CEO Business Visits

• TrepStart Day St. Louis
• More from TrepStart St. Louis
• Ms. Wendy Pfeil, Executive Director (Investor)

CEO Guest Speakers

• Kevin Nicol, President & CEO

I really enjoyed TrepStart Day. One of the reasons I found this so enjoyable was that the theme and activities were specific to youth entrepreneurship. We heard from some amazing examples of this being applied in the real world, and interesting advice from them during the Q&A and breakout sessions. I was also intrigued by Jeff Platt, founder of Skyzone. I really enjoyed how he talked about his very early start in building his vision, and his interpretation of what entrepreneurs need to have to be successful.

The Chamber of Commerce was interesting to learn about. I never really knew nothing about it previously except for the occasional times Mrs. Seibers would reference it. I thought it was cool that you could make a type of buisiness whose only purpose was to help local businesses. I also really appreciated their mentality of shopping locally. It is the best way to revive yourself and the community. You get what you want and simultaneously keep your money in your local economy and public services, instead of it going elsewhere in the world.

I knew I was going to enjoy Mr. Nicol's talk before it started. It was clear he was successful in his business ventures, and I believe it is from the unique approach he takes to servicing his customers in finances. What I liked the most about his lecture was when he covered the basic advantages to entrepreneurship. I always knew why I found the idea amazing, but Mr. Nicol reminded me of those reasons, and even added some new ones. I also liked how he viewed his business as educating instead of servicing. Since he has loved teaching his entire life, this gave him a unique chance to do what he loves in the business world.

I think the class business is moving along smoothly. We are close to choosing a venue, and I believe that is the one decision that will help us get the ball rolling on all of the other aspects of the business. We can start deciding on decorations, finding nice ways to present the sponsor boards we will make, and other aspects essential to the business. I was glad that we were able to discuss the sponsor incentives again as well. I felt that it would be nice to change some of the things, but definitely wanted additional opinions on it. I'm also glad that we are definitely expanding our potential range of businesses to contact. We have now visited numerous Belleville business, many of which may be interested in sponsoring us. We also have the contact information to a large variety of business in the document we received from the chamber. On the sponsor side of the business, I am very optimistic for our success.

Jacob Gall
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Jacob

Starting off the week with Trep Start was very exciting. It provided us with so many opportunities to focus on important business aspects. The main one that stuck out to me was the positive attitude each entrepreneur had about their business. Since they were all so young, the fact that they had already grown their idea into a company shows how passionate they really are about their business.

For one of my break-out sessions I chose to listen to Ethan Kamat. His product was inspired by his want to help his mother and others with the same problem as her. This core foundation led him to the business world, and even when that idea has run out, he plans to pick something new he is passionate about and follow through with it in same way he did for his first idea. He gave us a good plan on how to turn our ideas into real products, and he gave us suggestions on tools to use to make it happen. Those materials should be very useful for when I start up my own business.

My second break-out session was with Remmi Smith. She was also very passionate about the core of her business which helped her be successful. She explained a lot about how to brand yourself and your product. It is important to advertise your product and service the right way in order for people to understand your business. It turns out it is a lot more complicated than I realize, and it will require a thorough investment of time when I brand my own business. One thing that can help with the process is creating good partners who will give your business credibility, monetary, or promotional value.

The Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce was very apt to helping us with our class business and personal businesses. They extended their services to us, and were very generous hosting us at their site. They gave us lots of resources and good advice for how to get the word out about our products and businesses.

Elizabeth Harla
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Elizabeth

This week was a very eventful and informative week. The TrepStart convention was influential because our class can relate to the speakers because of their age. Usually when we have speakers that are adults. This makes entrepreneurship seem as something that you do during your life at an older age. When we saw the speakers that were our age it really opened my eyes to the potential I have now. Also it shows me how much of an opportunity this class gives me because it is giving me all of the tips and resources I need to start being an entrepreneur, while they had to figure it out on their own.

Business is everywhere. It is needed to keep a economy running. The Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce really brought out the effect businesses have on the city of Belleville. I obviously I knew they greatly affected it but they brought out how the businesses are changing within the city and what the outcome is because of it. A great example is how buying online, something I do a lot, negatively affects the local economy. I learned when you buy online the tax does not come back into the city. Instead it goes back to where the company is established. This opened my eyes to the many factors that determines what happens with money.

Our talk with Kevin Nicol was probably one of my favorite talks so far. This talk was different from the others because it was straight to the point and was very specific. Topics such as what to look for before making an investment, areas of neglect, income for retirement, and many other things.  This was a great talk so I know what goals I should have to keep me on track.

This week’s information will be very essential to progress in our class business. We can take the tips from all of our talks and they can make great changes if applied correctly.

Cam Wicks
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Cam

At the start of this week, we were able to go on a field trip to St. Louis University for a TrepStart convention. On this trip, we were able to learn about and talk with entrepreneurs who were the same age as us, and in some cases, younger. I got to hear Mikaila Ulmer of Me & the Bees Lemonade speak about her business and what to do when starting your own. She introduced us to the acronym FITS, which explains aspects that should be considered when trying to figure out what business you should make. It stands for fix a problem, interests or hobbies, trends or what’s in high demand, and skills or talents. In addition to this, she gave steps to creating a budget and suggested what our financial priorities should be. When creating a budget we should estimate our income, list the expenses, subtract the expenses from the income, identify ways to reduce cost while increasing sales, and lastly, set goals. When we actually start earning money, we should think about others and give, set goals and save for the future, and spend money on yourself to enjoy what you worked hard for. The most amazing part about all of this was that she was able to go on Shark Tank and meet the president, while only being 13…

Later on in the week, we spoke with the women of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce. Their job is practically acting as a dating service for businesses. They promote them, network them, and see what’s selling within the local economy. They gave us insight to what's going on currently in Belleville, including how online shopping is starting to affect local business negatively, and a couple tips such as how hiring a younger person helps a company understand what their younger customers want and how you have to be willing to make a change when the direction of something changes. I’m glad that they were willing to help us without class business, and I hope that we will be able to speak more with them in future.

Kaleb Leatherman
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Kaleb

This week in Belleville CEO was very interesting compared to the past couple of weeks. We went all the way to SLU for our TrepStart Field Trip, we had visited the Chamber of Commerce in Belleville, met with Kevin Nichols, and even had two productive class days. It felt like a very busy but productive type of week for the class, and myself in general.

For our TrepStart day at SLU, our CEO class met with many young and successful entrepreneurs. It was really interesting to learn about how they have balanced their school with their business and how it has all worked out for them. I really liked going into the separate rooms to get more insight for what I am interested in, and how they can share what they have learned to help me.

For our two class days this week, we advanced even more into the future of our class business. We are realizing that we may need a bigger venue than Belleville CEO has ever needed before, and that’s exciting news for all of us. At the same time, that means the new venue will have to be more expensive to use, adding more prices to decorations and everything else to fill up the space that will be used.  For the advertising department, we are finishing up the process of putting out our audition advertisements to the schools in our area. Now we are working on the ideas of getting adults and families to want to come to our event, and be interested in what Belleville CEO has to offer. Our whole department has been doing very well with our communication and we are all on the same page before we put out something, or even start something. We want to make this as best as possible.

To conclude, it’s been an interesting week, but has worked out well for CEO and we are all excited and interested to see what next week has to offer. Hopefully we can put what we have learned into ourselves for the future.

John Lewis
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About John

Another knowledgeable week of CEO has passed. The Trepstart at Saint Louis University is easily one of my favorite things we've done this year. I really liked that it was run by young entrepreneurs that were similar in age to me. I had been to a Skyzone before the Trepstart but I never thought I would get to meet the owner of it. Jeff Platt had his idea in college a time when most students are out partying and living it up. All of his friends thought he was crazy and that he was wasting his time. I guess he proved them wrong considering he just opened his two hundredth store. Jeff Platt also talked about getting punched in the mouth. He used Mike Tyson's quote “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” I think this is so true and I see this all the time no matter how well things are going, you have to be ready for the blow to the face.

At theTrepstart we also got to talk to a few young entrepreneurs some even younger than me that are millionaires. One of these entrepreneurs I had watched on Shark Tank like a week before going to this event. He had started a dog treat company called Ry’s Barkery. He had talked about the difficulties he went through with managing his school work and his job.

There was another entrepreneur who had started his own non for profit organization where he goes out and feeds the hungry. He started this when he was around seven years old. I think it's so cool that such a young kid can make such a big difference in the world. One thing I thought that was pretty funny is most of these kids parents work for them. Making them the boss of their parents. It's crazy to think, that could be me in just a few years.

Nicholas Lippert
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Nicholas

Week 11 started off with a bang, and was full of opportunities to better our class business. We visited with a few great speakers this week, and all of them gave great tips on how to make the class business successful.

 On Monday we went to TrepStart at SLU, and I really enjoyed it. I really liked how people closer to my age pretty much ran the event, and how they tried to make it as fun as possible for the people who attended the event. At the same time I do think that they went a little overboard with how fun they tried to make it, but it wasn’t that bad. I also really liked how a few of those kids were on Shark Tank, and how a few others were still wildly successful. Getting to see that kids can still be successful in the business world really put into perspective for me that being a successful business person isn’t impossible, but at the same time it’s no easy journey. My favorite speaker there was Joshua Williams. He gave a great lesson on how to be a better leader, and also showed us more of what his not for profit organization does. My favorite part about him though was the fact that him and I share a lot of the same values. Since I could tell that him and I think alike I knew I wanted to try to help his organization by donating or something else, especially since St. Louis was one of the few big cities that his organization has never come to. So after he gave his leadership lesson I approached him and asked what he thought about partnering with the Belleville CEO program, and do an event to give back to our community. He was completely down for it and now I can’t wait to do this thing.

 Tuesday we went to the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, and the ladies there really gave us a lot of helpful tips on how to better our class business. We received alot of insight on how to better advertise and market the business, and we also made a few very good friends who can help us get the word about “Belleville’s Got Talent”.

 Thursday Kevin Nicol came to PPM, and gave a really good presentation from a financial management and extremely successful business person point of view. I found it extremely interesting how he believes the only two way to financial independence are securities and entrepreneurship. Also the “guided note” packet he gave us is literally full of extremely helpful business and life tips.

 On Friday the class worked on the class business. Ian gave us a list of things needed to be done and we pretty much got everything completed. Tristen, Jake, Brett, and I went to Belle Court in search of a venue for the business again. From the outside the place looked like it could fit a maximum of 50 people, but when we got inside we saw a big beautiful ballroom with a perfect stage for what we need. Also there is a great looking bar, and perfect rooms that we would need for our performers to get ready in. So far we have a lot of great venue options, but we still need to pick our final option.

           

James Wiegers
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About James

This week during CEO was very exciting and extremely inspirational because at the beginning of the week we went to the TrepStart at St. Louis University, then we talked to the people at the Belleville Chambers of Commerce and finished off with Kevin Nicol from Nicol Financial Services. Also during this week we have continue to work on our class business and if so hard to narrow down some of the places we will hold the event at. Out of everything that happened this week though the TrepStart in St. Louis was probably one of the most inspirational events I've ever gone to.

On Monday when we went to the TrepStart event at St. Louis University, we got to talk to many young and inspiring CEOs about their business and how they were able to run their business at a young age. Before we went to our breakout sessions though we got to talk to Jeff Platt, the owner of Sky Zone, who told us how he started his business. Many of the things Jeff told us about 4 very inspiring such as that growth is painful.  I believe this is true because rows can sometimes be awkward especially when you're running a business because most of the time when you're growing you haven't been there before and you're kind of confused on what you're supposed to do from that point on. Jeff also gave us three points of topic to follow when we're trying to evolve our business.  The first one being to trust your gut and to take a leap of faith.  I believe this will be very important in vital to our class business and our own personal businesses because we will have many people telling us to do different things and the best thing to do in that situation is to trust your gut and find your own solution. His second point was is that nobody accomplishes anything great on their own. I believe this is very true and something that all of us are going to need to understand and believe in when we are doing our class business. Jeff's third and final point was to be resilient and through failure you will succeed. If we believe in these three points as a class I believe that our class business will go very far.

Next were our breakout sessions and for mine I had Joshua Williams and Zandra Cunningham. They were both phenomenal speakers and I got great ideas and helpful tips from both of them.  When I went and listened to what Joshua Williams had to say I was very inspired and wanted to implement some of the stuff he said in my life. Joshua talked about leadership and how it is necessary in entrepreneurship. Joshua said that having leadership helps you honor commitments and helps you make decisions which I think is going to be very vital to what we are doing.  Another thing he said was to not make the same mistake twice because then that shows that you didn't learn anything from the first time.

           

Jake Roche
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Jake

“It is through failure, that you learn and you will succeed.” Jeff Platt said these encouraging words in front of the CEO students. I really thought about what he meant by that, it means all failure is not bad. Failures can teach you valuable lessons and also failures can help with your path to success. Because sometimes you have to fail, but it is about pushing through and seeing the greater outcome in the end. Kevin Platt really emphasized on finding your own passion. Jeff said that you have to find your passion, pursue it, and block out all the other noise. So do not listen to people who have something negative to say about what you are doing, you need to block them out. Jeff also said nobody accomplishes anything great on their own. When pursuing business you have got to rely on others. Also you have to find like-minded people, like people who are on the same path as you. I learned so many new things at the Trep start from the young entrepreneurs.  They all gave good pieces of advice for when starting a business. The one thing that still amazes me is the young entrepreneur’s age. Their ages range from 13-18.Also to hear their stories of how they came up with their own business is amazing. The one thing I heard from all the young entrepreneur’s was that they were passionate about their business which I really liked.

Wendy Pfeil of Belleville Chamber of Commerce said that, “life will always change.” Which is agreeable because your life and the life around continue to evolve and change everyday. Wendy also said, “Not everything in life is given to you. So that means you have to work for whatever you want.

Mr. Kevin Nicol talked about the steps to building a business. The first priority you need to have is to find a unique product. Then you develop a marketing plan, and different outlets. One thing that Mr. Nicol said that stayed in my head was “is it a want or a need.” This question is very important to ask yourself in the business world or the real world. You have to separate your wants from needs. Once you find out what you really need instead of what you want you will start being very successful in the business world.

Martrell Robinson
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Martrell

We started this week off with a field trip to SLU to TrepStart Day. This is a youth Entrepreneurship Conference, we were introduced to ten young entrepreneurs who were: Carson Kropfl, Brennan Agranoff, Kendra Cunningham, Ehan Kamat, Lily Born, Ryan Kelly, Joshua Williams, Jake Johnson, Remmi Smith, and Mikaila Ulmer. Different schools and CEO classes was at the event so we got a chance to network and meet new people and ask them about their class. I did notice that when I talked to people from different schools that not all the students were seniors, some were juniors, and even freshmen. We had break-out sessions were the young entrepreneurs got to talk us about their business and we could ask them questions. There was also a special guest speaker, Jeff Platt the creator of Sky Zone. It was the first trampoline park in Las Vegas (2004); the second location is in Chesterfield, MO (2006). Sky Zone is now in 11 different countries and has 15,000 members and 25,000,000 guests every year. The best lesson Jeff Platt taught us was trust your gut, be resilient, growth is painful, and nobody accomplishes anything great on their own.

Tuesday the class met at Chamber of Commerce. Wendy Pfeil talked about how the Chamber of Commerce help promote businesses by networking, advertising, and host events like the Chili Cook-off. They are self-funded the budget $600,000 a year. She also talked about communication with people and how there’s a difference between hearing and listening.

Wednesday was a class day, we discuss the class business and the financials of the class project and committee updates. Teonna and I went to District #118 school board and gave them a flyer, by Friday afternoon superintendent, Mr. Klosterman got in contact with me and said that the flyer has been approved.

Thursday we had a guest speaker Kevin Nicol from Nicol Financials Services. He talked about the fundamentals of financial freedom workshop. Some things that I learned was the two methods of earning financial independence is securities and entrepreneurship, priorities in the evolution of “Building a Business”: developed a unique widget, marketing plan, and cutlets, diversity.  

Friday was also a class day; we got into our committees and talked about what’s the next move for the project. The class created a spreadsheet so everyone can be updated with what’s going on in each group and making sure is doing their part.

Dauneshia Holman
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Dauneshia

Trep start day at the SLU campus kicked off this week of CEO. Trep start is an annual event that involves all the young entrepreneurs of the area coming together and meeting young entrepreneurs. Most of the panel of entrepreneurs had been on Shark Tank. The panel started by introducing themselves. This allowed all of the students in the audience to learn about who they were and what they sold. Also we got to meet the CEO of Sky Zone trampoline park, Jeff Platt. Jeff was very interesting.  He started off with one location and slowly moved to another and then another and now he owns over 200 locations. The one thing I really liked about his speech was that he talked about what things young entrepreneurs should really focus on in order to be successful. After speech we broke off into a breakout sessions, every student got two breakout sessions. How many sessions we would meet with one of the young entrepreneurs on the panel. They would talk very briefly about their story and their business, and then they would give their lesson for the day. My first one was “for 10 things I learned as a young entrepreneur” I really enjoyed this one because it showed kind of how being a young entrepreneur really is. It’s not just something simple and easy it takes time and it takes a lot of effort. Well the hardest things that I think I took from that was that it’s really hard to be taken seriously because were so young. Also The speaker in that session told the group how they could take a product already made and change it and make it better and I believe that that is the key for future entrepreneurs because with so many products already in the world it’s hard to make a new one.

After this session my second one was about leadership. Which is something I always focus on. I always like to be a leader and I consider myself a natural leader. In this, the speaker taught the class about the good qualities of a leader and the bad qualities of  a leader. The main thing I took from that was the leader is great with communication because if you can’t communicate with your team you will ultimately fail and I believe this connects to our class business because if we don’t communicate it won’t work.

The next thing that was very important this week  was the visit to the Chamber of Commerce. These ladies, all three of them, work in the office by themselves. Every day is a busy day. But they communicate with each other and stay on task and work hard together. I believe this is what makes the Chamber of Commerce so successful. They care very much for the town and the people in it. The Chamber is always willing to lend a hand to whoever. A great example is our class, we talked about our class business for maybe five minutes and they were already willing to help us.

Tristen Missey
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Tristen

“Surround yourself with good people. Surround yourself with people who are doing better than you” (Kevin Nicol). What can we classify as “good” how do we classify success to say that one is doing better than us? Plot twist. People have a sense to become greedy with their success. They become overly obsessive, materialistic, different… Is that a good thing? The perception on this quote can go many ways. We want to be around people because their success can teach us to build ourselves, it teaches us from what they’ve learned, how they got to where they are and it motivates us to do and to be better. However, when we surround ourselves with people who are doing better than us they may not want us to reach the top as well. They don’t want to celebrate with us because they’re no longer on top. We’re even and believe it or not that’s how it is in high school with “friends.” This week for the second time now we’ve gotten the chance to meet with Kevin Nicol. He is the founder of the Nicol Foundation. Each time we’ve spoken with Mr. Nicol he ever disappoints. He leaves with great impressions and amazing quotes in which makes you think. Aside from talking finance, I continue to quote the quotes he presents us with because they make me think on life in general.

 Also this week we went on a field trip in which I’d never forget. We attended the Trep Start event. Meeting with so many young entrepreneurs it makes teens like us in the CEO program so excited to begin our personal businesses. I don’t have any idea what I want to do for my personal business but I constantly think about it. I know I wasn’t to target college students but there’s so many pros and cons with my target audience. I have to create something cheap of course because college student don’t have any money. Besides things for their dorms, what exactly do college students need. I’m in the process of creating a survey to give to college students in which will help me figure out what exactly they need and would be willing to buy. In reality, my main focus would be incoming college freshmen. I think my target is a big audience to generate revenue, especially with me being an incoming college freshman next year as well. At the Trep Start event I talked with Ehan, he is the CEO of the Solemender, created for individuals who have plantar-fasciitis. I connected with his presentation because I have plantar-fasciitis as well from running track. We talked about getting manufactures in order to create the product I plan on making. As we advance on in class, I am very excited for the weeks to come!

Teonna Davis
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About Teonna

This week of CEO reminded me a lot of last week’s CEO. It was a very productive week where we were able to focus on our class business and make the most of the week. I really enjoyed this last week, and working on our project. It allows the class to work as one and create something from scratch. I am very excited that we get to create a big project and business that we came up with, and we get to start from nothing to create a masterpiece. Cam and I got the financials all situated, creating a budget document of multiple targets in which we need to hit to gain a certain net profit. I personally think the financials look very achievable and something the class needs to focus on as we continue this project. If we stay in line with this report, we will definitely be able to achieve our ultimate goal. It will definitely be tough and challenging as new CEO entrepreneurs, but it will be something worth achieving. Everyone in the class needs to really pull their weight for this project, and be held accountable for their actions and what they do or not to do for Belleville’s Got Talent. I really look forward to this project, and seeing the turnout and what we are able to do as a class. As the CFO of the class, I am nervous of the process and work ethic of our class along with the financials that we need/want to acquire. However, I know I will do everything I need and in my ability to make this project successful.

I also think Mr. Nicol spoke on a lot of the issues we need to earn. He is a very influential man, with an inspiring story that helped me understand the business side more businesses and how to run one. Mr. Nicol was a very interesting man, and a great speaker. I saw him originally at the CEO Empowerment Day and I am very ecstatic that our class got the chance to hear him speak personally to us. It shows us how to actually run a business, and stay intrigued with the business side of entrepreneurship.

James Monken
Friday, November 3, 2017Learn More About James