To expand students’ knowledge on small businesses and entrepreneurship, Souderton now has an Entrepreneurship Club that will start in the second semester and will host guest speakers and activities.
Club founder and President Hannah Woodbury believes that the club will help teach students about marketing and the “fundamentals” of owning a small business.
“We will set goals, learn about finances and marketing techniques, and cross-evaluate each other. I also hope to have guest speakers of small business owners in the area,” Woodbury said.
Woodbury says the idea came to her after talking to her guidance counselor about her own small business.
“I created HCW Cards in June, 2020. I hand-paint watercolor greeting cards and sell them via social media and my website,” Woodbury said.
Club advisor Sue Newlin is excited to see how the club will inspire creativity and encouragement in between students who own or are interested in owning a small business.
“I am hoping to see creativity and I’m hoping to see kids working together and I’m looking to see people encourage other people and expand on new and creative ideas,” Newlin said.
Newlin said she is “very interested” in entrepreneurship because her father opened his own business at age 21 which has been passed down through generations in her family.
Club vice president Oisin Carolan says he is really looking forward to seeing what the club can accomplish and working with “like minded” people.
“I am so excited to be able to surround myself with other people with a similar business oriented mindset. The thought of being able to work together and aid each other with marketing and other aspects of our business is very exciting,” Carolan said.
Carolan also owns his own custom artwork business that he started over the summer.
“I create custom artwork that people commission me for. I work with canvases and I also repurpose old CDs and vinyl records. I mainly use acrylic paints, but also work with a variety of mediums to create collage pieces,” Carolan said.
The club will be meeting on a monthly basis with a different agenda each time. Woodbury hopes to structure the club with an opening speaker or activity, with plenty of time at the end for students to question and share ideas with each other.
Woodbury, Newlin and Carolan are all in agreement that they want to create their own community within the club that students will repeatedly come back to.
“I hope for our club to be a space that people commonly come to, not just a one-and-done attendance. I hope that we see a lot of faces at our meetings and people realize how beneficial speaking and collaborating with other business owners is,” Carolan said.
Newlin believes that the skills from owning a business are more important than skills at other employment jobs.
“I just love creativity and somebody saying, how can I make something of my own that’s really me, like take my talents and learn a way that my interests or my passions that I can make that into a business that other people want,” Newlin said.
Woodbury believes that the club will help to aid in the success of every individual that joins.