Mrs. Bolling’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation class, a branch of the CHS Marketing department educates students on how to create businesses by giving them hands-on experience. In order to prepare,  students have managed to create six small businesses within the class in only a handful of weeks.

Students were initially put in groups of three-five students and were then asked to collaborate and to design a product. Students then designated jobs for themselves;  students were appointed to jobs such as CEO, marking manager, sales production manager, and finance manager.  Many of them include personalized items like hats, water bottles, and tote bags that are decorated with designs, monograms, and college logos.  

The six Entrepreneurship & Innovation Class businesses include the following ideas:   

• Bottle-It: Personalized Water Bottles
• Slam Bags: Trendy Bags
• Pinsy & Co: Personalized Pins
• Tee Time: Golf Tee Bags
• Key to the Heart: Personalized Key Chains
• Calista and Co: Personalized Hats

In an event called the “STIHL Tank”, these young entrepreneurs had the opportunity to take their unique ideas to the STIHL Corporation, where they pitched their business plans to investors in effort to gain valuable and meaningful feedback. STIHL is one of the several companies a part of Junior Achievement, a program in Hampton Roads used to give excess to additional resources that help students excel in learning. STIHL TANK feedback allowed all six small businesses to grow their brand and businesses then planned to use the money made from this event to expand their models and designs.

“It is a super cool opportunity to have the creative freedom to make a business during class time. There is no class that compares to one where you actually get to build a brand,” senior and Marketing Director of Slam Bags Lauren Marks said.

This is only the beginning for many of these businesses, as they learn new things and develop more products. The Cricut, a computer-controlled cutting machine, is used by most groups to create the products. 

 “We use the Cricut machine to print designs onto vinyl, and then we use the heat press to stick them to our products. It’s super nice that the Marketing Department already had these things, so the money we make goes right back into the product and there’s no additional costs for us,” Finance Manager of Key to the Heart Keychains Cassie Carbonneau said.