Willoughby-Eastlake Schools offers an Entrepreneurship Class to students

By Mimi Vanderhaven

Ambitious entrepreneurs with visions of making it big—complete with a corner office and their feet up on the desk—have to start somewhere.

At Willoughby South High School, the Entrepreneurship Class is a perfect start.

Over the past two years, students from sophomores to seniors have enrolled in the class with hopes of earning the creds to succeed in the business world by learning how to run a printing and spirit wear store.

“I would say 98 percent of the decisions are made by our students,” says business teacher Daneen Baller. “That includes everything from inventory to product sales, purchasing equipment, marketing and managing the store.”

The 15 students in the class are completely hands-on, even learning to operate the heat press machine to create spirit wear shirts and doing market research to select the items that will sell, advertising, and running the financials to see how profitable they are.

“We see ourselves as a mini college bookstore with one-stop shopping,” she says. “For instance, in addition to spirit wear, we offer convenience items such as water bottles, school supplies, car magnets and lanyards.”

Since the class began, the sales and profit arrows have consistently pointed upward.

“Students can take this class twice, with the second-year students becoming managers of the store and mentoring the younger ones,” she says. “Throughout the year, students are pushed outside of their comfort zones with things like making sales pitches and presentations to gain sponsors.”

Although the store is now housed in what used to be the concession stand for indoor athletics, Daneen reports at the new high school there will be a bigger space dedicated to their operation.

In addition to the 45-minute Entrepreneurship class, which meets daily, Daneen also teaches Finance, Accounting and Introduction to Business.

“This is real-world learning you won’t get from a textbook,” she says.

“There is a true pride of ownership. One young man who graduated last year went on a job interview at a retail store and the owner was stunned by everything that was already on his resume.”

Needless to say, he got the job. Next stop: corner office.

Look for these monthly stories to cover topics from grades K-12 in the Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools System. For details, visit WESchools.org.