PORT ANGELES — The business ideas from high school students range from restaurants and tanning salons to paintball and a business to make use of the “bubble building” — and all the students are prepping their plans with the help of local business mentors.
The preliminary round of the fourth annual Youth Entrepreneur Challenge, organized by the Entrepreneur Institute and sponsored by the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at the Lincoln Center, 905 W. Ninth St.
The final round will run from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, also at the Lincoln Center.
The 12 groups have come up with an eclectic mix of businesses, said Linty Hopie, who is facilitating the contest.
More than $3,000 will be given to participants as awards, but how the money will be split won’t be decided until the final round Wednesday.
Paintball field
This is the third consecutive year that a team has selected a paintball field as a business.
“It seems that it always comes up,” Hopie said.
“It seems that this is one way that the youth of Port Angeles are telling us that this is a business that is in demand.”
Another business includes a suggestion of using the so-called “bubble building” for indoor tennis and soccer facilities in partnership with the Port Angeles School District.
“[A.J. Konopaski] also did this as part of his senior culminating project, so he has spent a lot of time on it,” Hopie said.
The inflatable “bubble” was donated in 2007 to the Clallam County YMCA by the U.S. Tennis Association in New Jersey for the cost of shipping. The YMCA acted at the urging of the Peninsula Tennis Club, which could not apply because it is not a nonprofit group.
After attempting to site the building in Port Angeles, the club requested that the Sequim School District consider it. The School Board has not acted on the request.
Sea glass jewelry
Another business suggests using sea glass in jewelry.
“This business is interesting because it is one that is realistic that the students could turn around and actually, realistically do this business soon,” Hopie said.
“We have some traditional business plans and others that have sought to tackle community issues,” she said.
“All of them have put in a lot of work on their own and with mentors.”
The mentors are an essential part of the experience for youth participating in the challenge, she said.
Mark Bowman of Enterprise Cascadia has participated as a mentor since the beginning.
“It is a lot of fun,” he said.
“It is really interesting because the high school students really have all of the ideas. They just haven’t always had the experience of putting it down in the right order.
“They have all the information in front of them; it is just coalescing it right or formatting it properly.”
He was most surprised by the energy and passion the students exuded for the project, which they do in their own time and in teacher Dave Uranich’s contemporary issues class.
“I don’t think I’ve had two ideas that were the same,” he said.
“Of course, you get multiple restaurant ideas — but they all have a different twist.”
Bowman, who has more than 16 years of lending experience and five years of experience to run a bed-and-breakfast, said he also worked with the adult Entrepreneur Challenge, which is no longer in existence.
“I’ve actually funded a few of the plans from the regular Entrepreneur Challenge over the past four or five years,” he said.
“I haven’t funded any out of the youth yet, but I know that these contests do have some business plans that have been funded.”
Look beyond
Laurel Black, owner of Laurel Black Design in Port Angeles, is in her second year of mentoring.
The contest is a good way to help students look beyond the idea of graduation, college and a job, she said.
“You do have other options, and through this program, they see some of them,” she said.
She said she delights in the moments of realization that the students experience.
“At some point in the process, all the students have some sort of ‘aha’ moment realizing that they do have to pay taxes or they do have to pay insurance and if they open and don’t do anything else, people might not come to their store,” she said.
“It is interesting because I’ve worked with a lot of grownups who also didn’t have those realizations — and they were doing it for real.”
Lee Lawrence, who has participated as a mentor a few times, said he tries to convey all the important parts of business — from presentation to business plan.
“The primary thing is for them to convey their thoughts in written format in the form of a business plan and for it to make logical, good common sense,” he said.
“I also try to make sure they are ready to give a firm handshake, to look professional when giving a presentation and to practice what they are going to say — in fact, a lot of the time that I work with students I spend going over the presentation.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
