Heated competitions on college campuses are no longer just limited to football fields.
Student entrepreneurs at BYU were in a dead heat last week competing with one another for the coveted Student Entrepreneur of the Year award, which carries a first-place prize of $1,500. In addition to being full-time students, the top 10 contestants run real-world businesses that average $61,000 in annual revenues.Last year's winner, senior Jonathan Freedman, founder of DownEast Outfitters with 19 stores, is one of the judges. Contestant businesses are judged on creativity, revenues, originality and overall excellence. Choosing the winner isn't easy. Final voting is done by BYU members of the Association of Collegian Entrepreneurs.
One of the contenders for first place is Chad Christofferson, owner of an Orem-based home security company doing $1.5 million in annual sales. Chad has recently opened a second store in Ogden and plans on expanding to Boise next quarter.
"The pressure is enormous, and I love it," says Chad. "Owning a company and going to school at the same time provide me an opportunity to constantly apply in business what I am learning in class."
Imagine how lively discussions are between Chad and the professors. With 51 employees, Chad can offer a lot of practical experience to his classmates.
"Company success not only dictates my financial situation but also that of my employees and their families," Chad said. "I took a big risk, but after a lot of hard work, we are successful and profitable.
Chad has plans to double his business next year.
Richard Dalley, a junior majoring in business management, and his wife run Dalley Harvesting. They collected more than $150,000 in revenues by doing contract harvesting this summer in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Oregon and Idaho.
"We buy our own wheat harvesting machines, sign contracts with farmers and then move the harvesters on semi-trucks to our destinations," Dalley explained. "Next year we plan on expanding into Nebraska, Montana and Canada."
He borrowed $30,000 at 9.9 percent to get started. "I was able to pay the loan off after a month of hard, hard work," said Dalley, who added that the banker was surprised that he was able to pay off the loan early.
One of the more creative young entrepreneurs is David Ricks, who started his Web-based go-ped business at age 17. Now at the ripe old age of 18, Dave has shipped go-peds as far away as Norway and Iceland and routinely responds to inquires from such places as Israel and Saudi Arabia. His startup company has sold more than $67,000 worth of go-peds on the Internet. His employees include an MBA, a Sterling Scholar and a National Merit Scholar.
Dave is intent on helping others fulfill their creative ambitions. He will leave his business to his employees to run when he serves an LDS mission next year, financed by profits from the go-ped venture.
Another exciting young business student is Allison Stillman, who took a dormant soft drink company her father started 34 years ago and breathed new life into it.
"I was sitting in an economics class as an undeclared major when the professor explained the interrelationship of supply and demand by using an example of apple beer and pizza," explained Allison.
It was at that moment that she realized what "I should have been doing a long time ago," she explained. She convinced her father, who purchased the U.S. rights to the non-alcoholic soft drink when he returned from his LDS mission in Germany more than three decades ago, to let her build an entrepreneurial company with apple beer as the product. The past year has been intense for her as she negotiated with bottlers. She chose a Modesto, Calif. bottler.
"While in Modesto, our bottler agreed to sell apple beer in the California markets," she said. "At that point, I felt like a mother sending my first child off to kindergarten. I was overwhelmed and ecstatic at the same time."
Allison said she believes "that if you have a good product that sells and you can convey this to your customer, people will do business with you regardless of your age, gender, education, race or experience."
She is betting on that belief. She recently purchased 800 cases of bottles and 1,200 cases of cans, ready to deliver to her growing list of customers.
"I am confident that one day apple beer will be as common a soft drink as root beer," Allison said.
New entrepreneurs such as these give time-worn entrepreneurs like me hope for the future of America.
Stephen W. Gibson serves as Entrepreneur-in-Resident at BYU'sCenter for Entrepreneurship. He welcomes your comments at GIBSW@ aol.com or fax at 801-373-1316.