By launching their own business startup company, a team of budding entrepreneurs at Nichols Career Center is learning what it takes to turn a profit.
The 24 students - all enrolled in an advanced entrepreneurship course - are selling crew-neck sweatshirts this fall. As chilly temperatures settled over the region in the last few weeks, the shirts have been selling faster than Apple iPads on Cyber Monday.
"They are going very, very fast. We had to order so many more than in the past," said Eden Hoogveld, a 17-year-old senior.
Hoogveld said her peers launched the business a few weeks ago with a survey designed to discern what potential products would be popular with customers. They then were divided into five departments - marketing, human resources, finance, production and public relations - and each student pitched a shirt design.
The winning design has the motto "Once a Jay, Always a Jay" and includes a classic version of the Jaybird mascot. Each shirt is $20.
Hoogveld said her team primarily marketed the shirts to fellow high school students, but they also offered their sales pitch to elementary, middle school and Simonsen students, as well as non-school customers.
As president of the marketing department, Hoogveld said her group focused their effort on putting the product out there. Although the shirts were advertised via posters, flyers and broadcasted school announcements, mostly the news was shared via word of mouth, she said.
"And we wanted to share information, such as when the shirts would be available, where and how customers could get the product," she said.
As of Friday, the students expected to sell at least 712 shirts, yielding a gross return of $14,240, not including the $11,075 they collected from supporting business partners. The students accepted one of their last shipments of shirts Friday morning.
It's possible sales could climb higher in the month to come before the business is liquidated, said Kelly Grunden, who teaches the course.
As part of the course, the students are required to sell a minimum of 12 shirts each and secure a portion of the business partnership funding. They also are asked to put forward either $3 or $9 to be invested.
Once the project is completed, the money will be invested in the stock market - in hopes it will earn interest.
Twenty percent of the profits go to an entrepreneurial scholarship fund; 12 percent is donated to the Wounded Warrior fund. Small amounts underwrite business student organizations and pay the printing costs of the project's annual financial report.
At the end of the class, students who complied with the course requirements split the profits.
Hoogveld said the class was a great experience. She noted students are expected to treat the class like a job. For example, if they miss a class, they're expected to call in their absence. The students also created resumes in the course and interviewed for the positions they wanted.
Senior Kader Fees interviewed for the job as president, and got it. He said the project taught him to be organized and avoid procrastination.
"As president, I had to ... keep the chaos down," he said. "It's been crazy. But it's a good feeling to almost be done."
Grunden said the project asked students to consider the appropriate price-point for a given product, and how much to spend wholesale.
"I definitely learned a lot," Hoogveld said. "I want to go into marketing, so it provided me a really good experience."
Shirts can be purchased by calling 659-3117 or by emailing the class at [email protected]. Orders and payment must be received by Dec. 12.