Published: June 11, 2009 11:47 am      

Teens present budding enterprises at Camp e3

What kind of business would you start with $50,000 to improve the quality of life in Effingham County?

Eleven area high school students were asked to answer that question by presenting business plans to a group of local businessmen and women during Camp e3 (energizing emerging entrepreneurs) presentations Wednesday. Camp e3 is an entrepreneur camp for students ages 14 to 18.

The green team made a pitch to open Green-Ham, a weekly pickup recycling business similar to weekly waste removal. They would charge $25 for the first month and $15 for each additional month.

“We are going to buy a truck and go to houses to collect papers, plastics and aluminum cans. We found out 77 percent of people would recycle if it was easy,” said Elizabeth Jansen, a junior at St. Anthony High School.

The orange team was thinking along the same line as the green team. In fact, both teams nearly made a pitch for the same kind of business.

“Originally, we would do a trash and recycling pickup until we realized the green team was doing it. So then we went to a consulting business, and trash pickup would be added a few years after we got established,” said Joshua Wall of Mattoon, adding the team presented a plan for an energy efficiency consulting firm.

The green team’s proposal won the competition, and team members won $100 each. The orange team will get $50 a piece for second place, and the red team will get $25 each for third place on their plan to start a marketing and advertising firm called Phenom Graphics.

After attending the camp, Wall doesn’t plan to start another business because he and his brother already operate a summer lawn mowing business. However, he hoped fellow students would be inspired to start a business.

“There’s a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities out there for people who want to start businesses. There’s a lot of ways to make money,” he said.

With 11 participants at Effingham and 15 more signed up for a camp next week at Eastern Illinois University, this year’s camps have less students than last year’s 31 participants.

“It’s smaller than last year, but I think that has to do with the economy. We’re doing it to grow our own (entrepreneurs) so we will have viable businesses in the future,” said Jeanne Dau, director of Business Solutions Center at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston.

For more information on Camp e3, contact Dau at 217-581-2913.

Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@effinghamdailynews.com.