2-Year Path Paves Way for Business Owners to Startup Success

from pigeon605.com

There have been many times already, months into their journey as business owners, that Drysen Carsten and Courtney Haberl have come to the same conclusion.

Those things they learned in their college business program? They’re actually using them.

“I’ll catch myself as we’re building the business saying that I haven’t thought about some of these things since Southeast Tech. But it was so drilled into you, you remember it,” Haberl said.

“All the things we learned, we’re now implementing in our own world.”

The founders of Hyperfocus Motion, an animation and design studio, are Southeast Technical College grads. Carsten graduated in the second-ever class of animation technology students in 2011, and Haberl followed in 2016 with a degree in marketing with an emphasis on design.

They met working on agriculture-related content and decided to combine their skills to launch Hyperfocus Motion earlier this year. Here’s a look at projects they’ve been involved with:

“I feel like having the ability to learn was something I gained at Southeast,” Carsten said.

“The ability to research and be the best of the best and be competitive and push myself is something I received at Southeast Tech, and now that we’re starting a company, we’re not content with being mediocre. We want to push the boundaries and be better and well known, and that comes from Southeast.”

For Carsten, a two-year program that taught skills he wanted to use in the workplace was ideal, he said.

“Animation technology opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know was a possibility,” he said. “I was going to go to school for video production, and this introduced a whole other world. It gives you the foundational tools you need to get out and learn on the job.”

For Haberl, who had a family at a young age, “it just fit,” she said. “I was engaged, the financial side of it was money-saving, and it was right here in Sioux Falls so there was no commuting, and it worked for me.”

Both still keep in touch with instructors.

“Southeast Tech is a tremendous avenue for entrepreneurs to arm themselves with the right education as they start a business,” STC President Bob Griggs said.

“We have an entrepreneurship program as part of our business division, and students often pair that degree with one in business, media communications, early childhood or transportation technology. So many of our programs teach skills that can lead to business ownership, and when you pair that with an associate degree in entrepreneurship, it becomes a valuable combination.”

Early-Stage Support

Hailey Franka and Leah Brennan just marked a big milestone in their business journey – one year as the owners of Bargain Bins 605 in Brandon.

                  Left: The co-owners the day they signed their lease.

“It’s been good. It’s been very, very busy. We grew a lot bigger than we anticipated,” Franka said. “We have a big staff – there are 13 of us – and it’s a big operation with the 

challenges that come with it, but it’s added a lot of experience to our plates.”

Brennan had discovered the concept of a bin store in Sioux Falls, which offers deal-seekers weekly changing merchandise as owners source merchandise such as returned or overstocked items from major retailers.

“It’s very labor intensive, and the overhead is high, but I was in it for the humanitarian aspect,” Franka said. “We get messages from people crying because they were able to afford a gift. And it’s the environmental aspect. We’re really big on not throwing anything away.”

The co-owners, who have known each other since elementary school, are both Southeast Tech graduates who studied business. They focused on raising families and working at other jobs before “we decided to put our business degrees to use,” Franka said.

“There were a lot of things I learned at Southeast in terms of business planning – how to make a plan to figure certain things out before you open. Our HR classes helped with bringing in staff, and my accounting classes helped a lot with the books.”

She had a 1-year-old when she started school and also held a full-time job.

“I was an online-only student, and I don’t think I would have been able to do it any other way,” she said. “It gave me the balance I needed.”

One of their instructors has shopped at the store. Because of their education foundation and willingness to keep learning, Franka said they’re showing their kids what business ownership is all about.

“It teaches them not to give up,” she said. “There’s a lot of setbacks when you open a new business with no experience, a lot of trial and error. But if you have a dream, it’s what you’ve got to go after.”

Veteran Business Owner Gives Back

It has been nearly two decades since Cole Weller was a student at Southeast Tech, but the co-owner of Weller Brothers Landscaping is still in touch regularly with his classmates and instructors.

He and his brother, Brent, started the business while still in high school mowing lawns. So by the time he arrived at Southeast Tech in the early 2000s, he’d already started his entrepreneurship journey.

He graduated in 2006 with a degree in landscape design, and the business expanded into that service along with construction work.

“Without a doubt, Southeast equipped me with the knowledge to expand from lawn care into landscape design,” Weller said. “I apply those same fundamental

Cole and Brent Weller

landscape design and plant ID skills every day in the landscape projects we work on today, albeit they are a bit more complex than the projects I was doing right out of school.”

He recalls one class in particular – Woody Plants and Perennials with instructor Kate Parkinson – which “I did not enjoy,” he said. “Her classes were tough, but she helped me learn so much about plant ID that I still use almost daily.”

His advice to other entrepreneurs: Consider what you really need in an education.

“Trim the fat. I knew I was going to own a landscape company,” he said. “I didn’t need to spend my time in Anatomy 101. That is why the Southeast Tech route was right for me.”

While it’s easy to glorify business ownership, the reality is that you’re not your own boss exactly, he said. You’re always answering to someone.

“New entrepreneurs need to understand that because it doesn’t seem like people want to talk about it,” he said. “On the flip side, if you can figure out how to lead people and build a good team, owning your own business can be super fulfilling”

He now shares his lessons learned and connects with others entering the industry at Southeast Tech. Weller serves on the school’s advisory council for the horticulture and sports turf programs and has hired many graduates and interns.

“We also offer scholarships to students where we pay half of their tuition, either through the Foundation or through Build Dakota,” he said. “Graduates come out with the skills needed to make a great career in the green industry, and we have had great luck turning them into long-term and high-achieving team members.”

See it for yourself below:

Entrepreneurship at STC

Business Programs at STC

Media Communications programs at STC

Horticulture Programs at STC