PCI's Entrepreneurs Showcase Their Ideas In Portage

Portage Collegiate Institute's Entrepreneurial Showcase was yesterday. The event was held at the Prince Charles Building in the Multi-Purpose Room.

"The kids were tasked with coming up with a business idea and then following through with it," says Sean Hopps, Business Education Teacher at PCI. "So they've spent some time coming up with different ideas, brainstorming, testing, seeing what works and what doesn't, and now they've settled on an idea and rolled with it for the last couple of months. Now they've taken the products and they'll see how they could do in an actual trade show environment."

Several stands were set up by students with samples, and information for anyone interested. Grade 12 student Gareth Rice's business is based on his piano ability.

"What I'm offering is to sell my services as a piano player around Portage. So I'll play at different events and I'll tailor my genre and piano to the type of event that is going to be showcased. I took the course because I wanted to know more about business, and to learn more about what I could do when I'm done high school, and to learn the different ins and outs of the business world."

Portage and District Chamber of Commerce President Preston Meier took in the event. He was really impressed with all the students' ideas and hard work.

"It gives students that business insight of maybe how a business runs, or how some of the startups work. To see some of the ideas the kids have come up with is really neat. What I like more than that is a lot of the students have business plans. I've seen cash flow projections, some business plans, extrapolation of the numbers, and it's neat. Especially for Grade 11 and 12 students to learn that and have that key early in life can carry them onto that entrepreneurial spirit very quickly."

Another business was Coltart Car Detailing.

"I'm an interior car detailing service and I come to your place..." says Layne Coltart. "...and for about two hours I'll clean the inside of your vehicle. For a truck of a car, I charge around 60 to 80 and a larger van around 80 to 100 dollars. Cost goes up if you live out of town or if the vehicle is more dirty than normal.

Darius Stevens' business is a clothing and accessories line called Metis Made.

"I take fur and leather coats that I get from places like the MCC and I repurpose them into mukluks and moccasins and in the future mittens and things like that. I think it's a great way to keep the materials out of the landfills, and it's beautiful fur going to waste. Instead of killing more animals we can reuse the fur that's out there."

"My business is called Marbled and it's custom cup design," says Emily Capner. "I buy inexpensive cups and make them colourful, I put a spin on something boring so it's very fun. My goal is to expand it to turn it into something like a paint night and then guide people instead of teaching them how to make one. I'll let people have free artistic control over what they do, just teach them how to work with the product."

Regional Campus Manager for Red River College's Portage la Prairie campus Guy Moffat stopped by. He felt the students did an outstanding job.

"I'm truly amazed at some of the ingenuity of some of the entrepreneurs here and the thought and amount of work that they put into their business plans. There's definitely a number of ideas and businesses here that I can see really taking hold and being profitable for these kids for a summer job, and even further than that."

Hopps adds he's really looking forward to how the future will look with some of the Grade 11, 10 and 9 students that are coming into the program after seeing what these students have done.