Scholar Speak

Building a Class Business

The joys of starting a class business. Our entrepreneurship class has been planning the grand opening of our "Mountain Maddnesss" snack shack and the kids could not be more excited. To better apply the class material, we started a real business instead of a theoretical one because the kids get more invested. In fact, each of them has invested $5, and at the end of the semester they'll receive a return on that investment, depending on how well we do.

Starting a business can seem difficult, but it really just requires a great idea and lots of work. I act as a guide and allow the kids great autonomy in crafting solutions to problems. 

One problem arose this past week when the marketing managers misspelled the name of our business on the main poster. "Mountain Madness" should only have had one "d" - but they glued down two. Time ticked away and we needed to finish our work for the day, so I called over the CEO and asked what they should do.

Redoing the poster, they decided, wasn't an option. The CEO also had an epiphany...many businesses spell their names in unique ways to draw attention, so why doesn't our class business do the same? Everyone decided to leave the two "d"s and add an extra "s." Giving them the freedom to solve the problem allowed for innovation and creativity.