SIFE adviser, 308.865.8189
Students from 12 Nebraska high schools will learn what it takes to create a new business venture at “Entrepreneur Day 2007,” an event hosted by the University of Nebraska at Kearney chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE).
The event begins at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11, in the Nebraskan Student Union Ponderosa Room, and more than 140 students from Amherst, Blue Hill, Callaway, Centura, Cozad, Hastings St. Cecilia, Litchfield, Overton, Pleasanton, Ravenna, Sandhills and Shickley High schools are currently registered for the event.
Activities include creating a business, obtaining a loan, producing a store layout, updating financial statements, creating television commercials and designing company logos.
The students will work with professionals from Platte Valley State Bank, Geneva State Bank, Wells Fargo and Nebraska National Bank as part of the banking segment of the business venture, and area realtors from Coldwell Banker, NP Realty, RE/MAX Executives and Sobotka, Roper & Schumacher will help the business teams determine the location and layout of their proposed businesses.
According to Dr. Susan Jensen, UNK assistant professor management and the UNK SIFE adviser, the various activities are intended to enhance entrepreneurial skills and provide a sense of how the business environment operates. While the students will only manage their business in the fictional town of “Smallsville” for one day, the activities will be tightly paced and demanding, in an effort to simulate the challenging business world.
Prizes for categories such as “best business team,” as well as general door prizes will be awarded during the event.
In addition to the activities, Judith Larsen, founder of the Village Pie Maker, will be the featured speaker at the event. The Village Pie Maker is a company based in Eustis that delivers homemade pies to 68 communities, including towns in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. Larsen will speak about how she started her company and grew her business to where it is today.
