It’s never too early to start thinking about starting your own business.

Heck, you don’t even need to have graduated high school.

This fact was demonstrated by a group of Cass County high school students who participated in the 11th annual Young Entrepreneurs Day Tuesday, hosted on the grounds of Cassopolis’ Edward Lowe Foundation retreat center. Business students from Dowagiac Union High School, Ross Beatty Jr./Sr. High School, Edwardsburg High School and Marcellus High School made the trip that morning, where they presented business proposals they had been working on in class to area professionals.

In addition, the teenagers participated in leadership and team building exercises that staff at the foundation teach to CEOs and business owners from around the globe on a regular basis.

The program has been sponsored for more than a decade by the Lewis Cass ISD as part of their efforts to expose area students to experiences they won’t typically find in the classroom.

As many of the students present at the event attested to, Young Entrepreneurs Day gave them a new perspective on the amount of work and planning that goes into starting your own business. Even something as simple as opening a bookstore or restaurant requires lots of thinking about financials, strategies and goals, which all must be laid out and presented in an appealing package in order to capture the interest of possible investors.

Entrepreneurship is not something that is focused on heavily that early into a student’s education, so it’s refreshing to see the ISD and Lowe Foundation continue to partner to offer this event to students.

Even those who chose to pursue a more traditional means of making a living after finishing their education will benefit from the lessons taught to them Tuesday, like managing money and resources, working with others to achieve a common goal and learning to take the reigns in tough situations.

We hope that the students participating in Young Entrepreneurs Day got a lot of their experiences this week, and we look forward to seeing this unique event continue for years to come.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.