They put their mettle to the pedal

A two-man team of college business majors want to teach Spokane’s street kids a constructive form of wheeling and dealing.

The two have written a 70-page business plan for a non-profit bike shop run by and for at-risk teenagers. It’s one of nine student-created finalists in a regional, collegiate business plan competition. At stake is $42,500 in prize money.

The annual contest is administered by Gonzaga University’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Center. It’s open to all students at four Inland Northwest colleges and universities.

“It’s a wonderful example of schools coming together to create a more vigorous competition,” said Tom Tilford, director of the GU’s Hogan Center.

Awards are scheduled to be handed out at a banquet on the GU campus this evening.

Whitworth College teammates Danny Belko and Lewis Turner are both double majors in finance and economics. Their proposed bike shop would be a tandem effort with the downtown Spokane Cup of Cool Water homeless shelter for young people.

It’s running in the social enterprise category.

Belko said the idea is for teens to learn to repair and rebuild donated bikes. They’d start by refurbishing and customizing a bike, down to its custom paint job. The two-wheeler would become its creator’s property so long as he or she attended related training sessions and volunteered in the shop.

Over time, teens could work their way up to salaried employee status. Along the way, they’d be learning traits critical to future employment—like punctuality, reliability and authentic communication, said Turner. And ultimately, they’d be breezing toward future financial success and strong self-esteem.

Other finalists are proposing such ventures as Internet-based English language classes for Asians, producing cost-effective material for camouflage clothing, a delivery service between better restaurants and your doorstep and a company that would promote use of biodiesel fuel.

“The overriding goal is education and the contest really gets kids interested in entrepreneurial activity,” said Terry Sanchez, an adjunct professor of management at Whitworth who teaches a one-semester class specifically on creating business plans for the contest.

“We hope some of these ideas for businesses by students ultimately get started,” Sanchez said.

That’s how GamerZunion of Spokane and Bridal Bliss of Portland got their starts. And contest alums include the business development directors for the Spokane-based Integrated Systems Medicine center and the Coeur d’Alene-based SRM Development Co., said Norm Leatha, assistant director of GU’s Hogan Center.

Sanchez said the competition gives collegians a head start on their careers.

“They’re just screaming for a chance to apply what they’ve learned in finance, accounting, marketing and their other classes,” Sanchez said. “Just about everything you learn in college” goes into writing the very best plans.

“Nationwide, that’s where business schools are going,” he said of the contest.

Organizers whittled this year’s 42 entries down to the three best in each of as many categories. Finalists then made 30 minute oral and visual presentations and fielded questions about their projects before a panel of judges.

Sanchez said all the teams that have made it this far are already winners.

Motivating students to do their best was a snap.

“I just asked them: “What other class can you win $10,000 in just for doing your homework?’ ” Sanchez said with a laugh.