STORY BY: Anatoliy Burac
& Nikolai Palomo
Staff writers
Select students at Nixa High School have become successful business owners while being full-time students. Passion for their business is the common denominator for each student, but passion is not the only thing needed to start one.
Each business has its own unique set of barriers, essentials and basics of how to be successful.
NHS business teacher Tyler Killen explains what kinds of challenges students may encounter when starting a business.
“When we talk about school, that’s just another barrier,” Killen said. “Any other business person has barriers they are facing – maybe they have children, maybe a family – and starting a business is scary, like ‘I don’t have any guaranteed income here and I need to provide for my family,’” Killen said.
An example of a business in the school is the Birdhouse. The Birdhouse sells food and drinks during the lunch period to students, but it’s currently experiencing some changes.
“… The Birdhouse is currently under some renovations – we are rebranding ourselves to be more of a coffee shop,” Killen said. “We have an espresso machine, and you can see I’m working right now on what that looks like for students.”
The Birdhouse’s rebranding as a coffee shop also includes changes in how their business works.
“Educate them on what it is we are selling,” Killen said. “If you have never had coffee before, … you walk into a coffee shop and you look at a menu, there is 20 options. But if you’ve never had it, you have no idea what those things are… – Education of customers is important – that’s what we are trying to do right now, or what we will be doing.”
Although there may be challenges in starting a business, Killen suggests looking at things in a different perspective.
“If your targets are the people in the school, then also there is an advantage to being in school because they’re all grouped together – you have a captive audience during the day…” Killen said. “There are always pluses and minuses – you have to read your situation.”
While the Birdhouse’s target audience is built-in at school, finding the target audience for most businesses can be difficult.
“Identifying customers [and] reaching customers is always a struggle for a new business,” Killen said. “Finding the right product that meets their needs is a challenge [as well].”
Being a high school entrepreneur can have its advantages.
“If you’re talking about high school specifically, the target market is already set for you … so that’s nice,” Killen said. “You have customers at your fingertips all throughout the building all day – that’s also nice.”
After finding the target market, it is suggested to start doing small but sure steps to make the business machine run smoothly. And according to Killen, the best way to do that is to start small.
“The reason being when you start, you are going to make mistakes…,” Killen said. “You are going to identify other problems that you have to solve and when you’re doing it on a smaller scale it’s so much easier. Once you start to fix those mistakes, once you come up with a more streamlined process for whatever it is you’re doing, it becomes easier to scale up. As you grow you’ll find new things, new problems that you’ll have… – It’s a constant struggle to fix problems that you run into and to identify solutions, but that’s the nature of business; finding solutions to the problems that arise.”
Starting the business itself can be a challenge.
“Any business is best started when you find a need in the market area,” Killen said. “So what are other people around needing or wanting? And then finding a way to meet that need. Many high schoolers set for mowing lawns or baby-sitting, and those are good businesses because people have kids that need to be watched or yards trimmed.”
Another business, ran by senior Hadley Casias, is in development. Casias plans to create a business based on educating the people of America about their health.
“I think a ton of America is obese and doesn’t know about their health and nutrition, and it’s not even about, to me, how you look and stuff like that,” Casias said. “It’s more like the foods they’re feeding us. There is tons of poisons in it, and it’s killing people, giving them cancer – and I think to live longer, there is so much people just don’t know, and I think people deserve to know that. It is hands-on and informative, so I’m planning on, this summer, getting a certification in nutrition and personal training so I can help people because I’ll have the certified knowledge to. Now, it’s just me educating people through blogs, and things like that. ”
Casias went as far as making herself a known figure among doctors, health enthusiasts and other people online. She has accounts on multiple social media platforms.
“… I created a website and my Instagram and completely went through and made sure it fits … how I want to present myself,” Casias said.
Although this may seem like a big job for one person, Casias said that although it may be rough, it is manageable.
“I don’t do my school and then be like ‘I have to do my business stuff,’” Casias said. “It’s more on the weekends – I’m like ‘Oh, I want to work on my business’ and then I’ll be working for like six hours on it.”
Another Student business growing at NHS is owned by Senior Shelby Creason, who makes wood burning art for customers to buy. She believes that passion is more important than anything.
“If it’s about the money, don’t do it…” Creason said. “If someone appreciates the [product], it’s not about the money, really.”
Creason also believes that there are benefits to starting a business as early as high school.
“Now I know what exact wood burning kit I want [and]what wood, I’d like to make this even more serious…” Creason said. “I think that I’m glad I started it early on.”