Entrepreneurship Tour Pays Dividends

The big red bus near the front entrance to the Knox County Community Center in central Ohio was doing just what it intended: attracting attention.

Inside the community center, Michael Simmons - entrepreneur at 16, now motivational speaker at 28 - was getting ready to make a pitch. He and his fellow red bus riders have spent much of this year on the road. They call themselves the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour. The bus business is essentially a traveling show. It's not snake oil they are selling, however. It is the scent of success.

Simmons started a Web development business while he was in high school in New Jersey. Now his mission is to encourage others to do likewise.

"I was passionate about entrepreneurship," he says. "Most students don't realize the power of entrepreneurship."

So Simmons and a couple of his equally entrepreneurial friends developed a high-energy event to spread the word. They travel from city to city in the big red bus.

The October stop was co-sponsored by Kenyon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, the Knox County Community Center, and the Central Ohio Technical College. It was held in Mount Vernon. Simmons warmed up the group with lots of high-fiving and stories of young successful people - how one person's passion for yo-yos has spun into a business (Yo Yo Nation) and revived a craze. How another young entrepreneur is turning garbage into fertilizer (and money) with the help of worms. The examples went on and on.

"It's about the ownership," Simmons said.

The tour often enlists testimonials from local entrepreneurs. At Mount Vernon - and at Lake Erie College the week before - Warren entrepreneur Robert Nichelson talked about two successful businesses he launched before he started college - one in real estate and then another in home health care.

From Ohio, the bus left for Arizona and then swung back east. Most of the stops cost about $10,000, according to Simmons. However, the group does negotiate for smaller venues and for repeat stops. Kenyon used some of its entrepreneurship grant money from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation to help pay for its share of the Mount Vernon stop.

The stop at Lake Erie College this fall was the second for the tour. And, as Lake Erie officials have learned, the big red bus pays dividends.

In the days following the 2009 tour at Lake Erie College, ten students switched their majors to entrepreneurship and four additional students added entrepreneurship as a minor.

The feedback at Kenyon was equally good.

"The students loved the Extreme Tour," said Ted Rice, director of the Emerging Leaders program at Kenyon.

"The Extreme Tour even infected the staff," he said. An assistant Residence Life director at Kenyon "conceived a business concept during dinner" following the tour. "He has reserved a domain name, established a trademark and is now seriously exploring how to launch his idea."