How It Works

Students Stockholders own and manage a simple retail Kiosk in school.

• They sign an Owners' Agreement to form a Corporation, buy its stock,
  and work hard and smart together.
• They commit to shared goals (profits and dividends) and high standards
  (customer satisfaction and operating efficiency).
• Kiosks usually sell one or two products ? what Owners decide and schools permit, e.g., flowers, snacks, supplies, stuffed animals, gift baskets.
• Kiosks may be started with $100 and are always profitable:
  Owners know what customers want and how much they'll pay for it.

"I tried to make it their business and allow them to succeed or fail."

 

?The emphasis on stock is excellent. Students are working for themselves, not me.?

Owners' Responsibilities

Student Owners do everything retailers do:

• select products to sell and set prices to charge
• maintain inventory, keep the books, sell, and work in and manage teams
• conduct research, present data, make decisions, and solve problems
• read business articles and write advertisements, letters, and memoranda
• calculate profit margins, sales, dividends, and return on investment
• evaluate customer satisfaction and operating efficiency

"They made the decisions: what to sell, when and how to sell it, the price. 
I taught them the various jobs, coordinated the schedule, circulated, coached."

Guide and Manuals

The teacher's CEO's Guide^? and students' Owner's Manual^? make business savvy easy to teach and fun to learn.

• The Guide's Orientation describes curriculum instructional and business strategies and provides Startup Planning and Administration checklists.
• CEOs teach and Owners learn, practice, and use step-by-step Corporate Procedures (skills checklists with performance standards).
• Structured learning and earning take place in Workshops for instruction and practice, Conferences for management, and Sales for retail operations.

"The way it's presented is user-friendly for teachers, and not too much for students."

"I looked through entrepreneur books and it's just all technical things.
Hands-on is so much better."

Flexibility and Adaptability

The curriculum fosters an enterprising learning environment:

• in social studies, English, math, business, and career planning classes
• in vocational, special education, and alternative programs
• as an extended-day, supplemental, or summer program
• as a dropout prevention strategy
• as an in-school alternative to workplace learning
• as the foundation for school-based enterprises, virtual businesses
  or simulations, and entrepreneurship education

Local businesspeople can mentor teacher CEOs and student Owners.

Continued