The students of the Entrepreneurship 30 class at Yorkton Regional High School had to present their final projects to a tough room, people in Yorkton who are all too aware of the challenges they face and have to overcome as business owners: The Yorkton Chamber of Commerce. The groups each presented their final report at the Chamber Breakfast on Jan. 21.
This year’s businesses, Sprouts! In a Jar and ReCreate, both turned a profit, with Sprouts! having a net income of $949.09 and ReCreate’s net income being $1,197.
ReCreate will be donating to Brayden Ottenbreit’s Close Cuts for Cancer a total of $133.07, and Sprouts! In a Jar will donate $94.40 to the Health Foundation.
At their final presentation, the two groups fielded questions from Chamber members about their business, their marketing, and the decisions made in their business.
Karlee Sidoryk with Sprouts! In a Jar and Jaden Collins with ReCreate were the presidents of their respective companies. They felt that the experience was a positive learning experience, and one which will be valuable into the future.
“It was definitely a good foothold for going into a business career in the future,” said Collins.
They found the business community’s questions to be good to ask and a good way to know what to focus on in the future, said Collins.
“There was also a lot of good advice. After we answer the question we got some advice from business community members to help moving forward, and maybe what we should have done, or what we did really well. It was just good feedback,” added Sidoryk.
Both teams also spoke about the changes they made through the project, whether it was accepting commissions in the case of ReCreate or trying new seeds for Sprouts!
“If you notice a problem right off the bat it’s definitely a good idea to try and get it fixed and the fact that both of our groups were able to is definitely good for both of us because it definitely helped us in the long run.”
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Juanita Polegi has been a part of the process since the start of the project, hearing pitches from students. For her, one of the things that strikes her is the amount of growth in the students over the term, from their initial pitches to their final presentations.
“Their confidence levels have all built. I think that the public speaking aspect is just a tremendous benefit to the students. They’ve tweaked their products so much too, because lots of people who come into meet with them suggest ideas to them for marketing o improvements to the product and they do that and find success. I don’t think there has ever been a group that lost money, they’ve all increased their share values tremendously. “
For her part, Polegi hopes that the class is the class is the start of something big.
“We’re hopeful that their experience will someday lead them into starting businesses and hopefully in the Yorkton area and ultimately become Chamber members.”
See more: YRHS Students get into business
