Young Entrepreneurs
Business Opportunities through Learning and Technology (BOLT) Enterprises, a student-run business, provides a unique educational opportunity for young entrepreneurs attending Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School in Westbrook, Minnesota. BOLT Enterprises gives students 
the experience of running a real business, provides jobs, and manufactures a dynamite barbecue sauce, all on the high school campus.
Students are responsible for every aspect of the business, from readying the business for operation, to establishing a board of directors, to bottling and marketing their product. “I’ve learned a tremendous amount of skills that will assist me the rest of my life,” reflects Karie Evirst, student CEO of BOLT.
Taking Initiative
U.S. Representative David Minge agrees: “You (BOLT employees and members) have learned skills that will serve you the rest of your life. You have here a symbol of opportunities that await you if you simply take the initiative and run with it.”
Taking the initiative is exactly what students in Lynn Arndt’s business applications class did, and the result was BOLT Enterprises and the production of the successful Prairie Smoke Bar-B-Que Sauce. BOLT Enterprises is considered to be the first program of its kind to give students the “school-to-work” experience in having them create and run their own business.
The enterprise began when school board member Jim Schimdt discovered Rachel Green’s Smokin’ Barbeque Sauce on a trip in Colorado. Green had been making and selling the sauce to restaurants, but did not have time to keep up with the demand. Through contact and discussions with Schimdt, Green agreed to sell Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School the rights to make the sauce. Students worked on every phase of starting a new business, including:
* bottle price and label comparisons,
* label designs,
* applying for grants and other funds to start the business,
* securing a nutritional label and Federal bar code and
* assuming a name and a federal trademark.
Established in 1996, BOLT quickly became a booming business. In its first week, BOLT sold 250 of the 389 bottles of Bar-B-Que Sauce it produced. The sauce was sold at local pageants, such as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant, through the summer of its first year. By the end of that first summer, BOLT Enterprises sold 2,200 bottles of sauce and had already bottled 6,000 jars. BOLT sells their sauce to local businesses and residents, and through mail orders as well.
Student Power
When the project began, students sought advice from state legislators and local business groups. Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School received a $5,000 grant from the Southwest Minnesota Initiative Fund, $1,400 from local donations, and received assistance from the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) to launch BOLT Enterprises. AURI helped the young entrepreneurs get licensing, nutrition, and standardize their recipe. The students conducted their own market research and offered taste tests at school events.
“It’s been a lot of work, but everyone has been very supportive,” says student board chair Corinne Parsons. “The community, teachers, parents, and students have all been behind us. It’s really exciting.” It is also an empowering experience for students. “When we come in wearing suits and ties instead of jeans and T-shirts, people do take us seriously,” senior Dennis Kleven reflects on working with adult professionals. “They treat us with respect.”
BOLT Enterprises produces all its sauce in a 60-gallon vat bought, along with the ingredients for the first 1,000 bottles to be produced, with the donation and grant money they received. Each batch makes enough sauce for 370 to 380 bottles of sauce. They have also built a small addition to their high school’s kitchen to house the vat and all their supplies. All sauce is made in the school kitchen and bottled in an assembly-line process by the students. Each bottle of sauce costs $3.90.
Students Helping Students
BOLT has a board of directors, selected from students and school officials. The 1999-2000 board was made up of five students, including the student president, vice-president, and secretary, along with two student representative members-at-large. The adults represented the School Board, high school principal, business applications teacher, and an accounting teacher. Though students and board members change, the excitement for the business and its success remains strong with each new face.
The opportunity not only trains rural entrepreneurs; it provides employment for rural youth and profits which benefit the students and the town. Proceeds go to help finance scholarships for seniors at Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School. “It’s students helping students,” says Parsons.