphis Challenge class of 1990 member who returned to the city in November to be a fixed-income investment broker at Morgan Keegan & Co.
The business plan for The Lounge was created by Kristin Williams, a rising senior at Collierville High School, and three Germantown High School students: Danielle Crawford, Nicholas Hardy and Dominique Dallas.
"We wanted to cater to kids our age," Williams said. "This is something that is not in Memphis or anywhere else. In Memphis, teenagers complain about not having anything to do."
All four of the students want to open businesses after college. Crawford is considering a wedding planning or bridal consulting firm, Dallas is looking at scrapbooking or selling T-shirts with lettering and Williams wants to be a lawyer with her own firm.
Hardy's ideas are more general. He wants to own his own business, but not a lounge or club, he said. "This is an opportunity for me to increase my knowledge in the area of entrepreneurship."
That made the class "the next logical step in the professional growth and leadership development for students," said Cassandra Webster, executive director of The Memphis Challenge. "It was an up close and personal view of a college business course while they were in high school."
"The project was a perfect way to get an understanding if this is something I want to do (as a profession)," said Daisica Smith, who graduated from Ridgeway High School last week. Smith plans to attend Mt. Holyoke College in Boston next fall to study business and acting.
She and her teammates Chip Townsend, who graduated from Ridgeway in May, and India Brown, a rising senior at Ridgeway, used the Internet to check for businesses similar to the hair and nail salon and spa they named Bold and Beautiful. They picked a location in Park Place because there were no similar businesses in the area and the spot is not far from a number of schools, they said.
While all three appreciated the educational aspect of the program, Townsend had another incentive - the three hours of college credit he can use when he goes to University of Tennessee next year to study business.
Dr. Dale Bails, associate professor of economics at CBU, came up with the idea for the class, which he and Dr. Bevalee Pray, associate professor of finance at CBU, put together.
Five faculty members taught in the 13-week course, each week touching on a different element of a business plan, Pray said.
Students' homework was to apply the elements to the business they had chosen to start. Webster and Pray hope the program will continue next school year, but it will depend on a grant, they said.
Pray said she was impressed with the plans, especially the marketing ideas. She cited the frequent-customer card proposed by The Lounge team, which would earn customers free beverages after several purchases.
Mignonne Wright, a judge, said the plans were more sophisticated than she expected. Wright runs Modern Media, a magazine publishing company that is in the same Emerge Memphis building as The Memphis Challenge office. "There were a couple of the ideas, I thought, 'You know what, I'd put money into this.' "
Brown said the strength of the plans, including a Caribbean-themed restaurant, a bistro, a diner, a breakfast restaurant and an identity theft recovery business, was that the students found a market or a need for what they proposed. "At 17, 18 years old, there's no way I would have been able to come up with an idea like that," he said.
The winners
Nicholas Hardy (MC Class of 2004) and Junior MC students Danielle Crawford, Dominique Dallas and Kristin Williams
The runners-up
Iesha Josephat (2004 Junior MC) and Class of 2004 members Iesha Boyce, Chemetra Patrick and Keri Richardson, created a plan for a Caribbean-themed restaurant and store called Caribbean Current.
Other participants
The Dynamic Bistro – Kellie Chatman, Markeenya Gunn, Zarielle Washington and Spencer Elosiebo;
The Bold and Beautiful – India Brown, Daisica Smith and Chip Townsend
Rapid Response and Recovery – Bethany Copperidge
Brake Fast Breakfast – Tracy Igberaese, Laron Walker and Jessica Williams
