Teens Gain Real-World Business Experience

FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) is one of the largest business-related organizations in the world and the largest student-run organization in America, with over 250,000 members. This year, Cupertino FBLA chose to partner with Bright Heart Yoga Studio, a small business located locally. Partnering with a small business makes the partnership a great learning opportunity because members receive the opportunity to work with the owner of the business firsthand, and have a real impact on the business.

In order to promote the studio to high school students, Cupertino FBLA hosted its first annual Yoga Day. The owner of Bright Heart Yoga Studio, Jackie Fenton, came to the event and taught over 60 students various poses. The event extensively via Facebook posts, a promotional video (which received over 900 views), posters, and more, all of which was created by the committee.

Similar events were also organized at both Monta Vista High School and Fremont High School on February 1st and February 6th, in partnership with wellness clubs at both schools.

The chapter partnered with the Teen Commission as well, to offer yoga classes to teenagers in the Cupertino area, and a paid workshop was held, in order to increase the revenue for the studio.

Additionally, various kinds of research were conducted to improve the businesses strategies.
For example, an in-depth analysis of competitors’ marketing strategies was conducted and 5 businesses were analyzed. An overview was provided for each, a venn diagram was created as well to compare Bright Heart Yoga Studio with each business, and overall feedback was provided. Then, a detailed marketing plan was also made and presented to the business. After this presentation, the chapter also assisted in the implementation of the plan. As a result of the plan, the business made the most profit they have ever made. Additionally, the budget was analyzed and feedback was presented to the business as well. Furthermore, consumer research was conducted by distributing a 5 question survey among the customers and analyzing the data. The survey received 80 responses, and a lot of valuable feedback was received. It was found that implementing a meditation class would open up an entire new market that would benefit the studio immensely. More than 10 hours were spent renovating the studio’s website as well. The website’s search engine optimization was improved, and the website’s layout was also changed to make it more visually appealing and user friendly. Overall, over 140 hours were spent working on this project and approximately 70 members were involved.