Diana Ingalls Leyba and Susie Brown of the Youth Mural Program accept a check from the winning team from Adjunct Professor Doug Fletcher's Entrepreneurship II class at WNMU, August 29, 2024. Pictured (L-R) are Brown, Anysi Vazquez Ortiz, Ingalls Leyba, Raul Burgos Ramos and Kevin Perez Marquez. Not Pictured: Genaro Mancinas was also part of the winning teamSILVER CITY, NM—Students in the Western New Mexico University School of Business Entrepreneurship II class created pop-up start-up businesses to begin the fall semester. For this assignment, Adjunct Professor Doug Fletcher's students worked in small groups, and each was provided with $20 in start-up funding. Their task was to come up with a money-making business that could turn a profit in two hours.

Fletcher said that the assignment is a common one in courses on entrepreneurship. "It was started about 20 years ago at Stanford," he explained, "and became hugely popular just because of its craziness."

At the heart of the assignment is the question, "What can we do with $20 to create a product or service that people would willingly pay us for?" said Fletcher. Students had unlimited time to brainstorm their project, but they could only be open for business for two hours. "With those constraints, it forces you to be creative."

The start-up businesses they created ranged from a carwash to a wash-and-fold laundry service to a brownie sale. The teams competed to see who could earn the most in the two-hour window. In the end, all of the groups made a profit.

Fletcher said that over half of the students in the course were international, mostly from Mexico, and for those students new to the university this year, the assignment provides a kind of orientation. "It gets them involved in the community and in the university."

In addition, the assignment helps students "realize the way it feels to be an entrepreneur—the creative aspect of it and having to live within the constraints of our start-up capital," said Fletcher.

One student in the class, Byanca Clark, said that the success of her group's project was partly due to timing. "When we were thinking of what we should do, the Welcome Back Bash was right around the corner." Clark's group reached out to the coordinators of the Bash, the Office of Cultural Affairs, and were told they could set up a popsicle stand at the event.

In addition to reaching out to Cultural Affairs, the team also worked with Student Life, which provided tables, chairs, and a cooler. Said Clark, "You realize you have a lot of resources here that can help you with your start-up."

Clark said that one of the challenges of the project was accepting payment without the ability to process credit cards. "A lot of people don't carry cash," she said.

In total, the different start-ups raised over $362. "We started with $160 in start-up capital, and we more than doubled our start-up capital in two hours work," said Fletcher, "That is pretty awesome."

After the assignment was complete, students gave in-class presentations about the experience, and the money was donated to the Youth Mural Program, the nonprofit selected by the students in the class. The Youth Mural Program pairs young people with local artists to learn about the history and culture of their community and create murals in public places for all to enjoy.

Diana Ingalls Leyba, who directs the Youth Mural Program, and Susie Brown, who is a board member, visited the class to accept the donation. Ingalls Leyba indicated that the donation "will go into the general fund [of the Youth Mural Program]. If we are working on a project and we find we need more money, that is where it comes from."

Brown added, "We are a volunteer-led organization, and Diana, who is the executive director, is not compensated for her work, so this kind of donation helps to keep the program running."