The Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship offers a class to entrepreneurship majors to aid in their journey of opening and running their first business.

Mary Heidler, associate lecturer, teaches the senior-level classes Entrepreneurial Experience 1 and 2, where students spend two semesters running their own business.

“It’s an add-on from their last semester,” Heidler said. “In junior year, they take a course called New Venture Creation, and that’s where they start thinking about an idea that they would want to start a business around.”

Heidler said students start by doing a feasibility analysis and creating a business plan in the New Venture Creation class and bring that research into senior year. Students are not obligated to use the idea in the Entrepreneurial Experience class, but if they choose to pursue a new one, they have a shorter time to have this same research done. 

“When they get into [Entrepreneurial] Experience 1, they have to create their LLC, so they have to create their business entity,” Heidler said. “They have to talk to industry experts. If they have a product, they’ve got to have a prototype. If they have a service, they have to start figuring out how that will work.”

In Entrepreneurial Experience 2, students are focused on executing their business, making sales and expanding their business, Heidler said. 

“They’re always in Pivot mode,” Heidler said. “So, that’s what they spend a lot of their time over the semester working on is two steps forward, learn some things, one step back, change, pivot, two steps forward. Learn some things, come back, adjust it, move forward.”

To assist students in this journey, the class brings experts in the field to give feedback on their presentations and serve as mentors.  

“We have what’s called entrepreneurs in residence in the class,” Heidler said. “So, we have three professional serial entrepreneurs that have started multiple businesses that give their time to the class.” 

Heidler said the students also learn the procedure of how to close a business, in case they ever intend to. 

“Our goal, in the two classes, is to take them through the whole cycle of a business,” Heidler said. “So that someday, if they want to start another business, they will have gone through the process, and it won’t seem so scary like it seems to other people.”

Heidler said her favorite aspect of the class is watching the students realize they are capable of starting their own business. 

“To watch the growth that they really can do what they put their minds to,” Heidler said. “I steer them, but I don’t do it for them, so they have to really go and seek out the resources. Because two years from now, when they want to do it or a different business, I’m not going to be here to hold their hands, so I’m really pushing them to go out and solve their own problems.”

Nicholas Huger, an entrepreneurship major in Entrepreneurship Experience 1 opened Boobys Coffee and Tea, a beverage business inspired by the blue-footed bird.

“It’s a mobile coffee and tea trailer,” Huger said. “Basically the business model is we go around to different events, like farmers markets, festivals, even campus events.”

Huger explained the coffee and tea market is saturated, therefore, he wanted a name that stood out in the market and grabbed the attention of potential customers.  

“We really want to take inspiration from the bird and put that into business,” Huger said. “Our business side of things needs to be very accurate, very precise, but we also want to be fun and very loving and unique, like the blue-footed booby is.” 

The idea for Boobys also came from Huger’s desire to own his version of a Dutch Bros Coffee drive-through beverage company. However, after doing his research, he understood that the best approach was to begin as a mobile coffee trailer.

“My professors were all really great at giving me feedback, giving me advice and telling me how to best approach the whole drive-through and the coffee and tea trailer model,” Huger said. “When I was writing that business plan for Boobys, I had no idea how much to put in there. But talking with Mary, my professor, she really helped me refine it.”

Huger intends to move back to his hometown in North Carolina after graduation, and the class helped him figure out the best way to set up his business regarding his future. His biggest challenges this semester revolved around finding a trailer for Boobys and registering the company.

“Because my LLC is in North Carolina, I’d have to file a temporary out of state form when I’m here in Ohio,” Huger said. “So, just the legal part of things … it’s a lot operating, trying to start it in one state and then living somewhere else.”

The different feedback the class provides is the most helpful aspect of this experience, Huger said.

“Even if I don’t agree with it, it’s always helpful to see what people are thinking,” Huger said. “I can only see Boobys through my eyes, and if I get honest feedback from customers and consumers, I can see it through their eyes.”

He said the biggest takeaway from his experience with Boobys and the Entrepreneurial Experience 1 class is doing something you are passionate about. 

“It’s my passion for Boobys that sells,” Huger said. “People see someone is passionate about something, and they want to also be passionate about it, and they want to try it, and it just draws more people in, and passion sells.”

Heidler said watching her students and their ideas gives her hope for the future and the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“I feel very privileged to be with students that are like, just on the brink of greatness, like they’re right there,” Heidler said. “They’re right up at the edge of doing something phenomenal, it’s so fun.”

Ana Julia Cechin Facco is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].