EVERETT — Juergen Kneifel, a business instructor at Everett Community College, doesn’t want his students to expect to go out and get a job when they finish school.
Especially in this economy.
“The traditional education model is to prepare students for jobs that are waiting for them,” he said. “We want our students to go out and create jobs. To find the passion that motivates and drives them.”
Kneifel, of the college’s School of Business Design, is helping 12 students get a taste of what drives them this quarter in a class that allows them to create, run and then shut down a business.
It’s the third year that the school has helped students create businesses with a fund for that purpose that has been maintained by their predecessors. “So far, all of the teams have been profitable,” Kneifel said.
In order to get money, the students had to develop a business plan and make a pitch to a panel of real bankers in the community.
Three teams with four students each made the pitches this year. All were successful in receiving money for a business that would sell goods or services to other students.
“All three identified early on that they wanted to attack a market that is readily available,” Kneifel said.
The businesses include:
Trojan Scents, which received $900 to begin selling flowers and floral arrangements to faculty and staff and the community. Contact: itmakesscents_ TrojanScents@yahoocom.
CLASSNAX, which has $850 to create a company that sells affordable breakfasts, lunches and snacks on campus at a table near the cafeteria and from a little red wagon around campus. Contact: Kay Caulfield, 425-210-0637.
Kneifel likened the wagon to “a modern-day version of the old Popsicle truck” that’s easily identifiable around campus.
Israel, of the discount travel group, said running a business is nothing new for him. When he was young, he joined his sister and some friends in tending to a flock of 60 chickens and selling their eggs to buy feed and raise money.
“Entrepreneurship is instilled in my blood,” he said. “I’ve been around it all my life.”
Israel said he’s enjoyed working with a group of people with diverse talents. So far, he said the group has sold six of its 20 ski packages. He’s enjoyed developing a poster for the effort, which involved such things as dealing with copyright issues to get approval to use someone’s images.
Since the business goes through this quarter and into the next, Israel said the group is trying to develop products in addition to ski trips, which will likely end in April.
So far, he said, he’s enjoyed the real-world experience of developing a business plan and seeing it come to life, and of meeting real people in the business world.
“I’ve had quite a few opportunities to meet people who are running a business,” he said, noting that while entrepreneurs are quite different, they have common threads.
“I’m getting tapped into the community (of business people) and it’s really exciting,” he said.”
Kneifel said that the students don’t have to deal with some business issues, such as making payrolls, because they don’t get paid for their efforts. But he said much of what they do involves solving real problems — determining what sells, for one.
He noted that the snack food team initially had been selling prepacked food for $5 but realized that many students didn’t have $5 to spend.
“They created their own dollar menu and students started coming by their table with a buck,” Kneifel said. “They look at things that aren’t working and they get rid of that and they look at things that are working and then really emphasize those activities.”
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459, benbow@heraldnet.com.
Two Everett Community College employees, Pat Sisneros, vice president of College Services, and Lynne Munoz, director for the School of Business Design, write a regular column for the Herald.
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