CEO Business Visits

• Tyler Douthitt, Owner
• Principal Dave Harris & Counselor Kathy Schaefer

I think, so far, as we head into week 4 of CEO, I begin to really realize what CEO has instore for my fellow classmates and me. Week 3 has brought many things to my perspective, and has made me realize a lot more of how the real world works, and what it will actually take. I really enjoyed going to talk to Tyler Douthitt's house. It was a little weird being at his house instead of at an actually business office, but that is the way a lot of jobs are done now a days.

Tyler Douthitt's presentation to us hit on main points such as the power of connections, sometimes having to take the risk, putting yourself out there, set goals, and always look towards the future. The world is constantly changing around us, and we, as entrepreneurs, can always find new ways and innovations that lead us toward success. Success does not come easy, and sometimes it does not come in ways we expect it to.

On Friday we stopped at Althoff. I think the biggest and coolest things about Althoff are their new stream lab and athletic complex being built. Principal Harris talked to us and gave us a tour of how and what it takes for Althoff to run especially for a private school that does not get funded by the government. However, Mr. Crotty had the coolest life story and challenges I have heard. From him, I think I learned that making connections is a big thing that leads to success, but also find something you love and pursue it.

I am excited for the next weeks to come in this class, and to see what it brings even more of. As the badge project continues, we expand our network, and are forced to put ourselves in talkative positions with some business investors. In the following weeks, Jimmy, James, and I will even talk to Mr. Zura of Allsup. I look forward to helping out my class in this project, and I can not wait to see what this next week has in store.

Ian Hass
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Ian

I learned this week that nobody cares about the storm. What people care about is if the boat makes it to shore. I believe that you are your own biggest enemy, because you determine what you want to do. Excuses are people's biggest set backs. As it is way easier to make an excuse rather than completing the task. People use them very commonly, most times too commonly.

A mentor we visited this week was a great example of where not making excuses gets you. He owns a company that is ran in his own house. His company sells earbuds. It is not something super complicated to come up with. He makes a living off of selling 55 cent earbuds because he ignored making excuses and kept looking forward. Hearing what his setbacks when he was starting his business, I probably would have shyed away from that market. But he didn't and now he's the number one distributor of earphones in the nation.

Not making excuses doesn't always mean you will get what you want all the time or get you richer. Sometimes it can get you where you need to be in life. Another mentor we that talked to us had everything that he wanted for a period in his life. Then everything came tumbling down for him. He owned a one million dollar business, but it was taken away because if a market crash in 2009. But that didn't make him give up. After that he tried to start other business, but another tragedy came, because his business partner died in a car accident. … But he still didn't let excuses bring him down. He dug down deep and thought that even though all of those tragedies happened to him, he can still make it better. Now he is happier than what he has ever been before in life. This shows that no matter how hard the storm is, if you get the boat to shore, you will witness all the land you can explore.

Cam Wicks
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Cam

A responsible and well thought out budget can make or break a business, no matter what kind. This was a lesson emphasized while visiting both TFD Supplies and Althoff Catholic High School, as well as something we had to figure out for ourselves while moving forward in the badge project.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we continued to discuss the prices for the potential investors and the overall cost of the badges and t-shirts. As a class we had to consider that we wanted to have a significant amount of profit in order to put it toward our future class business, while also making sure to set realistic goals and amounts to ask from our investors. To accomplish this, we made sure to have an organized chart made up to showcase the cost of the shirts and one of the different levels of investments that can be made. Then went through and assigned each student a business to pitch the investment opportunity.

While visiting TFD Supplies, we learned that you don’t need to have a business degree to be a successful entrepreneur. Mr. Douthitt, now the biggest supplier of earbuds to Amazon, has never taken a business class. He continues to expand his business through selling directly to schools, which increases his profit. He told us how he improves his personal brand through social media presence, good customer service, and a unique business model. He told us about the importance of using your resources to get the word out about your business and not spending money where it doesn’t need to be spent.

At Althoff, we learned how important it is for a private school to fundraise and manage their budget because they don’t get funding from the government. Althoff has a yearly budget of four million dollars and has to do additional fundraising if they want to complete non-essential projects.

Emilie Smyth
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Emilie

On Thursday we met up with Tyler Douthitt at his house to see how he runs his business and how he became the leading supplier of earbuds for Amazon in the U.S. Many of the points Tyler told us about were very helpful and will definitely help us with our badge project and other future projects that we have in store for later this year. One point that he brought up was that you have to test different ideas to see what will work. I think that is very big for us during this badge project because most of us have not done anything really with a business before and we don't know what to do. Another point that he brought up was not to neglect your existing customer. I believe that this is big because if you neglect your existing customer your business will soon fail because you won't be able to gain new customers because your existing customer won't give you good review and cause loss of business.

Jake Roche
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Jake

As a class, I think we made some real progress on our Badge Project this week. Our finances seem almost finalized so we can have a good estimate of what our goal is. More donors were gained this week thanks to a few of our classmates, which I think is encouraging the rest of the class to get out there and ask people to be investors. Even when it seems like we are making progress, it sometimes feels like we are just going in circles, and it is frustrating when I reflect on that and realize that not much has progressed. I am learning that tasks that seem simple can be more complicated than I originally assumed.

I thought our visit to TFD Supplies was very interesting because I am not very knowledgeable in the ways of online business practice. During the visit, he described his position as kind of the middle-man in his business process. He has to target new and former customers and also supply Amazon warehouses. The sales happen totally online, and he reaps the benefits as they come. His main strategy is testing out the waters, or the trial and error tactic. Before he was selling other products that were not as successful, and in the future, especially since his main product is technology, his market will be changing again.

His main focus is prioritizing his family over his business. He made it clear that while it is vital for his business to be successful, which takes a lot of time and effort, he does not want it to interfere with his family affairs at all. That stuck out to me because it shows his character, and it does not make him any less of an entrepreneur compared to a millionaire. Working from home allows his work to be very compatible, but it can also make it easy to accidentally bleed into family time. Currently, he is having to make cuts out of his personal time to efficiently run his business and help it grow, but he believes that it is worth it in the long run.

During the visit to Althoff, I already knew most of each faculty’s position, but the one I learned the most about was Mr. Crotty. I had no idea what his background was, and honestly, I barely knew what he did around the school besides maintenance. He emphasized that once you give up, you’re done. He had lots of setbacks, but he continued on and did what he enjoyed. His success now compared to what it used to be is on a much different level but still equal because he works hard at his job.

Elizabeth Harla
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Elizabeth

...Tyler Douthitt is a very successful entrepreneur; he runs his own business out of his house, which is selling earbuds to amazon and different schools. When one of my fellow classmates asked what makes his earbuds different from the other earbuds companies, he replied, the price, the selection, and the service. He talked about his journey to entrepreneurship and how he got where he is now. He said he did not even major in business in college. He majored in computer science. He talked about how the key to business was to try to spend money where it needs to be spent. One key phrase the Mr. Tyler Douthitt said was “be authentic.” I looked up the word authentic and looked at what it meant and the first word I saw was genuine. Genuine means to be truly what something is said to be.

At Althoff Catholic High School there are a lot of big things being installed inside and outside of the school. First, Althoff is getting their first new football and baseball field which is being shared by both of the sports team. Which is very exciting for Althoff staff, students, and fans. Because they all can enjoy home games for Althoff.  Althoff is also getting a new program installed in the school to where they have different areas for students who want to take a construction class or do broadcasting that deals with learning how to be a news anchor. The new stuff that Althoff have for its’ students sounds very interesting and kind of makes want to be a part of that excitement and fun. Dave Harris, the principal at Althoff, was very excited when showing us the new stuff that they are building in Althoff.   He is really looking forward to it all being done. It was very interesting to me to hear that Althoff does not get any money from the government. They have to raise all of their money from holding different events at the school and fundraisers. Then one of the speakers talked about how they recruit new students to go to their schools. They reach out to other Catholic Middle Schools and talk to the students about Althoff and try to get them to be interested in coming to the school. The speaker also said they did not want a lot of students going to their school they wanted to keep it small. It cost around 8 thousand to go Althoff which is not that bad considering other catholic schools in Chicago and different places which cost over 14 thousand dollars.

Martrell Robinson
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Martrell

This last week of our Belleville CEO class, I thought, was one of the best weeks. We were very productive in talking with and setting up dates to meet with potential investors in our badge project. Ian, James, and myself will even meet with Mr. Zura of Allsup soon, in one of the following weeks.

I thought meeting Tyler Douthitt at his home was, actually, one of the coolest places and businesses we have gone to. We live in a highly advanced society, and it is very interesting and compelling to see how someone, like ourselves, was able to adapt to the world’s interests around us and was able to create a booming business from that.  Along with going to Tyler Douthitt’s house, we also went to Althoff Catholic High School. Even though I have gone to Althoff for four years, it was very intriguing to see the business side and perspective of my high school, and what it takes for the school, as a whole, to keep it running and progressing.

In going to these businesses this week, I think one of the biggest things to learn from them is that creating connections and a large network of people can make a huge difference and change in any company. Tyler’s connections with factories and people from his old jobs helped him get factories to help him make hundreds of thousands of ear buds. At Althoff we especially saw how connections were a big thing as we talked to Mr. Crotty.

Every week I say that I am genuinely surprised, in a good way, by this class. It continues to better my understanding in the business world, and what it will take in the real world to be successful in anything. If you look at Tyler Douthitt’s life, he started with a computer science major and then focused on business to become the nation's largest seller of earbuds. Information like this will help teach us what we can do and how we can, giving us ideas.

James Monken
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About James

This week was started off by enjoying a super relaxing Monday with no class due to Labor Day. Tuesday in the classroom at Allsup we took tests and surveys to work on find out how each of us work individually and how to know how to work together. I really like the idea of personality tests as it is a great way to figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working as a whole and forming relationships and bonds as time goes on in the class. We also figured out how exactly we were going to go out and advertise our badge project. Final decisions were made about prices, companies, and how to achieve the most donations.

Wednesday we really focused in on how to speak with leadership of companies and work our way up to get the money we need for the project. A group of us went and set up a meeting with Dave Zura at Allsup for this week to discuss possibly acquiring lanyards from the company.

Thursday we went to the top provider of earbuds to Amazon’s business, which was run out of his home in O’Fallon. It was a really interesting concept to me seeing someone successfully running a company out of their home in our local area as it was not something I had really realized existed in our community to that level of business. He really emphasized how important quality is over quantity and it is very important to bring customers in and keep them buying versus always making the goal to just get new customers.

On Friday at Althoff, we were shown the expansions the school was making and explained to exactly how difficult it can be to run a facility with almost no government funding. I did not feel as though there was an extremely religious environment despite it being a catholic school and I was really interested in how they were basing all of the new things they were doing off of their donations. At one point when showing us granite for their desks, it was explained how this was not originally in the plan but they were gifted just over enough slabs of it to make the number of desks that were needed. This truly amazed me. The fact that things can fall that perfectly into place through hard work and good morals was very inspiring.

Josie Proffitt
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Josie

I believe we are efficiently moving forward on the badge project. In regards to investors, we have taken to the "divide and conquer" method, so we can all contact investors to gain a learning experience in receiving the start-up money. While I am fortunate to be friends with an alum from CEO, I also feel like it is prompting me to immediately look for the easiest solution by contacting him with questions. I would say that what I'm doing at the moment is working smart, not hard. While this is good on it' own, I feel like if I don't give myself a challenge, I might not be prepared when hard work is demanded of me. I need to start making an effort to get out of my comfort zone and be more contributive.

I was very impressed with TFD Supplies. Tyler had made his business venture very simplified, along with impressive productivity (10,000 earbuds sold per day). Just like every business we've visited so far, he hit on some things we've already heard, but also emphasized on some new points not mentioned by other company managers. This include the importance of keeping old customers happy, moving on from a business failure and moving on to the next big idea, and persevering to break into a profitable business field. He also hit on something I've heard about several times in business classes at Althoff, but never in Belleville CEO: opportunity cost. Tyler talked about how entrepreneurs who become million and billionaires often lose many of the people around them from spending all of their time working. He said he'd never choose that lifestyle because he still wanted to spend time with his family.

Since I had always thought of Althoff as a school, not a business, I really didn't know what to expect. I had heard most of the stuff what's seemed like hundreds of times from most of our speakers. However, Michael Crotty made the meeting interesting for me. I saw him quite a bit around the school, but never really knew who he was or anything about him. Despite being a senior, his portion of the meeting was one of the first times I had ever interacted with him. I never knew his past was so amazing, and that he had previously played such a big part in CEO. After listening to his speech, I could easily tell anyone who had him as a mentor in the past was very lucky.

Jacob Gall
Friday, September 8, 2017Learn More About Jacob

I am now a sophomore at Western Kentucky University. I loved my first year, and I am off to a great start already this year. I am majoring in Marketing and applying for admission into the College of Business after this semester. I am continuing to participate in a Women's Group at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church once a week. I also joined the Alpha Xi Delta-Epsilon Kappa sorority chapter this school year. Although I am quite busy, I am looking forward to expanding my involvement even more throughout the next few years. Go Tops!

I recently started doing Goose Prints Goes Greek orders. I try and run Goose Prints on breaks. I plan on keeping it going, mainly as a side business! 

Heather Gosebrink
- Class of 2016