Student CEO gets jump on business Entrepreneurships are gaining in popularity at colleges, giving undergrads real-world experience.
PrintWhen Jessi Neff conducted her first board meeting as the new chief executive of Flyer Enterprises, the pressure was on the university senior.
"I was nervous," said Neff, who'd spoken at the board meetings before, "but I never led the conversation."
In a room full of executives and board members, Neff delivered her strategy for leading the company to another profitable year.
In her final year at the University of Dayton, Neff, a St. Charles native, is already leading a $1.4 million company that employs 180 students. The company, Flyer Enterprises, is one of the largest student-run businesses in the nation.
Flyer Enterprises runs seven divisions, which include cafés and retail stores. Students hold all the positions at Flyer Enterprises, ranging from sales associates to CEO.
Neff's experience as a student-leader of an actual business has become more common in universities across the nation as students sign on for real-world experience as entrepreneurs and business leaders - before they get their degree.
Colleges began adding entrepreneurship programs in the 1980s, a trend that has continued today, said John Fistolera, director of development for DECA, an organization that supports and fosters business, entrepreneurial and marketing education.
"There are more colleges offering entrepreneurship as its own major," he said.
college PROGRAM GROWING
Fistolera's organization has also seen a 30 percent increase in the past year in college students who participate in their entrepreneurship program, which includes competitions and scholarships.
And the masterminds behind Dayton's Flyer Enterprises have been visited by representatives from four or five other colleges eager to start similar programs.
Plus, for the last decade, Washington University has offered a student entrepreneurship program that lets students run their own business. A handful of other schools are just starting similar programs.
Jimmy Li credits the Internet, in part, for the what he sees as an increase in student-run businesses. Li, a recent Harvard University graduate, is vice president of studentbusinesses.com, a student-run business itself that connects other student-run businesses with service providers.
The success of student-launched businesses such as Facebook has inspired students, he said. While a student at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with fellow computer science major students and his roommates.
The economic downturn has also increased interest.
"It's a way of avoiding pitfalls in the economy by becoming your own boss," Fistolera said.
100 percent student-run
In Dayton, students control the business day to day as they would a part-time job.
"It is truly 100 percent student-run," said business professor Ray Lane, chairman of the board, who oversees Flyer's faculty and checks business plans.
In recent years, Lane said Flyer Enterprises has saved a couple hundred thousand dollars that it doesn't yet know what to do with. Some options the company is considering is investing the money back into the company or setting up a scholarship fund, but the decision still has yet to be made, he said.
Every year, Flyer Enterprises' profits increase, Neff said. Last year the company's profits went up to about $68,000 - on revenue of $1.4 million - from about $63,000. For the upcoming year, Neff has set a goal of $80,000, which she plans to accomplish by looking more closely at company's operational efficiency.
After starting 19 years ago with seed money from the university, Flyer Enterprises is self-supporting, operating cafés, convenience stores and retail outlets on the Dayton campus. Students earn between $10 and $15 an hour - the rate Neff earns as CEO.
Neff got her start her freshman year as a sales associate at the company's convenience store called Stewart's Landing. Soon, Neff became the financial manager of Art Street Café and later moved to the corporate office as vice president of accounting.
Neff said she works at Flyer about 25 hours a week and sometimes more.
"I have to remind myself that I'm going to school," she said.
Neff grew up in St. Charles. She attended St. Joseph's Academy in Frontenac, a private high school for girls, before majoring in accounting in Dayton.
In recent years, Flyer Enterprises' success has gotten the attention of other colleges, many of which are looking to start their own student-run business.
Jim Welch, dean of the Bill Greehey College of Business at St. Mary's University in Texas, said the school will model its new businesses after Flyer Enterprises' operations.
Student business proposals for a T-shirt printing and a convenience store are in the final stages of approval. If approved, the business will be under way next year, Welch said.
Representatives from Berry College in Georgia visited Flyer Enterprises, and it started its own student-run business program in October.
From cottage rentals to a milk store, the new businesses have already become successful, said Rufus Massey Jr., assistant vice president of Enterprise Development at Berry College.
Berry College also plans to open other businesses, which will be primarily student-operated.
"It's important to allow students to have control," Massey said. "Businesses work well if students are given the latitude."
WASHINGTON U. PROGRAM
Washington University's 10-year-old entrepreneur program includes 10 student-run businesses that employ two to four owners and a varying numbers of employees. Shipping, bike rental and other companies make revenue anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars, said Clifford Holekamp, a business school professor at Washington U. When students graduate, they can sell a share of their company to other students or let it fold.
While the program doesn't provide students with investment loans, the university does provide 55 percent of employees' salary through Federal Work Study.
The Olin Business School at Washington University also sponsors a competition called the Olin Cup, open to all local and student entrepreneurs. A company investment prize of $70,000 is awarded for the most innovative business plan.
For Holekamp, creating real business plans is the best way to learn.
"It puts concepts into context," Holekamp said. "When you take a course, it's a totally theoretical exercise."
Holekamp knows what running a business as a student is like from firsthand experience. During his second year in Washington University's MBA program, Holekamp started his own business called Foothealers, a chain of podiatric centers.
He said the hardest part was recruiting foot doctors with little business experience.
Holekamp, however, says he was able to make his company successful because of his well-thought out business plans.
Along with the practical experience, having a position at a real business while still a student also tends to impress future employers.
Lauren Clarisey, the former CEO of Flyer Enterprises, just started her first job at Dunnhumby, a marketing consulting firm in her hometown of Cincinnati.
Her experience as CEO taught her how to speak about business in interviews.
"Not many can put on their resume that they managed a seven-division company," she said.
Neff is also applying her experiences with Flyer Enterprises to her internship at the Clayton office of audit firm Ernst and Young over the summer.
"I'm a lot more comfortable with financial statements," she said. "I've learned so much more by applying what I'm doing in class."