Intro to Business 2018: InCharge

Intro to Business is one of the many classes provided here at FHC that equips students with valuable life skills. Responsibility, teamwork, marketing, business skills, and communication skills are all an unwritten part of the curriculum. To enhance the role these life lessons play in class, teacher Jared Lowe has developed a unique project that challenges students to create a product as a team and devise a plan to market and sell it.

“I think it teaches students about a lot of business based concepts,” Lowe said, “but more importantly it teaches skills that are applicable to any academic discipline, and more importantly life– skills like how to problem solve, networking, teamwork, creativity, grit, meeting deadlines, communication skills, and so much more.”

One of the students receiving Lowe’s life lessons is sophomore Maddy Hale, who took the class out of curiosity and wonder at what it would teach her and is quickly finding out all she can learn.

“You have to be creative when thinking about marketing your product and getting things out there so people will know and want to buy your product,” Maddy said.

For the project, Maddy and her teammates have developed a product called InCharge. InCharge is a nine-foot phone charger that is sturdier and cheaper than Apple chargers. All of which were needs that helped inspire InCharge.

“We were inspired by the fact that many people need a charger,” Maddy said. “I have always heard people saying how they need a new one because it broke or it wasn’t long enough. Apple chargers can be really expensive so we wanted to make it an affordable price, and many people carry more than four dollars in their wallet so it makes it easier for people to buy them as well.”

However, the process between an idea and its conception is a long one, and the road to a successful product is often bumpy.

“InCharge struggled initially to come up with a product for their business,” Lowe said, “but I think settled on something that is extremely practical in a world where everyone wants to be connected.”

Their ability to traverse the bumpy road is due to the team atmosphere they were able to develop throughout this project. An atmosphere which has granted them the chance to exercise their strong suits and lean on their team members with the things they struggle with.

“Our group atmosphere is good because we all have different skill sets,” Maddy said. “It makes it easier when assigning jobs for my group members since they are all specialized and do well in certain areas.”

Although it has taken some work, InCharge has been pulling in considerable profit and hopes to continue to sell chargers to students and others who need them.

“Sales have been looking really good,” a member of the group, junior Jake Laidlaw, said. “We just bought a brand new shipment of over a hundred more chargers that we think will sell great because the first set we bought sold out within the first or second week of having them.”

InCharge isn’t the only product coming out of Lowe’s Intro to Business class, though. This fact has created a bit of competition between the different groups which, while hard to deal with, also teaches important life skills

“The project is teaching us how to make it in the business world and deal with stuff like competition and trying to find something that people want,” an InCharge group member, freshman Aden Walsh, said.

But most importantly, InCharge group members, and all the other students in Lowe’s Intro to Business class, are developing as young people and learning skills about business that will support them all through life.

“I do think this project is teaching me life skills because you get out what you put in,” Maddy said. “You have to be motivating yourself and have a drive to succeed because if you don’t then you won’t succeed. You learn how to be responsible, knowing that your grade and other people are relying on you.”