Published: June 27, 2008 10:21 am            

Students learn business first-hand through YES program

The smell of fried chicken, barbecue pork and fresh bread filled Prosser School of Technology as 45 students — ranging in age from 11 to 15 — hurried to finish up preparations to open their food booths to sell lunch Thursday.

Once it was time to open, the competitiveness came to surface.

“It’s the best chicken in town and it’s at the cheapest price,” 12-year-old Bobby Gibson hollered out at prospective customers at his Kentucky Fried Chicken booth.

“OK, you sold me,” Sandy Bennett said, forking out $5 for the boxed meal.

This was Gibson’s first year participating in the three-day Youth Entrepreneur Success program, which is sponsored by One Southern Indiana.

The goal of the 10th annual program is to teach students what it is like being a business owner. Students get to “buy” food to sell — which was donated by area restaurants — “buy” their location in an auction against other students, come up with a marketing plan and more.

The students used play money, but the public used real money to buy pretend dollars to purchase lunch, which was priced between $4 and $6. The students’ goal was to see which group could sell out the quickest and earn the most money.

Just like in the business world, location can have a huge impact. Just ask 13-year-old Shannon Hodget, who worked the Incredible Edible Chicken booth, which had food from Neil and Patty’s Fireside Bar and Grill.

She was right next to KFC. So, her booth went a dollar lower than her competition and charged $4 for lunch.

“We wanted to be the lowest, because we knew we would get more sales,” Hodget said.

However, she said her team discovered an added benefit. People came for lunch with a set amount of money and if they saved some, they donated the rest for tips.

Turkey Town, which was selling food from Great Harvest, learned that lesson early, too. Booth worker Harvest Ham, 12, said they marked down their price from $5 to $4, hoping to get more to buy, and getting the change in their tip jar.

Others learned different lessons, such as what it’s like to not always agree with your co-workers.

“Sometimes we didn’t meet eye to eye on our slogan and the kind of food we wanted to purchase,” said Cheyanne Taylor, 13, who worked the Finger Lick ‘N booth, with food from Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar. “Sometimes there’s a bump in the road and you have to just get over it and work as a team.”

Dawn Bennett — who is the director of special events and programming for One Southern Indiana, a regional economic-development agency — oversees the program. Bennett said the lesson Taylor talked about is something kids learn every year.

“The kids are very enthusiastic. Now, some get along better than others,” Bennett said. “Like any business, they have to learn how to deal with that and overcome it and prosper.”

She said the students also learn about leadership, team building, finance and more. Throughout the hour-and-a-half event, a steady stream of customers continued to fill the food booth area.

“It’s great,” Diane Murphy said of the program as she ate lunch.

Murphy had volunteered to teach the kids about marketing earlier in the week.

“The creativity of the kids is unbelievable. It really is,” she said.

“Even if the students aren’t interested in marketing, this plants the seeds in a lot of different areas,” said Debbie Frederick, who came to eat lunch at her grandson’s booth.

Bennett said a total of 320 lunches were sold at the event.

        

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