College students get in touch with inner entrepreneur

Jerrell Roberts is really into shoes. Seriously into them. Like, he knows things about the original Air Jordans back in the 1980s that you'd have to look up in a database somewhere.

He thinks lots of other people are into shoes as much as he is. So many people, he believes, that they'd read about them in an online magazine devoted to all things shoes: their history and their usefulness and the pop-cultureishness of some shoes and not others and all that.

You know, if such a magazine existed.

If one did exist, might it be called Soleful Kickz?

Why yes, it would, and you'll soon find it at solefulkickz.com if Roberts' business plan works out.

Roberts, 21, is studying business at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada. CSN is where he ran across business professor Kevin Raiford, a former corporate big shot who is now helping community college kids realize their dreams by encouraging them to create business plans that

would work in the real world.

"My students' businesses are going to be profitable," said Raiford, a former marketing executive with Hewlett-Packard and Snapple. He left that world five years ago to teach.

He and his students have formed an entrepreneurs club at the college. It's sort of a business incubator that came naturally out of Raiford's courses. He always covered entrepreneurship as part of his classes, and the topic really seemed to fire up a core group of students.

"It was driven by the students," he said.

Take Christopher Sicuso, for example. He's 19 years old and wants to work for himself. He likes the idea of independence.

So when a buddy came across a series of techniques that he swears helps socially awkward guys approach hot women, well, he saw a business opportunity.

Weapons of Attraction is what he's going to call it. The company will teach guys how to interact with the ladies without making fools of themselves. He is sure it can work. In fact, he said, it does work for a few big shots who charge way too much for their seminars.

"We can teach the techniques for, like, much, much cheaper than what these guys are charging," he said.

OK. So you don't like that idea? What about these, which are all from students in the club:

• A company that specializes in braiding, twisting and weaving your hair at half the price most salons charge.

• A company that offers counseling services for diabetics.

• A company that does your shopping for you.

• A company that makes high-end origami for weddings and parties. Some of this origami will be edible, so it will be decorative and an appetizer. Cool, huh?

Few of these, of course, are going to make millions right off the bat. But Raiford swears there's some potential. If only the kids could get things started.

The hardest thing about being an entrepreneur, at least for these college students, isn't coming up with a neat idea. It's finding the money to get started.

"The only collateral they have is maybe a cool skateboard," Raiford said.

The CSN Foundation -- the private, fundraising arm of the college -- heard about this entrepreneurs club. Executive Director Jacque Matthews loved some of the ideas for new businesses she heard.

"I think there's some really fun, great ideas," she said.

So the foundation has decided to pony up a few thousand dollars to help some of the business ideas turn into actual businesses. Though the details haven't been worked out yet, it probably will work like this: The foundation will make a grant of maybe $12,000 or so to the CSN business school. A few of the business ideas will get some small amount of funding, maybe a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars.

Those that fail won't have any obligation to pay the money back. Nor will those that succeed. But the hope is that the successful businesses will contribute to the foundation two or three times as much as they got from the foundation in the first place.

"It's a pay it forward kind of thing," Matthews said.

Students will present their ideas to the foundation at its September board meeting, she said, and funding decisions will be made from there.

Roberts, the 21-year-old shoe guy, will almost certainly be there. He's enthusiastic about shoes and about making money off this online magazine idea. He's already reserved the Web address and hopes to get things going pretty soon.

"Hopefully, I'll be making money so I can retire by the age of 30," he said.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.