Tomorrow’s business men and women in PaceHigh School’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA) are getting closer to pitching their ideas to the investor panel in spring. The only problem is they need more sharks in the tank.
During November’s story on the YEA, the students were more cagey about their projects. Now, they’re coming out of the mentorship phase and their business plans are ironing out. The young entrepreneurs were ready to sell themselves.
Trevor Lemmon and Brannon Wilson have a brand to sell, Harbor Shad, for fishing enthusiasts of all kinds from pier fishing, boat fishing, fly fishing and more. “It’s a brand based on the fishing lifestyle,” Lemmon said.
Right now, Lemmon and Wilson have almost 100 shirts sold locally and are about to order another 100. Available colors are white, sea foam green, and sapphire blue.
Mason Powers is a competing apparel entrepreneur with a brand including fishing but focused on this region, Panhandle Apparel. The clever logo features a large-type “FL” with an upside down Florida state shape in place of the “L.” He’s aiming to feature a part of Florida which doesn’t get as much attention as areas like Miami, Orlando, or the Keys. His audience, he said, consists of beach goers, college students, outdoors types and tourists. He doesn’t have sales yet, but 100 shirts have been sent to the screen printer.
SubCiti Radio is perhaps an old school business plan for today’s youth, a radio station focusing on playing top 40 hits. Colton Campbell and Zach Crowder said they also aim to feature local artists by having them perform live on the air with a farther reaching goal of helping to kick start musicians’ careers.
Other YEA students focus on the needy with their business plans. PCS Power Washing, created by Matthew Spata, Caleb Bryant, and Preston Taylor, aims to provide high quality power washing service with the angle of supporting customer-chosen charities with a fraction of every sale.
While PCS is a for profit company, Ashleigh Leonard’s A Lending Paw and Ja’Tavia Plummer’s We Exist aim to support those in trouble. Leonard said her non profit will bring together parolees and dogs where the former inmates will learn to train animals for adoption. Plummer said her nonprofit targets the homeless by selling wristbands with a QR code directing to a particular homeless person’s story in the community.
The Pace YEA is not entirely without backers, however. United Bank is involved as well as Pen Air Federal Credit Union. Anna Weaver, a a branch manager and VP said UB strives for community involvement. Weaver herself is a mentor with Take Stock in Children. Weaver offered the YEA banking professionals to mentor the students and will provide 15 free checking accounts to get the businesses started.
Weaver said the bank isn’t necessarily involved to try to garner more customers. “I think our opinion is that everybody along the way has some type of mentor, some type of help. How do you get anywhere without having somebody lead the way and help? It comes full circle.”
Weaver went on to say, “I do think that if you're going to be an integral part of your community in which you operate you've got to get out there and be enriching and growing the lives of your customers/neighbors. If you're not doing that, your whole community’s going to shrivel up.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Planning for the Future