As part of the Business Management and Entrepreneurship class, students operate a business and sell a product for profit. The Messenger spoke to Spencer Bolte, senior, to learn more about his experience as part of the team running the company PopSTL. 

How did your team come up with the design for the products?

“The design is based off comic strips; text such as ‘power’ and ‘kick’ or ‘kaboom’. That was what we sort of based our design off of. We feel that it is an iconic design, so we wanted to make sure that we have a fresh and iconic style that we choose to represent Saint Louis with.” 

What was the biggest challenge you faced when trying to create the product?

“We initially split into groups when trying to set up the business and devise our own design ideas and what our products would be. So our biggest challenge honestly was trying to come up with what product we wanted to go with. We had this sort of voting process where we went back and forth between our two different groups, but we ended up going with PopSTL.”

What actions did your team take to promote your product?

“We thought of an idea of a cookie promotion during Flex Time. The cookie promotion is mainly just a marketing tactic that we are using to promote our business and offer a little incentive. If you’re interested in buying the hoodie or tank top, why not just get a cookie while you are at it? So it’s serving as an incentive for those people that are teetering on the edge. It will hopefully bring them to the booth that we have set up during Flex Time to make a purchase.”

What was your favorite experience in the class?

“My favorite aspect of the whole course is probably the responsibility we have the opportunity to take as businesspeople. Although we aren’t necessarily actual businesspeople in that we don’t have as many responsibilities as real businesspeople have, but we certainly do get a little bit of experience from this class and it’s honestly a great learning experience for the future.”