Local businesses benefit from student projects

Recently a number of local businesses received an in-depth analysis of their operations and what could be done to improve both their customer base and profits. These recommendations were not made by professional consultants but instead by students from the Kelley School of Business.\n"The project was the X204 Formal Recommendation Report and Team Presentation," professor June Solomon said. "Students were asked to work with a local business or organization, identify a specific business problem or goal to be achieved, do the research, come up with recommendations, write a formal report and present their projects to the class." \nStudents worked in groups and spent almost two months on the extensive project. \n"I have been doing similar projects since I began teaching at the Kelley Business School," Solomon said. "This time, however, students were asked to work more closely with owners or managers of local businesses and organizations."\nEach group was allowed to decide which business they would focus on. \nStudents examined the Laughing Planet Café, Bloomington Paint and Wallpaper, Aver's Pizza, Vertigo, Howie's Bagels and the Moonstruck Chocolate Bar. \n"We chose the Laughing Planet Café because one of our group members works there, and he felt there were some positive changes that could be made," finance major Michele Wehle said.\nWehle's group conducted research by handing out questionnaires to IU students. \n"We took a survey of 300 students to see what they wanted," Wehle said. "We found that a lot of people didn't know about the Laughing Planet." \nThe results of the research was helpful to the business owners of the Laughing Planet.\n"Our survey and studies helped them realize that not many students, especially freshmen, had heard of them and that they needed to take some actions to expand their market," Stevenson said.\nAfter deciding that the Laughing Planet Café's main goal was to find ways to increase their target market to students, Wehle said that is what her group attempted to do.\nThe group came up with a number of ideas to help the Laughing Planet Café increase its profits and enlarge its customer base. The group's suggestions to the cafe included distributing coupons to dorms, creating a Web site, implementing a delivery service and allowing students to use campus access points.\nThe Laughing Planet Café has taken the advice of the business students and implemented two of the group's ideas. \n"They in fact did take a few of our suggestions and are now accepting campus access and distributing menus throughout the campus," Stevenson said. \nWehle said these changes are impressive because the Laughing Planet had to make a number of adjustments to carry them out. \n"Starting to take campus access points was a big change," she said. "This meant they had to buy a certain amount of new equipment."\nOther groups were also successful in convincing their particular businesses to make some changes. \n"Bloomington Paint and Wallpaper wanted to move from cash registers and hand written receipts to a computerized point-of-sales system," Solomon said. "For this project, a student team investigated a variety of such systems in terms of costs and service." \nThe group also conducted a comparative study of another small business, The Latest Glaze, which had recently instituted a similar change.\nMegan Gilbert, one of the group members who worked on the Bloomington Paint and Wallpaper project, said she feels her group's recommendations had a great impact on the business. \n"Our report heavily influenced the business we were helping," she said, "to the extent that the business has plans to implement our recommendation in the beginning of this year."\nThe local businesses are not the only ones who have benefited from these projects, Solomon said.\n"The students can use this experience when they interview for jobs and internships," Solomon said. "In fact, I have asked the business owners, and they have agreed, to write letters of recommendation that can become part of the students' resume portfolios." \nThe students who participated in the project said they have learned skills that will be helpful in reaching their future goals. \n"This project gave me real world business experience outside of the classroom," Gilbert said. "It also gave me a better understanding of how hard it is to implement even the smallest change into a company."\nOther students enjoy the confidence they have gained as a result of being able to make some alterations in a real business. \n"It's motivating because it makes me feel like in the future I could actually make some changes," Wehle said.\nStevenson continues to work at the Laughing Planet Café and said the project was a positive experience for him and that the changes his employer has made have been helpful to the business.