Tue, Mar 15th, 2011
Hocking College’s Music Entrepreneurship class raised more than $254 for two charities, through an innovative teaching exercise called the Great Five Dollar Entrepreneurial Challenge, implemented by Neal Schmitt, Music Management program coordinating instructor.
At the start of the Challenge, Schmitt provides each student with five dollars of seed money to invest in their micro-businesses. Students are limited to spending just the original five dollars to start on the path for this Challenge. After investing the original five dollars in their first business venture, students may spend their profits earned plus five dollars on their next endeavor, and this technique can be repeated. At the end of the Challenge, the five-dollar seed money is returned to the instructor.
Over four weeks, the students keep records and a diary of their activities. Students earn money through activities such as selling food and supplies to other students, creating and selling compilation CDs and rental fees, among other various fundraising ideas.
“The beginning of the Challenge is the most difficult time for the students, as they all have some sort of insecurity that they will not be able to offer anything that other students will want to purchase. In the end, though, the idea of the Challenge is to offer them the opportunity to embrace their accomplishments,” Schmitt said.
The money the students earn, minus the initial seed money, is tallied throughout the Challenge. As a class, the students then choose how to direct their profits. Students in the winter quarter 2011 class, as in three out of the last four years, have chosen the Nelsonville Food Cupboard to receive 50 percent of the profits.
The winner of the Challenge, the person who raises the most money, chooses the charity to receive the other 50 percent of the profits. The winner this year, Lindsay Bishop, has chosen the Mocha Club to receive the other half of the money earned. Lindsay won the Challenge by cleaning houses as her micro-business. The Mocha Club is an online community of people giving up the cost of two mochas a month – or seven dollars – to fund relief and development projects in Africa.
At the start of the Challenge, Schmitt provides each student with five dollars of seed money to invest in their micro-businesses. Students are limited to spending just the original five dollars to start on the path for this Challenge. After investing the original five dollars in their first business venture, students may spend their profits earned plus five dollars on their next endeavor, and this technique can be repeated. At the end of the Challenge, the five-dollar seed money is returned to the instructor.
Over four weeks, the students keep records and a diary of their activities. Students earn money through activities such as selling food and supplies to other students, creating and selling compilation CDs and rental fees, among other various fundraising ideas.
“The beginning of the Challenge is the most difficult time for the students, as they all have some sort of insecurity that they will not be able to offer anything that other students will want to purchase. In the end, though, the idea of the Challenge is to offer them the opportunity to embrace their accomplishments,” Schmitt said.
The money the students earn, minus the initial seed money, is tallied throughout the Challenge. As a class, the students then choose how to direct their profits. Students in the winter quarter 2011 class, as in three out of the last four years, have chosen the Nelsonville Food Cupboard to receive 50 percent of the profits.
The winner of the Challenge, the person who raises the most money, chooses the charity to receive the other 50 percent of the profits. The winner this year, Lindsay Bishop, has chosen the Mocha Club to receive the other half of the money earned. Lindsay won the Challenge by cleaning houses as her micro-business. The Mocha Club is an online community of people giving up the cost of two mochas a month – or seven dollars – to fund relief and development projects in Africa.
