Pint-sized Dealmakers

Pint-sized Dealmakers

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

by Bob Andelman | Contributing Writer

If Alan Greenspan wants to do some serious research on how economies work before writing his autobiography, he should pay a visit to Enterprise Village in Largo, where the lifespan of an entire economy will flash before his eyes in less than six hours.

Oh, and his ears, too.

"Remember CVS – Customers, Value, Service. You want it, we've got it! CVS is waiting!"

Because the American economy is nothing without advertising, the pint-size world of the Pinellas County schools system's Enterprise Village is filled with the sights and sounds of modern hucksterism, promoting the wares and services of its myriad tenant sponsor. A visitor to the campus will find

•The Home Shopping Network represented with a fully functional studio broadcasting child anchors pitching products on TV;

• McDonald's selling popcorn;

• BIC Graphics USA running an assembly line for putting ballpoint pens together;

• Public address announcements from the radio studios of Mix 100.7;

• Kane's Furniture selling bunk beds and student desks.

Enterprise Village is the product of a trip that former Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Howard Hinesley made to Kansas City in the mid-1980s. He saw something similar there that he thought could be recreated here using real businesses. Hinesley solicited the support of entrepreneur Gus Stavros and they created the independent, non-profit Pinellas Education Foundation.

Today the Gus A. Stavros Institute is the umbrella beneath which Enterprise Village and two offshoots for older students, Finance Park and Career Cove, reside.

Stavros, who is technically retired at age 81 but keeps a hand in the Pinellas Education Foundation and the Gus A. Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economic Education at the University of South Florida, is almost awed at how Enterprise Village has turned out. "I can only tell you that the reality became greater than the dream," he says. "The fourth graders now look forward to fifth grade when they can go to Enterprise Village."

Its own brand

Children spend several weeks in their classrooms learning about business from both sides, all in anticipation of their day at Enterprise Village. When the day finally arrives, they spend half of it working in one of the many Village businesses, earning a paycheck and then spending it during the second half by writing checks from their bank account. They're able to purchase goods and services ranging from Jason Tyner bobblehead dolls from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays store to getting eye exams at Morton Plant Mease Hospital.

"Are we courteous to all the customers?" a parent volunteer asks his young employees at CVS.

"YES!!" comes the clamorous reply.

At the end of the day, each business manager reports back to the general population about whether they made money or lost it.

Businesses paid $50,000 for a 10-year Enterprise Village sponsorship.

"When we first started Enterprise Village we raised $1.1 million," Stavros recalls. "We had a wooden mock-up of the village, and we went to the companies and asked for $50,000 each. It wasn't easy, even though I knew the people personally. The school system gave us the land; we raised the money and put up the building. Then we gave it back to the school system.

The Pinellas Education Foundation has raised $65 million for the public school system in Pinellas County since its mission began.

Enterprise Village is now a brand onto itself, thanks to a burgeoning partnership with Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement is taking the concept worldwide, with Enterprise Village affiliates opening as close as Tampa and as far as Tokyo. According to Stavros, former Blockbuster Video Chairman Wayne Huizenga gave $2 million to build an Enterprise Village and Finance Park in Fort Lauderdale.

"It's neat," says Rich Engwall, senior vice president of the Pinellas Education Foundation. "We take great pride that a program was created here and was so successful and taken worldwide."

Stavros says the program caught on because "our young people, the Nintendo generation, they want to work with their hands."

A 'bad luck' card

In Largo, the original Enterprise Village program accommodates 17,000 fifth graders annually and has expanded twice to keep up with student interest. It added Finance Park, a household budgeting and financial planning experience for eighth graders, and Career Cove, a career planning and ethics curriculum for high school students.

"The kids enjoyed going to Enterprise Park in the fifth grade, but they always wanted to come back," Stavros says. "So we thought about doing something about budgeting for eighth graders. Now many mothers stop me in the mall and tell me, 'My daughter knows more about budgeting than I do because no one ever taught me.'"

In Finance Park, pre-teens find a house and a car, arrange utilities and set an entertainment budget. But like real life, it's not as easy as it sounds. At some point during their day at Finance Park, the students will draw a "bad luck" card and will have to adjust their household budget and purchasing to accommodate a broken down car, a busted water heater or the loss of a job.

Parent advisers are on hand here, too, to offer real-world advice as students figure out their household budget for entertainment, for example.

"Make sure you include a tip when you go out to dinner," a dad says. "Don't be cheap."

Then there was this exchange:

"Mallory! You have such a boring life on paper! Do something!"

"I can't afford to!" says the budget-squeezed pre-teen.

And this one:

"One of my relatives died," another young woman says. "I had to spend $600 to fly up there for the funeral."

"How dare those relatives die!" teased the adult volunteer.

There are more - and different - corporations represented in Finance Park than Enterprise Park, including Outback Steakhouse, State Farm Insurance, Family Outfitters, The Sembler Co., American Express One, Valpak, Domino's Pizza and Publix. They pay more to be there, with good reason: Eighth graders are on the cusp of becoming real consumers and potential future employees. If they remembered and valued the Enterprise Village experience, sponsors believe they can make an even more positive brand imprint on the 13,000 students passing through Finance Park annually.

As for Career Cove, it's a place where high school students can learn about career options that do not require a college education, meet individuals representing different careers and learn about ethical decision-making.

Selling sponsorship deals in the three communities became progressively easier with each new development.

"When they attempted to raise money to first build Enterprise Village, they were selling a concept, and it took three years," Engwall says. "After 12 years of success, when they went out to raise the money for Finance Park, it took six months. There was a waiting list of businesses that wanted to be here."

Says Stavros: "A full hub in Finance Park was $500,000. AutoNation gave us $500,000. Publix took half a hub for $250,000. Raymond James and Franklin Templeton split a hub for $250,000. Outback Steakhouse took a smaller part on one for $50,000. They saw the success of Enterprise Village and wanted to be part of this thing. We raised $4 million to do the expansion."

Each company handles things differently after signing over their sponsorship checks. For example, when CVS took over Eckerd Drugs, its marketing staff took the appearance of its Village store quite seriously, right down to installing carpet with the red CVS logo emblazoned on it.

"Every year," Engwall says, "the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Devil Rays back up a truck with leftover merchandise and giveaways from the preceding season. We're piled high in bobbleheads for Rays players no longer with the team."

Before joining the Pinellas Education Foundation, Engwall was the director of marketing for GTE, the predecessor to Verizon as the local phone company in the Tampa Bay area. "I was one of those that Stavros and Hinesley came to for money," he says. "We supported Enterprise Village out of our education budget."

Engwall says that an institution such as Bank of America is involved to provide early consumer education - and imprint its brand on future customers.

"The sponsors believe, wholeheartedly, in the value of public education," he says. "But there's no denying that when the kids walk out of here and open their first bank account, they're thinking first of Bank of America because that's where they had their first checking account."

Enterprise Village, Finance Park and Career Cove reach adult eyeballs, too; every day, at least 50 volunteers help the students through their day.