“Hello, I’m Kenny Rivet and I’m the CEO of Tech Apparel,” says Rivet, a senior at Technical High School.
Thus begins the pitch of a student loan proposal to local bank representatives by a senior at Technical High School in partnership with Junior Achievement. A total of five students from Greg Border’s General Business class at Tech High School presented the proposal to two BankVista representatives.
Junior Achievement is a program that inspires and prepares students to succeed in a global economy by connecting business and community leaders with school classrooms. Borders’ class (ninth through 12th graders) has been working on their business plan for Tech Apparel for several weeks.
The concept for Tech Apparel came alive after several class discussions, collaborations with vendors and reviews of product and demand. The class decided on Tech Apparel as their business, which will focus on selling t-shirts and long sleeve shirts to Tech students, parents, staff and alumni.
Consulting with local printing company, Custom Accents, for the costs of apparel, print time and logo design, the students moved forward with developing a business strategy which required a loan to purchase the logo wear.
While presenting the loan proposal, Tennesee Scott-Lumbar, a ninth grader and leader of the supply chain, explains how the logo wear would be organized and distributed, who would have access to the product and the turnaround time from order to delivery would be.
Preston Poppenhagen, also a ninth grader and marketing manager for Tech Apparel, reviews the marketing plan to create a company Facebook page, Snapchat account and how the product would be “marketed” by word-of-mouth.
Cameron Therrien, an eleventh grade student, hands out projection sheets, tracking sheets for inventory and reviews the profit analysis for the proposal. He also explains that any profit, after the loan was paid, would go to a non-profit organization that has yet to be determined.
“How does your product differ from other products out there?” asks Lisa Fiereck, commercial lender for BankVista.
Rivet explains, “There just isn’t any product out there. No company makes or provides just apparel for Tech High School.”
Fiereck continues with question the students regarding target market, time frame for the loan and a written business plan.
“How many days do you have to sell the product?” asks Sasha Peterson, marketing coordinator for BankVista.
Scott-Lumber states the deadline for final orders is set for winter break.
Peterson clarifies the actual loan process to the students, starting with applications, document review and bank review. She explains the necessity for the bank to be diverse in its own portfolio. She then elaborates that the best type of loan would be a one year note with a 5 percent interest rate, and the students agree.
Peterson and Fiereck thank the students for their presentation, with a promise to follow-up within a week with the bank’s decision.
After the presentation, the students confess their nervousness.
“[I was so nervous.] I drank a monster drink before. It probably wasn’t a good idea,” laughs Scott-Lumbar.
And when asked what was an “ah-ha” moment through the entire process. Therrien said, “How much planning goes in [to the process].”
Scott-Lumbar added, “You can’t procrastinate. You need to keep things moving…It was more nerve-racking than expected. You sound better in your head than in person. The same tone and pauses don’t come out.”
The students all agreed that putting first-hand learning to real-life work experience will be helpful for their futures. Their career aspirations range from mechanical or bio-engineering, an entrepreneur of web design business to business management.
Tech Apparel is the first step into that future.