ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROMOTION PROJECT

Entrepreneurial Islands and MoreA World of Opportunities

555 East Lake Ave.
Bellefontaine, Ohio, 43311
Breanne Douce, Kody Conner & Steven Norris
March 14, 2014.




WELCOME TO THE ISLANDS!
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
One-page description of the project





















TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
One-page description of the project
II. INTRODUCTION
A. Description of the local DECA chapter
B. Description of the school and community
III. MANAGEMENT OF ACTIVITY(IES) TARGETED AT OUTSIDE AUDIENCE
A. Purpose of the activity(ies)
B. Planning and organization of activity(ies)
C. Implementation of activity(ies)
IV. EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Evaluation of campaign
B. Recommendations for additional new activity(ies) for future campaigns.
V. BIBLIOGRAPHY
VI. APPENDIX








II. INTRODUCTION
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didnt do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from
the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

~Mark Twain
A. Description of the local DECA chapter
Hi! We are the Bellefontaine High School (BHS) DECA
Chapter, an association of students preparing for careers in
Marketing, Finance, Hospitality & Management. We are
emerging leaders and Entrepreneurs working hard to Make
It Count. Prepare yourself as you are about to embark upon
a great voyage to the Entrepreneurial Islands!
Our Chapter. In Bellefontaine High School our DECA chapter is currently made
up of forty-seven students with 5 professional members as of the 2013-14 school year.
We advertise our colors, blue and white very well with every event that we do. We have
lived and breathed the Make it Count! motto this year in all chapter activities. Twelve
of the 47 students are enrolled in
Marketing 2 and Cooperative
Education, where we all work 450
hours during the year to gain our Co-
op credits. Our places of employment
include: Arbys, Fazolis, KFC,
McDonalds, Rue 21, The Town
Trolley, Tumbleweed, The Duff Quarry, Ohio Hi Point Home Health, Lowes and The
YMCA. In the Marketing 1 class, the thirty-five remaining students began the year with
learning what Marketing and DECA is all about. They are now active in all of our
activities, as well as their own. Students in the Marketing 1 and Marketing 2 classes are
also all very active in sports at Bellefontaine High School. These sports include football,
soccer, swimming, track, and wrestling. Our students strive to excel not only in the
classroom, but also in our extra-curricular activities, We strive to represent our school
proudly and professionally every day. We are the Mighty Chieftains, and we show our
Chieftain Pride! Every year we have a great number of students that compete at the
State level, where some continue on to the National level. These achievements show
the great intelligence and poise that our DECA students have to offer, here at BHS.
As a Marketing class we have a strong connection with the Logan County Area
Chamber of Commerce (LCCC) and Convention and Tourism Bureau. This benefits us
in many ways, because of our partnership we get out in the community doing numerous
activities, raising awareness about BHS DECA along the way. For example, we are very
active in helping entrepreneurs and local business owner get their names out there and
gain future business through our Buy Local Logan
County Campaign. The Buy Local Logan County
Campaign raises awareness in our area about the
benefits associated to shopping locally. Including:
Creating local jobs
Investing in our community
Supporting our neighbors
1.5% of sales tax goes to local
government

Our Chamber of Commerce and the areas local entrepreneurs work to support us in
anyway feasible, so we are sure to do the same for them.
B. Description of the school and community
Our School. We are the Mighty Chiefs! In Bellefontaine City Schools (BCS) there
are a total of 324 staff members. Although, only 176 of these staff members are
teachers. Every single one of the adults, aids cooks, custodial staff, guidance
counselors, bus drivers, nurses, and administrators
who are employed in the Bellefontaine City School
District (BCSD) believes and enforces our motto of:
Equal Access to a Quality Education.
In the 13-14 school year, we have built two
new schools, bringing everyone closer together,
in a campus style set up. In the K-2 grades there
are 630 students in BCS, in 3-5 there are 607
students, in 6-8 there are 614 students, and
finally in the high school there are a grand total
of 783 students. The attendance rate of all these
students combine is, 95.3%. In all of BCS, there
is a slim range of diversity in ethnicity and
gender. The males occupy a greater majority over the females, coming to a total of
53%, while the females total out to 47%. The ethnic breakdown includes Caucasian,
Bellefontaine Middle School
Bellefontaine Elementary School
multi-racial, African-Americans, non-Hispanic, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians and
Hawaiians. The great amount of Asians, Hispanics, and Hawaiians is due to the Honda
plant being located fifteen minutes away, halfway between Bellefontaine and Marysville.
Our Community. Welcome to Logan County where the total population is 45,858
people. We are at the highest peak of Ohio, with Columbus approximately sixty
minutes away and Lima being approximately 45 minutes away. The average age of
residents residing here is 39 years old. Land masses
include: 3.51% of urban land, 52.81% that is
cropland, 31.01% of it is forests, and 8.70% make up
the pastures. Logan Countys diversity is as follows:
White/Caucasians make up 95.30% of the population
while African Americans make up 1.30%. This brings
the total minority to 5.20%.
Logan County is home to many tourist attractions. These attractions including:
The Ohio Caverns, Mad River Mountain Ski
Resort, The Piatt Castles, Indian Lake and its
beaches, The Orr Mansion, The Eagles
Campground, along with plenty other
campgrounds. With these tourist attractions
consumers bring in significant revenues to our community each year.
Our History. The borders of Logan County were officially named in 1817, named
after Benjamin Logan. Numerous towns were founded by Indian tribes due to the
great farmlands and convenient location to water. Some of these included our own
town, Bellefontaine was site of Blue Jackets Town. Very few Americans moved after
the Indians left because of the lack of rich soil. At first there was little settlement due
to the swamp lands then the reservoir was built and settlement on the land began to
boom. It first started with Indian Lake State Park in 1898. This then created better
infrastructure with including transportation with roads and railroads.
A Rich History of Entrepreneurs. Logan County has a rich history of
Entrepreneurs. One was Dr. Earl S. Sloan. Dr. Sloan
was from Zanesfield, Ohio. He created his own
liniment which killed a spavin, curb or splint, reduce
wind puffs and swollen joints, and was a speedy
remedy for fistula. Due to Dr. Sloans success in the
early 1900s a foundation has been established in his
memory and name which provides significant funding to Career and Technical
Education Programs in the county. This is what has given us the great opportunity to
offer a Marketing Class at Bellefontaine High School.
Edward D. Jones Sr. the investment banker was also
a graduate of Bellefontaine City Schools and a famous
entrepreneur from Logan County. He served in World
War 1, then post war he returned to the Midwest to open
his own business. The first Edward D. Jones opened in
1922 with the motto: The salesman always comes first. Edward Jones is now a
unique investment firm whose goal is to help others reach their long-term financial
goals. They have more than 11,000 advisors and 10,000 offices located around the
country.
Not all great entrepreneurs are famous, nor are they all young. Let us introduce
you to our own DECA Chapters young entrepreneur.
Our Own Up & Coming Entrepreneur in BHS DECA.
This is Dean Smith Bellefontaines young
up and coming entrepreneur.
Q: How old were you when you started
your Businesses?
A: I was 8 year old when I started my
vending businesses. I also started investing
in the precious metals industry when I was 7
9 years old.
Q: What inspired you to start your own
business?
A: I wanted to start a business since I
was 3 years old and all I would talk about is
business when I was younger. What really gave me inspiration was when my
parents started their own eBay business out of their living room.
Q: Describe what your business is.
A: I am Vending by Dean which is a candy vending machine route. It started out
when I got a $300 loan from my parents to put a machine in a certain location. After I
worked a whole summer to pay it off, my business soon grew to six locations. After
making thousands of dollars I bought out another route in the Xenia, OH area. In 7th
grade my business had already grown to 25 locations.
Q: Who has helped you, be where you are, with your business?
A: My parents helped me the most because of all the advice, inspiration, and
loans they have given me.
Q: How do you run your business?
A: I put candy vending machines in a business for a small commission; I actually
refilled and maintained these machines, with the revenue I invest in gold, silver or
other metals, if the metal industry is bad I put the funds into a savings account.
Q: What have you faced with your business that caused you to struggle? What
has made your business stronger?
A: When I had bought the vending route in Xenia I knew I would go into debt,
but it was a risk I was willing to take. I had to take a few loans to keep my business
afloat, Soon after months of hard work I was able to pay off the loans, and I
increased profits significantly.
Q: Weve heard that you changed businesses, describe what your business is
now and why have you changed your business?
A: I am now experimenting with the social media marketing industry. I own Pro
Marketing Studio which is a Social Media Maintenance Service and I sell social
media services. The reason I changed businesses is because I wanted to learn
about another industry. I dont have enough time for vending, and I saw it as a new
opportunity.
As you can see Dean is the epitome of young entrepreneurial ambition. Young
people like him have potential that they have no idea about and that was why we
wanted to educate them about the world of entrepreneurship and try to tap into some
hidden interest.
III. MANAGEMENT OF ACTIVITY(IES) TARGETED AT OUTSIDE AUDIENCE
A. Purpose of the activity(ies)
The purpose of our Entrepreneurship Promotion Project, Entrepreneurial Islands
and More A World of Opportunities is to educate our school and community to better
understand the qualities necessary to become an entrepreneur, while at the same time,
trying to incorporate the free enterprise spirit. Prior to designing our activities we
deemed it was necessary to conduct a SWOT analysis of our area to identify our
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
.
Our Missions. When we established our project we determined three initial
missions or goals that we hoped to achieve, they are as follows:
Mission 1: As a chapter for the 2013-2014 school year we wanted to bring
awareness about entrepreneurship to our peers at the high school by working
closely with local entrepreneurs.

Mission 2: To educate the youth at the middle school about the benefits of
entrepreneurship by providing them with activities and mentorship.

Mission 3: To celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week with schools around the
nation.

Any time one develops a mission for a project you must create a sense of buy-in for
your target market. We felt by starting with the benefits associated to entrepreneurship
we could develop a really solid plan.

Benefits of Entrepreneurship. According to South University, there are a great
number of benefits to being an entrepreneur. These many benefits include:
Control: by making the most out of your opportunities with the skills you
have.
Excitement: having new day to day challenges and goals.
Freedom: to make your own hours and having your own money going
straight to you.
Doing what it is you love.
B. Planning and organization of activity(ies)
The Plan. This year we wanted to put a different twist on the 3
rd
Annual
Bellefontaine High School DECA Entrepreneurship Luncheon & entrepreneurial
activities with the intent that students would stay more engaged in the activities we had
planned, and to most effectively learn the basics of Entrepreneurship. To do so we
knew that a solid managerial structure was needed before we began the
projectproject managers,

The following are a list of the activities:
Activity #1 The Entrepreneurial Islands. This year we brainstormed ideas and
knew we wanted to do something unique and fun for the students so we came up with
the island theme. There they moved from table to table in a speed dating set up.

Activity #1a DECA and FCCLA, A Beautiful
Partnership. While we were teaching the Marketing 1
and 2 students about entrepreneurship, we were also
educating the Family & Consumer Science classes/
The Career Technical Student Organization FCCLA on entrepreneurship as well. By the
food preparation they did over a weeks time span leading up to the event they became
familiarized with entrepreneurial elements culinary careers.
Activity #2 National Entrepreneurship Week. Next, we knew we wanted to
educate a broader spectrum of people for National Entrepreneurship Week. We knew
using social media would get the job done. So, we did a whole week of promoting
Famous Entrepreneurs by posting their pictures on our Facebook page with a new
entrepreneur each day including facts about the entrepreneur.
Activity #3 The Wonderful World of Entrepreneurship. Finally, we decided to do
The Wonderful World of Entrepreneurship because we not only wanted to educate our
peers, but also the younger kids as well. We set up a PowerPoint presentation along
with a video to present to the 7
th
graders on Entrepreneurs and the basics of
Entrepreneurship. They then had to pair into groups of two and come up with their own
product or business that they wanted to see in the marketplace.
.
C. Implementation of activity(ies) (WHAT HAPPENED)
Our project came together wonderfully. On paper it seemed like it would
just be a big clustered mess of activities. But in reality it all worked wonderfully
and I think it actually had a good impact on all target groups.
In terms of the luncheon it was a blast. It was fun for us and for the
majority of the students that attended. They learned and took away and thats all
we could really ask for in reality. They seemed to like most of our speakers and
the students didnt seem as bored as they did with the last luncheon which
means improvement and improvement is always good. The food was diverse and
was something eye catching.
For National Entrepreneurship week we made facebook posts with
pictures of entrepreneurs with information on the given entrepreneur



Bellefontaine Media Mixture
The Chamber of Commerce, along with Connect to Home, The Bellefontaine Examiner
and WPKO did cover pieces on our Entrepreneurship Luncheon. See Appendix for
official piece.
Bellefontaine ExaminerThe Bellefontaine Examiner is a local newspaper that
has been printing local news for the community
since 1891. They are a fifth generation owned
newspaper that reaches more than 23,000 readers daily. They print everything from
sports, entertainment & information, to things going on inside the schools of Logan
County. For instance, with Bellefontaine High School (BHS) they have played a
significant role in our DECA program and helping us get our name out there. Theyve
helped with our Shred It event at RTC to our Financial Seminar at BHS. This included
The Buy Local Parade and Entrepreneurship Luncheon in-between each event. They
use the most effective ways to promote local business and help bring them in revenue.
WPKO is a local radio station that broadcasts different songs and opportunities to
save money at local stores and restaurants in
Bellefontaine. They broadcast everything from football and
basketball games to local
speeches or interviews. They help get local media out to
local listeners like for our Entrepreneur Luncheon and
other classmates projects like Shed Day at RTC
Industries, Free Financial Seminar at Bellefontaine High
School, the Bridal Show at Bellefontaine High School, and Buy Local Logan County.
They tell the listeners when they are and where they are at. For the month of January,
they got about 2,078,906 page visits, 928,046 actual visits, and 11,654,281 hits. They
are a really good radio station and we are very pleased to have such a nice radio
station. The picture below is the signal of how for out the radio station travels.

The multiple activities we set up around the
school and for the community has helped people
better understand the life as an entrepreneur and
the advantages it can have on your day to day life.
Then, with the luncheon, it gave students an
opportunity to grow their understanding through
hands on conversations with entrepreneurs and obtaining multiple facts and business
cards from all the entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial Islands. At first we had to get our list of local entrepreneurs to
have come in then after that we need to see who all confirmed that they are coming.
Secondly we need to promote the event. We will make flyers, posters and other
advertising strategies. Also, we incorporated a signup sheet to the luncheon so we had
an estimated number of people who would be there so we could set everything up
precisely for the number of people we had attending. We want to do as much as we can
without over doing it. While we dont want to be a small, quiet, side-voice thats not
being heard at all, we also dont want to be this huge overbearing entity that annoys
everyone. We want to be semi-subtle, but at the
same time make sure our voice is heard, and heard
by the right people. Since a lot of high school
students fall into the pool of people who dont know
what they want to do when they graduate there is
no specific target audience. So we need to make
our presence known to everyone so that the instead
of weeding through those interested and not
interested, we can tell everyone and let those
interested sign up for the luncheon. During this project both classes, Marketing 1 and
Marketing 2 had different responsibilities in leading up to the luncheon. Starting with
Marketing 1, all we truly asked them to do was bring in attendees to attend the luncheon
and dress professional the day of luncheon so we all looked as a team. As for the
Marketing 2 group, we asked them to not only bring
in attendees for the luncheon and dress
professional, we also asked for their help in bringing
in entrepreneurs to speak at the luncheon and help
with choosing the best foods and ideas of activities
for attendees to participate in while attending the
luncheon. We wanted them to feel like they could be a part of something that can
potentially make a big impact on certain people in this school in hopes to better our
already great community.
National Entrepreneurship Week (NEW). We wanted to give the middle school
students a feel of Entrepreneurship. Our visit to the middle school happened to fall on
the Thursday of NEW with the date being February 20th, 2014. During our visit, we
divided ourselves into six groups and gave each class a five page presentation with a
video attached on Entrepreneurship. We then had the students divide into pairs of two
for a competitive event to create their own product they would like to see out in the
market place. After handing out all supplies needed we gave them approximately ten
minutes to discuss and create with their partners a poster on their product to present to
the class. After we called time, we then had each group present to the class and we
then collected all the papers to choose which groups poster we thought truly understood
the idea of Entrepreneurship. The winning team came up with idea of a Venda Couch.
Their thought behind their idea was that if youre sitting on the couch watching a movie
and dont want to get up and go to the kitchen for a snack, they could just reach down in
the couch, and grab a snack. They were then rewarded with a small treat for being the
winning group.
The Wonderful World of Entrepreneurship. With our visit to the middle school
we really wanted the students to truly grasp the real feel of Entrepreneurship and what
its all about. We went into this piece of the project knowing we had to come up with a
fun and creative way to keep the students engaged long enough to truly grasp the ideas
we were throwing their way. Another reason behind our visit to the middle school is
because at the ages of 12-14 youre truly finding yourself and figuring out what you want
to be when you grow up. With this presentation it shows that they dont have to limit
themselves to what they do when they grow up. They can go out and do what they love
and/or what they are good at and earn a living. Opposed to going out and working a
basic 9-5 job where they arent happy in their environment and are just there for the
paycheck. With this aspect of things, they can go to work every day knowing they love
what they do.

























This is an insert from Connect to
Home with the story they ran on
us about our Entrepreneurial
Islands event.
IV.) EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Evaluation of campaign
We had a really good turnout. It wasnt a huge amount of people but in the end the
people we did have were willing to learn and take away information which is always a
good thing. From the results of the survey it seemed as if only one of the speakers was
an effective speaker, but from the feedback it seems like he was just more entertaining
to students and was less monotone and had a variety of information not just the same
old You can be whatever you want talk that our parents have always told us. A few
other speakers got some good feedback like Carrie Reynolds and Jessie Behnke for
being funny, realistic and down to earth and giving good long term life advice that didnt
only necessarily pertain to entrepreneurship but it could all the info was relevant and
valuable and it was a great opportunity for these young businessmen and women to be
able to seek counsel from businessmen and women who have already paved the way
for themselves and want to help build the foundation for future businesses and such.
With the visit to Bellefontaine Middle School we had an exceptional effect on the
students. We believe that the reasoning behind this is because they were all very
interested and very engaged in the activity we had prepared for them during our visit.
We, as a group feel very accomplished in the aspect that we believe the students over
at the middle school now have a true understanding of an Entrepreneur and the basics
of their living. This will be helpful to them in their growing up because when youre
around the ages of 12-14 youre trying to find yourself and figure out what you want to
do when you grow up. With our presentation we feel we broadened their aspect of what
they can grow up to do and be great at it as well as love it at the same time.
B. Recommendations for additional new activity(ies) for future campaigns.
For future campaigns we would have to recommend inviting Michael Shepherd, the
kids seemed to think he was an excellent speaker with equally valuable information.
Carrie Reynolds and Jessie Behnke should be invited to come back as well. The
students really seemed able to relate with the things Jessie was telling them. She didnt
speak like an adult talking down to inferior kids, she spoke like a young adult giving
relevant business advice to kids that werent too much older than our students.
IV.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Logan County Area: Chamber Of Commerce.
2013-2014 Membership directory and business resource guide.
BCS School Calendar 2013-2014.
2013-2014 Annual Report.
https://www.edwardjones.com/en_US/media/press_kit/bios_photos/firm_photos/i
ndex.html
http://www.logancountymuseum.org/
https://www.edwardjones.com/en_US/different/difference/video.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2013/05/02/top-32-quotes-every-
entrepreneur-should-live-by/












V.APPENDIX








These are some of the ideas we wanted the kids to take out of the luncheon by talking
to many entrepreneurs because in reality, while sitting behind a desk for eight hours
working for someone else is for one person, to another person its just a job. When they
get out of school and gain all the knowledge, they really want to go to work and do
something they love on a day to day basis and have the upmost attitude and respect for
it and the people around them instead of having that negative, I dont want to be here
attitude because, in reality, your attitude affects others and can rub off on other people.
Having one happy person can bring out a whole company thats happy, and if someone
has a negative attitude, everyone else will have that negative attitude towards everyone
at work and their job and the tasks that they have to fulfill that day, and wont fulfill them
to their upmost capabilities. While at the same time people sit here and worry about bills
and other expenses, money isnt all of it. You could have the highest paying job in the
nation and still be the unhappiest person at your job. You should much rather earn what
you earn doing what you love and then plan how you will spend the rest of your life. I
say this because no matter how much money you make, your attitude and relationships
will boom as well as your business. This is because with the positive attitude and caring
hearts of owners and workers in a business affects the customer loyalty and money
income with how they treat their customers. If your customers have a positive, caring
experience they will want to come back to your business and tell others that they know
to go have the experience that they underwent, if you have a negative attitude because
you arent doing what you truly want to do, but rather what you have to do because
youre settling, people wont return to your business and you will lose business and
money. This also could mean that they would tell people about their negative
experience and that results in others not visiting your company. This could be because
they felt with their experience you truly were not serious about your job and their
happiness with your company. With saying this maybe stepping back and seeing the big
picture and the negative effect it could have overall in your business, you want to
improve you actions and relationships with other people to better the business on a day
to day basis. Bottom line is that you want your customers to feel welcome and be
satisfied with every aspect of your business no matter what. Even if youre having a bad
day, you want to walk into work having the best smile you possibly can and pushing
through the day for yourself and more important the business.





The background pertaining to our Entrepreneurship Luncheon is due to the fact that our
Logan County Entrepreneurship Center was shut down in the fall of 2013. This will give
upcoming adults that thrive and drive to keep going and gives them the motivation and
information to jump starts their future career for themselves. The emotions we wanted
was for the students to get out of the luncheon is that Live or Die feeling due to the fact
that they could rest easy if their business is successful or not rest at all if their business
is not. Another would be that self-satisfaction of being successful and doing something
for themselves and not having anybody help them get there. Other emotions are: having
that opportunity to have that meaningful work, because its something that they have
done, secondly the concept of having the idea re-instilled that they grew up with that
they can be whatever they want when they grow up. Also, having that feeling of being a
risk taker due to the fact that they have that feeling in their gut that their business could
potentially fail, but in their heart they truly want their business to succeed and have high
hopes for it all. The learning outcomes we wished the students to get out of the
Luncheon were to have that mental foundation on how to start and run their own
business productively, having the opportunity to be given motivators like what the life of
a successful entrepreneurs and what its like to live in the life of an entrepreneur, letting
the kids know they dont always have to work under someone, and understanding how
to process and operate your own business in a collective manner. We need to teach
these kids that they need to not be shy, or nervous, or even scared of becoming an
entrepreneur, they need to be shown that if they have the skill set and the mentality
there is nothing to be afraid of. You must be confident in what you do and have the
confidence to go through with it. If you dont have that you wont have the bravery to go
out and get yourself somewhere. No one in life is just going to walk up and ask you to
run their business or ask you if you want to start your own and if they do its probably a
scam. You need to be able to go out and get the ball rolling on your own accord. Also,
obtaining all the skills possible to make a difference. All of these feelings help
understanding the true importance on the luncheon and all the intentions.