Entrepreneurship Students Supporting Downtown Statesboro

November 7, 2011

For our Applied Small Business Management project helping Downtown businesses in Statesboro, we have planned and will carry out many different events.  These events will be of two types: those that raise money for The Hearts and Hands Clinic and those that provide more customers to the Downtown area.

There have been a couple of events that we have done to promote Downtown businesses on campus where we have provided a table with information regarding downtown.  One was a “block party” set up by the Traditions Council of Georgia Southern.  This was primarily a pep rally for the football team, but welcomed student organizations to set up informational booths.  The second was set up by the local farmers market.  On October 18^th, the farmers market set up on campus and allowed us to provide information about Downtown businesses to the students who came by.

Lily’s Café is a lunch restaurant in Downtown Statesboro.  We talked with the owner and he agreed to provide his location after hours to set up a trunk show.  We invited R.J. Pope, formal men’s and ladies clothing store, and Frills & Fancies, a dress store, to set up a display of the products they sell.  We were also hoping that everyone who came by would provide Lily’s with some lunch business as well.

The Hearts and Hands Clinic set up a hot dog grilling event on campus.  This took place in front of the College of Business.  We handed out free hotdogs and sweet tea to all students and staff on campus. Our team also helped throughout the event to assist the Clinic in raising money that was given through donations.

There are several restaurants appealing to college students that do not get as much business as they could.  We set up a “poker run” in which customers received a playing card when they made a purchase at each of the five locations.  The winning five card poker hand at the end of the night received a cash prize.  This was to promote the businesses and also achieved some sales in the process. We will be hosting another “poker run” on December 2^nd details to come.

Also we are planning a 5k run to take place downtown in December 10^th.  We are looking to bring runners and spectators downtown. We are planning to have the Flash Mob downtown during the Christmas parade on December 2^nd.  Flash mobs are when people organize a “show” to be performed in a public place.  If you would like to support this please join us and wear red and white.

Another way we have provided business for Lily’s Café is by encouraging new business.  The Georgia Southern chapter of Ducks Unlimited has an annual banquet for their members on November 15^th.  They were looking for a good catering business to provide food for the banquet.  We got the group in contact with the owner of Lily’s Café and set up the catering job for him.

We are organizing a charity dinner at 119 Chops, a restaurant in Downtown Statesboro on November 15^th.  119 Chops has provided their bar room for us to use for this.  We are inviting professors, deans, and any prominent resident of Statesboro to attend.  We are accepting donations from everyone we invite, whether they want to attend or simply mail us a check.  All of the proceeds will go to The Hearts and Hands Clinic.

Written by Marti Kelley