First Business Endeavors of Junior Achievement Student Companies

Thursday, 02 October 2008 16:29

For most of the high-school students participating in the Junior Achievement program in seven southern municipalities throughout the 2007/2008 school year, it was the first time that they received proper training in business economics, entrepreneurship, financial management, and marketing. Through the JA program, these young people gained an understanding of business concepts and obtained hands-on experience in running their own businesses by establishing student-run companies.

 “I am absolutely convinced that the skill-sets acquired through their participation in the program will help them in their future career, regardless of whether they start their own business or work for an employer,” said Michael Pillsbury, USAID’s Preparedness, Planning and Economic Security program director, at the student company regional finals competition in Kopaonik, held in June this year.

Making partnerships
At the onset of the program, students are tasked with the responsibility to come up with profitable business ideas for their companies. In their effort to determine the most lucrative venture, fifty members of Novi Pazar General High School’s company “Play” decided to pursue several business activities: a school coffee club, a creative workshop were students designed hand-made crafts, touristically orientated promotional marketing material, and organizing school entertainment events. The majority of the company’s revenues were generated from the creative workshop’s sales of the hand-made bags and other decorative souvenirs, which the students presented at the 5th International Fashion Fair in Novi Pazar (28-30 March).

“After our board of directors analyzed all our business’ performances, we realized that the creative workshop had become more profitable then we had expected, despite the fact that we invested more time and energy into the school coffee club, so we decided to change our business strategy and concentrated our efforts on the creative workshop,” said Ilda Koca, manager of the workshop. Impressively, in a very short period of time (from February to June), the company managed to forge business partnerships with numerous local companies: Rekic (a trade company), Hit and Etiketa (a print shop), Stig (a textile company), Panama Jack (a footwear store), as well as VIP (a mobile operator).

Business spirit and warm hearts
Mentors of the “White Team” Company from Novi Pazar’s Secondary Medical School, Nermin Dražanin and Enis Jerebicanin, helped students start-up and run a business. The forty-two students decided to focus the company’s activities on what they were most familiar with and opted to make drawings of body organs as seen in medical books. Lacking start-up capital for the business, they collected left over shards of glass from a recently renovated kindergarten and recycled it, and then used the finished glass to frame their large medical drawings. This action dramatically reduced the company’s costs to produce its products and resulted in a larger profit margin for the company. Just as their colleagues from “Play” Company, they presented their products at the 5th Fashion Fair in Novi Pazar and sold three pictures on the spot for 4,500 RSD each. The students hard work during the fair awarded them new business contracts, as two business owners, one a local optometrist and the other a Turkish businessman, ordered custom drawings, which educated the students about an important business lesson—responding to market demands.   

In another effort to apply their medical knowledge to make a profit, the students organized a blood-pressure measuring stand on a major pedestrian street during Women’s Day.  “This activity proved to be a very practical experience for the students, as they learned how to treat and interact with future patients that they, one day, will have to professionally treat patients upon finishing medical school,” said Nermin Dražanin. Many of the students desired to donate part of their proceeds to a charity, and organized a donation collection of second-hand toys, which they later donated to a Hospital in Novi Pazar. The White Team’s victory at the municipal MESE contest (an interactive internet-based game that teaches students to make business decisions in multiple business scenarios) shows their business prowess; and, the MESE game itself, is yet another great reason why students enjoy participating in the Junior Achievement program.