Let’s travel back to 2020, the COVID-19 lockdown just commenced and students are bored out of their mind attempting to find solutions to boredom. Searching for new hobbies to occupy time, many students began small businesses to increase productivity.
School-wide events for students to showcase their newly found craft such as MarketMarket, ArtMart, and RamChella have picked up in an impossible to ignore momentum throughout the 2023-2024 school year.
Starting a business is extremely demanding of time, but getting your foot in the door and beginning to accumulate traffic towards your business is the toughest part.
Here are three student-run small business owners at Millikan, showing the ins-and-outs of managing a business along with school.
Flowers By Joana by QUEST junior Joana Terriquez Silva sells custom natural flower arrangements. Since Joana Terriquez Silva concentrates on flowers, holidays bring in lots of traffic for her business. Joana Terriquez Silva says, “My favorite memory is my first Valentine’s as a florist. I got to experiment as a florist with my own creative ideas.”
Properly handling flowers comes with unavoidable delicacy, so bumps in the road are common when it comes to handling a small business like Flowers By Joana. “I have learned that you have to be prepared for unexpected challenges. For example, some flowers may have been harmed from my wholesaler so I have to prepare for setbacks.”
Kookies N’ Kay by PEACE junior Kayleeyen Suon sells baked goods such as cakes, brownies, and specializes in cookies. Kaylee says, “When creating a name I wanted it to be unique to me so I decided to change the C in cookies with a K because it’s my first initial.”
Running a business forces you to adapt crucial time management skills. Kaylee says, “As of right now I find myself focusing on school because it’s what’s more important to me at the moment, but by next month I might find myself focusing on my business instead.” Balancing school and a business could easily cause you to fall behind in your classwork, so it is important to properly manage where you spend your time.
Stitches For The Sea by QUEST senior Ava Catalanotti sells crochet decor, specializing in car hangers and wall garlands. Stitches For The Sea is a non-profit, processing all proceeds to the Coral Restoration Foundation. “All of my items are made with cotton yarn, the finish of it is much more neat than acrylic yarn,” Ava Catalanotti said.
Unlike other businesses mentioned, Ava brought Stitches For The Sea to Etsy. Etsy is an online marketplace for those making handmade items such as Ava. Although Ava prefers to sell in person at artist markets. “I did MarketMarket and ArtMart, it was really cool to have people buy what I made in person,” says Ava.
Running a small business is nothing but impressive, but to juggle assignments, tests, and extracurricular activities is truly inspirational. Importantly, these are not the only small businesses run by Millikan Students. If you own a small business and would like to be featured I welcome you to promote your business in our comment section.
Adrian Ramos • May 23, 2024 at 11:10 am
Explaining the origins of the small businesses that are being ran by the Millikan students, referencing the start of Covid and the increase in boredom intrigued me instantly. I happen to know one of the students that was talked about in the article and wondered why and when they started their business but I have never gotten around to asking them in person. I also never really thought about the struggles small business owners experience when they have to juggle school and extracurriculars and how trying to balance school and work could cause them to choose between prioritizing their business’ success or their GPA. It makes the products small business owners produce that much more impressive when most kids have enough trouble trying to balance social and school life. I am sure the small business owners talked about by Henriquez appreciate the advertising they received as well as the compliments given to them and now, if I want to get gorgeous flowers, baked goods, or crocheted products, I know who to ask. The author also constantly advocates for the students of Millikan to make a business of their passions but stresses the importance of ensuring that they need to prioritize school first above all else. This is encouraging more students at Millikan to participate in Millikan’s school market events while also emphasizing that school is a need that shouldn’t be looked at as less important than their small business. I am hoping this will bring more attention and people to Millikan’s events such as MarketMarket and ArtMart.
Sincerely,
Adrian Ramos
Joana Terriquez • May 22, 2024 at 1:14 pm
May 21, 2024
Dear Corydon Editor,
On May 6, 2024, Ian Henriquez wrote an article titled “The Small Businesses of Millikan”. The writer did an astonishing job in describing the process that high school students have to go through while beginning their own small business. He describes how many small businesses arose due to COVID-19 and the boredom that came along with staying at home. Many may think that running a small business while juggling school isn’t a big deal and it wont take much of a toll on your life, but Ian does a great job on highlighting the ups and downs of running a small business and how managing school at the same time may be challenging. While portraying the struggles of balancing the two things, the writer still manages to uplift the small business of Millikan and express the knick nacks of it. Although running a small business may be a difficult task, many students take upon themselves to start one and promote themselves,
Sincerely,
Joana Terriquez