{"id":1304,"date":"2016-01-12T22:28:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T22:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2019-06-12T10:24:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:24:04","slug":"entrepreneur-opportunities-abound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2016\/01\/12\/entrepreneur-opportunities-abound\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneur Opportunities Abound"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Justin<\/a>

Justin Myers in his new store, Heartland Paint.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

CSB Entrepreneur Buys Local Business
\n<\/strong>With the assistance of the Craig School of Business\u2019s Center for Entrepreneurship at Missouri Western, Justin Myers \u201914, became an entrepreneur, at the same time ensuring that a longtime local business will remain open.<\/p>\n

Myers enrolled in the Applied Entrepreneurship course last spring with the hope of being awarded a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory or Aspen Leaf Yogurt store through Missouri Western\u2019s entrepreneurship program.<\/p>\n

He was not selected to receive a store, but Myers wasn\u2019t ready to give up his entrepreneurial dream. He met with Annette Weeks \u201987, director of the CSB\u2019s Center for Entrepreneurship. She knew that Peter and Elizabeth Kamstra were interested in selling their St. Joseph Benjamin Moore paint store, and she was able to connect them with Myers.<\/p>\n

The Center and its advisory council offered resources and assistance to Myers, and in early October, financing was arranged to purchase the store. Myers renamed the store Heartland Paint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the best helping hand I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Myers said of the Center\u2019s assistance. \u201cAnnette helped me know which steps to take and introduced me to the connections I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weeks said one of the Center\u2019s focuses is trying to keep longtime local businesses from closing, so she was more than willing to work with Myers. The Benjamin Moore store opened in St. Joseph in 1956 by owner Bill Schaller.<\/p>\n

The Center for Entrepreneurship offers help to both new and existing business owners so they can be successful. The Center also helps business owners with succession plans if they are interested in retiring or selling their businesses. Weeks noted that all of the Center\u2019s services are free and strictly confidential. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am very happy for Justin, and I know he will be successful with Heartland Paint,\u201d Weeks said. \u201cThat is exactly the mission of the Center for Entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers said, in a way, he has come full circle. Growing up in Grain Valley, Missouri, his father was a self-employed contractor, and the young Myers spent a lot of summers with a paintbrush in hand. Now he owns a business that sells paint and painting supplies.<\/p>\n

“I feel very good. I am looking forward to getting out in the community to network and see how I can offer my services to the community,\u201d Myers said. \u201cI hope to eventually give back by helping other small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the chocolate factory
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s gone beyond chocolate. It\u2019s even gone beyond yogurt. It\u2019s gone beyond one store and it\u2019s gone on to new opportunities.<\/p>\n

What is it? It\u2019s Missouri Western\u2019s unique entrepreneurship program. Several of the Craig School of Business alumni who were awarded stores in the program since it began in 2009 are taking their successful first stores and expanding into new businesses and franchises all over the country. It\u2019s expanded from chocolate and yogurt to sandwiches, burritos, flip flops, pizza, pretzels and pasta.<\/p>\n

It all started when Seth Lyons \u201908 was awarded the first Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in the program, which was a partnership between the Craig School of Business, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Steven Craig.<\/p>\n

Today, Lyons and the alumni who followed in his entrepreneurial footsteps are flourishing, and many have bought second franchises or are considering a second business.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Lyons and his wife, Kelsey \u201908, purchased a second franchise, Which Wich? Superior Sandwiches, next door to their Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Store in Silverthorne, Colorado. Then, in 2014, they sold the RMCF store to Caleb Mackey, a participant in the program.<\/p>\n

Leslie (Oberg) Burris \u201911, who was awarded a store in Williamsburg, Iowa in 2011, sold that store the next year to Isaac Collins \u201911, another program participant. Collins recently purchased a Yogurtini in the Country Club Plaza area in Kansas City, Missouri in addition to his Iowa store. When Burris sold to Collins, she and her now-husband, James, bought the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Aspen Leaf Yogurt (also owned by RMCF) stores in St. Joseph. In 2015, they opened a Flip Flop Shops franchise, and a second franchise, Blaze Pizza, will open in early 2016, both in California. Ernest Chamblee \u201911, who was one of the participants in the program in 2015, is operating the St. Joseph stores.<\/p>\n

Burris\u2019 pizza restaurant will be in the new Outlets of San Clemente, a high-end outlet mall which was built by Craig. That mall is also home to Robert \u201910 and Danelle (Ruppert) \u201910 Schimming\u2019s Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Store and a new franchise for them, USwirl Yogurt. They had been operating a Rocky store in Lake Elsinore, California that Robert was awarded in 2010.<\/p>\n

And there is more expansion. Allie (Humphrey) \u201911 and Matt \u201908 Canaday opened a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in a new mall in Lehi, Utah in 2012, and recently purchased an Auntie Anne\u2019s pretzel franchise in the same mall.<\/p>\n

Instead of purchasing a second franchise, Brady \u201910 and TyAnn (Williamson) \u201910 Ellis purchased a locally owned restaurant near their Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in Vicksburg, Mississippi \u2013 Billy\u2019s Italian Restaurant.<\/p>\n

“That was Steve\u2019s (Craig) plan when the program first started,\u201d said Pam Klaus, director of franchise programs at Missouri Western. \u201cHe never intended for the participants to be owners of their original stores all their lives. He just wanted to offer them a good start and a good opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said several alumni owners who have not yet purchased a second business are exploring their possibilities.<\/p>\n

Erik Garcia \u201911, who was awarded an Aspen Leaf Yogurt in Farmington, New Mexico in 2012, has been very successful in his business, with outstanding sales every quarter. He and his wife, Vanessa, are considering selling and purchasing a different business.<\/p>\n

Scott Lassen \u201910, who purchased a Fresca\u2019s Mexican Grill from Craig in the 2013 competition, made several changes to the restaurant in Woodburn, Oregon and has also been hugely successful, Klaus said. He recently sold the restaurant to Mindy Schimming \u201914, who was in the 2015 competition.<\/p>\n

Klaus believes one of the reasons for the program\u2019s success is that the owners help each other out whenever they can, and they also support the students in the Applied Entrepreneurship class each spring. She said during spring break, the current owners host those in the class at their stores, giving them an idea of what it takes to be successful.<\/p>\n

The owners in the program truly feel like they are a family, she said, and three owners really are family \u2013 Robert \u201910, Tim \u201912 and Mindy \u201914 Schimming are siblings who have all participated in the program and been awarded stores. Robert was awarded a store in 2010 and Tim was awarded a store in 2012, both in California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese graduates have been given a great opportunity, and they have all taken that opportunity, worked hard and found great success,\u201d Klaus said.<\/p>\n

Class assists local entrepreneurs
\n<\/strong>A collaboration between Dr. Hillary Mellema, assistant professor of business; and Annette Weeks, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship; led to innovative ideas, new events, print and radio ads, and compelling videos for several area entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

Students in Dr. Mellema\u2019s Advertising and Promotion class spent the fall semester working with nine business owners to help them spread the word about their businesses.<\/p>\n

Working in pairs, students were required to work with the businesses they were assigned and create three promotional materials, one of which was a video.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe helped businesses come up with an integrated marketing communication plan,\u201d said Pauline Ford, senior marketing major who worked with Spectacular Settings. \u201cWe learned about different strategies in class first, and then we used what we learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Mellema said students selected from a long list of promotional ideas to help their businesses. One group planned an event for a business, and another compiled a year\u2019s worth of social media posts.<\/p>\n

Logan Myers, a junior marketing major, and his partner worked with Wholesale Tire. \u201cThe class helped a lot. We tried to do the most we could with the resources the business had, and the class showed us how.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to apply what we learned to the real world, and have someone oversee our work,\u201d Ford said. \u201cYou really get into it when you are working with a real, and not hypothetical, client.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several students in the class said they enjoyed the process and believe it will boost their resume. \u201cWe can show how business improved, so we have something to back up our knowledge,\u201d said Kamille Paden, who worked with Performance Plus Rehabilitation Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really got engaged with the businesses and the community,\u201d Dr. Mellema said of her students. \u201cThat excites me more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the semester, the student pairs were required to give a presentation of their work to classmates and a panel of judges.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mellema, who joined Missouri Western last August, said the University\u2019 emphasis on applied learning was one of the reasons she accepted the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the students to engage in applied learning in the community while learning the material in class, that\u2019s the best I can do as their teacher,\u201d Dr. Mellema said. \u201cIt\u2019s so good for them to do <\/em>what they are learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CSB Entrepreneur Buys Local Business With the assistance of the Craig School of Business\u2019s Center for Entrepreneurship at Missouri Western, Justin Myers \u201914, became an entrepreneur, at the same time ensuring that a longtime local business will remain open. Myers enrolled in the Applied Entrepreneurship course last spring with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,25,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4452,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/4452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}