Juniors Taylor Ruckert and Kaitlyn Hagadorn proposed snow-cone business, will take them to nationals after winning the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

“It was like a business, so start your own business by coming up with an idea that you actually put into action,” Ruckert said. “You describe the business to the judges and they ask questions about your business.”

They were introduced to this competition by their Entrepreneurship class. Competing in the challenge is a requirement for the class. The competition consisted of participants creating a business and figuring out what they needed to do to make the business successful. After they collected all of the information, they created a two-minute pitch that they would then tell the judges as they passed their table.

“It was a very small challenge, it was kind of nerve wracking there were only like 12 people who was there at the competition,”Ruckert said.

The challenge allowed competitors to choose the business that they could create. Ruckert and Hagadorn created a snow-cone business which was inspired by Ruckert’s new business.Those competing were given approximately three months to prepare for the challenge. While Hagadorn and Ruckert started at the end of February, they still managed to complete the project in a timely manner. Not only did they finish in time, but they created a business idea that was able to hold up to the criteria of several experienced judges.

“I was really nervous, neither of us had ever done any sort of competition like that before, so we were really surprised when we found out we won,” Ruckert said.

Ruckert’s parents are entrepreneurs, allowing her the opportunity to get more experience and see how the world of business is actually run and operated, as opposed to thinking of an idea with little to no knowledge of how to make a successful business. While the competition did not require the competitors to run the actual business, Ruckert and her partner are interested in seeing if they can actually start up their own snow-cone business.

There are classes you can do to prepare yourself if you would like to partake in something  like this.

“I would say to start taking more business classes and just find was that you can get there and find something in society that you really enjoy,” Ruckert said.

There are a total of eight other business-related classes that students can take in order to prepare for the competition. After winning this challenge, Ruckert and Hagadorn now qualify for the state championships on April 24.