A group of ambitious middle- and high-school students presented business proposals ranging from hair bows that glow in the dark to homemade sugar-free pound cakes for people with diabetes, but the winner of this year’s Biz Camp competition at the Moses Jackson Advancement Center was a young entrepreneur whose sales pitch and enthusiasm captured the judge’s attention.
Eleven-year-old Marquis Elam’s lawn care business not only undercut his competition, but it also offered an additional service — thatching.
“That’s what makes me unique,” the rising sixth-grader at Bethesda Academy said Friday in his presentation. “I will go the extra mile to do a good job.”
With prices starting at a very reasonable $15 per lawn and a polished sales pitch that belied his age, Marquis took the top prize of $100 in seed money to help kick-start his new enterprise.
A panel of six judges from business, education and government scored the kids in the three-hour competition that wrapped up the week-long Biz Camp, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and hosted by Savannah State University and the city of Savannah.
Rachel Knight took second place — and $75 — for her proposed business, Alien Tatts, which featured
her own designs and inks. The $50 third place prize went to a pair of would-be DJs. Delvickieo Miles Jr. and Michael Elam write their own
music and lyrics designed to inspire at-risk youngsters and “help them stay off the streets,” Miles said.
Under the tutelage of Newberry College business professor Paul Smith, who led the workshop for the second year, each of the aspiring entrepreneurs created a slide presentation that described his or her business plan, including the name, the marketing plan, financials and reasons they thought they would succeed.
On Friday afternoon, they presented their proposals and answered questions from the judges.
Before the competition, Smith offered a sobering statistic — 50 percent of minority youths drop out of high school.
“But 81 percent said they wouldn’t drop out if high school was more relevant to real life,” he added, pointing to the award-winning curriculum created by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and used for the workshop.
“Helping students understand how they can turn their good ideas into successful businesses is a great incentive for keeping them on track.”
Smith was the 2009 recipient of NFTE’s entrepreneurial teacher of the year award.