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Rewarding entrepreneurship
By Pete Wicklund
STURTEVANT - Look out, Bath and Body Works. You're about to get a run for a share of the personal care products business from a couple of high school seniors.
Trischia Hall and Stacy Sommerfeld, both seniors at Burlington High School, are the first winners of the Racine Small Business Development Center's "Youth Biz" competition. As winners selected from high school students from throughout the county, the girls received a $5,000 grant to launch Body Sensations Co., which will manufacture and market lip balm, solid perfumes and other products down the line.
This summer the girls are splitting their time between the chemistry production laboratories at BHS and the Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation in Sturtevant, where the Racine Small Development Center is based.
At CATI, the girls are receiving tips in putting together a business plan for their fledgling company. Brian Maastricht, a counselor at the small business development center, is serving as a mentor for the girls.
The girls received a primer in their venture through their enrollment in the chemical research and development course taught by Dave Kreutz at BHS. Kreutz's students a couple of years ago formed a company, BHS Chemicals, that markets custodial and cleaning supplies. Hall said that Body Sensations is technically a subsidiary of BHS Chemicals.
Both Hall, of Spring Prairie, and Sommerfeld, of Lyons, were group leaders in the chemical research course. The girls each bring their own unique background to their new venture, with the outgoing Hall concentrating on marketing and sales and Sommerfeld using her experiences from BHS Chemicals in quality control, formulating and performance testing working on the manufacturing end.
The duo has also enlisted three other students to help with the new venture: Heidi Ehlen, who is helping with advertising and logos; Carolyn Streiff, who is helping with manufacturing; and Amanda Willison, who is helping with research.
Sommerfeld and Hall are busy this summer working to try to secure retail outlets for their products. They already have tentative approval from Spiegelhoff's Pick 'N Save in Burlington to set up a product display. Trischia's dad, Scott Hall, national sales manager for Burlington-based Echo Lake Farm Produce, is helping to put Trischia in touch with his contacts at the Kwik Trip and Casey's General Store convenience store franchises. And John Kessler, a member of the Burlington Area School District Board of Education, has invited the girls to display their products at his Kenosha clock store.
They are also preparing a Powerpoint demonstration to present to local businesses and will have a booth set up in Wehmhoff Square Park on July 25-26 in downtown Burlington during the chamber of commerce's annual Maxwell Street Days promotion.
Cory Mason, director of the Small Business Development Center, hopes that the girl's venture will inspire other young entrepreneurs. His agency is working to try to secure a grant that would help expand the program, perhaps offering future Youth Biz awards to as many as three students or groups in a single year.
Mason believes that encouraging entrepreneurship among young people is a critical component to Racine County's future economic development.
"It's all about brain gains," Mason said. "If they (young people) don't see any future, why would they stay here? This is a great way to make them feel connected to their community."
While Sommerfeld and Hall are optimistic about their company's success, they are as of yet not yet abandoning their plans for post-high school education. Hall wants to serve as a missionary in South America, Africa or Russia and eventually pursue a degree in secondary education at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Sommerfeld is planning to pursue a chemical engineering degree at the University of Iowa, which she discovered has a program in entrepreneurial engineering.
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