It is safe to assume that most students who take Business as a Profession are simply working for a decent grade, but sophomore visual communications major Peyton Bennett, sophomore business management major Blake Clatterbuck and junior business management major Jordan Ginder soared past Dr. Mike Wiese’s expectations with their startup: BCG Design Group.
What began as just another group project for the class’s $25 business challenge has now taken off as a legitimate enterprise. The group has done design work for East Side Church of God’s children’s ministry and will soon be a federally recognized business upon legal approval from the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The three student-entrepreneurs landed on the idea of a design group last semester after scratching several initial plans. “They had another idea early in the semester that was not unique and I encouraged them to make the change when they aspired to do something different,” Wiese said.
This original idea was an on-campus coffee house event, which the group knew lacked originality. They also briefly considered putting together a small music festival for the campus, which they quickly realized would pose countless logistical costs exceeding their $25 budget.
Bennett was the one who proposed starting a design group. They decided to give it a try with Bennett as the head of design, Clatterbuck as their head of accounts and Ginder as the group’s finance and client manager.
“From the beginning, Jordan was doing most of the financial stuff. He drafted our initial business contract after we all saw professional potential in the idea, and we wanted it as a resume builder,” Clatterbuck said.
Once they won their course section’s competition, they saw that the business had real longevity.
“The team built a concept that was tested in the 24 hours of the $25 Challenge, but could be sustainable beyond the Challenge,” Wiese said. “This is rarely done.” Their win in the course finals reaffirmed their hopes as actual clients began lining up.
Wiese’s wife, Gayle, is both a Strengthfinder coach to Business as a Profession students and a pastor at East Side Church of God. She saw BCG Design Group’s presentation and was impressed by their work. The church had been wanting high quality promotional material, and she gave them the opportunity to do some work for East Side’s children’s ministry.
The group created posters for the ministry’s cereal-themed lesson one week, and developed a mascot: “Easton the East-Side Kid.” BCG Design Group also designed new handout fliers and projection slides for a sermon series.
The group had a meeting with Dr. Wiese on Jan. 14 for guidance in filing the proper paperwork with the SBA. After they finish with the bureaucratic process, BCG Design Group will become a federally recognized business with a tax number, which allows companies to claim them for work. They previously had to operate simply as a private contractor.
“The SBA has a well-set-up website that helps businesses get off the ground,” Bennett explained. “There were just a few forms to fill out. Now we would pay business taxes on money we earn, although almost all of the money we take in will be invested into business growth rather than personal cuts.”
Presently, none of the partners intend to make any personal income from BCG Design Group, because they only want to see it grow as they find new clients and expand on the business’s potential.
Although BCG Design Group’s success might have come rather quickly, Wiese did not seem incredibly surprised. “The team saw a need on campus and created a team approach to meet the need,” he said. “Additionally, their presentation was professional and established a sense that this team is a real business. I am very impressed with these three young professionals. Each has a role and understands what they contribute to the business. They want to learn and they want to do it right.”
BCG Design Group’s sleek new website will be up and running once they purchase a domain name. They do a wide variety of design work, including, but not limited to, website design, poster design, pamphlets, corporate branding, professional stationary, magazine and document layout, copy writing, marketing and advertising.
Commenting on their competitive prices, Clatterbuck said, “Being college students, we aren’t really making any kind of a profit off of this yet, so our prices are tiny compared to other businesses doing similar work.”
BCG Design Group offers professional advertising at a low price. They can be contacted at bcgdesigngroup@gmail.com.