They’ve got spirit
By Mimi Vanderhaven
Move over, Bill Gates—there’s a new breed of entrepreneur honing its razor-sharp business chops at Willoughby-Eastlake Schools’ student-run spirit wear shop at Willoughby South High School.
Mimi caught up with Daneen Baller, who runs the Entrepreneurship class, for some insider info.
“We’ve seen the size of the group of students, who are sophomores to seniors, triple over the past several years, with about 60 students earning the street credibility to succeed in the business world by learning how to run the spirit wear store,” she says. “All the decisions, from researching the stock we’ll carry to merchandising and accounting are made by the students. We meet in the classroom daily. It’s adjacent to the shop, which is convenient.”
One of the cool things that happened this year is that the students wanted to expand the quality of their inventory by purchasing an embroidery machine. They did their research, created a plan for a small business loan and presented it, in Shark Tank fashion, to the superintendent, the treasurer and the curriculum director. It was approved and now the class will pay back the loan with the terms it agreed on.
“It’s not ‘like’ we’re running a successful business,” she adds. “We actually are running a real successful enterprise. The students have such a sense of pride and accomplishment.”
Each year they set goals of how much profit they hope to make. This past school year that number was an incredible $45,000, and they’re already on track this year to hit our goal of $60,000.”
The shop has expanded from t-shirts and hoodies to also include sweatpants and joggers, flannel pajama pants, hats, keychains, lanyards and water bottles, which they learned how to make themselves through a process called sublimation.
Daneen reports that when her students go on job interviews, the person interviewing them is usually shocked at their broad knowledge of the business world.
“I have lots of students who say the class has helped them decipher what aspect of business they will study in college,” she says.
Look for these monthly stories to cover topics from grades K-12 in the Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools System. For details, visit WESchools.org.