Kristyn Thielbar

The Integrated Business Experience (IBE) Program was started at Minnesota State University, Mankato 10 years ago. This program is taken with three other courses (Principles of Management, Principles of Marketing, and Business Finance, that gives them the necessary skills for students to take out a loan, market their products, and sell within the community. When I was in this program last fall, my company created the Minnesota Milers. The Minnesota Milers was an event-based company that specialized in 5ks, 10ks, and Marathons. Last fall, our company wanted to host our first annual Donut Dash 5k on November 13th, Sponsored by Krusty’s Donuts (a local donut shop within Mankato). For the 5k, we sold products, such as race day tickets, hats, raffle tickets (that include a variety of gift cards from our sponsors), and buy one get one punch cards (up to 10 punches) used at Krusty’s Donut shop.

 

The most important part of our company was to conduct market research and figure out what products would make the most sense and allow us to set prices according to competitors and target market. During our company time, we discussed important questions to include in our survey. We asked questions like 1) “What products would you prefer?”, giving them an option to choose between 3-4 items we were considering, 2) “How much would you pay for a 5k?”, with a list of pricing options, and 3) “What date would work best?”, which gave a list of 3 possible days to host our event. Based on the survey results from the list of questions, our company decided we would sell the following: $30 for a Minnesota Milers Hat, $25 for a student race ticket, $30 for a non-student race ticket, punch cards for $5 (10 punches), and on the day of the race, anyone who was attending would pay $35, if they had not purchased a ticket prior.

 

As a company, we had a lot to prepare for when presenting to loan officers. Before our presentation, we met multiple times to understand the direction we wanted to go in case our 5k was affected by COVID-19. The presentation explained who we were as a company, what our goals and missions were, what products we sold, what our competition looked like, and our dynamic capabilities (our company’s ability to adjust to our environment and competition). The following points helped the loan officers determine whether their investment in our company would be successful (which means, having their loan returned in the full amount). Our presentations took place in Morris Hall (our room for all IBE classes), and we had a designated time that we were to report to our presentation. When attending this presentation, we were required to act, speak, and look professional and disciplined. This includes all types of language, including our non-verbal. My role in the presentation was the Secretary. I personally am not a confident public speaker; I would rather help prepare a presentation and document any notes needed for the future. The most important notes I took were adjustments to our proposal and changes we needed to make to our display of information (Who, What, When, Where, Why).

 

The 5Ws are especially important for our marketing/advertising campaign to figure out who our target market was, what we are trying to sell to our target market; when we were going to post (ads, stories, and normal posts), where we should post our content (the media platforms would our target market receive our messages), and why should they should stay up to date for our race day and giveaway information. For example, we wanted to find a common interest of College Town students, so we decided to do a giveaway on our Instagram page. We partnered with College Town Mankato to help our small business gain followers and Publicity for our Instagram page. In return, College Town received some of our products to make our giveaway more appealing to college students.

 

As a team, we had many struggles. These struggles were due to time limitations and commitments from other classes. As we got closer to the end of the semester a lot of people became unmotivated to sell the remainder of our products to reach our goal of donating $3,000 to United Way. As a team, we struggled to complete our final presentation as well because of our time limitations, causing only a third of our company to contribute to our slideshow. Throughout these struggles, it is crucial to stay positive and not turn on one another. In our company’s expectations, we decided to have a meeting and discuss our concerns and help one another if we were experiencing these frustrations. This was an amazing opportunity that we experienced together. We were able to succeed with help from professors, sponsors, advisors, and volunteers. I am so thankful to have this business experience that I get to share with my company to fully understand the research process for our business.

 

In conclusion, we donated $2,788.28 to the Greater Area Mankato United Way. Even though we did not reach our goal of $3,000 we will always be grateful for this opportunity. I will continue to utilize these hands-on experiences in any future employment (I will include the results and the pending evaluation of our peers).