Area college students pitch innovative business ideas for funding
4 min readJEFFERSON Town — A company pitch to preserve cremated stays as ceramic artwork received a Fulton higher education scholar more than enough dollars to protect startup fees.
Paige Brennecke, a freshman at Westminster Higher education and William Woods College, pitched her company strategy for Cremation Creations and won the Callaway Chamber of Commerce’s to start with Exhibit Me Innovation Collegiate Pitch Opposition on Tuesday. The small business enterprise will develop ceramic artwork and coloration it with glaze incorporating cremated remains.
“I surely was not expecting it,” Brennecke said about winning the competitors and $2,000. “It’s awesome — I just cannot wait around to get started off.”
From mobile latte artwork to natural natural beauty and wellbeing items, four pupil finalists from Lincoln University, Westminster and William Woods pitched a vast vary of smaller small business strategies to a panel of judges Tuesday. Most were targeted on addressing requirements they see in their group.
Urns are melancholy and burials are costly, Brennecke pointed out as aspect of her pitch, so there is a marketplace for a more charming way of preserving cremated ashes. She advised the expert services could be offered for pet stays as properly.
As the winner, Brennecke was awarded $2,000 to assistance include startup charges for her new organization. She claimed she’ll use the money to get a pottery wheel, materials and start out marketing her companies.
As the sole personnel, Brennecke would receive the customer’s ashes by using mail. She then produces the customized buy, which can include things like pots, vases or just about any other ceramic fantastic, and mixes the ashes with glaze to color the ceramic items. Customers can opt for any colour and integrate a structure of their preference. She then mails them the finished item and any remaining ashes that are leftover.
Cremation Creations will be a part of a increasing industry of enterprises obtaining imaginative utilizes for ashes, Brennecke stated, this sort of as businesses that integrate cremated stays into fireworks, trees, blown glass and diamonds.
Brennecke claimed it was a nerve-wracking knowledge to pitch her plan, but she was grateful for it.
“It’s a relief,” she stated. “I did not know how I was heading to do it prior to and now that I have the funds, I can really make it come about.”
Brennecke’s new company was a single of various student-led projects addressing an unmet want in the community, mentioned Lauren Carter, director of the Missouri Smaller Company Improvement Center at Lincoln.
“After sitting down with the learners and functioning on their pitches together and observing how passionate they were about their ideas and firms, it was practically intellect-blowing,” Carter claimed. “It was an amazing experience to see them form of go from obtaining an idea to truly using the ways to get it started.”
Doing the job as a result of the Small Organization Enhancement Heart, Carter aided mentor college students on how to pitch their tips and kind organization versions. Every single scholar arrived up with the thought on their possess just before registering for the contest.
One of the initially questions she asked was why they have been undertaking it.
“The solutions that we received had been so authentic and they all had some genuine passionate motivators behind it, and it was commonly lifetime working experience,” Carter stated.
Daelynn Stock, a college student at William Woods College, noticed a require for additional cell coffee selections that are available to the deaf group in Fulton.
Woman Dae’s, Stock’s idea for a cell cafe operate out of a renovated horse trailer, gained second put and she took residence $1,000 for her new business enterprise.
Stock is learning American Signal Language and interpreting at William Woods and wants to use her means to communicate with ASL to arrive at associates of the deaf community who obtain classic coffee venues difficult to navigate.
“With acquiring the Missouri College for the Deaf in Fulton, there’s a substantial deaf neighborhood, and I would like to open up doors of accessibility for them by means of my small business,” she claimed.
Woman Dae’s will commence serving Missouri-built espresso, Lotus all-natural strength drinks and custom latte artwork in Fulton later on this yr, Inventory said. The cell coffee store will be geared up with a printer that produces tailor made photos in latte foam, these as the customer’s face.
Inventory stated she is continue to in the process of renovating the two-horse trailer she’ll serve beverages out of and she’ll use her $1,000 in winnings to invest in symptoms and internet marketing substance.
Brianna Kliethermes, tiny business liaison with the Callaway Chamber of Commerce, claimed it’s interesting to assist equip youthful entrepreneurs with the methods they require to begin their business enterprise journey.
Kliethermes claimed the business desired to increase its common innovation pitch competitors and host a contest precisely for faculty students due to the fact of the amount of suggestions coming from youthful entrepreneurs.
“We just want to grow that state of mind of entrepreneurship in our community,” she reported.
Kliethermes mentioned she wants to make the collegiate pitch level of competition an yearly event between Lincoln, Westminster and William Woods, and likely increase to integrate region substantial faculty students in another opposition.