This fall, the seniors of Anson High School’s Youth Career Connect program were challenged by an Entrepreneurship I class.
Fredrea Crawford-Smith, faculty of Business Administration and master advisor of the School of Applied Science and Technology at South Piedmont Community College, taught the class.
“I decided to teach this class to encourage students to have an aim in life, and to strike each day to reach their ambitions,” Crawford-Smith said.
The YCC program is a grant through the Department of Labor, in which students take college classes while in High School.
The Entrepreneurship I class provided an introduction to the principles of entrepreneurship, including topics such as self-analysis of entrepreneurship readiness, the role of entrepreneurs in economic development, legal issues, organizational structure, and sources of financing, budgeting, and cash flow, requiring a lot of critical thinking skills.
“This class is an Entrepreneurship class to assist someone in lunching a business plan, which leads to starting a business,” Crawford-Smith said. “Students were required to use their critical thinking skills for cash flow.
“After getting acquainted with the role of entrepreneur, the class was placed in groups to create a basic business plan in competition which included 20 items.”
The items were a cover page, table of contents, executive summary, start-up summary, objective or vision statement, mission statement, keys to success, company summary, company ownership, products, services, market analysis, market segmentation, service business analysis, SWOT analysis, 2016 cash flow, 2017 cash flow, 2018 cash flow, brochure, and business card, to be completed on Dec. 4.
The group with the winning business plan received $100.
“The group that won was able to complete the entire contents, and spoke on their business plan as a group,” Crawford-Smith said. “They were able to use great communication skills, as well as critical thinking skills.”
Crawford-Smith said that she plans to teach the course again.
Students completing the course received a certificate to recognize their achievement, and 11 out of the initial 16 students completed the 48-hour course.
Crawford-Smith said that she has plans to help ensure that more students complete the course.
“I will work with the advising counselor to ensure the students have great understanding of the course, and (are) able to complete profound research of many companies, compared to their company they would one day like to pursue as an entrepreneur,” Crawford-Smith said.
“My ultimate goal is to reach at least one student to further their education, and to reach for the best,” she added. “If they are not accepted in a four-year college, they could start with SPCC.”