MU Business Students Create Consulting Company
Teresa Masteller
Upper-level business students at Manchester University have worked hard to create and run a business this semester called Spartan Digital Marketing as part of a capstone Case Studies class that all business majors are required to take.
Spartan Digital Marketing provides digital media consulting to businesses via seminars, in addition to selling shirts. “We can set up websites, social media pages, etc., and we are also holding seminars to teach those businesses the best way to run those accounts and how to analyze the effectiveness of their media marketing,” said junior Marissa Deetz.
Approximately 68 students are a part of this course taught by Professor Timothy Ogden, who tries to remain hands-off throughout the process. “It is student-led,” said junior Carissa Comstock. “We function just like a normal company. We have a president (Brandon Eck) who oversees the entire class, six vice presidents who have managers under them and the managers' staff under them.”
This service-driven business needed little-to-no funding, meaning that any fees charged on the marketing portion of the business goes straight to profit. Every year, the class gets to choose what their profit is going toward. This year, the students tried to think of out-of-the-box ideas in the hopes of gaining the biggest profit yet. “Our class wanted to be able to have the biggest impact possible for our chosen charity, and a service-led business seemed to be the way to do it,” Deetz said.
The class chose to have all profit go toward Bridging the Gap Globally, an organization run by Kenny Doss, a student in this course. “The organization helps kids escape from the struggles of daily life in inner-city Chicago,” Deetz said.
In previous years, many classes have chosen to sell some sort of product, such as coffee mugs that the business “Joe for Joe” ran last year. “We wanted to do something outside of the box that utilized the knowledge and skills that we have learned during our time at Manchester,” Comstock said.