CEO Business Visits

• Around the Fountain: A Belleville CEO Experience
• Jay Tebbe, President & Publisher (Investor)

This CEO week was taken up by workdays finishing everything we needed to wrap up for the class business and one really interesting visit to the Belleville News Democrat newspaper production factory. The work days were productive, we took our final grades for the class business and evaluated ourselves as well as our classmates on their performance in the convention and In the classroom.

Going to the Belleville News Democrat newspaper production facility was the first time in a while we saw the factory behind the product that a business provided.  What I love about visiting these places is that you really get to see the production process and what makes the finished product come to fruition; whether that be the workers that assemble the product or the executives that oversee the process.

We learned so much every time we do this kind of visit behind the scenes of a business. I learned that the Belleville News Democrat although it is a newspaper needs a social media and website expert to be as successful as it is. Newspapers are a very customer based business-so the BND has to keep up with not only relevant news that people need to know, but the stories that people want to know and read about as well. For me, this highlighted that in any business that you have you have to do an immense amount of research to make sure that your product is the best that it can possibly be. I am going to apply all of these tactics to my own personal business which we will be starting soon in the CEO class, I am extremely excited to finally apply all of the amazing lessons I have learned all year into my business.

Alayna Wells
Friday, February 17, 2017Learn More About Alayna

Starting off my week with a visit back to the Scottish Rite to help clean and put chairs and tables back to where they belong. Ending Monday with a questionnaire about each and every one of our students performance during and before our class event.

On Tuesday our class had a work day at Precision Practice Management to discuss more about our class business overall our financials and opinions on how we thought it turned out. We also updated each other on missing bills/revenue which is the check that we haven't received yet and started to email and write thank you letters to the people that supported our event.

Starting Wednesday off meeting at Precision Practice Management by taking a survey over our class event answering questions on everything that happened during the event. We continued to write/email thank you notes to the people that sponsored us and attended our event. By the end of class our CFO gave us a financial presentation on how much revenue was brought in over the beginning of the year and the event alone.

Ending our week on Thursday with a visit to BND (Jay Tebbe/McClathy Newspaper Inc.) Our class took a tour of this warehouse where we saw how the newspaper was made and how everything works. I learned that in a business like this paper company that there will always be some type of alterations and that you have to learn how to cope with all the different adjustments.

Devin Alexander
Friday, February 17, 2017Learn More About Devin

On Monday, our class went back to Scottish Rites to finish cleaning up from our event.  I learned that teamwork gets everything done faster.  We were done in almost no time and were praised by the staff at the Scottish Rites.  They were very generous and even offered to lower the price of the facility for next year’s CEO class.

On Tuesday, our class met at Precision Practice Management to discuss what we could have improved about our event to make it more successful.  I thought that the event should have been shorter.  It took up everyone’s entire evening and it was difficult to have time to catch up on homework for school the next day.  This probably also made it hard for those who had to make up the work they missed that day.  I also thought that we should have catered the event.  A lot of people that I talked to became disinterested in the event when they found out that the food served was going to be samples.  I also heard comments that people were still hungry even after going to booths several times.

On Thursday, our class went and visited Belleville News Democrat.  We got a tour of their printing press and storage rooms.  It was really cool!  I thought it was very exciting to learn about how newspapers are printed and how they have changed over the years.  I discovered that technology has been integrated into the business in more ways than I thought.  Ads are a major part of profit for electronic newspapers.  Other than subscribers, ads are the only source of income.

I also learned that Belleville News Democrat prints several other papers for local areas around Belleville.  It is amazing how efficient they have made the printing machines and learn how they modified the machines to include colored ink.  Belleville News Democrat continues to modify their business to adapt to modern standards of having news as fast as possible.  I am really proud that we have such a great source of news in our area.

Kaitlynn Borik
Friday, February 17, 2017Learn More About Kaitlynn

The class business was a complete success, with over $6,500 made in profits we are very close to reaching the goal we set in October. With an attendance of 122, we fell short of our attendance goal of 300, it was quite the learning experience. The week consisted of our class sending out thank you notes to all of our attendees and sponsors. It has been really nice at class since we have had more relaxed days since the hectic preparation time for our event.

When visiting the BND warehouse, I was surprised by the amount of papers that are still being printed. It's very impressive how the BND had altered their business since the digital change. Most news nowadays goes through our cell phones and computers. The BND, a newspaper that is over 160 years old has adapted and morphed their business since the change. They sell their advertisement spots as a their main source of revenue. With our class business, that's essentially the same principle we followed. The BND also prints for other newspaper companies and outsourced their printing time. Personally I didn't like the idea of always outsourcing my equipment to other companies simply because it creates more wear and tear on the item being used.  

This next week I plan to finalize my business plan and start on my second job. Athurm refabrications is getting shirts and business cards thanks to the CEO fund. It's going to be fun because of the fact I can utilize my talents and make money. I hope to have this business while on college so that I may make some extra money on the side to pay for my expenses while in school. Maybe it will build into something more. Only time can tell.

Austin Thurman
Friday, February 17, 2017Learn More About Austin

This week in the CEO class we started off by returning to the Scottish Rites and cleaning up from our event last Tuesday. As we were cleaning up it was weird looking at the place and thinking how much work went into making this event a money maker and it definitely paid off with us making around seven thousand dollars from it.

On Tuesday we had a workday at Precision Practice Management and read over everyone's questionnaires which included questions about the event and what we did to get it going and what money we brought in for it. During the workday we also had to fill out a survey regarding the other students and what they did as well in our eyes. This is what I did not like to do. The main problem is since there are 15 of us, there is no way we could see all that was going on with the event and how much work each person did individually unless you are one of the CEO’s. Also a lot of us in the class did work after school and not during our workdays. Sure we can look at what sponsors, silent auction, and ticket sales someone got for us but I have no idea how many businesses someone hit and how many people came to our event by word of mouth.

On Wednesday we went over the complete financials from our event and talked about the logistics of being a sponsor for the CEO program and yeah, while that would be cool, we still have five thousand something dollars after all of our 250 and I feel like there might be better ways to spend it.

So with the 250 dollar check in hand I have already started by business again and plan to aggressively expand this time. One of the most useful things I have learned from the CEO class is persistence and many of the people we have met with sell some type of product or service and have given great advice on how to make the sale.

Joe Beussink
Friday, February 17, 2017Learn More About Joe

Week 24 of CEO was very short for me. This might have been the first week where I did not hear from a guest speaker or go on a class visit. This week included one clean up day and two work days.

The clean up day was very easy. All we had to do was bring all of the tables back and move some chairs. The guys at the Scottish Rite were very helpful and nice to us throughout the whole process of our event. I think the venue was very appropriate for our event and I would highly recommend it to next year's class. The price we were able to get it for was so much better than every other option we considered, and all together I think it was the perfect place for our event.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both workdays and we took all that time writing thank you letters and emails to people who supported our class business. It was nice to personally thank some of the most important people that made our event happen like Mr. Crotty and the Dunnigans, but also people who just took time to attend our event and talk to booths. We also talked about financials and we had a very successful event in those terms. I believe we exceeded our goal financially which makes me very happy because I believe at some point everyone doubted if we were going to make enough money. I am not sure how our event should be determined as a success or not. I know the goal was to make money, and we did, but at the same time it kind of feels like a failure because of the attendance. Mrs. Siebers handed out our business checks and it was really cool because I feel like I earned that $250 by the work I put in. I’m glad we have gotten the opportunity to start our own businesses with this money and I might go before the board to ask for more. I know I’m going to have to be very prepared because they ask hard questions and it’s almost like shark tank. I just don’t think $250 is enough to buy a heat press, shirts, and have someone make the transfers. Luckily I have a lot of time to figure everything out.

Michael Lassman
Friday, February 17, 2017Learn More About Michael