Alpharetta Highschool FBLA's American Enterprise Project

The American enterprise system is an economic system defined by a market-based economy, where the types of products and services are driven by consumer preferences and spending. This system allows business owners to develop the type of business that they are interested in. It gives business owners the freedom to determine the operations of their business and sales of their products.

Alpharetta High School is located in a place that has been rated to be one of the best areas to start a small business. As students are becoming interested in businesses, a recent study found that 60% of teens want to start their own business rather than seek traditional employment, which means that educating our students about the enterprise system has become more important than ever. School education provides students with lectures on economics and finances, but never on how to become involved in the American Enterprise system as entrepreneurs themselves. Exploring the Enterprise aims to educate our students about the logistics of running a small business in the American enterprise system. It also aims to give our students an opportunity to practice real-world skills that are needed to operate a business in order for them to become successful future entrepreneurs.

This can be seen in an anonymous survey that was conducted to determine the level of understanding that students have about the enterprise system. The results of this survey show that over 68% of students do NOT understand how the American Enterprise system operates.

With these activities, the goals of Exploring the Enterprise are to:

• Educate our students on how the enterprise system works and how to operate within its confines.
• Motivate by inviting business owners to share their insights of their entrepreneurial journeys.
• Build a community that supports small businesses and inspires future entrepreneurs.
• Create lifelong learning by giving our students opportunities to experience what it is like to operate a business.

Social media has been one of our biggest resources in terms of being in contact with our members. Instagram has been a resourceful platform as we were able to amass over 100 followers and have consistent viewing of all our posts. In hopes to continue growing our club, we look forward to expanding to other platforms such as tiktok to reach our target audience: teenagers.

One of our project goals was to host 3 or more workshops and include guest speakers who offer insightful advice to our students. We were able to complete a total of 6 workshops that were helpful for our members to learn about the enterprise. Two of our workshops included guest speakers that had extensive experience in the small business industry. Another one of our project goals was to help members gain hands-on experience with a professional member. We were able to make it possible for our members to make a business plan according to their own small business of their choosing.

Exploring the Enterprise was a great success and achieved the impact that it was hoping for. We will be expanding this project to middle school students, and we hope to partner with more businesses in the near future. We would like to thank all our members for believing in our project and appreciate all the support that we have received from the local business community and professional members. We would also like to appreciate the efforts of the Alpharetta high school FBLA Chapter, our advisors, and our sponsors who have made our project a reality.