Devin Alexander
About Me
Hi, I am a senior at Belleville West High School. I am outgoing with a very sociable personality. I’ve been swimming my entire life and am very interested and fascinated by cars. Friends and family are the most important things in my life. I’ve chosen to join the Belleville CEO program to have the great opportunities of meeting successful business owners and to get a feel of going into business. I have a lot of great ideas and I feel they shouldn’t be put to waste. I like to take charge of something when I feel confident. I will strive and achieve when my mind is put to something. I plan to go to college somewhere down in Florida. I feel I have the qualities it takes to become a business leader.
About My Business
My Featured Journal Entries
Starting off the wonderful week on Monday with a visit to Trinity Financial Group Which is owned by Mike and Verna Dunnigan who also serve as mentors for the Belleville CEO program. Our class learned a little on the stock market and about how valuable it really is to our society. I learned that investing money comes with a huge risk meaning you should always review and research your topic of investment or anything that you put your money into.
Starting Tuesday off with a visit from Mr. Mike Wenzel at Artigem Replacement Services. I picked up a lot of important aspects of business when listening to Mr. Wenzel. For example he asked each student what their personal business was and gave insight to everyone on how we could be different from our competitors and what could make us stick out from everyone else.
On Wednesday our class met with two US bankers to review our financials which are our start-up expenses and projections. When first looking at our financial part of our business plans I was completely lost and thought “wow what have I gotten myself into” but having these two bankers come in created discussion which enabled our class to understand more about the topics within our financials.
Ending our week on Thursday by starting our personal balance sheets. I also worked with Renae from Precision Practice Management and began to start on the CEO annual report. Starting my personal balance sheets was simple for me for two reasons, one being the low startup expenses and two being still based out of my home. Reviewing biographies and personal pictures will be my role in making this year’s annual report. Taking on this responsibility of the annual report is a big step because it reflects on both myself and each student in our program.
03/24/2017
Starting my week off on Monday at Artigem Replacement Services with a visit from Mrs. JoAnn DiMaggio-May during one of our scheduled work days. I sat down with Mrs. DiMaggio-May and went over my business plan where she made small corrections and gave a lot of advice on what I should add and delete from my personal business plan.
On Tuesday our class met back at Artigem Replacement Services to meet and greet with Mr. Joe Wiley who is CEO and founder of Quest Management Consultants. I learned the importance of knowing your surroundings when listening to Mr. Wiley.
On Wednesday our class met Mr. Phillip Hickman and Mrs. Amy Kempfer at Associated Bank. I really liked this visit for many reasons one being how I could ask them all about my personal business. For example I asked about financial issues about my personal business like when would be the best time to open up a separate account for my personal business.
Starting our Thursday off with a visit from Mr. Patrick McKeehan who is the Economic Development Director with the city of O’Fallon. Mr. McKeehan helped our class with understanding the real essentials in business. For example he went around our class and asked everyone what made our business better than our competitors and for me it would be the mobilization part of Dave’s Detailing because I am the only detailing business that offers that in this area. This gave me more insight on what to talk about during my elevator pitch.
Ending our week on Friday at Artigem Replacement services with company from Mrs. JoAnn DiMaggio-May and SCORE to help us go over our business plans again and to turn in our final biographies that will be featured in our next annual CEO report. I really like the idea of Mrs. DiMaggio-May and SCORE because it gives feedback and advice on our personal business plans.
03/17/2017
Starting off my week on Monday with the start of a new home base at Artigem Replacement Services where we got to greet with Mr. Kurt Artinger and receive a tour of the building and heard a lot of about the history of the building. We also got to listen to Mr. Artinger talk about his personal life and all the struggles he went through to get where he is now.
On Tuesday our class met at St. Clair Country Club to speak with Mr. Thad Payne who really taught me the importance of first impressions, being presentable, and being etiquette. All of these qualities are essential to business to show your confidence and dedication.
On Wednesday our class met back at ARS for a work day to finish up on final business plan to turn in. This day was important to me because I feel as if I was “putting off” my business plan and I felt I wasn’t ready for that yet for anyone to see but then I realized that a business plan will constantly be changing as my business progresses.
We met back at Artigem replacement Services on Thursday for another work day to start our resumes and on our personal finances.
Ending our week on Friday we continued to work on our personal finances and resumes during a work day. I really like having the time in class to work on our financials and resumes so that I can ask my facilitator questions and to get examples of things that I wouldn’t understand.
03/10/2017
Starting off our last week at Precision Practice Management on Monday with a visit from JoAnn DiMaggio-May who came to help get our personal business plans started. I really like having someone look over my work and giving me advice on how to make it more complex and that’s exactly what Mrs. DiMaggio did. She helped me add info into certain subjects of the business plan and also gave us feedback on what we’ve already done.
On Tuesday, Mrs. JoAnn DiMaggio-May came back to Precision Practice Management to again help created our Personal business plans and give feedback on what we worked on from the previous day. We also took one last tour of PPM and took a picture with Renae to show our gratitude of letting us be a part of the PPM building. Looking at the building when we first started at PPM it was kind of a mess but looking at it now where it completely refurbished it gave me hope and desire to become my own boss with my own building.
On Wednesday, our class met at Leisure Time Pools to speak with Mr. Bob DeRousse. Mr. DeRousse is an incredible man who is currently managing nine other companies. Mr. DeRousse completely blew me away with his presentation because it made me realize that I can truly do anything I want as long as I have the right mindset and I believe in myself. I realized all of this when Mr. DeRousse was presenting his timeline of what he's done over his whole life. For example Mr. DeRousse has done everything from cleaning services to real estate. He taught us “cash flow is blood flow” I really like this quote because it's comparing people to a business explaining that people can’t live without blood flow the same way a business can’t strive without some source of income.
03/03/2017
Starting my week of CEO off on Wednesday with a work day at PPM going over thank you letters, talked over missing checks, and worked on our own personal business plan. I really like how we were given time to start our personal business plan and time to go over it with the class. To be honest, I keep “putting off” starting my business plan but when I started to work on my executive summary which is basically describing my car detailing business I feel ten times more comfortable finishing the rest of it.
On Thursday our class met in O'Fallon at Gateway Classic Cars to speak with Sal Akbani. Gateway started in Imperial IL and now has 13 other locations. Mr. Akbani showed our class his revenue over the past years showing us how his business has grown into a multimillionaire company. What I took away from listening to Mr. Akbani speak was the importance of believing in yourself. For example Mr. Akbani shared with us how he failed with two other businesses before succeeding with his current one. He told us how when he was in hard times nobody believed in him and told him to count his losses and quit, but he didn’t because he truly believed that he could revolutionize the industry and that’s exactly what he did. “Find your passion and use that as your business model.”
Ending my week on Friday with a visit from Jason Eding who is the Director of ITT at PPM. It wasn’t easy for Mr. Eding to become where he’s at now. He started off with telling us how he went to college for music but ended up dropping out of college 6 months before he was finished because he knew that’s now what he didn’t want to do with his life. Mr. Eding taught us on how to win an interview over. He gave us examples like keeping eye contact; ask a lot of questions and to dress for the occasion. He also told us to never talk about money or finances while in an interview because it is unprofessional.
02/24/2017
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.
02/17/2017
Starting the week off on Monday with a work day at Precision Practice Management where our class discussed our in-day class field trip that we had planned for Wednesday, the decorations, sponsorships, booths, and donations put towards the class fundraiser.
On Tuesday our class met at the Bank of America located in downtown Belleville to meet and speak with the lawyers at Mathis, Marifian, & Richter, LTD. Towards the end of the class period our class broke up into smaller groups to discuss and ask more questions. I really like how they did this because it gave me the opportunity to ask more about my individual business.
On Wednesday our class had a scheduled all day work where we met at Precision Practice Management at our regularly scheduled time and really put in the physical work of the class fundraiser like constructing the decorations as in the mini fountains. We also had students go out into the Belleville region to solicit sponsorships, booths, or donations.
To end the week we all met back at PPM to speak with Ms. Erica Barnell who is the CEO and founder of Geneoscopy. Ms. Barnell showed me how competition with a company can be a good and bad thing. She described her competition with her company and explained how she’s not skeptical because she feels her business is more evolved and more complex.
01/27/2017
Starting off the week on Tuesday with a work day at Precision Practice Management, our class discussed the decorations of our class fundraiser and set up a budget on how much we can spend on the decorations.
On Wednesday our class met at Precision Practice Management again to speak with Ms. JoAnn DiMaggio-May and Deborah Bowman to discuss and make corrections to our class business plan and to start speaking more about our personal businesses. We also spoke and learned a little about SCORE. The SCORE Program is a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground and gain growth. While personally speaking to Mrs. Bowman I learned that I need to start planning into the future and make future predictions on where I want to be in 5-10 years from now.
On Thursday, Our class met at The Edge to talk to Keith and Mary Dahm-Schell. The Edge started off as a small laser tag arena which grew into a movie theater/restaurant and soon to have an eight lane bowling alley with go-carts. The Edge business is growing rapidly and steadily due to investing back into the company and because of how different they are than any other business around Belleville. The Edge provides services that no other business can provide like the dinner delivery while watching a movie in their theater. This provides interest towards customers
On Friday our class met back at Precision Practice Management to discuss a little more on individual roles during our class fundraiser. Our two CEO’s sat everyone down personally to discuss what that one individual can do to make our class fundraiser more worthy towards our investors and the customers that attend the event. We also discussed a little more on our personal businesses and where we stand with them.
01/20/2017
Starting off our week on Monday at Barcom meeting with Mr. John Perles from Midland Institute. I really enjoyed the activity where the class split in small groups where Mr. Perles instructed us to pass/throw multiple bean bags between our group which showed me a lot about teamwork and communication and how important it really is. Once one person dropped or made a mistake it affected the whole group which could’ve been avoided if we communicated more.
Having a work day on Tuesday our class discussed a little more on the flyers and sponsorships/booth ideas. The class has had a lot of “work days” lately and personally I feel we need to spend more time going out and searching for sponsors and vendors for our class fundraiser. I feel that time is running out and we need to be a little bit more organized money wise and layout wise.
Meeting at FKG Oil and Moto Mart on Wednesday to meet and speak with Mr. Todd Badgley. Mr. Badgley showed me that being different or unique from everything else is a way to strive. He used an example of his MotoMarts coffee after I asked the question of how he competes with bigger companies like Circle K, QT, and Caseys. He showed how their coffee is named Mojoe’s private blend. Having this name on the coffee cups hooks and reels people in with interest and curiosity.
On Thursday, our class split into groups and visited different businesses to ask for donations, sponsorships, and vendors for the fundraiser. While each group had their own designated places my group visited The Abbey, Ace Hardware, Napa Auto Parts, and Target. We received two gift card donations from Ace Hardware and one from The Abbey. Our class agreed that it’s less likely to get a donation/sponsor out of a big corporation than out of a smaller business.
Ending the week on Friday our class had another work day at Barcom where we discussed the businesses that we visited on Thursday for sponsorships and brainstormed on how we could improve for next time and also spoke on scheduling a whole day of seeking for sponsorships instead of just a class period. We also read a little bit out of Craig Lindvahl’s book.
12/09/2016
This week of the CEO program ends early on Wednesday due to our instructor being at IBEA in Springfield on Thursday and for not having school on Friday due to Veterans Day. On Monday our class met at Barcom to have a work day and to speak with Michael Crotty. On Tuesday class met a Fletcher’s Kitchen and Tap to speak with Derek Betz. On Wednesday the CEO class was back at Barcom to speak with Cheryl Mitchell of Midland Institute.
Starting off the week on Monday with a work day at Barcom. As scheduled our class invited Mr. Michael Crotty over to Barcom to discuss the decor of the class business. Mr. Crotty brought in a concept model of the mini fountains that we will have on each table. He also tipped us on a way to advertise our sponsorships on the mini fountains which is really important because it builds trust and relations between the sponsoring businesses and our class by proving that investing in our class is a great way of advertisement.
Tuesday morning meeting at Fletcher’s Kitchen and Tap to speak with part owner Derek Betz. I picked up that when running a business you have to be invested financially and physically into your company. I learned that you have to invest your profits back into your business in order for it to really strive and compete. Being invested in your business physically means putting in the hours and showing your staff the way it should be done.
Ending the week early on Wednesday by speaking with Cheryl Mitchell who is currently the Executive Director of Midland Institute. Ms. Mitchell taught me that anything is possible when you really set your mind to something. She used Craig Lindvahl as an example telling us how he used to be a third grade music teacher to where he’s at now and how he’s made an impact in this world.
11/11/2016
Second week at Barcom security starts off on Monday with a visit to Rauckman Utility Products. On Tuesday our class met at Barcom to discuss our class business plan. On Wednesday our class listened to Mr. Neal Eilers about his self-employed business of Super Bit Kicks. On Thursday our class met back at Barcom and had another work day to discuss class shirts and our class business plan.
On Monday our class met at Rauckman Utilities to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Rauckman about what really goes on the inside and took a tour around the factory. While listening to Mr. Rauckman speaking I learned the importance of investing into your company. Mr. Rauckman Explained how he invested into buying a 3D printing machine and how it really wasn’t needed at his factory but it would save him money in the long run.
On Tuesday our class met at Barcom to discuss our class business plan. Our class introduced a business plan which we discussed in class. We took votes on the subjects like voting for the location which was the Scottish Rite building.
On Wednesday Mr. Neal Eilers came to Barcom to discuss his self-employed business called Super Bit Kicks. Mr. Eilers taught me that when starting a business your product doesn’t have to be “the next iphone” as in the next big thing. He taught me that a product can be based off of another product like how he customizes name brand shoes and sells them for a profitable price.
On Thursday our class met back at Barcom to discuss putting in an order for our sponsored t-shirts and to discuss our class business plan. Starting off Thursday talking about putting in an order for the sponsored t-shirts. We also made some decisions over our class business plan and also made committees for setting up the whole fundraiser.
10/28/2016
First week at Barcom Security for our CEO program starts off on Monday at Barcom to get a feel for our new main workplace. On Tuesday we met back at Barcom to listen to Mr. Charles Fike on tax preparations. On Wednesday our class met back at Barcom again to meet and speak with Mr. Hamilton Callison about the importance accounting. On Thursday our class met at the Shrine then moved to the Scottish Rites to figure out a location for our class business. On Friday our class took a bus to Collinsville to listen to special guest speaker Peter Maer during a Nicol Convention.
On Monday our class met at Barcom Security to get a feel for our new workplace and to discuss our class business more.
On Tuesday class met at Barcom again to speak with Mr. Charles Fike who is owner of Charles Fike LLC Rafeedie. Mr. Charles Fike is a tax preparer who taught me the importance of knowing when to listen. Mr. Fike explained how what he does is basically give out advice to other people and businesses to help pay for their taxes. He explains the importance of help by giving examples of business that fell into a hole by not accepting help from his company
On Wednesday once again our class met at Barcom to meet Mr. Hamilton Callison who is an accountant for the Breakthru Beverage Group. The Breakthru Beverage Group is an alcohol distributing company which is very much against underage drinking which is very important in the alcohol industry. Mr. Callison gave all of the students three examples of client lists that does business with their company and explained each of them and how they are important to a company.
On Thursday our class met at The Shrine and later moved to the Scottish Rite to try and figure out the best location for our class business. While the Shrine was a great location and good representation of our CEO class the rooms were a little too small. While visiting the Scottish Rite our class really likes the layout of the Scottish Rite building which includes a big indoor fountain that would be perfect for our theme and a room that was bigger and more visual for our type of convention.
On Friday the CEO class took a trip to Collinsville to attend a Nicol convention to listen to Mr. Peter Maer who was a special guest speaker. What I learned from the Nicol convention was the importance of hard work. I learned this when Mr. Kevin Nicol had a pamphlet that said “the secret of how to make money” and when opened it said “go to work”. This pamphlet was made as a joke but at the same time it taught me that working hard will pay off.
10/21/2016
This week was our last week of Allsup being our homebase. Next week our class will start at Barcom security. During this week our CEO class had two last days at Allsup and we visited Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce and Peer 151.
On Tuesday our class met at Allsup to speak with Mr. Brian Mentzer about his family business. Mr. Mentzer told us about all of the businesses that he has invested into and how they’ve benefited himself and his family. While Mr. Mentzer was speaking i learned the importance of quality in a product. He was telling us how he invested into a car wash and was explaining how he had to replace a hands free car wash machine because of how out dated the current one was. By doing this it brought in both customers and revenue.
On Wednesday our class visited Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce and talked to Wendy Pfeil. While listening to Wendy Pfeil i learned the importance of community interests. This Chamber of Commerce encourages the growth of existing businesses and helps build trust and relationships between businesses and the community which generally advances the quality of life in Belleville.
On Thursday Our class met at Peer 151 spoke with Chris Oswald and Kurt Artinger. Peer 151 is a business to help other businesses get started by being able to rent a room as a workspace. This business helps other business get started. A co-working space is a great way to get a business started in many ways one being saving money on a workspace for a company.
Sadly this Friday was our last day being at Allsup. Our class met here to discuss more on our class business. We discussed on location, time and date, and our class shirts. Our class have decided to go to Curt Smiths to get our regular and collared CEO shirts. We have also decided on making the event from 4-7 pm but haven’t figured out a date or location.
10/14/2016
Week seven of this year’s Belleville CEO Program was a success. This week our class took a field trip to St. Louis and had four great days at Allsup. On Monday our class visited St. Louis at SLUH for the independent youth TrepStart day. On Tuesday class met at Allsup where Ms. Jo Ann DiMaggio-May from SIUE came to talk to us about business plans. On Wednesday we were stationed at Allsup again to have a class work day to go over our class business and discuss other ideas. On Thursday our class had a meet and greet with some of our sponsors at Allsup.
On Monday the Belleville CEO Class took a field trip to St. Louis to visit SLUH where the 2016 TrepStart Day was partaking. Upon arriving at SLUH I was amazed to see how many other CEO classes were there and how our class differed from others. While listening to Maxim Clark who is founder and CEO of Build a Bear Workshops and the keynote speaker of the convention I learned that nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it. For example when I listened to Mrs. Clark telling us a little bit about herself before she founded Build a Bear and she was explaining how she working for someone else for a while and started to lose interest in her job and realized that she wanted to be her own boss so she and a friend started a business together which is now known as Build a Bear Workshops.
On Tuesday our class met at Allsup to meet with Ms. Jo Ann DiMaggio-May from SIUE to talk to us about business plan and how they are made and to go over some of the business plans that some of the students have made already. Ms. Jo Ann really taught us the importance of a business plan and why they are needed. She explained if I wanted to start my own business that a business plan is a great way to get a loan from the bank and to show them how they’re money will be used and how they will be paid back.
On Wednesday our class met back up at Allsup to have a work day to discuss our class business and other little topics. Over the last weekend a couple of the students in our class tend to “bang heads” or argue about some comments that were made and some opinions that were shared. To solve this problem our instructor left the room for a while so that the class can talk freely about the incidents that went on in our class group chat over the weekend. I feel this strategy really helped some of the students get some frustration out and speak what was on their minds and it teaches the students how to handle situations on their own instead of someone else doing it. Our class resolved the issues and went back to working on our class business.
On Thursday our class met with some of the sponsors with a “meet and greet” at Allsup. I really like the idea of the meet and greet because it really helps us find something in common with some of the sponsors and it helps us get a good idea of who the best mentor would be for yourself for the mentoring program. I met a man who has the same interests as me and could potentially help me a lot with getting started for my personal business.
10/07/2016
During this week of the Belleville CEO program our class visited one striving business and had four great days at Allsup. On Monday we met at Allsup and discussed our class business and chose our class leaders. On Tuesday we met at Auffenberg Auto Mall and spoke with Jamie Auffenberg. On Wednesday our class met back at Allsup and broke into groups to create ideas for our class business. On Thursday we were at Allsup again and Amanda Guinn from SWIC came to sign us up for dual credit. On Friday our class had a meet and greet with our sponsors for our mentoring program.
During the sixth week of our CEO program on Monday we met at Allsup to discuss our class business and where the location should be. We have a lot of great locations to pick from so we have decided to look at the locations before we make a decision. We have chosen to have Tim and Stephen as CEO and CFO of our class business.
On Tuesday, we met at Auffenberg Auto Mall and talked to Jamie Auffenberg about the importance of location and customer satisfaction. Mr. Auffenberg talked about the importance of location and why he changed the location of his business. He described how each dealership has a range of customer and how changing his location was a good business decision. Mr. Auffenberg also described how customer satisfaction was important because most of his customers are “returning customers” as in if someone buys a car from him they are more likely to come back for another car in the future or normal maintenance repairs.
On Wednesday we met at Allsup again where we broke into groups to create ideas for our class business. We had groups of four and each group had their own topic. Our four topics were venue, food, and booths. For the booths and foods topic we’ve came up with the idea of each booth bringing in samples and products to sell.
On Thursday, our class met at Allsup and had Amanda Guinn from SWIC come to us and talk about dual credit classes. By signing up for the CEO program which is a college course class, we can get dual credit.
On Friday, our class had a meet and greet with our class sponsors for our mentoring program. The mentoring program is where everyone gets assigned a mentor which is someone from each of our sponsors. I discussed a lot of ideas and questions with all of the sponsors but I have two that I really feel have a lot in common with me and think like me.
09/30/2016
During week six of the CEO program our class visited three very successful businesses. On Tuesday we visited Kurrus Funeral home to talk with Mr. Dale Kurrus, on Wednesday we met at Memorial Hospital and spoke with CEO and President Mark turner and CFO Mike McManus, and on Thursday we talked to Assistant Superintendent of District 201 Brian Mentzer at Union School.
On Monday we met at Allsup to talk more about our badge project and when we are going to set the order in to get them made. We also talked about our class business and what theme we would have. Our class has decided on taking on the theme of “Around the fountain” meaning historical landmarks around Belleville and the fountain being the one in downtown Belleville.
On Tuesday we talked to Dale Kurrus at Kurrus Funeral Home. Even though people don’t look at a funeral home as a money making business it is still ran like one. Mr. Kurrus was very cheerful even though working at a funeral home probably isn’t a very fun job. Throughout the presentation he was constantly making jokes and trying to keep things exciting. Having a good personality is a huge part of running a successful business especially in a job as running a funeral home.
On Wednesday we visited Memorial Hospital where we met Anne Thomure who is the Hospital/Community Relations Director. Mrs. Thomure told us a little about what she does as for her job then she took us to meet CEO and President Mark Turner and CFO Mike McManus. These two men talked a lot about how they run the hospital being how big it really is. I asked how they keep track of everything in a business that is so big and they explained to me how they have all different people working for them running their own department.
On Thursday we went to visit the students at Union School and to hear from Assistant Superintendent of District 201 Brian Mentzer. Mr. Mentzer told us a lot about how to make money when there is none to spend. He explained to us how advertising a great way to raise money is. After Mr. Mentzer was done talking to us our class had a “walk and talk” with the students of Union School. Seeing how the kids act reminds me of myself when I was younger. I gave the kids advice and guidance for when they get older.
On Friday we met back up at Allsup to talk more about our badge project. We have chosen a style and the order for the badges locked in. We also talked about what types of shirts we are going to have made for our class and our sponsors. We decided on making a regular black t-shirt with our sponsors logos on the back, a dark grey collared polo with our CEO emblem, and last we are getting long sleeve white quarter zip ups with our emblem for our class.
09/23/2016
On Tuesday, we visited Holland Construction Services where we talked to Mike Marchal who gave a tour of the building and gave us advice on how an office should look. He started out talking to us about how he became president of the business and where he first started off. He then started talking about honesty and how he doesn’t allow problems in the office between workers. Mr. Marchal explained how if a coworker has a problem with another coworker for any reason at all they should just talk to that person so that they can resolve that issue.
On Thursday, we all met at District 201 Central Office where we talked to Dr. Jeff Dosier. Dr. Dosier passed around all of the years from Belleville East and West starting from when the school’s first opened. After looking through the yearbooks Dr. Dosier told us to look and notice how the yearbooks have progressed and evolved and made a connection with business. He explained how businesses need to constantly change and grow just like how the yearbooks change and update every year.
09/16/2016
During this week I learned the importance of customers and community. We heard from Brett and Kevin Baltz at Egyptian Stationers and from Geri Boyer at Kaskaskia Engineering. Both businesses showed me how important the community that your company is surrounded by can be. We also heard from Ed Hoering from Clifton/Larson Allen LLP.
Geri Boyer from Kaskaskia Engineering told us how they connect with the community and why it’s important. They gave us a tour of the whole place and showed us all of their products. They told us how their business works and how they sell. Brett and Kevin helped me understand the importance of being in a community and the benefits of giving back to the community. Both of these businesses are located in Downtown Belleville so they share the same ideas and concepts of giving back to the community. Both of these businesses help with the festivals or celebrations that Belleville have like October Fest. Helping these festivals or events is basically advertising their company’s name.
On Friday our class visited Santa Claus, Indiana where we went to the very popular theme park Holiday World. There were 135 students from all different schools at holiday world that were all a part of the CEO program. We had a presentation from some of the workers basically telling us how the business started and how they continue to strive. Holiday world is owned and operated by the Koch family and was opened in 1946. Holiday World continues to compete with other major theme parks like Universal and Disneyland because of the differences they have. Holiday world is the cleanest theme park in America. They also have free fountain soda unlike the other major theme parks which makes them different from any other park. This is one way how the park attracts people which is very important for a business to survive. Being the cleanest theme park in America proves that the staff and operators really do care about the business which really attracts business and customers.
As the week came to an end and we were on the way home from Holiday World I got to thinking about what the future has in store for me. Then I started to think that I have the opportunity to make my own future and by listening to these operators of these major businesses I know I can strive even when I fail.
09/02/2016