Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Oct. 10, 2018, edition 1 / Page 11
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budding entrepreneurs Two Elon seniors create a space to sell student-made products Wai Alexandra Schonfeld Elon ftews Network! @ascfionfeld906 In hope of turning societal expec tations of whats important in coUege on its head, senior Ryan McElhinney began brainstorming ways to elevate and support students’ creativity. Since his freshman year, McEl hinney looked around and no ticed students’ ^ creative endeav- . " ors often had to take a backseat to make way for JjL busy schedules and homework . I “I started to Ryan McElhinney see some stu- & Lindsay Reeth ^^^ts who were involved in really what struck me as just really cool, creative endeavors — passions,” McElhinney said. “I started to think, it doesn’t seem like there is a whole lot of time,or importance put on these sort of things during college.” After taking the course Philoso phy of Leadership, where he was re quired to come up with a leadership initiative, McElhinneys idea for the student-made store only strength ened and soon would come to frui tion with help from his co-founder and girlfriend, Lindsay Reeth. He was talking about this project, and he was always talking about it as an idea,’’ Reeth said. ‘And I was like, why can’t it happen? Let’s try” Last fall, the duo began figuring out logistically what needed to hap pen in order to facilitate an event where student makers and sellers could come to offer their goods to file Elon community. The idea was to allow students who may not even consider their hobby as a business opportunity, the platform to make a profit from an activity they enjoy. Last year’s event, which show cased 15 sellers and brought in hun- reds of students, took place in the final weeks of the fall semester. Reeth and McElhinney hope to replicate the ^vent this semester with a tentative date of Dec. 7. w “ [It ended up being] exactly what we expected it to be,” Reeth said. “I think we achieved our goal of mak ing it an event and a storefront rath er than just a little thing that people peep in to see what’s going on.” But the event was almost unable to happen after Reeth and McEl hinney received an email from Elon administrators saying that because of a standing contract with Barnes & Noble, no other group was allowed to sell goods other than food on campus. After a meeting to try and resolve the issue, the administrators suggested what they saw as the only alternative: talk to the manager at Barnes & Noble and see if she would allow the student-made store to run out of her store-front for a percentage of the profit. “The next week, we went to her, and turns out she was an art major and everything in coUege and totally bought into everything we were do ing and loved it and was like, This is great, best of luck, hope you have a blast,”’ McElhinney said “So we went back to the people and were like, we’re doing it.” The event was catered and dec orated, resulting in some overhead AjL .i'' /fsim F ^ »/5 s ■> *5 II THE PROFIT IS THE EXPERIENCE AND THE JOYFROMIINOTTHE FINANCES THAT WE GAINED. RYAN MCELHINNEY SENIOR, CO-FOUNDER OF STUDENT-MADE STORE costs that were not initially consid ered. Because of that, McElhinney and Reeth asked for 10 percent of the seller’s profit last year. But, for them, it’s not about the money. “The profit is the experience and the joy from it, not the finances that we gained,” McElhinney said. “This year, we are upping the invitation and the interest in it and everything, so we started to think, ‘do we want to break even with this?’ Is that some thing that is reasonable? So we are thinking of taking more like 20 per cent this year.” The biggest takeaway for McEl hinney and Reeth, and what adds to the excitement of getting to do it all over again this semester, is the con fidence they saw burst from budding entrepreneurs who participated in the student-made store. Reeth said there were many exam ples of students who had kept their passions restricted to their dorm rooms or never considered that what they did could be appreciated by oth ers. In particular, she remembers a student who made friendship brace lets in her free time. She was appre hensive about selling her bracelets and was worried that they were not PHOTOS COURTESY OF STUDENT-MADE STORE FACEBOOK PAGE Top left: Blair Foreman ’18 and Carly Hudson ’18 show off hand-stitched hats that were so/d at the student-made store showcase fast fall. Top right: Hanna Naering '18 chats with student customers about her artwork at the student-made store showcase last fall. Left: Claire Anderson ’18 showcased her artworks and crafts at the student-made store showcase last fall. “good enough to sell.” Reeth pushed back and asked if the process of mak ing them made her feel good and if she thought that feeling would be shared by her buyers. “‘Oh definitely, this reminds me of camp,’ [the girl responded], and I said, ‘Then what is the negative here? How would that ever be a bad thing?’ And she sold out,” Reeth said. “She was selling friendship bracelets, and I think it shows that you can do any thing. No craft is too little or too big. It’s all great.” In the beginning stages of plan ning for the store, the team consid ered it being a more consistent event but quickly realized the hurdles that would come into play. This year, they’ve started a website where buy ers can contact sellers throughout the year so their business is not restrict ed to just one date. The website will also help McElhinny and Reeth stay involved after they graduate in May. So what’s in the name? Is it just “student-made store?” Yes. The founders said while they debated coming up with a more creative name, the name “student-made store” just stuck. What started as a passion proj ect has turned into a full-fledged business that has helped foster “en trepreneurship spirits” in many stu dents. The 25 sellers so far who have agreed to appear at this year’s event include photographers, painters, a student who customizes longboards and even a student who has her own eyebrow threading business. “It’s work if you want to call it work,” McElhinny said. “But hope fully, it’s the farthest thing from that.”
Elon University Student Newspaper
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Oct. 10, 2018, edition 1
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